Ralph Steadman is a British artist best known for his work with American author
Hunter S. Thompson. Personal life
Steadman was born in Wallasey, Cheshire, and brought up in Abergele, North Wales.
From a lower middle class background, his father was a commercial traveller
and his mother was a shop assistant at T J Hughes in Liverpool. Steadman attended
East Ham Technical College and the London College of Printing during the
1960s, doing freelance work for Punch, Private Eye, the Daily Telegraph, The
New York Times and Rolling Stone during this time. Steadman currently lives with
his wife in Kent, England. Career
Steadman is renowned for his political and social caricatures, cartoons and
picture books. Awards that he has won for his work include the Francis
Williams Book Illustration Award for Alice in Wonderland, the American
Society of Illustrators' Certificate of Merit, the W H Smith Illustration Award
for I Leonardo, the Dutch Silver Paintbrush Award for Inspector Mouse,
the Italian Critica in Erba Prize for That's My Dad, the BBC Design Award for
postage stamps, the Black Humour Award in France, and several Designers and Art
Directors Association Awards. He was voted Illustrator of the Year by the
American Institute of Graphic Arts in 1979.
Steadman had a long partnership with the American journalist Hunter S. Thompson,
drawing pictures for several of his articles and books. He accompanied
Thompson to the Kentucky Derby for an article for the magazine Scanlan's, to
the Honolulu Marathon for the magazine Running, and illustrated both Fear and
Loathing in Las Vegas and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72. Much
of Steadman's artwork revolves around Raoul Duke-style caricatures of
Thompson: bucket hats, cigarette holder and aviator sunglasses.
Steadman appears on the second disc of The Criterion Collection Fear and
Loathing in Las Vegas DVD set, in a documentary called Fear and Loathing in
Gonzovision, which was made by the BBC in 1978, of Thompson planning the tower
and cannon that his ashes were later blasted out of. The cannon was atop a
153-ft. tower of Thompson's fist gripping a peyote button; Thompson
demands that Steadman gives the fist two thumbs, "Right now."
As well as writing and illustrating his own books and Thompson's, Steadman has
worked with writers including Ted Hughes, Adrian Mitchell and Brian
Patten, and also illustrated editions of Alice in Wonderland, Treasure Island,
Animal Farm, the English translation of Flann O'Brien's Gaelic-language classic
The Poor Mouth, and most recently, Fahrenheit 451.
Among the British public, Steadman is well known for his illustrations for the
catalogues of the off-licence chain Oddbins and he designed a set of four
British postage stamps to commemorate the appearance of Halley's Comet in
1985. He also designed the labels for Flying Dog beer and Cardinal "Spiced"
Zin' wine, which was banned in Ohio for Steadman's "disturbing" interpretation
of a Catholic cardinal on its label. Steadman also illustrated Will Self's
column in The Independent newspaper. Hal Willner and Johnny Depp's anthology of
songs, Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, and Chanteys contains two
contributions from Steadman; he sings lead on "Little Boy Billee", and sings
backing vocals on Eliza Carthy's song "Rolling Sea".
He has also drawn covers for numerous music artists, including the Who, Frank
Zappa and Ambrosia, and the lead banner for the gonzo journalism website
GonzoToday.com. In 2011, Steadman began running prose
and poetry in Kotori Magazine. He also contributed to the BirdLife
International's Preventing Extinctions programme with an image of critically
endangered northern bald ibis. = Film documentary =
A major documentary about Steadman's career, For No Good Reason, directed by
Charlie Paul, played at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival in the
"Mavericks" programme. The film, reportedly 15 years in the making,
played in New York City and Los Angeles in December 2013, and was given US
domestic release in spring 2014. The film was in competition for the Grierson
Award for Best Documentary at the 2012 BFI London Film Festival.
Partial bibliography Little.com
"Extinct Boids" "Nextinction "
= Non-fiction = Ralph Steadman, Between the Eyes
See Also Gonzo journalism
References External links
Official website Ralph Steadman at the Internet Movie
Database Biography at British Cartoon Archive
Brady, Roy. "Chateau Steadman". Saveur. Review of Steadman's catalogues for
Oddbins Johnson, Craig. "Ralph Steadman: Gonzo:
The Art". Spike magazine. "Ralph Steadman Art". Flying Dog Ales.
Aug 18, 2007. at Flickr
Taylor, Laurie. "Laurie Taylor interviews Ralph Steadman". New
Humanist. McGee, Jake. "Ralph Steadman : The
Kotori Interview". Kotori Magazine.