Gahan Wilson's Out There

Wilson has been one of America's top cult cartoonists for over 50 years, with his unique take on the universe marked by the head-on collision of the mundane and the macabre, rendered in a deceptively minimalist style. He's best known for his onepanel gags for the New Yorker, but this volume collects nearly 20 years of his cartoons from the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, some dating back to the early days of his career. Wilson's wry drawings are replete with monsters, aliens, deities, and murderers, a playing field informed by a lifetime of absorbing science fiction, lurid pulp stories, and horror. Mixxing the uncanny and the absurd, these cartoons are a heady visual and conceptual stew that Wilson's admirers will appreciate having in one convenient volume, with the unexpected bonus of Wilson's critical essays on the oeuvres of renowned speculative fiction authors including Richard Matheson and H.P. Lovecraft. This intelligent, engaging collection sheds new light on the career of a master. (Jan.)