# The Gahan Wilson Appreciation Thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 9, 2003, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gahan-wilson-appreciation-thread/187226 "2003-07-09T13:56:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2003, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gahan-wilson-appreciation-thread/187226/1 "2003-07-09T13:56:49Z")
Love this [guy](http://gahanwilson.com/). That’s about it, really. He’s one of my favorites, up there with Charles Addams and Edward Gorey. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2003, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gahan-wilson-appreciation-thread/187226/2 "2003-07-09T13:59:43Z")
One of my favorites is two horrified adults looking at their friends’ baby, who is in the backyard and bigger than their house. The adults are saying, “My! How he’s _grown_!” Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2003, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gahan-wilson-appreciation-thread/187226/3 "2003-07-09T14:05:25Z")
“Is Nothing sacred?” ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2003, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gahan-wilson-appreciation-thread/187226/4 "2003-07-09T15:46:53Z")
I appreciate Gahan Wilson, but I can’t remember a specific cartoon to ruminate. I remember he drew a Classics Illustrated book on Edgar Allen Poe, and had a page showing Poe drinking with his DT hallucinations. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2003, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gahan-wilson-appreciation-thread/187226/5 "2003-07-09T15:52:32Z")
I appreciate Gahan Wilson, but I can’t remember a specific cartoon to ruminate. I remember he drew a Classics Illustrated book on Edgar Allen Poe, and had a page showing Poe drinking with his DT hallucinations. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2003, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gahan-wilson-appreciation-thread/187226/6 "2003-07-09T16:34:31Z")
I loved his **Nuts** strip in the National Lampoon. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2003, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gahan-wilson-appreciation-thread/187226/7 "2003-07-09T16:56:15Z")
He did amazing illustrations for a Zelzany book. A Night In The Lonesome October. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2003, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gahan-wilson-appreciation-thread/187226/8 "2003-07-09T17:54:58Z")
I really liked two novels he wrote; _Eddie Deco’s Last Case_, and _Everybody’s Favorite Duck_. To this day, every time I visit Disneyland, I think about that family, turned to stone, the bright yellow balloon still floating above the little girl’s head . . . So, does anybody know if he has any other novels? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2003, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gahan-wilson-appreciation-thread/187226/9 "2003-07-09T18:16:18Z")
Anyone seen his animated TV show on (I think) Showtime? I caught an episode at a friends house: very funny. He’s got a real lock on the innate bizarrity and horror of being a child. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2003, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gahan-wilson-appreciation-thread/187226/10 "2003-07-09T18:18:33Z")
No other novels, but one short story collection _The Cleft and Other Odd Tales_. “M-1” is one of the funniest stories ever written. A more complete bibliography (oddly missing _Everybody’s Favorite Duck_) is available at the Internet Speculative Fiction DataBase at [http://isfdb.tamu.edu/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?Gahan\_Wilson](http://isfdb.tamu.edu/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?Gahan_Wilson) For decades he had a cartoon in every issue of _The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction_. It was the first thing I’d turn to. And then there were also the color cartoons he drew for _Playboy_. Of course, now that **Eve** mentioned him he’s going to die. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2003, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gahan-wilson-appreciation-thread/187226/11 "2003-07-09T19:36:44Z")
Thanks, Eve. I adore the guy and you have to go and kill him. :mad: Anybody remember when he used to be on ATC every other friday, IIRC? He sounds so cheerfully NORMAL. ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2003, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gahan-wilson-appreciation-thread/187226/12 "2003-07-09T19:54:04Z")
“I paint what I see” was a standard catch phrase with both of us for a while, when accused of being a bit negative about something. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2003, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gahan-wilson-appreciation-thread/187226/13 "2003-07-09T20:05:35Z")
My all-time favorite piece of his is the dust-jacket art for the original Arkham House edition of H.P. Lovecraft’s _The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions_. Just last week someone in my neighborhood set out for the taking a nice tight first edition copy of his 1978 collection, _…And Then We’ll Get Him!_ Now has a prominent spot in my cartoon library. “Nuts” was the best thing going the the _National Lampoon_ Funny Pages back in the 1970s. I also have a copy of _The Cleft and Other Odd Tales_, purchased specifically so that I could have a handy copy of his _extremely_ creepy short story, “The Sea Was Wet as Wet Could Be.” This story can severely mess up your future enjoyment of _Alice in Wonderland_ or, if you’re like me, enhance it. Oh, and I know the guy. I was the editor for _Everybody’s Favorite Duck_. We enjoyed a lot of quality time together back in the 1980s, talking about [Lee Brown Coye](http://www.morrisville.edu/library/coye/artwork.html) and other great pulp magazine illustrators. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2003, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gahan-wilson-appreciation-thread/187226/14 "2003-07-09T20:14:48Z")
. . . with which, you shoot up to this week’s Most Impressive Doper position. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2003, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gahan-wilson-appreciation-thread/187226/15 "2003-07-09T21:43:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eve \* > \*\*. . . with which, you shoot up to this week’s Most Impressive Doper position. \*\* Seconded. Discussion? Debate? Motion carries. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2003, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gahan-wilson-appreciation-thread/187226/16 "2003-07-09T22:18:36Z")
Typical Wilson cartoon: Living room, old lady and two workers staring at the fireplace, in which is a skeletal corpse with a long white beard wearing a Santa suit. Caption: “Well, Mrs. Harris, we found out what’s been blocking your chimney since last December.” Ice cream parlor. Man at the counter is holding up his hands with a big gaping, goofy smile on his face. Lady behind the counter, holding an ice-cream scoop, says, “In your bare hands as usual, Mr. McReady?” Psychiatrist’s office. Patient is lying on couch; psychiatrist is in chair, beckoning over his shoulder with a crooked finger; two grinning men in trench coats, carrying wavy daggers, are tiptoeing in through the door. Caption: “And when did you first become aware of this imagined ‘plot to get you,’ Mr. Thompson?” Outdoor scene. Rainbow ends at a big pot of gold. Hiker is coming over the horizon, following the rainbow with an eager look. Next to the pot are two leprechauns and a huge pile of human skulls and bones. One leprechaun says to the other, “Here comes another one!” ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2003, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gahan-wilson-appreciation-thread/187226/17 "2003-07-09T22:29:11Z")
Ice cream truck driver, in front of a crowd of small children, opens a door in the truck to reveal stacks of frozen child corpses. “Oops, wrong door!” ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2003, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gahan-wilson-appreciation-thread/187226/18 "2003-07-09T22:44:10Z")
My absolute fave: Football players are facing us, looking onto the field, with horrified expressions on their faces. Coach, standing nearby: “Damn, always knew that kid had a lotta guts!” ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2003, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gahan-wilson-appreciation-thread/187226/19 "2003-07-09T22:58:59Z")
This one was from Playboy circa early 1970’s. Medieval Execution Scene. The court jester’s head is on the chopping block. But BEFORE the executioner swings the ax he tells the jester: “I’m sorrry I have to do this, I really liked you. You weren’t like the OTHER silly court jesters. Oh no …you made people think !!!” ---
**Author:** ![elelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@elelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elelle)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gahan-wilson-appreciation-thread/187226/20 "2003-07-10T00:02:33Z")
My favorite, a full color page from an old Playboy: Nighttime:A small diner, with a large neon, “EAT” sign: inside you can see the cooks looking nervously, mouth open, out toward the horizon. Over the hill, a giant grinning monster is slithering stealthily toward the diner. “My God, you don’t suppose it can _read_, do you?” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gahan-wilson-appreciation-thread/187226.md?page=2)