RIP Ray Harryhausen. You were the first great special effects master. You made the skeletons dance, the Cyclops stalk, the saucers fly. You dazzled our Saturday afternoons and stuffed our dreams with fantastic monsters, and you taught me, even as a young boy, to pity the monsters and the things we make into monsters. And you inspired this modest poem about those insights, from my book All of You on the Good Earth.

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“Sunrise with Sea Monsters” by Ernest Hilbert

For Ray Harryhausen

“Huge Octopus Topples the Golden Gate!”
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms skulks
Ashore, hearing a foghorn, lonely for friends.
Nessie slips from the Loch to seize a mate.
Swarming tentacles haul great, breathing hulks
From frozen deeps to clutch prey, then descend.
The clumsy frogman from the Black Lagoon
Gazes, glistening, from the giant sail
Of the drive-in screen at nestled, flinching teens—
But these Things don’t belong here and soon
Slink from secured soil, sink in a cold whirl,
Beaten back by ray guns, germs, and Marines.
Sea birds, drunken on guts, hover over
Churned seas, watching for the next poor monster.

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Thanks to my wife Lynn, I have a few books about Harryhausen’s work. They display some of the more sophisticated sculpture he worked on in his later years. This video clip is a good introduction to his major creations, monsters, space ships, gods and goddesses, and all manner of delightful, fantastical life.

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What was Ray Harryhausen’s greatest creation? 

I say . . . the most complex and masterful was surely Medusa the Gorgon in Clash of the Titans, but I’ve always loved the Cyclops from the Seventh Voyage of Sinbad. And Gwangi from Valley of the Gwangi. And Talos from Jason and the Argonauts. He was the scariest of all to me, partly because of the noise his joints made . . .

Here’s a list of his creations to refresh your memory. Post your favorite in the E-Verse comments section below.