Harlan Ellison photo from the COMICS JOURNAL 53 cover, in early 1980 (age 45), the interview that got Ellison and interviewer/publisher Gary Groth sued.
http://www.tcj.com/the-harlan-ellison-interview/Up till reading this interview in 1980, I'd only read Ellison's stories, starting with
Approaching Oblivion (1971), that I actually checked out of my high school library. With the COMICS JOURNAL interview, I first saw what he looked like, and the cult of personality that extends beyond his writing.
There's a famous story of Ellison getting in a fight in a bar somewhere with Frank Sinatra, and then Sinatra's bodyguard, that (while probably embellished) presents Ellison as a guy who refused to be bullied.
Another story has Ellison getting in an argument with a network executive while writing an episode of
Voyage To The Bottom Of the Sea, where the executive called Ellison a toady and to do what he was told, and Ellison responded by pushing the executive into a large model of the Seaview submarine, that allegedly fell on the executive and broke his hip.
Another story from the 1960's goes that some pulp magazine editor had wronged Ellison and they bitterly argued for several weeks, and Ellison in person and by phone railed on the guy endlessly. Then Ellison was gardening and found a dead gopher in his yard, and came up with the idea of mailing the dead gopher to his editor.
Fourth class!
By Ellison's account, the editor finally had enough when he received the gopher, called Ellison on the phone, and consented to reverse himself and give Ellison whatever he wanted.
Funny stories of Elllison's contentious nature. Highly embellished if true at all, but entertaining stories.
