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The Cracked Cosmos of Gahan Wilson
Book by Wilson, Gahan
160 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 1, 1975
18 people want to read
About the author
Gahan Wilson
283 books49 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 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 5, 2020
Gahan is a genius, but this is not the best introduction to his work. This is primarily a selection of his cartoons but interspersed with seven short flash (one to four-page) stories. According to the afterword, these may all be originally from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. I wish the reproductions of the cartoons were better quality, as some seemed muddy or cut off. Many of the flash stories are dark fables, of which I particularly enjoyed “The Sea Monster and the Mayor of New York City” and the different ways “You’ll regret it!” can be taken. Of the cartoons, I particularly love the one where the ceiling tile has fallen out of the sky, causing us to question our reality (and decades before The Truman Show.)
September 18, 2018
Cartoons and a few very short stories culled from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, which might explain why a disproportionate number of them (even for Wilson) are macabre, fantastical, or outright science fictional. What most of them also are is quite funny, though there are a few that left me scratching my head. Anyway, great collection for Wilson fans or for fans of gag cartoons generally.
May 15, 2025
Admittedly I didn't quite get all of em...but I'm afraid that's par for the course for me. :(
November 21, 2014
In the mid-1970's if I ever thought of cartoons, one name came to mind...Gahan Wilson. His wit was wicked and his drawings deliciously simple but a tad off-beat.
Reading through a Gahan Wilson book is for adults who enjoy speculative fiction, what reading through The Far Side comics is for others: fun, unexpected, and the sense that you are 'in' on something slightly 'naughty' and that only you and Mr. Wilson understand. Sometimes this felt a little dated, though I'm not entirely sure why
This brought back fond memories as I read through it, undoubtedly for the first time since I bought it in 1975.
Looking for a good book? If you can find a copy of Gahan Wilson's Cracked Cosmos, you are in for a treat.
Reading through a Gahan Wilson book is for adults who enjoy speculative fiction, what reading through The Far Side comics is for others: fun, unexpected, and the sense that you are 'in' on something slightly 'naughty' and that only you and Mr. Wilson understand. Sometimes this felt a little dated, though I'm not entirely sure why
This brought back fond memories as I read through it, undoubtedly for the first time since I bought it in 1975.
Looking for a good book? If you can find a copy of Gahan Wilson's Cracked Cosmos, you are in for a treat.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews