Callahan

I was saddened this morning to hear that the cartoonist John Callahan has passed away. The extraordinarily gifted writer, cartoonist, musician leaves indelible memories behind. He lived courageously with the effects of his paralysis and accomplished much. I served him many cups of tea over the years and listened raptly to his stories. John had been close to death before in the last decade, but you wanted to believe it wouldn't happen this soon. This is a fucked up day, to be blunt.

The publication of the above cartoon created much controversy, as did a lot of his other work. I was particularly amused by the outraged and clueless "humanists" who castigated him for "making fun" of quadriplegics without knowing the artist himself was bound to a wheel chair. The moral authority they presumed to have always looked ridiculous after the fact, a circumstance John relished.

What more can you say? A great artist is gone. He was 60.


TS