A comiXologist Recommends
Gahan Wilson’s Out There (Fantagraphics)
It goes without saying that creators of serialized comics and longform graphic novels have a difficult job to do. They must produce work this is consistent across hundred of pages. Comics readers, real comic book fans, are eagle-eyed and well-versed in this kind of thing. In a serial or longform narrative, a moment that doesn’t ring true is often ringing untrue to years or decades of established continuity, of history and iconography. It is a heavy burden that these creators bear.
That said, longer comics also give more room for missteps. If one moment in a otherwise stellar 200 pages graphic novel rings false, the reader is much more likely to be forgiving. These stories have some room to breathe and to take on a life of their own, make mistakes, fix them and then circle back around again to whatever works.
Not so for single panel cartoonists. Those working in this medium have one shot, one image and often only one line of text to get their point across. Many have tried over the years, few have risen as masters. One such master is Gahan Wilson, whose immediately recognizable style has, over the past several decades, graced the pages of everything from the New Yorker to Playboy to the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction to Collier’s to National Lampoon.
Over these years, and through hundreds of cartoons, Wilson has become perfected the art not just of the gag (the inevitable punchline of the single panel comic) but of single image storytelling. He knows what to say and what to show, and he knows how to elicit emotion using seemingly the most subtle of techniques.
Gahan Wilson’s Out There, from Fantagraphics, collects some of the cartoonist’s horror and science-fiction themed comics from over the years, and like his contemporary Charles Addams, this is the milieu in which he works best. WIlson, who is still alive at 85, has a distinctive flavor for the macabre, and much of his greatest work, while funny, is also a bit unnerving. Witness a wordless panel, collected here, which sees a driver getting his car filled at a gas station, the sign SALEM GAS partially visible off to the side. The driver is distracted by something on the horizon, and it takes the reader a moment to suss out what it is- a witch hanging from a rooftop gallows like a windsock. The image is shocking and unnerving, it generates a strong emotional response, while at the same time playfully toying with ideas of history and expectations. One could even read a feminist subtext into this silent milieu.
This cartoon is but one of many collected in this essential volume, which serves as a perfect primer for anyone in need of an introduction to Gahan Wilson’s work, and a handsome collection of some of his best work, for those of us who are already fans. It balances perfectly the goofy and the gruesome, stands up strongly to repeat readings, and will leave you chuckling and scratching your head long after you’ve finished reading it.
Harris Smith is a senior production coordinator and comiXology Tumblr editor. Additionally, he is the editor of Negative Pleasure Publications, whose Felony Comics was featured in Best American Comics 2015. Aside from his work in the comics world, he co-hosts a weekly radio show on Newtown Radio and is a programmer at the nonprofit movie theater Spectacle in Brooklyn.
