Gahan Wilson 1930-2019

From Heavy.

Born on February 18, 1930, in Evanston, Ill., famed author and cartoonist Gahan Wilson, died November 21 at a memory-care facility in Scottsdale, Arizona. He was 89.

Mr. Wilson began drawing at an early age, graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1952, then moved to New York. 

In addition to his work for Playboy, the New Yorker and Esquire, Mr. Wilson had a regular multi-panel strip, “Nuts,” in National Lampoon in the 1970s.

Wilson’s stepson, Paul Winters, wrote of the famed artist, “The world has lost a legend. One of the very best cartoonists to ever pick up a pen and paper has passed on. He went peacefully – surrounded by those who loved him.”

Wilson is survived by his two stepsons, a daughter-in-law, as well as eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Wilson’s wife of 53 years passed away on March 2, 2019. A GoFundMe page was set up for Wilson’s medical care following his wife’s passing.

At the time of writing, the page has raised over $83,000. That page describes Wilson’s wife as “his rock. His guide through the world.

While we all helped with his care, it was my mother who grounded him. He is currently distraught and out of sorts with the world.”

The page explains that Wilson and his wife had been living in a medical care facility in Arizona together. Wilson was being cared for in a memory care unit.

Prior to living in Arizona, Wilson and his wife had lived in Sag Harbor on Long Island before moving to Greenwich Village in New York City until 2019.

Wilson told the Comics Journal in a 2011 interview that he was “born dead.”

Wilson explained that when he was born, he was blue and not breathing. Wilson said the doctor put him in the sink. Shortly afterward, the same doctor noticed that Wilson looked as though he was stirring. 

Wilson told the website, “He was looking through the little porthole into the operating room and then burst in and grabbed me up. He used hot and cold water and slap, slap, slap. He got me coughing and puking and breathing and that’s that: I was alive.”

Wilson added that, “The same thing happened to John Steinbeck. I could have spent some time in the afterlife before I was born.” 

A documentary that was made about Wilson’s celebrated his bizarre birth in the title, “Born Dead, Still Weird.”

Also on this blog:

• The Resurrection of Gahan Wilson’s 'Nuts'
• Cartoonist of the Macabre Gahan Wilson
• Gahan Wilson Retires

UPDATES

• "The Beautifully Macabre Cartoons of Gahan Wilson" in The New Yorker.
• "Gahan Wilson, cartooning’s master of the creepy and the macabre, dies at 89" in The Washington Post.

Gahan Wilson on Letterman, March 30, 1982 - YouTube

Dark Dreamers featuring Gahan Wilson -- uncut! - YouTube