Film About Controversial Former WW Cartoonist John Callahan Gets National Nod

He taught himself to draw jagged comic strips by clutching a pen in both hands and moving it around with his upper body.

By Elise Herron

File this under "pat on the back"—but a film about a former Willamette Week cartoonist is grabbing national attention.

The movie, Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot, is Gus Van Sant's latest, and it chronicles the life of controversial Portland cartoonist John Callahan, played in the film by Joaquin Phoenix. A recent New York Post write-up about Callahan calls the late cartoonist "darkly humorous" and "taboo-breaking," and describes how the accident that put him in a wheelchair "may have saved his life."

That accident—a near-fatal car crash—paralyzed Callahan. But, he taught himself to draw jagged comic strip scenes by clutching a pen in both hands and moving it around with his upper body. In the late 80s and early 90s, Callahan's twisted comics appeared in WW issues.

In the film, WW's publisher, Mark Zusman, is played by Van Sant.

You can read the New York Post's coverage of Callahan and Don't Worry, which opens nationally on July 20, here.

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