One of the benefits of having a girlfriend who is a librarian is that you can say: “Hey, would you see if you can find out about this ridiculously obscure thing for me?” Sometimes, I don’t even have to ask. After reading my previous post about the Chris Ware / George Wilson dual identity, she managed to unearth another ‘George Wilson’ work. This effort appears in the February 2002 issue of Esquire Magazine.
The artwork appears in a section called ‘Lost Arts,’ and Ware contributed a faux book cover (‘The Lost Arts – A guide to the things our grandfathers did so effortlessly, but about which we know slightly less than squat’) and three strips: ‘The Lost Art of Carrying a Handkerchief,’ ‘The Lost Art of Standing Up When a Lady Approaches’ and ‘The Lost Art of Sword Fighting.”
Another interesting thing she found was that another George Wilson did the cover interior illustrations for a handful of Hardy Boys novels. Initially I hypothosized that this was where the pseudonym came from, but on further investigation I’m less sure. Worth mentioning, though.
Supposedly there are two more Chris Ware works floating around credited to George Wilson, so if you happen to stumble upon one, let me know! In the meantime, we have this to look forward to:
McSWEENEY’S ISSUE 13
Edited by Chris Ware
$24 US, hardcover
Coming in AprilIssue 13 is a Very Special Issue. We might say that a lot, and we mean it
every time, but this time we really really mean it. This issue is all
comics. It is edited by Chris Ware (author of Jimmy Corrigan: Smartest Kid
on Earth), and features so many artists to know and love: R. Crumb, Art
Spiegelman, Daniel Clowes, Lynda Barry, Los Bros Hernandez, Adrian Tomine,
Julie Doucet, and on and on. The issue also includes essays from Michael
Chabon, Ira Glass, John Updike, Chip Kidd, and others. Hardcover,
clothbound, with an enormous dust jacket that does much more than guard
against dust. This one makes our throats go tight.
