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Gahan Wilson's Even Weirder
Cartoons of the macabre and weird are published for the first time in a collection that also includes cartoons that originally appeared in magazines
237 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1996
About the author
Gahan Wilson
286 books51 followersGahan Wilson was an American author, cartoonist and illustrator known for his cartoons depicting horror-fantasy situations.
Wilson's cartoons and illustrations are drawn in a playfully grotesque style, and have a dark humor that is often compared to the work of The New Yorker cartoonist and Addams Family creator Charles Addams. But while both men sometimes feature vampires, graveyards and other traditional horror elements in their work, Addams's cartoons tended to be more gothic, reserved and old-fashioned, while Wilson's work is more contemporary, gross, and confrontational, featuring atomic mutants, subway monsters, and serial killers. It could be argued that Addams's work was probably meant to be funny without a lot of satirical intent, while Wilson often has a very specific point to make.
His cartoons and prose fiction have appeared regularly in Playboy, Collier's Weekly, The New Yorker and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. For the last he also wrote some movie and book reviews. He has been a movie review columnist for The Twilight Zone Magazine and a book critic for Realms of Fantasy magazine.
His comic strip Nuts, which appeared in National Lampoon, was a reaction against what he saw as the saccharine view of childhood in strips like Peanuts. His hero The Kid sees the world as a dark, dangerous and unfair place, but just occasionally a fun one too.
Wilson also wrote and illustrated a short story for Harlan Ellison's anthology Again, Dangerous Visions. The "title" is a black blob, and the story is about an ominous black blob that appears on the page, growing at an alarming rate, until... He has contributed short stories to other publications as well; "M1" and "The Zombie Butler" both appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and were reprinted in Gahan Wilson's Cracked Cosmos.
Additionally, Gahan Wilson created a computer game titled Gahan Wilson's The Ultimate Haunted House, in conjunction with Byron Preiss. The goal is to collect 13 keys in 13 hours from the 13 rooms of a house, by interacting in various ways with characters (such as a two-headed monster, a mad scientist, and a vampiress), objects, and the house itself.
He received the World Fantasy Convention Award in 1981, and the National Cartoonist Society's Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.
Gahan Wilson is the subject of a feature length documentary film, Gahan Wilson: Born Dead, Still Weird, directed by Steven-Charles Jaffe.
Wilson's cartoons and illustrations are drawn in a playfully grotesque style, and have a dark humor that is often compared to the work of The New Yorker cartoonist and Addams Family creator Charles Addams. But while both men sometimes feature vampires, graveyards and other traditional horror elements in their work, Addams's cartoons tended to be more gothic, reserved and old-fashioned, while Wilson's work is more contemporary, gross, and confrontational, featuring atomic mutants, subway monsters, and serial killers. It could be argued that Addams's work was probably meant to be funny without a lot of satirical intent, while Wilson often has a very specific point to make.
His cartoons and prose fiction have appeared regularly in Playboy, Collier's Weekly, The New Yorker and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. For the last he also wrote some movie and book reviews. He has been a movie review columnist for The Twilight Zone Magazine and a book critic for Realms of Fantasy magazine.
His comic strip Nuts, which appeared in National Lampoon, was a reaction against what he saw as the saccharine view of childhood in strips like Peanuts. His hero The Kid sees the world as a dark, dangerous and unfair place, but just occasionally a fun one too.
Wilson also wrote and illustrated a short story for Harlan Ellison's anthology Again, Dangerous Visions. The "title" is a black blob, and the story is about an ominous black blob that appears on the page, growing at an alarming rate, until... He has contributed short stories to other publications as well; "M1" and "The Zombie Butler" both appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and were reprinted in Gahan Wilson's Cracked Cosmos.
Additionally, Gahan Wilson created a computer game titled Gahan Wilson's The Ultimate Haunted House, in conjunction with Byron Preiss. The goal is to collect 13 keys in 13 hours from the 13 rooms of a house, by interacting in various ways with characters (such as a two-headed monster, a mad scientist, and a vampiress), objects, and the house itself.
He received the World Fantasy Convention Award in 1981, and the National Cartoonist Society's Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.
Gahan Wilson is the subject of a feature length documentary film, Gahan Wilson: Born Dead, Still Weird, directed by Steven-Charles Jaffe.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 10, 2021
A wonderful collection of Gahan Wilson's mad and macabre cartoons, reprinted from Playboy and The New Yorker. A mad scientist answers the telephone in his laboratory and tells the caller: "I'm so glad you've called to offer me this investment opportunity because it gives me a chance to test my new telephonic death ray." (I've always wanted one of those!) A guy is sitting in front of his computer and the monitor is displaying a message" "Look, I'm user friendly, but you're really pushing it." (My screen does that every other day or so.) Two tiny little birds are standing peacefully on a lawn when four monstrous death worms that look like they're straight from Arrakis burst out of the ground and tower over them; "Let's get the hell out of here!" A nicely dressed couple is sitting at a table in a nice restaurant with a server hovering over them with a too-big smile saying: "Hello, I'm Ronnie, your waiter for tonight, and this is Philip, your water for tonight, and Monty and Ernest and William and Arthur, your rolls for tonight!" (I think we got this guy the last time we were at Olive Garden.) In all, well over two-hundred laughs from Wilson, bittersweet and ironic and hilarious in turn, worth reading time and time again.
October 7, 2018
They're creepy and they're kooky and altogether ooky
In the tradition of cartoonist Charles Addams but predating the TV show (whose theme song lyrics I have adopted) lies the Halloween ready humor of Gahan Wilson’s Even Weirder. Publish (In 1996) as a follow to the earlier collection Still Weird. This collection includes some new material but is mostly from earlier cartoons, mostly published in Playboy magazine. If your taste in humor leans towards the macabre Gahan Wilson belongs in your shelf.
This is my third re read of GW collections. That labels me as a fan with all the built in biases the term implies. I have to agree with others that it is uneven. That said there were a number of cartoons that had me LOL as in out loud laughing. The waiter who introduces himself and then each item on the plate.. “I am Ronnie your waiter for tonight and this is Phillip your water…” reminded me of a steakhouse where the waiter held up each item on the menu and told us what it was; “ This is a potato.” We also laughed then. On the other hand the cartoon of an old man explaining to his very young, always on line son that “This is a book” is too close to real in a way not quite as funny. One has to admire an airplane passenger who has the sang froid to ask his seat mate:” Is this your first plane crash?”
Mostly I enjoyed this Even Weirder and am not too weirded out to recommend it.
In the tradition of cartoonist Charles Addams but predating the TV show (whose theme song lyrics I have adopted) lies the Halloween ready humor of Gahan Wilson’s Even Weirder. Publish (In 1996) as a follow to the earlier collection Still Weird. This collection includes some new material but is mostly from earlier cartoons, mostly published in Playboy magazine. If your taste in humor leans towards the macabre Gahan Wilson belongs in your shelf.
This is my third re read of GW collections. That labels me as a fan with all the built in biases the term implies. I have to agree with others that it is uneven. That said there were a number of cartoons that had me LOL as in out loud laughing. The waiter who introduces himself and then each item on the plate.. “I am Ronnie your waiter for tonight and this is Phillip your water…” reminded me of a steakhouse where the waiter held up each item on the menu and told us what it was; “ This is a potato.” We also laughed then. On the other hand the cartoon of an old man explaining to his very young, always on line son that “This is a book” is too close to real in a way not quite as funny. One has to admire an airplane passenger who has the sang froid to ask his seat mate:” Is this your first plane crash?”
Mostly I enjoyed this Even Weirder and am not too weirded out to recommend it.
February 26, 2025
Weird
I have enjoyed the artwork by Graham Wilson.for year. It was nice to see this whole series of cartoons by him. You have to have a little weird in you to truly enjoy these cartoons. My only problem with this book is there were no cartoons in color, but still I laughed my way through them.
I have enjoyed the artwork by Graham Wilson.for year. It was nice to see this whole series of cartoons by him. You have to have a little weird in you to truly enjoy these cartoons. My only problem with this book is there were no cartoons in color, but still I laughed my way through them.
January 5, 2022
Drawing's from a weirder point of view.
August 8, 2014
Typical Wilson, which means a stress on the macabre and bizarre. Many of these are laugh-out-loud-funny, most are amusing, and a few are opaque--to me, anyway. I do find it odd that in a collection like this, clearly culled and selected from across time and various sources, rather than a comprehensive and complete set, Wilson occsionally chooses to include what amount to repeats of the same basic gag (e.g. two different cartoons about worms turning on birds). It's unfortunate that the ones originally printed in colour appeare here in black and white, as well. However, this is overall a satisfyingly bizarre and amusing collection.
July 29, 2016
I checked a digital edition of this book out from my local library because I was behind on this years reading challenge and I wanted to read a bunch of short things to reach my goal. Cheating I know, but I'm a cheater.
Basically, this is "The Farside". Not my kind of comic book, so I didn't enjoy it.
Basically, this is "The Farside". Not my kind of comic book, so I didn't enjoy it.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews