New Knowledge From Nealy

New Knowledge From Nealy

A Carolina Paddler article

By Alton Chewning

William Nealy was a cartoonist, writer, and adventure journalist, choosing to sacrifice his body and dignity to help us appreciate the agonies and ecstasies of raw meat sports.  He made fun of the pursuits he enjoyed and the people who shared them.  The hero characters in his art are just as off kilter as the failures.  Nobody and nothing are above a good laugh.  We love him and his careening characters because they are just as faltering as we are.  Sure, some of them make the big drops, the dynamic spins, the dizzying cartwheels but often they, too, fail and fall, when the stage is too big, the ego too swollen, the audience too expectant.  But they try again.

We really don’t have a replacement for William Nealy.  We’re slicker now and have lots of beta and top gear. Our videos are better and way plentiful.  But where’s the humor, the satire, the self-mockery? There is hope. If you’re ready for more idiocy from the Stupid Planet, more Extreme Cartoons by the Master of Disaster, the time is right.

Menasha Ridge Press is reissuing many of William Nealy’s books and maps.  As if that wasn’t enough mayhem, Menasha is also supporting gambling (who isn’t?) or at least, card playing.  Two new decks of cartoon playing cards are available: William Nealy’s “Extreme Sports” set (the blue ones) and the “Crash and Learn” set (the red ones).

The publication of “This Isn’t Going to End Well” by Daniel Wallace kick started this uptick of interest in Nealy.  It’s a worthy book and has many contorted twists and unwieldy turns in giving us the behind the scenes of William’s world. It’s also a dose of reality which might be better taken after a wild night spent with the wetsuit wit of William.  If you’re a Nealy novice start with “The Nealy Way of Knowledge,” a cartoon primer of William’s work.

Menasha Ridge Press is the real deal, a publishing company formed by William, Holly Wallace (his soulmate and co-conspirator), her dad Dan, and Bob Sehlinger, a writer and publisher who really knew the biz.  William supplied the rawest of material, Bob shaped it, Dan financed it and Holly sold it.  A dream team of funhog publishing.

In the commemorative reissues you’ll see many of the favorites, encompassing the four high energy sports he enjoyed: biking, paddling, skating and skiing. (Wonder why he never did a book on rock-climbing?)  The books continue to mystify and mock, to educate and irritate, to take down the mighty and stir up the muddy.  They are our guides on how to act but also how to laugh at how we act.

Also available are his poster sized maps that have led generations of paddlers down the region’s beloved rivers.  Maps that grace walls and capture imaginations. The map that put William on the map – the Nantahala – is back, plus the Ocoee, the Gauley, Chattooga III and IV and more.  There’s even a new website, thewilliamnealy.com

So, if you’re ready for it, get some Nealy.  He’s the cosmic kayaker, the person whose bad example will get you in holes stickier than duct tape, more turbulent than high school romance. His characters are hapless but happy, they live suspended in a time when a day well lived makes up for a week of drudgery.

In Nealy’s own words, “I used to think I was the only cretin tumbling down black diamond slopes and getting terrified rock climbing and getting hammered paddling.  …Over the years I met lot of climbers, boaters, skaters, mtn. bikers, skiers and funhogs of every persuasion who would say, ‘Hey, that ME in that cartoon …were you on my trip?’  It turns out, I’m not alone after all, just a klutzy outdoor Everyman with a felt-tip pen.”

The Nealy Special Commemorative Edition Books:

     Inline         

      Kayak: The New Frontier

     Kayaks to Hell

     Mountain Bike!

     The Mountain Bike Way of Knowledge

     The Nealy Way of Knowledge

     Skiing Tales of Terror

     Whitewater Home Companion, Volume I

     Whitewater Home Companion, Volume II

     Whitewater Tales of Terror

     William Nealy Crash and Learn Playing Cards

     William Nealy Extreme Sports Playing Cards

The Maps:

     Chattooga Section III

     Chattooga Section IV

     Cheat Canyon

     Duke Forest

     French Broad River

     Gauley River

     Hiwassee River

     Lower Youghiogheny River

     Nantahala River

     New River

     Nolichucky River Gorge

     Ocoee River

     Shangrilaha

     Upper Chattahoochee River