Gahan Wilson

Infobox Artist
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name = Gahan Wilson


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birthdate = 1930
location = Evanston, Illinois
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nationality = American
field = Cartoonist
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Gahan Wilson (born February 18 1930 in Evanston, Illinois) is an author, cartoonist, and illustrator in the United States.

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 Yorker" cartoonist and Addams Family creator Charles Addams. But while both men sometimes feature vampires, graveyards and other traditional horror elements in their work, Addams's cartoons tended to be more 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's work was probably meant to be funny without a lot of satirical intent, while Wilson often has a very specific point to make.

His cartoons and prose fiction have appeared regularly in "Playboy", "Collier's Weekly", "The New Yorker" and "The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction". For the last he also wrote some movie and book reviews. 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 childhood in strips like "Peanuts". His hero The Kid sees the world as a dark, dangerous and unfair place, but just occasionally a fun one too.

Wilson also 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, until... He has contributed short stories to other publications as well; "M1" and "The Zombie Butler" both appeared in "The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction" and were reprinted in "Gahan Wilson's Cracked Cosmos" (1975).

Additionally, Gahan Wilson created a computer game titled "Gahan Wilson's The Ultimate Haunted House", in conjunction 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 (such as a two-headed monster, a mad scientist, and a vampiress), objects, and the house itself.

He received the World Fantasy Convention Award in 1981, and the National Cartoonist Society's Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.

Gahan Wilson is the subject of a feature length documentary film, "Gahan Wilson: Born Dead, Still Weird", directed by Steven-Charles Jaffe.

Bibliography

*"Gahan Wilson's Graveside Manner" (1965)
*"The Man in the Cannibal Pot" (1967)
*"I Paint What I See" (1971)
*"Playboy's Gahan Wilson" (i) (1973)
*"Gahan Wilson's Cracked Cosmos" (1975)
*"The Weird World of Gahan Wilson" (1975)
*"And Then We'll Get Him!" (1978)
*"Nuts" (strip collection) (1979)
*"Playboy's Gahan Wilson" (ii) (1980)
*"Is "Nothing" Sacred?" (1982) ISBN 0-312-43707-2
*"Gahan Wilson's America" (1985)
*"Eddy Deco's Last Caper" (1987)
*"Everybody's Favorite Duck" (1988)
*"A Night in the Lonesome October" (illustrated by Gahan Wilson; written by Roger Zelazny) (1993)
*"Still Weird" (1994)
*"Even Weirder" (1996)
*"Gravediggers' Party" (2002)
*"The Best of Gahan Wilson" (2004)
*"Pop Art" {2007} (illustrated by Gahan Wilson; written by Joe Hill}. 52 hard covers signed by Mr. Hill, limited edition lettered from A to Z. Rare.

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 Awards" (1977)

References

Some bibliographical information derived from "The Encyclopedia of Fantasy" ed. John Clute and John Grant.

External links

* [http://www.gahanwilson.com Official website]
* [http://www.lambiek.net/artists/w/wilson_gahan.htm lambiek.net entry on Wilson]