AManfor FOR MORE THAN SO STOR Y BY CHRIS BLOS E Y E A R S , RICHARD MATHES ON HAS MOfhn on'$ wOTk hOJ gont fTom Jforyf0 5{Tu n, OJ wifh fht ' NighrmOTt Of 10,000 Fttf · tpi$odt of The Twilight lone, JfO"ing Wi/liom 5hotnu, ond tht 22 I I!!OII PALL 2003 All Media OU'VE PROBABLY SEEN SOMETHING something that subtly or overtly "00"­ Books) Ilnd '[lit blcredible Shritlking Y on television or in a movie theater rowed" an idea from something he wrote. Man (Tor Books) to nonfiction collections that Richard Matheson wrote. If this sounds hyperbolic, please keep on metaphysics and a children's book. Or you've read something he wrote. Or in mind how prolific Matheson, BJ '49, He's had 19 screenplays made into you've seen something he adapted from has been for the past half a century. A movies, and others have been based on his something he wrote. Or you've seen best-selling author, he's written more novels and short stories, including recent something someone else adapted from than 25 books, ranging from the science films What Dreams May Come and Stir something he wrote. Or you've seen fiction/horror classics I Am of Echoes. Legend (Tor He's also written some memorable episodes of such TV mainstays as 'The Twilight Zone and Star 'TreA. In everything he writes, 23 frolll lhCI11()sttanluscicand illlaginalivelO show and d irected 1l11OL he r for the School cause him Lroubles :lS well. especially the most straightforwan l, his b'l)al is to ofJllurnulism'sallllual rcv uc. w itlllllov iescripts. His scripts arc make YO ll believe in thc derailed wurld in When Matheson gTlHhwte{1 in 1949 painstakingly spccil1c both in wo r d .~ and his words and headed baek to his homctuwn of visual directions. so w hen a director, pro­ In onc uf tllC best· known episudes of New York, he t ri e(1 to put his sc hooling to ducer or adapting writer deviates too far rhe 7iuifiglil Zone, based on the short work at a new spaper or magazine, but hc from those dircctions, Matheson wants to story "Nightmarcat 20.000 Feet," a conldll 't get a job. In 1950, however, he (listance himself from the prolluct. Such possibly d erangcd character playc(1 by a did sell an attention-grabbing story to a was t he case w it h t he Robin \Villia l1ls young \Villiam Shatner is the only air· sciell ccfiction magazine. movie \.Vlwl Dream.I' A·fa!} e mili:, planc passenger who sees a gremlin He ncver actual I)' worked in jOllrnnl­ Such was also the case wiLh an early attllcking the \ving and engines. \Vhat ism after that , although he has worke(1 in attempt to a(lap( I Am L~ gellrl. " I hate(l Shatner's character says to his wife and t he script so mueh I was going to take Illy " I PREFER TO CALL IT TERROR," rhe night crew could very welll:.e /lame off of it," he says. " T Il e \VriLers Matheson's plea to his audiences , a plea G uil (1 said if I (lid [woul dll'tbrctany resid, MATHESON SAYS OF H I S that usually works: "\Von't you even uals. Since I had four childrcn to support, I allow the possihility?" SCAR I ER WORK, " TERROR I S dilln't think I could anurd to do that." So (hc pse \l (lonytu Logan Swanson was THE D ETAIL MAN MUCH MORE CEREBRAL," bor n. He has tl se(1 it fur ycars to take SOME WI\ITEns TA K E THE FLY· I\y·T1tE·SEKI'· credit lur work lhut he, as Richard of,yollr.pullts approach , They sit down at just about every other liledium availablc Mathcsoll. wouldn 't Ilecessarily want to thei r keyboards and just sce what eomes to a writer. He hasslliftcd easily from take crcdit for. " He's had some very poor out, Mathcson is not one of those w ritcrs novels to T V shows to films, both for stuff w it h Ilis Ilumcon it," he says of For onc t hing, there's no key hoard. telcvision and theatrical releuse. Swanson. " Poor guy." Mathcsofl doesn't own u computer. He Matheson 's work hus also covered a writes in longhand on yellow legal pads, range of topics and moods. In thc 1954 IN D EFIANCE OF GENRES but he colleNs the (Ictails first, before his novcl J }\m Lcgc/ lcl, he wrote (lurkly of M ,\TH[!SON H AS AN AVEHSION TOTf l E WOH]) pencil connects with the pads. Hestieks the lust human on an Earth inhabited " horror."To hi m, horror means gore, with a tried·and-true system to organize em irely by vampires. In 1971 's Dllel, a blood and guts, and people pre(lictahly those dctails, whi ch are crucial to making made· for_television movie that was also j umping out of hilling place .~ at tcnse his stories cngross ing and helievable. " I Stephen Spielberg's (lirectorial debut, his moments. l-li sst)'le issuhdcr. put down everything I can think of on file sc ript explored a more realistic but no less " I pre fcrto eall it terror," Matheson cards," he says, " not just plot movements, frightening situation: a back-roa(ls battle says of his scaricr work. " Terror is much hut also character relationships, dialogue between tbe protagonist amI an antago, more eercbrlll. " \Vhcn MaLhcso l1 writcs pieces, scenes that will "vork. Then I pllt nistic trucker tailing his car. And perhaps ll],oll tvampires in f Alii Lcgeml. for them all in some kind of order." his most pcrsonal novcl , 1960's 'Tlw cxamplc, the story is much more about There's no telling how many thou· Beardless Warriors (Forge nooks), fi e_ psychology and apply ing tl1C sc ientific sands of note cards bc's used over thc tionalizcd h is own harrowing experiences mcthod to swdy unknown creatures than year.~, The meticulous p rocess takcs in the Eu ropean theater of operations it is about fangs and drinking bloo(L It's patience und, sometimes, too milch t ime, duringWorl(IWar II . morc about what happens to a normal It once took him a ycar and a half to The common thread in these dissimilar community in all abnormal circumstance write an outline for a miniseries that works is that it's not thc (Icvil in the thall about graveyards amI crypts. ncver gotmade. details. It's Matheson, He holds trlle to That sort of genre-defyi ng illllOvation Despite any d rawbacks, the system the adage: Write what you know. has made Matheson important to popular works for h im . He's been refining his " I'm flllUlamentally th e lIIain charac­ fiction. He has been named as an innu­ w rit ing since hevublishell his first poctry ters in all Illy books," he says, "becausc ence by such heavy hitters as Stcphcn and short storics at age 7. At M U, he stud· my concepts, my ideas and my cmotional King, Ray Bradbury, Dean Koontz and ied journalism, but he also had outlets for approaches arc ill most of the lead Anne Rice. Director George Romcro has fiction. He worked with Donovan characters. " admitted that the idea for his cult elassic Rhynsburger at the Missouri \Vorkshop Matheson's detail orienmtion and Night oj 1.lI e Living Dead came from I Theatre, and he co-wrot e one comedy personal attachment to his work can Am Legcnd. In fact, when the twO met 24 .lIllZOII FAll. 2003 Ptopltliu toPt:g Richard Ma/htson, 8J '-49, osahOfforandscitnu/iClionwrilt r, bulhe hoswrilltn~erylhing/romWtstt",sIOO ch;ldrtn 's slory,Abuandlh~~enMarvels (Gaunlltl Prtss), winntro/lht Publishtrs Morktlins Aswc;o/;on 's 200JBenjom;n Frankli"Aword /orjuwnilt /ictiOrf.£wn whtnht wosol MU (insd pholo), his wortsponned slylts,includins musicrev;n¥s/or Ih~ (olumbia Missouriano"d _' __M_. ,"';'" sloStshows. ture and teen_age dialogue by co· writing both Bill and 'Ted'" Excellent Adventure make any money off of it." housing of seemingly normal suburban and Bill and 'Ted'" Bogus 1ourney. One of Matheson's most famous life; the fantastic as an allegory for the "I never said anything one way or the moments, the Wtlliam Shatner episode of everyday; one person alone against an other," Matheson says. "I assumed that 'The TWilight Zone, has seen a remake unknown supernatural borde; a person after hearing me lament and groan and starring John Lithgow and plenty of parol versus his or her own alter ego; and the moan about bow rotten it is to try to dies, including an episode of 'The list goes on. make money out of writing, none of them Simpsons when Bart Simpson sees a Despite his innovation and boundary wouJd." gremlin on the school bus. And, in a huge cros.sing, Matheson still gets pegged pri. Groans and moans aside, Matheson honor in the science fiction community, marily as a science fiction figure. He must be doing something right to have such writers for the 'The X-Filts named a jokes, a little bitterly: "when I die, staying power. He released another new character Richard Matheson in homage. they'll say, 'Science fiction writer novel , Hunted Past Reason (Forge Books). All those writers and shows are better Richard Matheson died.' It doesn't matter in 2002. People still approach him about known than Matheson, though. Part of what you do. They love to categorize you.