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.

**********

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.

Number 16




COVERING IT: Classic Golden Age Comics Covers Part 5


In the neverending quest of Pappy's Golden Age Comic Book Blogzine to overwhelm its readers with trivia and unimportant stuff about Golden Age comics, here is a cover to follow up on Pappy's #15 posting of "Ivan's Woe" by Howard Nostrand.

Bill Spicer published some of the earliest and most intelligent articles about comics, in one of the most professional formats. This issue, Graphic Story Magazine #16, published with a date of Summer, 1974, contains an interview with Nostrand about his career. At the time it was published he was out of comics, doing advertising art, but shortly after this re-entered the field. He did work for the very short-lived Atlas/Seaboard line of comics (Targitt), and then did work for Cracked Magazine up until his death in 1984.

This issue of Graphic Story Magazine also has some excellent comic art, reprinting a classic Bob Powell horror story, a John Pound EC satire, and even a Basil Wolverton story! A very eclectic issue of an eclectic fanzine, worth searching out.

Number 4

As a P.S. to my recent blog with the Basil Wolverton story, I'm adding this. The two issues of Graphic Story Magazine, #'s 12 and 14, that came out in 1970-71, were what opened my eyes to Wolverton's diversity as a cartoonist. Bill Spicer, the editor/publisher of Graphic Story Magazine, collected material from diverse places and people, and led to my understanding of Wolverton as both a respected cartoonist and also as a cult figure.

At the time of publication of the two issues of GSM Wolverton hadn't yet suffered his stroke and was creating covers for Plop!, a comic from DC, subtitled "The Magazine Of Weird Humor." Not too much of Plop! was all that humorous, weird or otherwise, but Basil's covers showed he was still as weird as ever, and as funny.

The two covers of Graphic Story Magazine show how much alike and how apart his art styles could be. They are both grotesque depictions of humans, but one is funny and how is gruesomely grim. That was Wolverton, and his work was instantly recognizable, no matter what genre he was drawing in at the moment.