Cartoonist Gahan Wilson, ‘the Wizard of Weird,’ Dies at 89

ktla ^ | 11/24/2019

[BenLurkin]

Wilson gained fame with his offbeat drawings in magazines like Playboy, The New Yorker and National Lampoon.

One drawing featured a man deliriously happy as he is being strapped into the electric chair and saying, “Gee, it’s just like in the movies.”

Another showed an eye doctor with a knife about to attack a patient who is reading an exam chart that says, “I am an insane eye doctor and I am going to kill you now…”

On Halloween, Wilson posted an old image from Playboy on his Facebook page.

Wilson told David Letterman in 1982 that he was always attracted to circus sideshows and freaks.

“They’re fun,” he said. “They’re nice people.”

[Karliner]

I remember his cartoons in Playboy...being a kid I only read it for the cartoons...

[Ken H]

Kept mine under the top mattress. Good thing no Mom would ever think to look there...

[Drew68]

A memorable part of my childhood.

When I was a very young teen in the early 1980s I stumbled across a box filled with a collection of then decade-old National Lampoon magazines that my parents stashed away. A few dozen. They became treasured possessions . I read them until they were dog-eared and falling apart. Some great writers back then! I learned a lot about America (and certainly didn't mind the occasional nudity). Gahan Wilson's macabre comics featured prominently in every issue.

Those old magazines would travel with me to college where the collection would slowly dwindle down and would eventually be lost to history. Today, not one remains.

RIP Gahan, you twisted dude!

[be-baw]

He was certainly weird. I always looked at his cartoons when I saw them. I can’t say I was a fan, but he certainly had his own style in his illustrations.

[fhayek]

Playboy in the ‘70’s. (sigh). It was okay to be a heterosexual man back then. I am not saying that it was wholesome and pure, but, we reveled in the high art form of attractive women then. Now we have to scurry around in the shadows.

[HartleyMBaldwin]

One of my favorite cartoonists ever.

[GCFADG]

Playboy had great cartoons.

[Bell Bouy II]

I remember that one

[Zuben Elgenubi]

How about the “Cat shower” with the huge tongue hanging down. Lol

[oh8eleven]

Both Gahan Wilson and Gary Larson (The Far Side) were geniuses.
RIP Gahan and thanks for decades of laughter ...

[W.]

Always looked forward to his stuff! RIP...

[bigbob]

There were cartoons?

[robowombat]

Exactly

[j.argese]

Gahan Wilson and Jean Shepherd were my Playboy go tos as a kid.

[DIRTYSECRET]

How about the one revenge? “Captain why do you call your boat the REVENGE”?

[fieldmarshaldj]

RIP.

[stars & stripes forever]

GAHAN WILSON cartoons here...
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/postscript/the-beautifully-macabre-cartoons-of-gahan-wilson

[j.argese]

Yes. A classic!
"I think you would be well-advised to locate the new delphinium elsewhere, Hobbs."

[null and void]

“My goodness, Mr. Merryweather, we certainly DID make a boo-boo with that prescription of yours!”