Gonzo the art

Ever since British cartoonist Steadman won American fame illustrating Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1972), which gave gonzo (meaning, perhaps, sleazy and out of control) to the language, his ferocious art has been called gonzo. This book samples 30 years of it, notably extracting from Steadman's first work with Thompson, a piece about the Kentucky Derby. Like the others, the Derby pictures are vibrantly ugly, visions of hell on earth. Like George Grosz, the caricaturist of Weimar German corruption, Steadman sees through filth-colored glasses, and the grotesque figures he draws would be repulsive except that they are laughably unaware of their own hideousness. Steadman is aware, though, and angry--so angry that, 10 years ago, he swore off drawing any actual politicians (what he had already done with Nixon's visage, reprinted here, is devastating); so angry that, in another trademark of his style, he spatters, splashes, and smears ink across his line work. His stuff makes mere political cartooning look like Martha Stewart Living. --Ray Olson

From the illustrator who collaborated with Hunter S. Thompson to redefine journalism: a comprehensive compendium. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.