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Your chair reminds me of my white cane. I am visually impaired, though not legally blind, and just recently got my firs...
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I am grateful for Laura, Robin, Sharon, Jean and all the other hard-headed women who taught me pride in my disability - ...
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Laura
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Remembering John Callahan
Posted by Laura
Monday, August 02, 2010
Comments (2)
John Callahan (pictured) passed away last week at the age of 59, after decades of making us laugh (and sometimes cringe) at his twisted visions of the crip life. Many of us will never forget some of his cartoons -- drawings short on detail and nuance, but packed full of irony, cynicism, cultural commentary, and weirdly realistic surrealism -- and his autobiographical writings. Callahan made us think and giggle, through the magic of profound discomfort.

Callahan's cartoons were never politically correct. He certainly riled my feminist ire at times with his crude tits-and-ass caricatures. But he made me laugh -- and still does -- with his bizarre scenes and encounters. He put disabled people in completely unexpected situations -- like the guy with a white cane, spraying Braille graffiti on a brick wall. You look at this for a minute, and then you crack up. You can't help it. It's a blind tagger! It's funny.

Even more hilarious and subversive are the cartoons featuring disabled people in situations familiar to us all, but with some kind of unexpected and shocking difference. Example: A nondisabled man looms over a man in a wheelchair. Burning with religious fervor, the first man raises his arms and commands: "HEAL!" In response, the disabled man jumps out of his chair, to the ground, crouches on all fours next to the "healer," and looks up at him, tongue hanging out like a dog's. On one level it's just silly. On another level, though, it says so much about the power relations between people with and without disabilities, their desire to cure us, and our desire to please them.

(You can see, and get, these and other Callahan cartoons on his official website.)

I think my favorite one of all time showed a bunch of vent-dependent quads -- people stretched out in oversized wheelchairs, with prominent tubing, like a bunch of Ed Roberts clones -- in an adapted aerobics class. The instructor commanded: "O.K., let's get those eyeballs moving!"

Even more examples of Callahan's art and writing are currently being featured in some high-profile obituaries, such as the one in the New York Times. Perhaps the best remembrance, also featuring his cartoons, is in the Willamette Week in Oregon, which has published his work for decades.

Humor, it's often said, has healing properties. I don't think Callahan was trying to heal himself or his readers, at least not in the "get better" sense. I found his humor liberating -- breaking through the niceties, tossing away the "how to talk to the handicapped" etiquette manuals. His stories laid bare the truly strange things people say to us, the weird images that pop into our heads late at night, the awkward encounters that our diverse culture makes possible.

You can't summarize a joke, anymore than you can summarize a poem. You just have to be there, see it for yourself -- and give way to that gasp of horror, of indignation, or of gut-deep recognition. If you haven't seen Callahan's work, seek it out -- and deal with it.

Copyright 2010 by Laura Hershey
 
  • Visit Candace's profile
    Candace: I appreciate so much your reflections of Callahan. I can't get enough of the man's vision, it has stretched me wider then I could have imagined. John inspired me to create my personal out on the edge"life is gross" cartoons. Thanks John.
     
  • Visit Stephen's profile
    Stephen: In my 32 years in my chair as a C6/7, I've had many people tell me that I should turn my insane stories into a book. However, after reading John's Bio, "Don't Worry, He won't Get Far on Foot," soon after it was released, I've always replied that there was no point in writing my own Bio, as the perfect one had already been written. If I tried to write my own, his would constantly be in the back of my mind, so I've always written the title of his along his name, and given it to the person if possible. I also have a few extra copies at home to give one away, if the subject arises. When/if I see the person again, the person thanks me for the hysterical read and the unique understanding of my life and world.

    Sorry to hear of your passing John. You were one of a kind and I'll miss your books and cartoons.

    Steve Gibbs aka Hotquad