The Wolverton Bible [Hardcover]

Basil Wolverton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 15, 2008

The legendary ugly artist of Mad finds God! Cartoonist Basil Wolverton was known for his grotesque drawings in Mad magazine. He was commissioned and later employed by a church to write and illustrate a narrative of the Old Testament. Compiled and edited by Wolverton's son, Monte, the 304-page Bible Stories includes all of Wolverton's artwork for the Worldwide Church of God corporation. Recording artist and noted EC authority Grant Geissman (Tales of Terror: The E.C. Companion and Foul Play!: The Art and Artists of the Notorious 1950s E.C. Comics!) provides an insightful foreword, while Monte Wolverton delivers commentary and background in the introduction and in each section. This volume is authorized and commissioned by the Worldwide Church of God and endorsed by the Wolverton family. Many of the illustrations in this book are regarded as Basil Wolverton's finest work. Still others have never been published.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Basil Wolverton created the most famous MAD magazine cover, the May 1954 “Beautiful Girl of the Month—Reads ‘MAD.’” Ludicrously grotesque, it’s typical of the humorous cartooning that was Wolverton’s principal livelihood. Humor wasn’t the self-taught artist’s only mode, however. From 1952 to 1974, he illustrated the Bible for publications of the Radio (later Worldwide) Church of God, a broadcast-based ministry whose eccentric beliefs crop up in the drawings. His son Monte prepared this complete collection of his church-related work, including some typically funny stuff done for the student publications of the church’s Bible schools. Wolverton used a lot of contrasting pattern work to compensate for his essentially stiff, flat, untutored style, meticulously filling in fields of dots, lines, and, after he upgraded his pens, hatchwork. Wolverton’s faces have only a handful of types and expressions, and he couldn’t do foreshortening. His Book of Revelation drawings, full of grotesque horror, are more impressive than the others; but altogether his religious art demonstrates that he was kind of the Douanier Rousseau, the Grandma Moses, of comics. --Ray Olson

Review

“This book is a tremendous boon as it shows a genius illustrator at the pinnacle of his ability... Basil Wolverton is one of the legends of comic art.” (Tim Jamson - Mania )

“I just discovered that underground grotesque comics virtuoso Basil Wolverton had produced a series of biblical illustrations… stories that went beyond the whitewashed, cheerful kids’ books of the day, to show the Old Testament for what it is: a book full of blood, thunder and revenge. Accordingly, Wolverton’s illustrations, done in the same unmistakable, stippled style that characterized his grotesqueries, show off the grim, the violent and the destructive in the Old Testament, putting the blood and guts in the spotlight…it is perfectly him, humorous, grisly, mad and wonderful.” (Cory Doctorow - BoingBoing )

“I love that Wolverton’s Adam and Eve look like Cary Grant and Rita Hayworth, and that the images of Noah’s Ark have the beautifully clean look of a wood carving. Dramatic scenes such as Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac, the devastation brought by locusts, and Samson’s blinding, showcase the artist’s talent for visceral, visual storytelling.” (Leigh Stein - The New Yorker )

“By the end of the book, pages after pages of doom and destruction, you realize that Wolverton is maybe the only person to illustrate the The Old Testament and the Book of Revelation—the most 'savage' books of the bible.” (Are You a Serious Comic Book Reader? )

“Wolverton’s pen presents disaster rather than combat; ruin is highlighted, not heroism…Wolverton illustrated a blind man given sight, a child playing near a viper’s nest, a young boy petting a lion and a wolf. These are images of the heavenly promise, or paradise, but from a pen so tilted toward threat and terror they, too, are frightening to behold…Whether believers or potential converts found themselves plagued by nightmares of the child and viper we may never know, but certainly this volume, assembling as it does a visual representation of a disturbing religious dream, will help readers better understand the fearful allure of end-time theology.” (Spencer Drew - Rain Taxi )

“Wolverton’s unsparing depiction of nightmarish prophecies are relentlessly grim but absorbingly so. There are hints of Goya’s crazed, melancholic Saturn and prediction of Charles Burns’s brooding mutant teens…Such humanity is everywhere is Wolverton’s art—as much in the laughably goony portraits as in fire-and-brimstone ferocity.” (Nicole Rudick - Artforum )

“Underneath the screaming and plagues, the giddy joy that [Wolverton] seems to take in his art radiates off the page, just like it does in his secular work.... His creatures from sci-fi and horror, his fascination with grotesque bodily exaggeration, his devout Christian faith—here it all comes together into an operatic and apocalyptic peak.... The Wolverton Bible might seem like a paradox to its religious audience and its alt-comics fans—even if Wolverton himself never saw the contradiction.” (Martyn Pedler - Bookslut )

“The Wolverton Bible is a collection of drawings that Basil Wolverton did for Herbert Armstrong's Worldwide Church of God. I've been hoping for a collection of these drawings for ages... What a great collection. The drawings are nicely printed, very black, on nice white paper... The book is sturdy and feels good... This is a windfall. It's a wonderful addition to any art collection.” (Garth Danielson - Primitive Screwheads )

“A fascinating testimony to the peculiar vision of the life of an original artist and a somewhat unorthodox view of the 'holy book' by a faithful believer.” (Iconoctlan )

“[W]ith their crashing planes, erupting volcanoes, boil-stricken sufferers, and monstrous whirlwinds[,] Wolverton’s literalist depictions of Revelation are powerful, shocking, and above all grotesquely beautiful. ... Though Wolverton’s approach to [the Old Testament] stories was somewhat more matter-of-fact than his apocalyptic panoramas, there is still a passion for the bizarre evident in the Bible Story illustrations. ... Wolverton’s Bible illustrations sit on the border between sacred and profane, and that unique placement is what gives them such power.” (Gabriel Mckee - Religion Dispatches )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Fantagraphics Books (December 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156097964X
• ISBN-13: 978-1560979647
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 7.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #102,736 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #48 in Books > Comics & Graphic Novels > Publishers > Fantagraphics

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A superb reproduction of Wolverton's Bible Story for Children, April 18, 2009

By 

Robert Barnett (Canberra Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Wolverton Bible (Hardcover)

This is a faithful reproduction of the text and drawings of the original series of Bible Story for Children. It covers much of the Old Testament in simple English and is faithful to the story. It also has an additional chapter on Nehemiah that was never in the original series as well as a chapter on the book of Revelation. It is profusely illustrated in Wolverton's unique style which would be familiar to anyone who has seen his work in MAD magazine.

To reproduce it in a single volume the editors have made the text very small which makes in unsuitable for very young children, but they are probably more interested in the drawings than the text. It would be a great book for older children and teenagers and suitable for parents to read to their very young children. However, parents should be warned that it contains very graphic drawngs of the more gruesome and horrific sections of the Bible, especially the book of Revelation. Basil Wolverton didn't hold back from drawing it the way he believed it happened, or in the case of the book of Revelation, like it thought it would happen.

Anyone who loves Basil Wolverton's drawings will find this a magnificent volume, but it is very different to his humour of MAD magazine.

The only negative issue is the introduction by Basil's son Monte which detracts from the magnificent work of his father. What he says may be correct, but the cynical TONE of his comments about his father's relationship with his old boss, just isn't necessary in such a great book. Nevertheless, this is just a minor 4-page glitch in a 300 page book and certainly doesn't impact on the overall content.

Overall, I enjoyed reading it and found it to be a superbly produced volume of high quality.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Bible illustrated - as no one else could do it, May 7, 2009

By 

John Wheeler "Johanan Rakkav" (King David's Harp, Inc., Houston, TX. USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Wolverton Bible (Hardcover)

The late Basil Wolverton was one of the most idiosyncratic artists ever (in my opinion, "cartoonist" is too mild a word for his particular brand of "screwballitude"), and one of the most diverse in his activities that I know of. Not surprisingly, his art gravitated to (truly or allegedly) idiosyncratic associations, ranging all the way from MAD Magazine on the one hand to the publications of the Radio Church of God (later, the Worldwide Church of God) on the other.

In this book, in addition to telling examples from other media, we see the collected output, awesome in degree and kind, of Mr. Wolverton for the Radio/Worldwide Church of God as it was under the guidance of its founder, the late Herbert W. Armstrong. Mr. Wolverton retained and even magnified his keen eye for the absurd in human nature and behavior, whether in the world at large or among his fellow Church members. On the other hand, he was a dedicated minister of the Church, and accordingly, his serious work for THE BIBLE STORY and his apocalyptic work for 1975 IN PROPHECY comprise the apotheosis of his "spaghetti-and-meatball school" of drawing. I maintain that in important ways, his depiction of Adam and Eve being driven out of the Garden of Eden has no equal in art history on that particular subject - because it is drawn, and drawn very well, from the point of view of a cherub with a flaming sword in his hand. Quite possibly, only someone with a theology like Mr. Wolverton's could've thought of taking that point of view.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Work of a True Legend, November 19, 2009

By 

Tim Janson (Michigan) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Wolverton Bible (Hardcover)

Basil Wolverton is one of the legends of comic art, noted for his grotesque drawings that appeared in Mad Magazine, DC Comics' "Plop", and posters for Topps. He worked a number of years for Timely/Marvel comics as well. Less known, however, were illustrations he did for Plain Truth Magazine depicting the Old Testament Bible, commissioned by the Worldwide Church of God. This is the bible as only Wolverton can depict it, filled with apocalyptic drawings of cataclysmic events, insidious demons and other beasts, and the universal evil that men do.

This is all told in Wolverton's unique art style, highly detailed and yet caricaturized at the same time. The book contains over 450 illustrations in all as well as additional 170 Wolverton illustrations including numerous cartoons and general zaniness. For fans of comic art, particularly extreme, underground-style art, this book is a tremendous boon as it shows a genius illustrator at the pinnacle of his ability.