Honoring the Artist: Gahan Wilson

When asked about his unusual first name, cover artist Gahan Wilson likes to say he's transcended from Irish royalty, and although you know he may be teasing, you believe him anyway. In fact, despite his wry humor, you tend to believe everything Mr. Wilson says. He's just that kind of person: witty yet serious; laid-back yet resolute; strong yet compassionate. Even sweet. Sweet? Mr. Wilson is the first to admit that people who specialize in cartooning are the sweetest people on earth.

We believe that, too.

Q: What do you find particularly great or not great about what you do now as a cartoonist?

A: I find everything I do totally great.

Q: Did this attitude start as a child? I bet you were the type who loved to doodle all the time.

A: I did. I always did spooky stuff. I was lucky I wasn't given pills for doing odd things. After my parents died, I was going through some boxes, and I found my crayon drawings. There was a picture of a little boy crying in his crib, and his parents rush in. He says, "There's a horrible monster come to kill us all." (There's the assumption that the parents don't believe him.) And there's a monster looming over the crib.

Q: What do you attribute your talent/ humor to?

A: It's the thing that was there from the start. You're stuck with the Gestalt. I have extraordinary gratitude for that.

Q: Was it just gratitude and Gestalt or was it hard work and willingness to stick with it that made you successful? Everybody says that's what makes someone successful, hard work.

A: It's not true. It's luck.

Q: Besides luck, what is it?

A: The most pivotal thing is persistence. Be a tiger.

Q: What else? Any statements or philosophy you give to people in that regard or any other regard?

A: I like the line by Samuel Johnson that's my mantra: "An inconvenience is an adventure misunderstood."

Q: How important is what you do? Your cartoons, humor? For example, art has been used to help people in therapy.

A: Yes. Jung did marvelous things in that area, but Freud didn't do much. When I get into a funk, I do a little drawing. It helps. We have to do things that add up. An artist just throws himself/herself into the void.

Q: How important is art in society, in the school system? Art isn't respected much in the educational curriculum.

A: So far, society is not a healthy one; it's a repressed one. It doesn't encourage kids to live up to their potential. As a kid I had to fight against adults, teachers. They were well intentioned, but they would just show me junk and think it was good art. I'd say, "Oh, yeah, yeah," as if I agreed with them. School is designed to turn you into a businessman.

Q: How did you escape this situation when you were younger?

A: I lived in Evanston, so I went to the Art Institute of Chicago where there were teachers who had fled from Europe. They were remarkable people. The bulk of the students were on the G.I. Bill. The mood was dead serious. Talk about luck. It was huge luck that I was there.

Q: What other experiences represented good luck?

A: Going to New York, being with other artists. And cartoonists. They're different. They have a sweetness; there's no competition. And we're not sexist. Of course, my working for The New Yorker was good luck, too.

Q: Besides experiences, what artists have influenced you?

A: I'm knocked out by Goya. His war stuff; he's a cartoonist.

Q: Maybe you'd better define a cartoon. I'd never think of Goya.

A: It's a literary graphic art, commenting on life. It has surprising revelations, opens your eyes. It presents you with the truth.

Q: In that case, thanks, Mr. Wilson, for being a cartoonist. That's our good luck.

- Marion Wolberg Weiss

"Gahan Wilson: Born Dead, Still Weird" will be screened at the Hamptons International Film Festival on Oct. 20 at 7:30 p.m. and Oct. 21 at 12:30 p.m.

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