Prophet of bad taste: John Callahan

[n2doc]

Callahan's cartoons won him a cult following. He was also a remarkable, brave human being. Robert Chalmers pays tribute

Friday, 13 August 2010

I try not to dwell on paralysis," John Callahan once told me. "Unless I want a Chinese takeaway and the person with me doesn't want to go out in the rain to collect it. Then I subtly bring the conversation round to the fact that I'm quadriplegic. That way, I know I'll be looking at egg foo yung quite soon. Actually," he went on, "there are quite a few good things about being in a wheelchair. You can stab your leg with a fork and not feel a thing. And if you have ambitions as a cartoonist, you're already sitting down."

John Callahan – whose admirers included Richard Pryor, Bob Dylan, Robin Williams and Bill Clinton – was one of the greatest humorists of his, or any other, generation, but his work isn't for everybody. "When you see someone laughing like hell and saying, 'That's not funny,' P J O'Rourke once wrote, "you know they're reading John Callahan."

When we first met, in his home town of Portland, Oregon, in 1992, he had only just stopped claiming welfare. We kept in regular touch over the next 18 years, in which time his work was published in more than 50 publications across North America, including The New Yorker and the Los Angeles Times. He was introduced to a British audience as cartoonist for The Observer Magazine, where he was hired, in the early Nineties, by Simon Kelner, the current editor-in-chief of Independent Newspapers. (Callahan was, until recently, resident cartoonist for The Independent on Sunday's New Review.) Such commissions enabled him to buy a comfortable house in an affluent area of the city, and pay for the 24-hour care his condition required.

more

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/comedy/features/prophet-of-bad-taste-john-callahan-was-a-comic-genius-who-left-no-taboo-unbroken-2051210.html

[yellerpup]

1. Love, love, love John Callahan.

:spray: Gonna miss that crazy kid. :cry:

[pinboy3niner]

2. +1

He had a unigue--and deliciously subversive--perspective.

[yellerpup]

3. No one like him.

Your description hits the target dead center. :hi:

[n2doc]

4. kick n/t

[comrade snarky]

5. Damn...

Sorry to hear about that.

Deeply wrong and brilliantly funny.