Basil Wolverton (1909–1978) was an American comic artist and writer known for his humorous and horrific illustrations.

Born on July 9, 1909 in Central Point, Oregon, he later moved to Vancouver, Washington. In his younger years, he was a vaudeville performer and radio announcer. He produced his first comic strip, Marco from Mars, in 1929 but could not interest a newspaper in it. His initial breakthrough was with another science fiction feature, Spacehawk, which first appeared in Circus Comics in 1938.

In the 1940's, Wolverton produced the comedic feature Powerhouse Pepper, which appeared in various comic books published by Timely Comics. It is considered by many to be a highwater mark in humorous comics, with its alternately alliterative and rhyming dialogue along with throwaway gags in background signs (later to become a trademark of the work of Kurtzman and Elder).

Wolverton was baptised into Herbert W. Armstrong's Radio Church of God in 1941 and was ordained as an elder in 1943. He was a trusted member of the upper-level church; in 1946 when it moved its original headquarters from Oregon to California, Wolverton was one of the six people, including Armstrong and his wife, that reincorporated the church in that state.

Wolverton received the greatest publicity of his career in 1946, when he won a contest to illustrate "Lena the Hyena", a horrific character invented by Al Capp in his Li'l Abner newspaper strip. The character had been a running gag in Capp's extremely popular strip; supposedly too ugly to appear in a newspaper, her face would always be covered with an editorial note saying that her face had been covered to protect the readers. In response to popular demands that she be shown, Capp launched a contest for artists to submit their conceptions. Out of a half-million entries, Wolverton's was the winner; it appeared in the strip and was featured in Life magazine. It marked the introduction of his own unique "Spaghetti and Meatball" style, which he used in almost every illustration from then on.

In the mid-1950s, Wolverton retired from mainstream comics and devoted his attention to illustrating the horrors depicted by Armstrong in his written work. In 1956, Armstrong had Wolverton illustrate his booklet 1975 in Prophecy, which he offered free on his radio show, The World Tomorrow. For the booklet Wolverton produced a series of horrific drawings depicting the Book of Revelation's "Great Tribulation".

Wolverton's work also appeared in The Plain Truth magazine, published by Ambassador College on behalf of the Worldwide Church of God, which serialized his rendition of the Old Testament from Genesis to Samuel. The Bible Story was later reprinted by Ambassador College in a standalone softcover volume.

In 1973, Wolverton returned to mainstream comics, illustrating several covers for DC Comics's Plop!. His career was cut short, however, by a stroke in 1974. He died in Vancover on December 31, 1978.

External links

• Career overview, with illustrations
• A reproduction of the original 1956 British edition of 1975 in Prophecy, with text and original illustrations
• Wolverton's "Armageddon" drawings from 1975 in Prophecy, colorized by his son, Monty
• The 1946 California "Articles of Incorporation" for the Radio Church of God, signed by Wolverton

Books

• The Bible Story (1982)
• Wolvertoons: The Art of Basil Wolverton (1990) (ISBN 1560970227)
• Basil Wolverton's Powerhouse Pepper (2001) (ISBN 1560971487)