The black-humored art of Ralph Steadman is forever linked with the outrageous writing of the late Hunter S. Thompson, the dean of gonzo journalism and a longtime contributor to Rolling Stone. Steadman, an English cartoonist and painter, first accompanied his friend to the Kentucky Derby at the end of the Sixties – an assignment that infamously helped Thompson create his unique style of writing, which ran roughshod over any pretense of objectivity and evenhandedness. Steadman, now 77, drew in a slashing, gleefully spattered style rooted invariably in the notion that it’s all unremittingly horrible. . . so let’s have a drink. His work is collected in the magnificent new book Proud Too Be Weirrd, excerpted here for the first time.