How Harryhausen Did It

Harryhausen’s Cyclops from Seventh Voyage of Sinbad in armature form.

Ray Harryhausen – Master of the Majicks: Volume 1 – Beginnings and Endings by Mike Hankin is available for pre-order from Archive Editions.

The bio includes first-hand accounts by Forrest J Ackerman, Professor Sir Christopher Frayling, Darlyne O’Brien, Bessie Love, Fay Wray, Beveley Cross, Kenneth Kolb, Jim Danforth, John Landis, Arnold Kunert, Randall William Cook, and many others. The 125,000-word text is accompanied by 2,000 photos, images, diagrams and posters.

Its “How To Make a Monster” supplement takes readers step-by-step through the process of constructing a stop motion model from blueprint to armature to clay sculpture to plaster mold to final foam rubber animation model, illustrated with photos from stop motion films like Caveman, When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, Willis O’Brien’s films, and more.

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian for the story.]