Gahan Wilson
Encyclopedia
Gahan Wilson is an American author, cartoonist
and illustrator known for his cartoons depicting horror-fantasy situations. Since 1966, he has been married to the author Nancy Winters (née Nancy Dee Midyette).
cartoonist and Addams Family creator Charles Addams
. But while both feature vampires, graveyards and other traditional horror elements in their work, Addams' cartoons are gothic
, reserved and old-fashioned, while Wilson's work is more contemporary, gross and confrontational, featuring atomic mutants, subway monsters and serial killers. It could be argued that Addams' work was probably meant to be funny without a lot of satirical intent, while Wilson often has a very specific point to make.
Wilson was inspired by the irreverent work of the various satiric Mad
and Punch
cartoonists, as well as the science fiction monster films of the 1950s. His cartoons and prose fiction appeared regularly in Playboy
, Collier's
and The New Yorker
for almost 50 years. In addition to his cartoons for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
, he also wrote movie
and book
reviews for that publication. From 1992 through end of publication, he prepared all the front covers for the annual book Passport to World Band Radio. He has been a movie review columnist for The Twilight Zone Magazine and a book critic for Realms of Fantasy
magazine.
His comic strip
Nuts, which appeared in National Lampoon, was a reaction against what he saw as the saccharine view of child
hood in strips like Peanuts
. His hero, The Kid, sees the world as dark, dangerous and unfair—but also occasionally a fun place.
Wilson wrote and illustrated a short story for Harlan Ellison
's anthology
Again, Dangerous Visions
(1972). The "title" is a black blob, and the story is about an ominous black blob that appears on the page, growing at an alarming rate. He has contributed short stories to other publications as well; "M1" and "The Zombie Butler" both appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and were reprinted in Gahan Wilson's Cracked Cosmos (1975).
Wilson created a computer game, Gahan Wilson's The Ultimate Haunted House
, with Byron Preiss
. The goal is to collect 13 keys in 13 hours from the 13 rooms of a house by interacting in various ways with characters (two-headed monster, mad scientist, vampiress), objects and the house itself.
In 2009, Fantagraphics Books released Gahan Wilson: 50 Years of Playboy Cartoons, a slipcased, three-volume collection of Wilson's cartoons and short stories for that magazine. A collection of his work, Fifty Years of Gahan Wilson, was published in 2010. Fantagraphics announced a "complete" edition of Nuts for the Spring of 2011.
in 1981 and the National Cartoonists Society
's Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.
Wilson is the subject of a feature-length documentary film, Gahan Wilson: Born Dead, Still Weird, directed by Steven-Charles Jaffe.
He was an influence on later alternative cartoonists, including Gary Larson, John Callahan
and Bill Plympton
.
ed. John Clute
and John Grant.
Cartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
and illustrator known for his cartoons depicting horror-fantasy situations. Since 1966, he has been married to the author Nancy Winters (née Nancy Dee Midyette).
Life and work
Wilson's cartoons and illustrations are drawn in a playfully grotesque style and have a dark humor that is often compared to the work of The New YorkerThe New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
cartoonist and Addams Family creator Charles Addams
Charles Addams
Charles "Chas" Samuel Addams was an American cartoonist known for his particularly black humor and macabre characters...
. But while both feature vampires, graveyards and other traditional horror elements in their work, Addams' cartoons are gothic
Gothic art
Gothic art was a Medieval art movement that developed in France out of Romanesque art in the mid-12th century, led by the concurrent development of Gothic architecture. It spread to all of Western Europe, but took over art more completely north of the Alps, never quite effacing more classical...
, reserved and old-fashioned, while Wilson's work is more contemporary, gross and confrontational, featuring atomic mutants, subway monsters and serial killers. It could be argued that Addams' work was probably meant to be funny without a lot of satirical intent, while Wilson often has a very specific point to make.
Wilson was inspired by the irreverent work of the various satiric Mad
Mad (magazine)
Mad is an American humor magazine founded by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines in 1952. Launched as a comic book before it became a magazine, it was widely imitated and influential, impacting not only satirical media but the entire cultural landscape of the 20th century.The last...
and Punch
Punch (magazine)
Punch, or the London Charivari was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 50s, when it helped to coin the term "cartoon" in its modern sense as a humorous illustration...
cartoonists, as well as the science fiction monster films of the 1950s. His cartoons and prose fiction appeared regularly in Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
, Collier's
Collier's Weekly
Collier's Weekly was an American magazine founded by Peter Fenelon Collier and published from 1888 to 1957. With the passage of decades, the title was shortened to Collier's....
and The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
for almost 50 years. In addition to his cartoons for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is a digest-size American fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House and then by Fantasy House. Both were subsidiaries of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Publications, which took over as publisher in 1958. Spilogale, Inc...
, he also wrote movie
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
and book
Book
A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of hot lava, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf or leaflet, and each side of a leaf is called a page...
reviews for that publication. From 1992 through end of publication, he prepared all the front covers for the annual book Passport to World Band Radio. He has been a movie review columnist for The Twilight Zone Magazine and a book critic for Realms of Fantasy
Realms of Fantasy
Realms of Fantasy is a professional bimonthly fantasy speculative fiction magazine published by Damnation Books, which specializes in fantasy, nonfiction, and art. The magazine publishes short stories by some of the genre's most popular and most prominent authors...
magazine.
His comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
Nuts, which appeared in National Lampoon, was a reaction against what he saw as the saccharine view of child
Child
Biologically, a child is generally a human between the stages of birth and puberty. Some vernacular definitions of a child include the fetus, as being an unborn child. The legal definition of "child" generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger than the age of majority...
hood in strips like Peanuts
Peanuts
Peanuts is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, which ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000, continuing in reruns afterward...
. His hero, The Kid, sees the world as dark, dangerous and unfair—but also occasionally a fun place.
Wilson wrote and illustrated a short story for Harlan Ellison
Harlan Ellison
Harlan Jay Ellison is an American writer. His principal genre is speculative fiction.His published works include over 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, teleplays, essays, a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media...
's anthology
Anthology
An anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It may be a collection of poems, short stories, plays, songs, or excerpts...
Again, Dangerous Visions
Again, Dangerous Visions
Again, Dangerous Visions is the sequel to the science fiction short story anthology Dangerous Visions, first published in 1972. It was edited by Harlan Ellison and illustrated by Ed Emshwiller....
(1972). The "title" is a black blob, and the story is about an ominous black blob that appears on the page, growing at an alarming rate. He has contributed short stories to other publications as well; "M1" and "The Zombie Butler" both appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and were reprinted in Gahan Wilson's Cracked Cosmos (1975).
Wilson created a computer game, Gahan Wilson's The Ultimate Haunted House
The Ultimate Haunted House
Gahan Wilson's The Ultimate Haunted House is a computer adventure game developed by Byron Preiss Multimedia/Brooklyn Multimedia, published and distributed by Microsoft Home, and directed by Judson Rosebush. The game is designed by Walt Freitag and Barbara Lanza and published in 1993 and 1994...
, with Byron Preiss
Byron Preiss
Byron Preiss was an American writer, editor, and publisher. He founded and served as president of Byron Preiss Visual Publications, and later of iBooks.-Early life and career:...
. The goal is to collect 13 keys in 13 hours from the 13 rooms of a house by interacting in various ways with characters (two-headed monster, mad scientist, vampiress), objects and the house itself.
In 2009, Fantagraphics Books released Gahan Wilson: 50 Years of Playboy Cartoons, a slipcased, three-volume collection of Wilson's cartoons and short stories for that magazine. A collection of his work, Fifty Years of Gahan Wilson, was published in 2010. Fantagraphics announced a "complete" edition of Nuts for the Spring of 2011.
Awards
In 2005, Wilson was recognized with Lifetime Achievement from the World Fantasy Awards. He received the World Fantasy Convention AwardWorld Fantasy Convention Award
This special World Fantasy Award is given for peerless contributions to the fantasy genre, and presented at the annual World Fantasy Convention. Past winners have included authors, artists, and publishers.-1978:...
in 1981 and the National Cartoonists Society
National Cartoonists Society
The National Cartoonists Society is an organization of professional cartoonists in the United States. It presents the National Cartoonists Society Awards. The Society was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the troops...
's Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.
Wilson is the subject of a feature-length documentary film, Gahan Wilson: Born Dead, Still Weird, directed by Steven-Charles Jaffe.
He was an influence on later alternative cartoonists, including Gary Larson, John Callahan
John Callahan
John Callahan is an American actor, best known for his work as Edmund Grey on the soap opera All My Children. He was born in Brooklyn, New York....
and Bill Plympton
Bill Plympton
William "Bill" Calvin Plympton is an American animator, former cartoonist, director, screenwriter and producer best known for his 1987 Academy Award-nominated animated short Your Face. and his series of shorts Guard Dog, Guide Dog, Hot Dog and Horn Dog.- Biography :Bill Plympton was born in...
.
Children's fantasy
- Harry, the Fat Bear Spy (1973)
- Harry and the Sea Serpent (1976)
- Harry and the Snow Melting Ray (1978)
- The Bang Bang Family (1974)
- Spooky Stories for a Dark and Stormy Night (1994)
Books edited by Gahan Wilson
- Gahan Wilson's Favorite Tales of Horror (1976)
- The First World Fantasy AwardWorld Fantasy AwardThe World Fantasy Awards are annual, international awards given to authors and artists who have demonstrated outstanding achievement in the field of fantasy...
s (1977)
Sources
Some bibliographical information derived from The Encyclopedia of FantasyThe Encyclopedia of Fantasy
The Encyclopedia of Fantasy is a 1997 reference work on fantasy, edited by John Clute and John Grant. Other contributors include Mike Ashley, Neil Gaiman, Diana Wynne Jones, David Langford, Sam J. Lundwall, Michael Scott Rohan, Brian Stableford and Lisa Tuttle.The book was well-received upon...
ed. John Clute
John Clute
John Frederick Clute is a Canadian born author and critic who has lived in Britain since 1969. He has been described as "an integral part of science fiction's history."...
and John Grant.
External links
- Lambiek: Gahan Wilson
- Audio recording of Mr. Wilson as moderator and participant in panel discussion at the First World Fantasy Convention in 1975.