Oh, this is sad. Gahan Wilson hasn’t produced much new in recent years — he has been suffering from dementia — but I discovered his work in the 70s and loved it. He and Gary Larson plucked my brain out and shaped it before stuffing it back in my cranium.
“I won’t bring any more friends home unless you let me play with them first!”
His work was always distinctive and recognizable, and unlike anyone else’s. That’s a great legacy.
I’ve loved his work since I was a teenager in the 1970’s. I have one of his pieces hanging in my kitchen–it’s a young man standing nervously in front of a desk, looking out of the corner of his eye at an enormously large python. A very old man behind the desk says “Lucky for you, she’s sated.” The snake has a very large, human size bulge in it’s middle. :-) Good times.
I liked his work from years ago, but didn’t have the money to buy all collections I might have with unlimited funds. I rise tankard of grog* in his honor. RIP.
Yeah this sucks. I remember when I was a little kid my mom let me buy the Matthew Looney series from scholastic books; they were such a treat.
My favorite one, though, remains “I think I won!”. A more succinct example of the stupidity of war doesn’t exist…
https://gahanwilson.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/march69e.jpg
In the sixties, my older sisters would sometimes slip me a copy of Playboy so I could enjoy Gahan Wilson. I don’t know what warped my mind more!
My personal favorite…
Sorry, let’s try that again.
I built a fairly large collection of books collecting works such as Wilson and Larsen. And let’s not forget Charles Addams. They helped warp me and my kids.
I brought the collection with me to Ecuador, and will donate it to an English language library in Quito very soon.
Perhaps we should have a contest to see what would have been a more fitting manner of death?
I’d suggest that the alien parasitoid that had controlled his behavior (and resulted in his illustrations) has finally emerged. Anyone want to volunteer to host the next generation?
RIP
Splendidly relevant to this blog: https://www.newyorker.com/cartoon/wilson-2009-10-26-0070724-editjpg?verso=true
(I hope someone sees this — the OP is many days old)