A cult hero and an inspiration, it's time to drool over the sketchbook of Ray Harryhausen…
Cult classic
Ray was inspired by King Kong, so it's great to see he got a shot at his own epic monster movie in It Came From Beneath the Sea, replacing a giant ape for a titanic octopus and the Empire State Building for the Golden Gate Bridge.
Alien invasion
A scene for a version of War of the Worlds that was never made, Ray stuck closely to the descriptions in H. G. Wells' novel, including a bulbous head and bulgy eyes.
Here be dragons
It was one of Ray's ambitions to animate a dragon, so in 1971 he returned to the Sinbad universe and created a dragon for The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.
Moon landing
This series of sketches was created by Ray for an unrealised sequence for First Men in the Moon. It shows the heroes discovering the 'moon calves' and a secret cocoon chamber where the aliens transform into moths.
A Colossal talent
From Jason and the Argonauts, these early storyboards show the moment the statue of Talos, inspired by the Colossus of Rhodes, comes to life and attacks the Argo.
Golden Voyages
This was an early sketch for the cyclops in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, the final creature became a mix of cyclops and centaur while the design idea was also developed into the Trog character seen in Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger. The sketch also shows how Ray played with the beast's scale.
This article first appeared in ImagineFX magazine issue 55.
