{"id":34964,"date":"2026-02-18T09:00:40","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T09:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=34964"},"modified":"2026-02-17T17:44:49","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T17:44:49","slug":"nuts-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2026\/02\/18\/nuts-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy Gahan Wilson<\/strong> (Fantagraphics Books)
\nISBN: 978-1-60699-454-2 (HB\/Digital edition<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced in less enlightened times.<\/em><\/p>\n

Born on February 18th<\/sup> 1930 and dying November 21st<\/sup> 2019, Gahan Allen Wilson was an illustrator, cartoonist, essayist and author who always had his eyes and heart set on the future. According to Gary Groth, the artist\/author grew up reading comic strips as much as fantasy fiction.<\/p>\n

It always showed.<\/p>\n

The mordantly macabre, acerbically wry and surreal draughtsman tickled funnybones and twanged nerves with his darkly dry graphic confections from the 1960s onwards; contributing superb spoofs, sparklingly horrific and satirically suspenseful drawings and strips and panels as a celebrated regular contributor in such major magazines as Playboy<\/strong>, Collier\u2019s<\/strong>, The New Yorker <\/strong>and others. He also wrote cutting edge science fiction for Again<\/strong> Dangerous Visions<\/strong>, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, The Twilight Zone Magazine<\/strong> and Realms of Fantasy<\/strong> as well as contributing criticism, book and film reviews for them all.<\/p>\n

In an extremely broad and long career he wore dozens of creative hats, even embracing the modern digital universe by creating – with Byron Preiss – his own supernatural computer game Gahan Wilson\u2019s the Ultimate Haunted House<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

When National Lampoon<\/strong> first began its devastatingly satirical (geez, do modern folk even recognize satire anymore?) all-out attack on the American Dream, Wilson was invited to contribute a regular strip to their comics section. His sublimely semi-autobiographical, darkly hilarious paean to lost childhood ran from 1972 and until 1981 and was collected as Nuts<\/strong>, another superb compilation from this publisher that you should own and share. Few people – me included – knew that during that period he also, apparently more for fun and relaxation than profit, produced his own syndicated Sunday strip feature. For two years – beginning on March 3rd<\/sup> 1974 – Gahan Wilson Sunday Comics<\/strong> appeared in a small cross-section of newspapers from Boston to Los Angeles and, as with all his work, it bucked a trend.<\/p>\n

At a time when most cartoonists were seeking a daily continuity strip, building a readership and eking jokes out with sensible parsimony, Wilson let himself go hog-wild, generating a half-dozen or so single-shot gags every Sabbath, blending his signature weird, wild monsters, uncanny aliens and unsavoury scenes with straight family humour, animal crackers, topical themes and cynically socio-politically astute observations.<\/p>\n

Looking at them here it\u2019s clear to me that his intent was to have fun and make himself laugh as much or even more than his readership: capturing those moments when an idea or notion gave him pause to giggle whilst going about his day job…
\n\"\"
\nI\u2019m not going to waste time describing individual cartoons: there are just too many and despite being a fascinating snapshot of ancient life, they\u2019re almost all still outrageously funny in the way and manner that Gary Larson\u2019s Far Side <\/strong>was a scant six years later.<\/p>\n

I will say that even whilst generating a storm of humorous, apparently unconnected one-offs, consummate professional Wilson couldn\u2019t restrain himself and eventually the jokes achieved an underlying shape and tone with recurring motifs (clocks, beasts, wallpaper, etc), and features-within-the-feature such as The Creep<\/em> and Future Funnies<\/em>…<\/p>\n

Here, generally a single-page complete graphic epigram \u201cstar\u201d a grotty little chubby homunculus dubbed The Kid<\/em>. This fabulous monochrome (and occasionally colour) collection gathers that complete serial for collectors and potential addicts in a perfect package that readers will dip into over and over again.<\/p>\n

Taking his lead from popular sickly-sweet strips about or starring little children and the brilliant but definitely not jejune Peanuts<\/strong> (which was populated, to all intents and purposes, with teeny-weeny neurotic middle-aged midgets), Wilson sought to do the exact opposite and attempt to access the fear, frustration, confusion and unalloyed joy of being a young, impressionable, powerless, curious and demanding…<\/p>\n

… and magnificently succeeded.<\/p>\n

Dense, claustrophobic, intense and trenchantly funny, these self-contained strips range from satire to slapstick to agonising irony, linking up over the years to form a fascinating catalogue of growing older in the USA: a fearfully faithful alternate view of childhood and most importantly, of how we adults choose to recall and process those distant days…<\/p>\n

Each strip begins with the question \u201cRemember how…?\u201d or \u201cOne of the…\u201d or some equally folksy enquiry before unveiling bafflement, bewilderment, night-terrors or a deeply-scarring embarrassment which haunts us till doomsday, all wrapped in a comradely band-of-brothers, shared-coping-mechanism whimsy that is both moving and quintessentially nostalgic.<\/p>\n

Topics include the unremitting horror of germs; sudden death; being ill; inappropriate movies; forced visits; grandparents; things adults do that they don\u2019t want you to see; unexplained noises; the butcher\u2019s shop; accidents and rusty nails; things in closets; doctors and needles; dying pets; Santa Claus; seasonal disappointments; summer camp; sleep; bodily functions; school and lessons (two completely different things); fungus; bikes and toys; haircuts; comic books; deaths of relatives; hot weather; candy; overhearing things you shouldn\u2019t; stranger danger; hobby-kits and glue; daydreaming; babies and so many other incomprehensible daily pitfalls on the treacherous path to maturity…
\n\"\"
\nPeppered also with full page, hilariously annotated diagrams of such places of enduring childhood fascination as \u2018The Alley\u2019<\/em>, \u2018The Kit for Camp Tall Lone Tree\u2019<\/em>, \u2018Mr. Schultz\u2019s Cigar Store\u2019<\/em>, \u2018The Movie Theater Seat\u2019<\/em>, \u2018Table Set Up For Making Models\u2019<\/em>, \u2018The Doctor\u2019s Waiting Room\u2019<\/em>, \u2018The Closet\u2019<\/em>, \u2018The Sick Bed\u2019<\/em> and \u2018The Private Drawer\u2019<\/em>, this glorious procession also covers occasions of heartbreaking poignancy and those stunning, blue moon moments of serendipity and triumph when everything is oh-so-briefly perfect…<\/p>\n

Complete with a 3-D strip and \u2018Nuts to You\u2019<\/em> – a comprehensive appreciation and history by Gary Groth – this funny, sad, chilling and sublimely true picture-passport to growing up is unmissable cartoon gold.
\n\u00a9 Fantagraphics Books. All Nuts strips \u00a9 2011 Gahan Wilson. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

Today in 1917, Golden Age writer\/editor Ruth Roche<\/strong> was born, followed by forgotten genius Joe Maneely<\/strong> in 1926, Gahan Wilson<\/strong> in 1930, Johnny Hart<\/strong> in 1931 and both comic book artist Doug Mahnke<\/strong> and cartoonist Mark Bod\u00e9<\/strong> in 1963.<\/p>\n

We lost Belgian megastar and Marcinelle School founder Willy Maltaite<\/strong> (\u201cWill<\/em><\/strong>\u201d) in 2000 and lifelong multi-style achiever Bob Oksner<\/strong> in 2007.<\/p>\n

Comics wise, UK standby Radio Fun<\/strong> (published since 1938) folded today in 1961 and Power Comic Fantastic<\/strong> launched today in 1967.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Gahan Wilson (Fantagraphics Books) ISBN: 978-1-60699-454-2 (HB\/Digital edition This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. Born on February 18th 1930 and dying November 21st 2019, Gahan Allen Wilson was an illustrator, cartoonist, essayist and author who always had his eyes and heart set on the future. According to Gary Groth, the … <\/p>\n

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