Number 955


Basil "Weirdwit" Wolverton's funny business


Amongst other comic artists, Basil Wolverton is unique. You look at a strip by BW and you know immediately it's his work. I've thought about it, and wonder if it had something to do with having a name like Basil Wolverton. Right away that name would set a fellow apart from the John Smiths and Joe Joneses. Perhaps having an unusual name gave him the impetus, in a conscious way or not, to fill his pages with the outrageously original and unique comic book characters he did. I don't know that for sure. I'm just sayin'.

Back to what I do know: "Powerhouse Pepper" was scanned from a black and white reprint in one of those cartoon magazines published by Martin Goodman, who also published Marvel Comics. In this case it was from a 1973 issue of Wheely Nuts. It originally appeared in comic book form in Powerhouse Pepper #4, 1948. I have shown it before.

"Scoop Scuttle" is from Lev Gleason's Daredevil #16, published in 1942, and the "Jumpin' Jupiter" stories are from Weird Tales Of the Future numbers 2 and 4, from 1952.