Tuesday, January 15, 2019

Video: Cartoonist John Callahan Park

YouTube couple Almost Exactly visits a Portland, OR park dedicated to cartoonist John Callahan, who died in 2010.

John Callahan had been paralyzed since the age of 21 due to a car accident. He turned to alcohol, and then, cartooning. His cartoons were called "sick" and "offensive." It didn't bother him at all. To quote his description from his very own Web site:
"There's absolutely nothing funny about a quadriplegic in a wheelchair. Unless, of course, that person is John Callahan. For nearly a decade, this irreverent cartoonist has been shocking America with his own special brand of wicked humor. In the world of Callahan, nothing is sacred, nothing is taboo and nothing is funnier!"
This is the first time I've seen the park, with the benches and foliage and the controversial cartoons so casually displayed. Every city should have a park like this, with some thought-provoking cartoons here and there.




The Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center dedicated the John Callahan Garden in October 2017. Nestled within Legacy Good Samaritan Park on Northwest Marshall St., between 21st and 22nd Avenues, the garden was designed in honor of the late cartoonist and patient of Legacy Rehabilitation Institute of Oregon (RIO)

More here.

1 comment:

John R. Platt said...

I really need to go there!