Creepy Cartoons by Gahan Wilson

Gahan Wilson. Playboy’s Gahan Wilson (1973) Gahan Wilson died a week or so ago: see the New York Times obit. So I took out my copy of this collection, and spent a pleasantly lugubrious hour enjoying his work. I like his mix of the macabre, satirical literalism, and insight into the dark paranoia that terrorised our childhoods. Like cartoonists in general, his work is underrated. Here’s one of the many cartoons that stuck with me. Its riff on the brain-in-a-jar hints at the terrifying truth better than most: The brain needs a body in order to generate the conscious self. The speech of this one is beginning to fracture: The doctors...say...they’ve never... seen...another case...quite...like...it. This brain will not be sane much longer.
    I think that any collection of Wilson’s work is worth more than a cursory look. ****