Line #21 Creator/GahanWilson


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gahan_wilson.png]]
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3	Gahan Wilson (February 18, 1930 – November 21, 2019) was an American cartoonist, and a longtime contributor to both ''Magazine/{{Playboy}}'' and ''Magazine/TheNewYorker'' magazines, not to mention ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction''. He also drew a NewspaperComics series, titled simply ''Gahan Wilson's Sunday Comics'', and produced animated inserts for ''Series/SesameStreet''. His subject matter tended heavily toward the grotesque and whimsical.
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5	Although he is usually known for his cartoons, Wilson contributed some book reviews to ''F&SF'', and his story "[The title is an inkblot]" was included in Creator/HarlanEllison's anthology ''Literature/AgainDangerousVisions''. The titular inkblot (which is drawn in his distinctive style) plays an integral part in the story. He also did the illustrations for Creator/RogerZelazny's UsefulNotes/NebulaAward-nominated novel, ''Literature/ANightInTheLonesomeOctober''.
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8	!!Gahan Wilson works with their own trope pages include:
9	[[index]]
10	* ''ComicStrip/{{Nuts}}''
11	* ''VideoGame/TheUltimateHauntedHouse''
12	[[/index]]
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14	!!Wilson's other works provide examples of:
15	* AdolfHitlarious: One cartoon he did depicts Adolf Hitler as an old man with crutches being berated for not taking how World War II ended well.
16	-->''Oh, stop bitching about it, will you? It's all been over and done with for years!''
17	* AttackOfTheKillerWhatever: "Seagulls", as the title suggests, is about a swarm of [[Main/ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin evil seagulls]].
18	** "Traps" features sentient rats menacing an exterminator.
19	* BadHumorTruck: "Mister Ice Cold" features an Ice Cream Man who takes a [[Main/ImAHumanitarian special interest]] in his customers.
20	* BearyFunny: Wrote and illustrated two children's books featuring Harry the Fat Bear Spy in TheSeventies.
21	%%* BlackComedy
22	* BodyHorror: Gahan loved drawing mutants, aliens, and monsters.
23	* BotanicalAbomination: His short story ''(The title is an ink blot)'' stars a rich man who discovers a tiny inkblot on his tablecloth. No matter what the butler tries, he can't clean the inkblot off. Then the inkblot starts [[OffscreenTeleportation moving around when no one is looking]]. As if that wasn't strange enough, it starts growing larger and forming into a bizarre, plantlike shape. Then it's implied that the inkblot [[spoiler:consumes the butler offscreen, and is preparing to eat the rich man next]].
24	%%* DadaComics
25	* DefangedHorrors: Wilson's macabre-but-silly art style lent itself well to kid-friendly horror. A few of his single-panel cartoons qualify, but the best example is probably the anthology ''Spooky Stories for a Dark and Stormy Night'', which he illustrated.
26	* DinnerOrderFlub: One cartoon shows a patron with an inedible pile of ashes on his plate, while a snooty waiter says, "It's a burnt telephone book. We gave it a fancy French name and you ordered it."
27	%%* FarSideIsland
28	* FluffyCloudHeaven: A frequent subject. One notable subversion shows some angels (basically guys in cheap costumes with cardboard wings and wire halos) standing around in a small grubby room labeled "Heaven", with one of them commenting "I expected the place to be a lot more classy!"
29	* FreudianCouch: This is a particular favorite with him. A typical example has the psychiatrist saying to the guy on the couch "..How long have you been aware of this imagined 'plot to get you'? ...while crooking his finger at two black-cloaked assassins [[ProperlyParanoid creeping in through the office door.]]
30	* GhostStory: "Campfire Story" centers around one that may or may not be Main/RewritingReality.
31	* HangingJudge: One cartoon features a judge explaining to a very nervous defendant that the skull-and-crossbones lined up the national and state flags in the courtroom is his ''personal'' flag.
32	* HaveANiceDaySmile: He ''hated'' them, feeling they represent [[StepfordSmiler phony]] or [[HappinessIsMandatory enforced]] good cheer. He went so far as to do a cartoon with a Hitler {{Expy}} whose symbol is the smiley face rather than the swastika.
33	* HumanoidAbomination: One notable cartoon has a flasher exposing his tentacled, multi-eyed, multi-mouthed torso to a terrified woman. Wilson himself noted that this fellow is an open [[ShoutOut homage]] to the Creator/HPLovecraft's character Wilbur Whateley in "Literature/TheDunwichHorror".
34	* IsNothingSacred: There's a cartoon in which ornately robed monks are praying to an ornate but quite empty pedestal. A passerby utters the phrase in question.
35	%%* LivingStatue: "The Marble Boy"
36	* NightmareFetishist: Gahan himself, but he also did a cartoon of a man painting a picture of horrific nightmare beings, cheerfully telling an anxious onlooker "I paint what I see!" - and this was the title of one of his cartoon collection books.
37	%%* RageAgainstTheAuthor: "The Power of The Mandarin"
38	* RewritingReality: Many of his short stories use this as a plot point.
39	* SantaClaus: A popular subject, usually messed with in some hilarious way (being a werewolf, being an child-harvesting alien). WordOfGod is that a favorite cartoon was one where a chimney sweep tells a lady "Well, we found what's been clogging your chimney since last December" as they stand over a skeletal body in a Santa Claus outfit...

Context Creator / GahanWilson