S. Clay Wilson
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Wikipedia
Featured:  |
S. Clay Wilson (born July 25, 1941) (Steve or Steven) is an American underground cartoonist and central figure in the underground comix movement. Wilson is known for aggressively violent and sexually explicit panoramas of "lowlife," often depicting the wild escapades of pirates and bikers. He was an early contributor to Zap Comix, and Wilson's artistic audacity has been cited by R. Crumb as a liberating source of inspiration for Crumb's own work.
Life and work
Wilson was born in Lincoln, Nebraska and later attended the University of Nebraska. He was trained as a medic in the United States Army and held odd jobs before moving to San Francisco in 1968. Wilson lived in Lawrence, KS before moving West. He met up with Charles Plymell, who was publishing Robert Crumb's Zap Comix. Wilson had been drawing since he was 12, and needed little persuasion to contribute to Zap. His work was praised by such counterculture icons as William S. Burroughs and Terry Southern.
According to Charles Plymell (an editor of Grist magazine), Wilson's first published work was in 1966 in Grist #7 magazine (a poetry magazine by John Fowler) and then in Grist #9, also from that same year. The first appearance of the Checkered Demon is said to have been in an ad in a later issue of Grist. His portfolio was printed the following year in 1967 (with subsequent printings later on in comic book form).
A striking feature of S. Clay Wilson's work is the contrast between the literate way in which his characters speak and think and the depraved violence in which they engage.
Wilson's later work became more ghoulish, featuring zombie pirates and visualizations of the Virgin of Guadalupe as a rotting vampire mother. In many respects, however, his work has remained consistent since his emergence in the 1960s. In contrast to the many countercultural figures who have moderated their more extreme tendencies and successfully assimilated into the mainstream of commercial culture, S. Clay Wilson's work has remained troubling to mainstream sensibilities and defiantly ill-mannered.
The main book collection of S. Clay Wilson's comics is the Checkered Demon Anthology Vol. 1 from Last Gasp. The Art of S. Clay Wilson, published in 2006 by Ten Speed Press, covers his prints and paintings as well as his comics work.
Brain injury
On November 1, 2008, Wilson suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury. After attending the Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco and drinking throughout the day, Wilson left the house of a friend and was found by two passersby, face down and unconscious between parked cars. Among his injuries were a fractured neck, fractured orbital bone, and severe head injuries. It is not known if he was assaulted or hit his head from falling.
After two weeks in intensive care, Wilson was put on an accelerated therapy program, but still showed major difficulty in summoning words, a common form of aphasia following a trauma of this sort. He had recovered enough to write his own signature in the first week of January, but continued to require hospitalization for a year. A benefit was held to assist with his medical costs in December 2008. Another benefit was held in Hollywood in March 2009. Wilson returned home November 10, 2009, able to draw fairly well and speak a little but still requiring 24 hour care, since he also suffers from short term memory loss. He married his longtime girlfriend, Lorraine Chamberlain, August 10, 2010. She looks after him with the assistance of a part-time caregiver.
Lorraine has created a website for Wilson with updates and photos at www.sclaywilsontrust.com. Donations for his Special Needs Trust can be sent through the website, or mailed directly to PO Box 14854 San Francisco, CA 94114. He needs ongoing financial assistance, as he no longer is capable of earning a living.
S. Clay Wilson characters
- The Checkered Demon
- Star-eyed Stella
- Captain Pissgums and his Pervert Pirates, joe bag of donuts, nicky the woman
- Ruby the Dyke
- Hog Riding Fools (motorcycle gang)
- Club Choad Charley (a member of the Hog Riding Fools)
("Tree Frog Beer" is the drink of choice for many of these characters).
