John Callahan is a very extraordinary person. This charismatic man became a cartoonist and animator not out of his heart, but out of a grievous necessity in life: as a result of a car accident, he was confined to a wheelchair for life.
And out of despair, he began to draw with crooked fingers, at first uncertainly, and then more and more clearly and expressively, until one acquaintance told him that such masterpieces should not be hidden from people. And persuaded him to send his drawings to the local newspaper. Since then, the name of John Callahan has become more and more famous, and then he did become famous.
In 2018, a film was even released based on his autobiographical story "Don't Worry, He Won't Go Far", which made his name famous all over the world.
Biography
John was born in 1951 in the American town of Dulles. Rather, in this city, his newborn was handed over to a child's home, so he did not know his parents. His family is adoptive parents David and Rosemary Callahan, who owned grain elevators in Portland. In this city, John grew up and graduated from high school. He had five adoptive brothers and sisters. From an early age he was a bully and a bully, and then there is a traumatic situation, as Callahan writes in his autobiography: in his elementary school age he was seduced by a nun of a Catholic school.
As a teenager, he already tried alcohol and skipped school with might and main. Parents could not cope with him, and the young man was left to himself: parties, bars, nightclubs. He worked odd jobs during the day and drunken at night - such was his youth.
In 1972, the same accident happened that made John disabled. She and a friend were driving from a bar, and the car crashed into a post. The blow was so strong that both suffered a concussion and severe injuries.
Since then, John could only hold small, light objects in his hands, and most often it was a glass of alcohol. Then he remembered that as a child he drew well, and began to draw the first scribbles on the sheet with both hands. Gradually, this occupation captured him, especially since the cartoons were getting better and better.
Artist career
True, most of his drawings were in the style of black humor, but they were so original that they were published by the local newspaper Willamette Week. And then the editor-in-chief himself came to his house to look at the author of such sharp cartoons. So Callahan became a staff member of the newspaper.
In the late nineties, more than two hundred publications were already printing his drawings, and then he wrote his autobiography. And then something incredible happened: the rights to film the biography of a disabled person were bought by Robin Williams himself! True, he did not have time to shoot the picture, but the director Gus van Sant did it.
In 2000, Nickelodeon decided to make a cartoon based on Callahan's drawings, and he executive produced Pelswick. It came out from 2000 to 2002. So gradually the artist's work gained recognition throughout the country.
Personal life
Despite his position, John was always surrounded by friends, because he had some kind of inexplicable charm that attracted people to him. And when he started working in a newspaper and later - life began to improve, he stopped drinking and painted all the time.
Callahan died at the age of sixty from lung disease.
