I think I’d be happier with the winning design if I had never seen Slim Pickens riding the A-bomb in Dr. Strangelove.

In August, the Ray Bradbury Statue Committee chose the design for the statue that will be erected in the writer’s honor outside the Waukegan Public Library in his home town. Zachary Oxman’s “Ray Bradbury: Fantastical Traveler,” depicts “an older Bradbury astride a rocket ship waving a book on his way to another whimsical world.”

“I think he really captured Ray’s spirit and imagination,” said Richard Lee, chairman of the committee and executive director of the Waukegan Public Library. “He was familiar with him (Bradbury) and really wanted to go after it.”

Forty-one designs were submitted. Oxman was one of three finalists invited to Waukegan to make a presentation to the committee.

The statue will be cast from several tons of stainless steel, stand about 12′ tall.

Funding remains the Achilles heel of the project. The Waukegan Public Library started a Generosity (Indiegogo) campaign that after two months has raised ony $440 of the $125,000 goal.