Tags
John Callahan, “a quadriplegic, alcoholic cartoonist”, explored some dark areas of human existence, and thus justified his existence on this planet. Good job, and rest in peace, man.
“Interview with John Callahan by Ballantine Books
BB: do you think you would have become a cartoonist if not for the 1972 accident that left you a quadriplegic?
JC: I probably would have, because I’d been doing it as a kid.
BB: Did your experience of the accident and life as a quadriplegic lend your sense of humor its dark and ironic edge, or were those qualities always there? And do they help you to survive mentally?
JC: Those qualities were always there. I had some strange knocks as a child, some traumatic experiences as a very little kid, and I think that’s what twisted me in that this fashion. But the wheelchair didn’t exactly help.. or hurt, I guess I should say.
BB: Were those characteristics or qualities of mind, which come out so strongly in your cartoons, helpful in coming to terms with your paralysis?
JC: I’ve used humor as a buffer and a kind of lubricant to myself to help me sort of skid my way along tough spots many times in my life, and I think it’s the humor that’s allowed me to reduce the trauma of things and put them into perspective, It’s just a natural response for me. I think it’s amusing when people think that dain a sense of humor through some trauma. It’s inborn.”
Levels of Insanity
“With drawing I can convey the nobility of the human animal caught in an oppressive world. My characters look round-shouldered, often abused. There is shock and disillusionment in their eyes. They could be Kurtz, In Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, whispering, “The horror. The Horror.”
Comedy is the main weapon we have against “The Horror.” With it we can strike a blow at death itself. Or, at least, poke a hole in the pretentious notion that there is something dignified about it.
… I don’t know about all that. I view my career as having passed through three periods. First came my “black” period. Then as a I developed, I entered a “black” period. Now my horizons have widened, and I feel myself to have passed through through to a third, or “black,” period. God knows what comes next.
That some 1989 issue of Topic included a lengthy profile of John Callahan, chronicling the artist’s life and discussing his quadriplegia, the result of a car accident. “I am happiest when I’m offensive,” reads one of Callahan quote from the piece. “I have a desire to tear people in half. I want move people out of the suburbs of their mind. I want them to suffer, to feel something real. I have a lot of anger. I want to hurt people. At least a little.”
Will the Real John Callahan Please Stand Up?: A Quasi Memoir
Occupy Home Health Care 