Though best known for his magazine work in Playboy, The New Yorker, and National Lampoon, Gahan Wilson had a fairly forgotten syndicated newspaper strip called “Sunday Comics” that ran from around 1974-1977 . The “strip” was actually a series of gags, totally unrelated to each other in its earlier incarnations (like the sample below), and later riffing on a common theme.
Gahan Wilson original art from "Sunday Comics". Part of the Newspaper Features Council Archives, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum (click to enlarge)
The Golden Age Comicbook Stories blog has a wonderful collection of colored scans from Wilson’s “Sunday Comics”.
Among the innumerable fascinating parts of the International Museum of Cartoon Art Collection which resides here at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, is a small gathering of works from Cartoonists Against Drug Abuse. Pictured below is Gahan Wilson’s entry into this contest to help stop the spread of drug abuse in America and support the United Nations efforts in doing so. The winning entries were exhibited in Melbourne during the 11th Worlds Public Relations Congress and at International Public Relations Association Council meetings in Budapest and Vienna.
(caption: "Check it out!") Gahan Wilson original art, from the "Cartoonists Against Drug Abuse" contest exhibit. Part of the International Museum of Cartoon Art Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum (click to enlarge)
Greater subject matter aside, as always (and especially in this drawing) we are warmed by Wilson’s power to stack obtuse shapes that illustrate a child. And those footprints in the snow!
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