June 10, 2003
I'LL HAVE WHAT THE GUY ON THE FLOOR IS HAVING
My taste in cartoons tends to be a tad ... dark. That's probably why I like Callahan.
I first saw his cartoons in the Miami Herald's Sunday magazine, Tropic. His stuff was full of crippled characters you never see in "safe" comics. He attacks stereotypes head-on and plays with them like they were no big deal. The humor is morbid mostly because, you know, he's in a wheelchair due to a car crash at 21 and he tends to see the dark side of life. It's the kind of stuff you might think in the back of your head but you would never say out loud.
I also dig him because he got booted out of Tropic for a tasteless cartoon he drew in 1996. Just so happened to run on the anniversary of Martin Luther King's assasination. Oooooops.
I found that strip offensive - there are a lot of his that bother me - but with so few people out there pushing boundaries, his nauseous stuff is worth stomaching to get to the moments of greatness. There are times that startle you when you laugh at stuff you never thought you'd laugh at.
You can read his hate mail here.
Oh, and while Tropic magazine is no more, Callahan goes on.
Let that be a lesson for you.