Synopses & Reviews
Gahan Wilson is one of the masters of macabre cartooning, ranked with Charles Addams, Edward Gorey, and Gary Larson. He is also a masterful storyteller. From the horror of "blot" to the gentle unease of "Campfire Story", from the classic oral-horror style of "The Marble Boy" to the science fiction scares of "It Twineth Round Thee in Thy Joy", this collection shows Wilson at his very best.
Originally published in Playboy, Omni, and notable anthologies such as Again, Dangerous Visions, Wilson's short fiction is gathered, here for the first time. The 24 stories are each accompainied by an original, full-page illustration done especially for this volume.
Gahan Wilson has won two World Fantasy Awards and the Bram Stoker Award for Life Achievement. His most recent cartoon collection is Gahan Wilson's Even Weirder. His latest CD-ROM is Gahan Wilson's The Ultimate Haunted House.
Review
"A collection of meticulously eccentric stories. The illustrations are definitely the icing on this devil's food cake of a book."--
The New York Times"Genuine weirdness combined with wit and intelligence."--Stephen King
"Stories whose weird wit matches that of his drawings. Wilson writes in a straightforward, intelligent, anecdotal style that present an amusingly sinister look at humanity. In "the Breaks,' Wilson describes a certain ghoulish item as 'a macabre object, without doubt, but it undeniably had a peculiar kind of charm.'. The same can be said of this collection. "--Publishers Weekly
Synopsis
Sometimes amusing, sometimes frightening, Wilson's short fiction is as eclectic as his cartooning. "Campfire Story" mixes nostalgia with unease. "The Marble Boy" is a story in the oral tradition--a tale that might be told around a campfire or during a sleepover.
These tales and the twenty-two others that fill out this collection are entertaining and unnerving. The Cleft and Other Odd Tales contains more than two dozen original Gahan Wilson illustrations.
About the Author
Gahan Wilson's cartoons have appeared in
Playboy, The New Yorker, Gourmet, Punch, Paris Match, and
The National Lampoon. More than fifteen collections of his cartoons have been published, including
Is Nothing Sacred?,
Playboy's Gahan Wilson, and then we'll get him! and
Still Weird. Wilson is widely considered to be the best living macabre cartoonist.
For children, Wilson has written and illustrated a series of adventures of Harry, the Fat Bear Spy. For adults, Wilson has written two mystery novels and a number of short stories, which have appeared in Playboy and Omni. Other graphic works for adults include adaptations of Ambrose Bierce and Edgar Allan Poe, and Gahan Wilson's Big Book of Freaks