Arthur Crumb must have gotten some inspiration from this guy, no?

Hmmm, last blog title was, "Basil Wolverton in NYC", and not one comment. Maybe he's not that well known, so maybe new, more intriguing title will help?

That first one is so good. I didn't know of him but he's got a great style.

quister on Jul 23 '09 at 8:40pm
Arthur Crumb must have gotten some inspiration from this guy, no?

yeah - crazy

Love his style!

a devout church goer that wished to remembered for his Bible illustrations.
hmmm objective fail perhaps

Yeah Kim, his Biblical stuff was good but routine, his Mad stuff was distinctive, and we're all hard wired to notice/appreciate the un-norm. Great skills though, having no rapidographs, markers, and such. Probably worked on negative film using a razor blades and opaque media to finish a piece before it got printed. Hard to say though, look at the size of this one.

wow!!! Insane detail for such huge works!!!

Here's one of his Bible prints, Watch your face, couldn't find a smaller version.

Here's a bunch of his work on one site, fun to look through!

Basil Wolverton

nice armageddon

nice armageddon

Yeah, right!
The guy did have a sense of humor though!

Those are really awesome and creative. At first I was like "meh", but then I got a closer look, and they are really innovative images. He's totally abstracting from the human form just like so many of those "high" artist dudes. I was looking through some of his other work earlier because I had never heard of him before the NY Times article yesterday. Mostly I like the simpler single image portraits like that first one.

ohh that last one you just posted is great.

Yeah, Blame, amazing stuff considering the time he was doing these. He must have inspired these two at least, maybe more.

Big Daddy Roth


R Crumb

His career 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.

definitely looks like he inspired Crumb. some amazing stuff there

I just found a bunch of his religious work, scary stuff!
"Longtime aficionados of Basil Wolverton are aware that he is somewhat of a paradox. On the one hand he was a Christian minister - quiet, humble, generous to a fault - morally and socially conservative - always ready with a word of encouragement or humor. On the other hand, he created some of the most terrifying religious art since Hieronymus Bosch."
religious art here

In case you missed this blog, just giving you another chance to get to view the work of this little known and rarely cited inspiration of many of the works we see today. "Sin City" comes to mind!