Gahan Wilson's Graveside Manner by Gahan Wilson

His friends and family kept his advancing dementia under wraps for a long time. Gahan is in Arizona and he really needs your help. Gahan Wilson and Nancy Winters, 2018, Photo: Paul Winters

After a couple years there, they moved to Arizona to be near Nancy’s sons. They moved back to the city a few years ago. I think of them every time I see the ocean. We would also drive to area beaches and watch the water together. When Nancy came back to Sag Harbor, I used to take the two of them to do their weekly grocery shopping because they didn’t own a car. When Nancy was living and working in England, it was Gahan’s twice-daily practice to walk into Sag Harbor Village, passing our house, for exercise and whatever else he needed. He was kind to our son, his youngest fan, from the moment he met him at the foot of our driveway in Sag Harbor one sunny afternoon. Given an opening, Gahan would calmly assert, “Yeah, I was born dead.” He was a blue baby. He’s the subject of the 2013 film Born Dead, Still Weird (see the trailer featuring Nancy below). Despite its outward appearance, there’s always a note of humanity about his work, a grounding in the joy of being alive. His work is often referred to as “gruesome.” Gahan embraces the word “macabre,” pronounced in his Illinois accent, to describe much of his subject matter. He’s the author of about 40 books that cover a wide swathe of cartooning, fantasy, sci-fi and horror. Some of his chubby, colorful characters have also been featured on the cover of Dan’s Papers. Most famous for his work with Playboy and The New Yorker, Gahan’s work was collected in Gahan Wilson 50 years of Playboy Cartoons, a coffee table book released in 2011.

Gahan Wilson is widely recognized as one of the world’s greatest living cartoonists. With the last book she gave me, she introduced me to the many pleasures of reading Nigel Slater.

Of course I have copies of these gems, as well as a stack of cookbooks that Nancy used to cook from for Gahan. The latter contains instructions for cooking meals aboard a boat, something Nancy assured me she NEVER did. Gahan Wilson and Nancy Winters, 1967, Photo: Courtesy Paul WintersĪn accomplished novelist, (Nancy would chastise me for choosing these titles from her oeuvre, but then she would have a good laugh about it), she penned insightful and humorous books that included How to Train a Man and Feasting Afloat.

Gahan Wilson's Graveside Manner by Gahan Wilson