Spike Magazine

Spike | 15 YEARS OF BOOKS, MUSIC, ART, IDEAS | www.spikemagazine.com
Interview [published September 2005]
Ralph Steadman: Gonzo: The Art
Craig Johnson talks to Ralph Steadman about the death of Hunter S. Thompson,
paranoid flashes and the “terrible betrayal” of modern politics
“One of the reasons he’s fun to work with – he has a
really fine, raw sense of horror. By way of exaggeration
and selective grotesquery. His view of reality is
not entirely normal. Ralph sees through the glass very
darkly.” – Dr Hunter S. Thompson, June 1974
One of the many facets that sets Hunter S. Thompson’s
70s works apart from other forms of classic
American literature are the growling, snarling, punchbetween-the-eyeballs
illustrations of Ralph Steadman.
Roaring from the pages, his pictures visualise the horrors
of corporate America, ripping the surface to reveal
the political greed and other grotesqueries that contort
and degrade the human forms within his pictures. With
his method of isolating and focusing on a physical idiosyncrasy,
he explodes his subjects, capturing a hidden
truth that was hitherto unseen; it’s as if Steadman sees
with the naked eye of a schizophrenic.
Bloodsucking business men, venal politicians, dollar
drugged gamblers, archetypal beholders of negation
and power transmogrified into grinning reptilia,
squarking sharp-beaked birds, gorgons of sheer inhuman
greed. In the ferocious stroke of a few simple lines
BUY Ralph Steadman books online from and
he trans-atlantically expresses all the negative facets of
the human condition to a terrifyingly hilarious degree.
If we think of the old metaphor of the artist’s pen being
a sword, then Steadman’s scribe is nuclear.
Below is an almost verbatim conversation I conducted
with Mr Steadman via a phonebox on Kings
Street in Manchester city centre. His rumbling Welsh
accent was full of charisma, his personality very accommodating,
meditatory, thoughtful and warm. When
talking about the death of Hunter S. Thompson a real
sense of bereavement -the only sort that can be when
a real friend passes by- was prevalent in the tone in
which he talked about him. Amidst rush hour traffic
and passing packets of suit-encased, office imprisoned
flesh, the conversation went thus…
You must have been gutted when Hunter S.
Thopmson committed suicide.
I always knew he’d do it, but I didn’t know when.
It was always the case of I always knew that one day
I would take this journey but I did not know yesterday
that it would be today. That’s how it felt and it was
way too soon. So upset about it. And I knew he’d do
490
More
Spike
email
RSS
Facebook
Twitter
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z