Number 1930: “Grab a gob of grub!”

Mrs Pappy commanded requested, “Get me some basil.”

“Of course, dear” I said, being the kind of accommodating husband every woman dreams of. The problem is that we have two different definitions of “basil,” she meaning basil as herb, me meaning Basil as in Wolverton, master cartoonist. We soon got it straightened out.

So for our second entry in our Wild Westerns Week, “my” Basil is represented here with a trio of BingBang Buster three-pagers from Lev Gleason’s Black Diamond Western numbers 23-25 (1951). Reads great. The other basil I just went to the garden and plucked a sprig or two for supper. Tastes great!

More BingBang by Basil. Just click on the thumbnails:

Number 1790: Wacky Wolverton

Basil Wolverton not only had one of the most unusual and interesting names of any of the cartoonists of the Golden Age, his art was unique. It is impossible, once educated in Wolvertonia, not to recognize Basil’s artwork at first glance.

Not only is Wolverton’s comedy work* unique, but it is also funny, which sets it apart. I am speaking of real screwball humor. Very few cartoonists could pull it off, the alliteration and internal rhyming. The stuff he could pull out of his brain and put on paper is amazing to me.

Here are three BingBang Buster strips, and a Scoop Scuttle thrown in, because the BingBang Busters are only three pages each. Wolverton’s work was often filler material, but to collectors may have been the primary reason for buying a comic book.

BingBang Buster stories are from Black Diamond Western numbers 20-22 (1950), and Scoop Scuttle is from Daredevil Comics #18 (1943), all published by Lev Gleason.

Number 1662: Thankful for Basil Wolverton

In past years at this time I did a special Thanksgiving Turkey Award posting of the weirdest or most oddball comic book story I had seen all year. For 2014 I’m dropping that. Instead I have decided to have a Thanksgiving Thankfulness post to show you some examples from a cartoonist I am thankful for. Basil Wolverton’s unique artwork and bizarre sense of humor have brought me much joy over the past five decades or more.

First, four of his funny 3-page Bingbang Buster cowboy strips, which appeared in Lev Gleason’s Black Diamond Western comic book. I think these short strips, done as filler material, are much better than the lead feature, which is the Lev Gleason version of the Lone Ranger. The Wolverton feature, which began in #16, continued through #28. These are the first four strips in the series.

Basil drew funny cowboys, and he drew funny spacemen. Supersonic Sammy was another of his characters who came along about the time the flying saucer flaps started happening in the late forties. They were done for Martin Goodman’s comics, and ended up as black line printings in Goodman’s 25¢ line of cartoon books. This way Goodman got a lot for his money, since I don’t think anyone paid for reprints in those days. They were reprinted, as was Basil’s Powerhouse Pepper, many times over the years.

The first strip is from Popular Jokes #33 (1969), the second from Comedy #13 (1953):

Mike Britt, who introduced me to comic book fandom in 1959 with his fanzine, Squatront #2 — and thereby set me on the path I still tread today — has provided some scans of Wolverton originals, probably heretofore unseen. They are from very early, when Basil was trying to sell a comic strip, “Woozie Woofer.” It didn’t make the comic strip pages (not to my knowledge, anyway), but still lives because Wolverton kept his originals. Mike tells me that Greg Sadowski is using these and more examples in his book about Wolverton, upcoming from Fantagraphics. I know when that book is published it will be on my must-have list.

I want to mention the two 1971 issues of Bill Spicer’s Graphic Story Magazine that showed me some rare work by Wolverton. Numbers 12 and 14 are the two Basil Wolverton issues. I will be forever grateful to Bill for publishing these. Until some fine day when they are (hopefully) reprinted you will have to dig out copies on your own. They are not easy to find and I plan to keep mine 'til death do us part.

I’ll be seeing you on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, with a Herbie adventure.

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If you want to taste my traditional Thanksgiving fare, click on this link to the 2013 Turkey Award winner. The links will take you back to the beginning.