The Original Art of Basil Wolverton
Wolverton was perhaps the most distinctively eccentric artist ever to work in mainstream comic books. The obsessive detail of his singular approach—loopy, broadly exaggerated figures given realism and weight through the use of heavy stippling—led LIFE magazine to dub it the “spaghetti-and-meatballs school of design.” Although zany humor strips like Powerhouse Pepper are his best-known stuff, his lesser-known, serious efforts, such as the superhero-science fiction hybrid Spacehawk, possess a primitive, elemental dynamism. Wolverton achieved a career breakthrough in 1946 by winning a contest to depict the world’s ugliest woman for the Li’l Abner newspaper strip, which led to similar commissions for MAD and other publications. In the 1950s, he produced characteristically idiosyncratic biblical illustrations, including a chilling interpretation of the Revelation. This lavish mounting of Wolverton’s decidedly lowbrow art accompanies an exhibition drawn from the collections of Glenn Bray, who befriended the artist late in his life. This volume emphasizes individual illustrations rather than his comic-strip work.
9x12, 200 black and white pages, hardcover ..... $35.00
Wolvertoons : The Art of Basil Wolverton
Basil Wolverton is a diabolically clever artist whose first comic book work appeared in 1938. His first and perhaps best-known strip is the oddly weird science fiction strip, Spacehawk. The insanely manic Powerhouse Pepper is his great comic book work from the 1940s. This hardcover collection reprints sketches and drawings from throughout his career.
8½x11, 134 black and white pages, hardcover w/dustjacket. ..... $39.95
Powerhouse Pepper
by Basil Wolverton
More than sixty episodes of Powerhouse Pepper ran in various Timely Comics humor titles between 1942 and 1948, including five issues under Powerhouse Pepper’s own name. This volume presents eleven episodes from this zany, to say the least, strip by the late, great Basil Wolverton. Also included are four other stories by Wolverton from this same period: three Supersonic Sammy stories and “Hothead Hotel” featuring Clerk Berserk McJerk. Informative introduction by editor Dick Voll. Trade paperback from Fantagraphics, 8½x11, 96 strip packed pages in black and white plus color cover ......$11.95
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