Gahan Allen Wilson[1] (February 18, 1930 – November 21, 2019) was an American author, cartoonist and illustrator known for his cartoons depicting horror-fantasy situations.
Wilson was born in Evanston, Illinois, and was inspired by the work of the satiric Mad and Punch cartoonists, and 1950s science fiction films. His cartoons and prose fiction appeared regularly in Playboy, Collier's and The New Yorker for nearly 50 years. He was a regular contributor to the National Lampoon humor magazine. He published cartoons and film reviews for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. From 1992 through end of publication, he prepared all the front covers for the annual book Passport to World Band Radio.[citation needed] Wilson was a movie review columnist for The Twilight Zone Magazine and a book critic for Realms of Fantasy magazine.
Wilson wrote and illustrated a short story for Harlan Ellison's anthologyAgain, Dangerous Visions (1972). He also contributed short stories to other publications; including "M1" and "The Zombie Butler" both of which appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and were reprinted in Gahan Wilson's Cracked Cosmos (1975).[citation needed]
In 1975 he designed a small trophy, a bust of H. P. Lovecraft, to be given to winners of the World Fantasy Award; the bust was retired following the 2015 awards amid complaints about Lovecraft's history of racism. A new statuette designed by Vincent Villafranca depicting a tree in front of a full moon was released in 2017.
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.
Awardsedit
In 2005, Wilson was recognized with a lifetime achievement award from the World Fantasy Awards.[1] He received the World Fantasy Convention Award (in the form of the bust of H. P. Lovecraft that he had designed as the award trophy in 1975) in 1981. He also received 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.
Wilson was married to author Nancy Winters (née Nancy Dee Midyette) from 1966 until her death in March 2019.[3][4]
In 2019, Wilson's stepson Paul Winters announced that Wilson was suffering from advanced dementia.[4] Wilson died from complications of dementia on November 21, 2019, in Scottsdale, Arizona.[5][6]
Bibliographyedit
Gahan Wilson's Graveside Manner (1965)
The Man in the Cannibal Pot (1967)
I Paint What I See (1971)
● (1972) in Harlan Ellison (Ed.), Again, Dangerous Visions 2, Signet, New York, 1972
White, Dale Andrew (April 16, 2011). "Little, Wrinkled and Green": an interview with macabre cartoonist Gahan Wilson (ebook). Twin Rivers Press. ASIN B004WTUMGC.
Wiater, Stanley. "Gahan Wilson: Overheard In Appreciation". In Boston, MA: The Lovecraft Society of New England (eds). NecronomiCon: The Cthulhu Mythos Convention Aug 20–22, 1993 (convention souvenir book), pp. 13–16.
External linksedit
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gahan Wilson.
Official website
Lambiek: Gahan Wilson
Audio recording of Mr. Wilson as moderator and participant in panel discussion at the First World Fantasy Convention in 1975.