Gahan Wilson 50 years of Playboy Cartoons

Wilson is among the most popular, widely read, and beloved cartoonists in the history of the medium, whose career spans the second half of the 20th century and all of the 21st. His work has been seen by millions - no, hundreds of millions - in the pages of Playboy (Wilson appeared in every issue of Playboy from the December 1957 issue to today), The New Yorker and many other magazines. Wilson ridicules everything from state sponsored executions to teenage dating with hilarious satirical jabs. Although Wilson is known for his black comedy, this three-volume set truly demonstrates the depth and breadth of his range. Gahan Wilson: 50 Years of Playboy Cartoons is a testament to one of the funniest - and wickedly disturbing - cartoonists alive. It's not only a perfect holiday gift for his legion of fans, but also has crossover appeal to those who favor the darker sensibilities of cartoonists such as Charles Addams or Edward Gorey.

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Few cartoonists ever had as lavish a tribute as a three-volume-slipcased collection, but few are as deserving as Wilson. Collecting 50 years worth of his monthly single page gag cartoons from Playboy, it's a definitive overview of a remarkable talent and viewpoint. Considering the timeframe, Wilson's fabled black humor and art style remain remarkably consistent—as time passes, the drawing renders into slightly blobbier shapes that retain all of their wit just the same—but the source and degree of the humor is a constant. Although best known for his slightly lugubrious subjects—monsters, witches, corpses, vampires and skeletons are frequent visitors to these pages—Wilson also targets consumerism, materialism, and other basic human foibles. As publisher Gary Groth writes in a biography in the third volume, He has...constructed a world that is eerily family, unsettlingly recognizable and lethally consistent. Beautifully designed and printed, the books contain cut-out pages, and the slipcase itself becomes a window for a trapped photo of Wilson. Text extras include Wilson's prose short stories and an appreciation by Neil Gaiman. If these three volumes are a bit much for one sitting, periodic dipping in will always satisfy. (Dec.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Along with the centerfolds and the interviews, Playboy is famous for Gahan Wilson’s cartoons, 50 years’ worth of which are aptly mounted on Playboy-size pages in this boxed set. Glowing introductions by Playboy proprietor Hugh M. Hefner and Wilson’s latter-day friend and writing partner Neil Gaiman, the five Wilson short stories Playboy has also published over the years, and a sterling profile of and interview with the artist by Comics Journal editor Gary Groth accompany the cartoons. Seldom mentioned in any of those supplements is the fact that Wilson’s presence in Playboy is quite anomalous, for Wilson nearly never touches upon sex. The sole exposure in these volumes of bare-breasted women, ubiquitous in other Playboy cartoons, is in an image of witches relaxing in their simmering cauldron, and while their breasts are pneumatic enough, they’re irrelevant to the cartoon’s point. But, a failed cartoonist himself, Hefner knew great cartooning when he saw it, and the satirical undercurrent coursing through Wilson’s work amused him as much as Wilson’s eldritch comic irony, which is wilder than but otherwise of a piece, especially in quality, with that of Wilson’s greatest peer, Charles Addams. And doubtless Hefner admired, along with the rest of Wilson’s ardent following, the flamboyant, wiggly line with which Wilson limns the hideous figures that people his panels. --Ray Olson

Booklist

"Starred Review. Along with the centerfolds and the interviews, Playboy is famous for Gahan Wilson’s cartoons, 50 year’s worth of which are aptly mounted on Playboy-size pages in this boxed set. Glowing introductions by Playboy proprietor Hugh M. Hefner and Wilson’s latter-day friend and writing partner Neil Gaiman, the five Wilson short stories Playboy has also published over the years, and a sterling profile of and interview with the artist by Comics Journal editor Gary Groth accompany the cartoons.... Hefner knew great cartooning when he saw it, and the satirical undercurrent coursing through Wilson’s work amused him as much as Wilson’s eldritch comic irony, which is wilder than but otherwise of a piece, especially in quality, with that of Wilson’s greatest peer, Charles Addams. And doubtless Hefner admired, along with the rest of Wilson’s ardent following, the flamboyant, wiggly line with which Wilson limns the hideous figures that people his panels."

Adam McGovern, HiLobrow

"Wilson’s misshapen mind’s eye, in which every figure and prop and setting looks like it’s made of the same stuff as those watches by Dalí, has remained unblinking and interested to this day. … Wilson was the antithesis of the one-panel, one-gag cartoonist he appeared to be... Whole dystopian novels detached from their illustrations were sensed in [his] cartoons…"

Publishers Weekly

"Starred Review. A definitive overview of a remarkable talent and viewpoint, beautifully designed and printed."

The New Yorker

"Like Charles Addams, to whom he is often compared, Wilson is a master of the macabre."

The New York Times

"Norman Rockwell’s evil twin."

Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter

"This career retrospective is massive and beautiful and I think a lot of people are going to be so happy to have all this work in one place."

Steve Duin, The Oregonian

"This is a stunning collection, gloriously presented."

John Hogan, Graphic Novel Reporter

"The work is tremendous and witty and, as always with an excellent retrospective, it offers the reader an excellent chance to walk back in time through decades of experiences, memories, turbulences and triumphs, and just plain old human oddities. What’s truly amazing is how, for more than 50 years, Wilson rarely misses a witty beat."

Jeet Heer, Comics Comics

"As a physical object Gahan Wilson: Fifty Years of Playboy Cartoons cannot be praised highly enough. ...[F]or all their morbidity and ghoulishness, Wilson’s cartoons affirm the value of cherishing life. As inhuman as his characters often are, Wilson is a deeply humane cartoonist."

The Onion A.V. Club

"Twisting pop-culture icons to dark-witted ends, Wilson places his characters in a world of terror and understatement. ... [T]he incidental commentary here about human selfishness and shortsightedness squeezed between the B-movie monsters and little green men feels timeless, as does the remarkably high level of quality Wilson has maintained over the years. ... [Grade] A."

John Mesjak, my3books

"A monster production, a slipcased behemoth, nearly 1000 pages in three volumes, with deliciously wicked humor on every page. ... Open the box, free the three volumes, and dive in anywhere. You will not be disappointed."

Douglas Wolk, Time/Techland

"As mammoth and daunting a career retrospective as anyone could wish for: a gorgeous three-volume set, beautifully designed."

Chris Mautner, Robot 6

"The best retrospective collection of the year."

Jeet Heer

"Gahan Wilson: 50 Years of Playboy Cartoons cannot be praised highly enough."

About the Author

In his ninth decade as a human being and his sixth as a master cartoonist, Gahan Wilson (born dead in 1930) continues to produce cartoons for a variety of magazines including Playboy and The New Yorker.

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