To say I was obsessed with Gahan Wilson’s amazing cartoons in the early 70s would definitely qualify as an understatement. The art and the gag almost always spoke to me.
I wouldn’t say I’m “obsessed” today… but I still love them and find them as entertaining as much as I ever did.
I’m delighted to finally own of his classic color Playboy cartoons.
San Diego Comic-Con — my 30th, at least — begins tomorrow, and who knows, maybe I’ll find another one.
Fun fact: A slight edit made to the final published caption vs Wilson’s submission.
Wilson’s cartoons appeared in various Playboy collections throughout the 60s – 80s, and then ultimately in a complete collection (inexplicably now out of print) published by Fantagraphics in 2010.
Can you think of another artist whose work appeared in Mad, Time, TV Guide and Playboy at the height of their circulation in the 60s and 70s? Not to mention seminal work as a visual storyteller at EC Comics?
Nope, me either.
“Jack Davis was quite possibly the most ubiquitous American humor illustrator of all time. Davis was a master cartoonist, caricaturist, and illustrator, and his funny, fast-paced, manic, beautifully rendered work has graced the covers of countless comic books, magazines, and record albums and has also appeared on movie posters, bubble gum cards, and advertisements. A virtual mind-boggling one-man industry, Davis has been called “the fastest cartoonist alive” and “the master of the crowd scene.” It’s astonishing to realize that this quiet Southern gentleman was usually finished with assignments for the day and out on the golf course by 2:30 p.m.”
– Drew Friedman from his Fantagraphics book, Heroes of the Comics.
The National Cartoonists Society would be poised for their annual awards event this month if it wasn’t for the COVID pandemic, so it’s a good week to celebrate cartoons.
And we need some way to celebrate summer again…
Michael Berry is very underrated cartoonist. With many appearances in Esquire and Playboy, plus hundreds of cartoons in the “cheapie girlie” magazines, his love of pretty women was always apparent. And many of his gags actually still hold up.
Unlike his better-known contemporaries like Dan DeCarlo, Jack Cole, Bill Ward et al, not enough is known about his life and career. That’s a shame — he’s just as good. One of the many things I enjoy about his art is that the finished result appears effortless.
Although I am sure it wasn’t.
Humorama applies to a single magazine, as well as an entire line of inexpensive men’s gag magazines, published during the 50s and 60s by Martin Goodman of Marvel Comics fame.
A collection of Humorama cartoons from recent years — currently out of print, unfortunately.
The National Cartoonists Society would be poised for their annual awards event this month if it wasn’t for the COVID pandemic, so it’s a good week to celebrate cartoons.Plus, we need some laughs.
Gahan Wilson was one of the great cartoonists of the 20th century, period.
Don’t trust me. Here’s what the New Yorker said in his obit. They know something about cartoons and cartoonists:
“Wilson excelled at depicting the extraordinary. Although he habitually delved into that dark funny corner that we associate with Charles Addams, his style was singular. He liked to depict ordinary folks encountering some kind of anxious terror, or experiencing the unthinkable in mundane places. It’s a man at a pizza counter hovering over an entire pizza—the man’s mouth the same oval shape, the same size, as the whole pie. It’s fishermen on a calm lake, with one about to be murdered by the other, who is removing a human mask to reveal his true monster self. Wilson’s art is both the heart-thumping you feel when you dare look under the bed and the relieved inner laugh you let loose after he’s scared the pants off of you.“
Or, let’s see what Hugh Hefner said about Wilson’s cartoons in Playboy:
“Gahan Wilson was an immediate hit with our readers and a perfect contrast to our usual, more sexual cartoon fare,” Mr. Hefner wrote in the introduction to “Gahan Wilson: 50 Years of Playboy Cartoons” (2011).
“By the early 1960s,” he continued, “I could say with real satisfaction that no other magazine in the world — The New Yorker included — had a cartoon stable the equal of Playboy’s. And no cartoonist was more popular, or more enduring, than Gahan Wilson.”
Wilson was one of my favorite cartoonists as a kid, and still is. If there’s a missing link between Charles Adams and Gary Larson, you’ve found him here.
Recent collections of Wilson’s science fiction magazine cartoons, as well as a comprehensive Playboy set.
