Wonderfully irreverent quad cartoonist John Callahan dies

From Oregon Music News. Here's a link to a Dutch documentary about Callahan from a few years ago.

He had been hospitalized since July 22 and had been in declining health for several years. He was 59 years old and had been living in a basement apartment on NW Lovejoy St. for the past several years.

According to Joy Campbell, a friend of twenty years and someone in frequent contact with Callahan, before he went to the hospital on Thursday, he knew he was at the end of his life.

He said farewell to Robert his caregiver before he left for Good Sam.

On July 24 the hospital wanted to transfer him to Hopewell House, a hospice. According to Campbell, he had always been adamant about not wanting to die in hospice. When the ambulance arrived at Hopewell, he was having so much trouble breathing that he was returned to Good Sam where he died shortly after his arrival.

Having spent some creative time with him and being his downstairs neighbor, I always thought he had a sick mind and a pure heart. The perfect combination.

Most Portlanders knew him as the Willamette Week Cartoonist and author of many sardonic cartoon books. He also released an album of his songs, Purple Winos In the Rain, produced by Terry Robb.

Before it came out, Greg Bond and I did a TV story on John. Here’s one of his tunes, “Portland Girl.” He had a love-hate relationship with Portland, and indeed the world. But the love always showed through.

Terry Robb said this afternoon that he had just spoken with John on Thursday. Apparently Kinky Friedman had wanted him to open at his show at the Roseland Theater on Thursday, July 28. He was a big fan of John’s.

Mark Zusman of Willamette week wrote in their first report, “Our tears shed as we write this.” Later he posted A Brief John Callahan Primer.

Bassist/singer/composer Lisa Mann wrote: "I only met him a few times. The first time was just after a Music Millennium show, at the old westside location. He asked what time we played, so I told him we had just finished and he said he was very sorry he’d missed it. He seemed genuinely disappointed. He gave me his CD and started up a conversation about music and everything else under the sun, like we were old friends. He didn’t know me from Adam. I remember being really struck by that, especially given my impression of him through his crass cartoons. Really interesting guy, sorry to hear he’s passed."