Hooray for Basil Wolverton! And do you have any Silver bullets in .38 special?

The picture at right has been on my drawing table for a couple days now… I work on it, put it aside, work on it some more, etc. I’m pretty sure it’s either done or so close to done as to be considered done… the picture is for a collaboration with Il Male of The Yaqqothl Grimoire and shows a hapless human wasting bullets against the creatures of the outer dark… or maybe they are a variant of the green slime monsters?

While I was drawing the drawing at right (I am calling it “.38 Special” for now), I kept looking back at this panel from an old Basil Wolverton comic (see “swamp monster” at lower left; click to see big (DO IT! This one panel is more fan-fucking-tastic than anything I have ever done!)). I think every once in a while I find a picture that really teaches me a lot just by studying it — and Basil Wolverton is a new favorite of mine ever since his art slithered into my life via Monster Brains. I don’t know that much about dead comic book artists, but Wolverton seems to be a guy that previous generations of comic book artists really admired… and after finally finding some of his work, I can see why. Do yourself a favor and check out “Swamp Monster” if you haven’t already.

It also helps (at least in my book) that Wolverton was a really pretty unique and eccentric guy. Despite the fact that his work looks like ‘head shop art,’ Wolverton was a strict Evangelical Christian and even did comic book stories from the Bible in addition to the weird and gory pre-code horror and crime comics… as well as some early work for Mad magazine… so he definitely had a sacred/profane duality thing going on. I like artists who lead interesting lives and who are hard to figure out. Plus his work reminds me of Crumb and Tom Huck (to name just two).

Penury has me on a savings program, but as soon as I am able I am going to try to buy some Wolverton reprints.