Scoop Scuttle and His Pals

Author: Basil Wolverton
Publisher: Fantagraphics Books
ISBN: 1683963970
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
Languages : en
Pages : 194

Book Description
In this rip-roaring retrospective, Basil Wolverton’s often warped imagination combines with his outlandishly wacky visual humor to fascinate and delight It collects the ultra-rare treasures Scoop Scuttle, Mystic Moot, Bingbang Buster, and Jumpin’ Jupiter — as they’ve never been seen before! Due to the rock-bottom printing methods of 10¢ comic books, Wolverton’s intricate line work was routinely obscured, and often obliterated. In this collection, every effort has been made to restore the art to its original splendor, and to at last present the uniquely detailed graphics of this justly revered comic book master.

Creeping Death from Neptune

Author: Basil Wolverton
Publisher: Fantagraphics Books
ISBN: 1606995057
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
Languages : en
Pages : 306

Book Description
This is the first in a two-volume retrospective―collecting full comics stories, unpublished art, ads, etc.―and biography of the famous Mad cartoonist. This is the first of two volumes reprinting copious amounts of comics stories and recounting the career of cartoonist Basil Wolverton. Based on his correspondence and journals, the biographical portion of the books follow Wolverton from childhood to adult day-to-day life as freelance cartoonist, itinerant handyman, persistent contest enterer, and local pastor of the Radio Church of God. Wolverton lived and worked in the Pacific Northwest, unique among the first generation of comic book pioneers. In the precious period before the industry calcified into a commercial institution, Wolverton was free to work under the radar to explore in detail his weird tales of the future. The book collects all of Wolverton’s non-humorous comic stories and a substantial selection of his humorous comics, alongside dozens of pages of unpublished artwork, unsold features, and never-before-seen correspondence, including rejection letters!

Brain Bats of Venus

Author: Greg Sadowski
Publisher: Fantagraphics Books
ISBN: 1683962141
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 450

Book Description
This volume continues Sadowski’s biography of the famed Mad cartoonist. It includes scores of letters between Wolverton and his editors and publishers and excerpts from his personal diaries, providing documentary insight not only into Wolverton’s day-to-day life and career, but also the inner workings of the early comic book industry. It is also chock full of Wolverton’s comics stories from this period, including 17 science-fiction and horror tales fully restored and never before collected in a single volume.

Powerhouse Pepper

Author: Basil Wolverton
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781560971481
Category : Comic books, strips, etc
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
By Basil Wolverton $11.95 / Softcover 104 pages / black and white / 8" x 11" Eleven "Powerhouse Pepper" strips, three "Supersonic Sammy" stories, and one "Hot-head Hotel" make up the meat of this marvelous tome - a worthwhile wad of Wolverton (early Mad, Marvel monster comics, Plop, Spacehawk, "Lena the Hyena" in Li'l Abner) wit we're sure you'll want to welcome (with a wail), whisk up, weep over, wince over, whinny and whoop over. See Supersonic Sammy save Stalin. Wonder at Wolverton's wanton winds of wisdom, alliteration antics and able artistry. Peer piously by as polite Powerhouse Pepper pounces into peril, pounding his piston-packing punches passionately 'pon noses, necks, napes, nostrils, navels, noggins and knees, all with a chuckle, a wink, and a grin. All 15 strips are rare, rendered well, never collected together in book form, classics one and all (without fail). Take it from us, these are bar none the funniest Wolverton workouts you'll come across in any millennium. Heave 'em home to have and hold - you'll be pleased you paid, partner!

The Wolverton Bible

Author: Basil Wolverton
Publisher: Fantagraphics Books
ISBN: 156097964X
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
Languages : en
Pages : 313

Book Description
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.9px Arial; color: #424242} Cartoonist Basil Wolverton was known for his grotesque drawings, fantastically odd creatures, spaghetti-like hair, smoothly sculpted caricatures and insanely detailed crosshatching. His career in the golden age of comic books lasted from 1938 until 1952, after which his illustrations and caricatures extended into such publications as Life, Pageant and MAD magazines. Stylistically, he has been regarded as one of the spiritual grandfathers of underground and alternative comix. Less well known and understood is his work for the Worldwide Church of God, headed until 1986 by radio evangelist Herbert Armstrong. From 1953 through 1974, Wolverton, a deeply religious man, was commissioned and later employed by the church to write and illustrate a narrative of the Old Testament (including over 550 illustrations), some 20 apocalyptic illustrations inspired by the Book of Revelations, and dozens of cartoons and humorous illustrations for various Worldwide Church publications.

SCREWBALL! The Cartoonists Who Made the Funnies Funny

Author: Paul C. Tumey
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 1684051878
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
The story of screwball comics, with new research and rare art from some of the most hilarious cartoonists of all time. Before "screwball" became a movie genre, it was a staple of other forms of American culture, including newspaper comic strips. Emerging from the pressures of a rapidly accelerating technological and information-drenched society, screwball comics offered a healthy dose of laughter and perspective. The disruptive, manic, and surreal verbal-visual comedy of these "funnies" fostered an absurdist sensibility embraced by The Marx Brothers (who took their names from a popular comic strip), W. C. Fields, Tex Avery, Spike Jones, Ernie Kovacs, and Mad magazine. Comics scholar Paul C. Tumey traces the development of screwball as a genre in magazine cartoons and newspaper comics, presenting the work of around fifteen cartoonists, with an art-stuffed chapter on each. The book offers a wealth of previously un-reprinted comics unleashing fresh views of some of America's greatest and most-loved cartoonists, including George Herriman (Krazy Kat), E.C. Segar (creator of Popeye), Rube Goldberg (The Inventions of Professor Lucifer G. Butts, A.K.), Bill Holman (Smokey Stover), and Frederick Opper (Happy Hooligan). In addition, readers will be delighted to discover previously "lost" screwball masters, such as Gene Ahern (The Squirrel Cage), Gus Mager (Sherlocko the Monk), Boody Rogers (Sparky Watts), Milt Gross (Count Screwloose), George Swanson ($alesman $am) and others. Both humorous and educational, this book is aimed at a general audience of all ages and at university comics studies programs.

Spacehawk

Author: Basil Wolverton
Publisher: Fantagraphics Books
ISBN: 1606995502
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
Languages : en
Pages : 273

Book Description
The complete collection of Wolverton's legendary costumed crusader. Basil Wolverton is one of the greatest, most idiosyncratic talents in comic book history. Though he is best known for his humorous grotesqueries in MAD magazine, it is his science-fiction character Spacehawk that Wolverton fans have most often demanded be collected. The wait is over, as The Complete Spacehawk features every story from Spacehawk’s intergalactic debut in 1940 to his final, Nazi-crushing adventure in 1942. Spacehawk is the closest thing to a colorfully-costumed, conventional action hero Wolverton ever created, yet the strip is infused with Wolverton’s quintessential weirdness: controlled, organic artwork of strangely repulsive aliens and monsters and bizarre planets, and stories of gruesome retribution that bring to mind Wolverton’s peer, Fletcher Hanks. Spacehawk had no secret identity, no fixed base of operations beyond his spaceship, and no sidekicks or love interests. He had but one mission in life: to protect the innocent throughout the Solar System, and to punish the guilty. He was a dark ― yet much more visually playful ― counterpart to Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon.

Supermen!

Author: Greg Sadowski
Publisher: Fantagraphics Books
ISBN: 1560979712
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
Languages : en
Pages : 193

Book Description
The enduring cultural phenomenon of comic book heroes was invented in the late 1930s by a talented and hungry group of artists and writers barely out of their teens, flying by the seat of their pants to create something new, exciting, and above all profitable. The iconography and mythology they created flourishes to this day in comic books, video, movies, fine art, advertising, and practically all other media. Supermen! collects the best and the brightest of this first generation, including Jack Cole, Will Eisner, Bill Everett, Lou Fine, Fletcher Hanks, Jack Kirby, Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, and Basil Wolverton.

Trots and Bonnie

Author: Shary Flenniken
Publisher: New York Review of Books
ISBN: 1681374854
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
Languages : en
Pages : 160

Book Description
"Trots and Bonnie is hilarious, poignant, raunchy, gorgeously drawn, and more relevant than ever. Shary Flenniken is an absolute genius." —Roz Chast In the 1970s and 1980s, National Lampoon was home not only to some of the funniest humor writing in America but also to many of its best cartoons. One of the greatest was Trots and Bonnie by Shary Flenniken, a comic strip that followed the adventures and mishaps of the guileless teenager Bonnie and her wisecracking dog, Trots. Bonnie stumbles through the mysteries of adulthood, as Flenniken—one of the few female contributors to National Lampoon—dissects the harsh realities of American life. Dating, sex, politics, and violence are all confronted with fearlessness and outrageous humor, rendered in Flenniken’s timeless, gorgeous artwork. After all these years, they have lost none of their power to shock and amuse. This collection, handpicked by Flenniken and with an introduction by the New Yorker cartoonist Emily Flake, is the first book of Trots and Bonnie ever published in America, a long-overdue introduction to some of the most stunning and provocative comics of the twentieth century.

Four Color Fear

Author: Greg Sadowski
Publisher: Fantagraphics Books
ISBN: 1606993437
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
Languages : en
Pages : 321

Book Description
A massive collection of never-before-collected pre-Comics Code horror comics of the 1950s. Of the myriad genres comic books ventured into during its golden age, none was as controversial as or came at a greater cost than horror; the public outrage it incited almost destroyed the entire industry. Yet before the watchdog groups and Congress could intercede, horror books were flying off the newsstands. During its peak period (1951–54) over fifty titles appeared each month. Apparently there was something perversely irresistible about these graphic excursions into our dark side, and Four Color Fear collects the finest of these into a single robust volume.