Gahan Allen Wilson[1] (February 18, 1930 – November 21, 2019) was an American author, cartoonist and illustrator known for his cartoons depicting horror-fantasy situations.
Wilson wrote and illustrated a short story for Harlan Ellison's anthologyAgain, Dangerous Visions (1972). He also contributed short stories to other publications; including "M1" and "The Zombie Butler" both of which appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and were reprinted in Gahan Wilson's Cracked Cosmos (1975).[citation needed]
In 1975 he designed a small trophy, a bust of H. P. Lovecraft, to be given to winners of the World Fantasy Award; the bust was retired following the 2015 awards amid complaints about Lovecraft's history of racism. A new statuette designed by Vincent Villafranca depicting a tree in front of a full moon was released in 2017.
In 2009, Fantagraphics Books released Gahan Wilson: 50 Years of Playboy Cartoons, a slipcased, three-volume collection of Wilson's cartoons and short stories for that magazine. A collection of his work, Fifty Years of Gahan Wilson, was published in 2010.
Awards
In 2005, Wilson was recognized with a lifetime achievement award from the World Fantasy Awards.[1] He received the World Fantasy Convention Award (in the form of the bust of H. P. Lovecraft that he had designed as the award trophy in 1975) in 1981. He also received the National Cartoonists Society's Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.
Wilson is the subject of a feature-length documentary film, Gahan Wilson: Born Dead, Still Weird, directed by Steven-Charles Jaffe.
Wilson was married to author Nancy Winters (née Nancy Dee Midyette) from 1966 until her death in March 2019.[3][4]
In 2019, Wilson's stepson Paul Winters announced that Wilson was suffering from advanced dementia.[4] Wilson died from complications of dementia on November 21, 2019, in Scottsdale, Arizona.[5][6]
Bibliography
Gahan Wilson's Graveside Manner (1965)
The Man in the Cannibal Pot (1967)
I Paint What I See (1971)
● (1972) in Harlan Ellison (Ed.), Again, Dangerous Visions 2, Signet, New York, 1972
White, Dale Andrew (April 16, 2011). "Little, Wrinkled and Green": an interview with macabre cartoonist Gahan Wilson (ebook). Twin Rivers Press. ASINB004WTUMGC.
Wiater, Stanley. "Gahan Wilson: Overheard In Appreciation". In Boston, MA: The Lovecraft Society of New England (eds). NecronomiCon: The Cthulhu Mythos Convention Aug 20–22, 1993 (convention souvenir book), pp. 13–16.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gahan Wilson.