Sunday, August 05, 2012

UNKNOWN WOLVERTON

Well, maybe "unknown" is the wrong word, but these pictures are certainly little known. It's a tribute to Basil that sketches this funny seem second rate when compared to his other work. See what you think.


Is this (above) by Basil or his son Monty?


This one's (above) definitely by Basil. I like how the eyes are on top of the head.


The black and white version of this sketch (above) is fairly well known, but not this colored version. The color helps it, I think.


Mike Fontanelli sent me this caricature (above) of Basil Wolverton, drawn by Drew Friedman. It's certainly well done, but it's not the way I like to picture Basil. I see him as a sort of mischievous joke teller like Rodney Dangerfield.


Here's another Friedman caricature, this time of Mad artist Will Elder. Don't ask me why, but I buy into this 100%. Probably Friedman knew Elder.

Here's the link to Drew's site:

http://drewfriedman.blogspot.com/2012/07/legends-of-comics-portraits.html

4 comments:

Jules said...

Hey Eddie! What do you think of Wolverton's straight material, Like Space Hawk and his various horror stories?
For me I honestly like his stuff even more than his cartoons, even though they’re great and have had a huge impact on many artists. There just so madly strange and slightly awkward in a way that creates this whole off kilter tone. Not to mention his design sense for monsters and sci-fi gadgets was pretty great.

mike fontanelli said...

You can go here to see Drew Friedman's deceptively sane caricature of Wolverton. (I tried to email the image separately, but my stupid Norton AntiVirus filter won't recognize the file.)

Anonymous said...

Eddie, since the economy is still recovering from the whole recession, would double majoring in accounting be a good idea? That's the thought I've been having for weeks because it generally pays well, but most people seem to really hate accounting. Originally I had also thought about studying economics. Sorry for being off topic, but I needed some advice.

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Roberto: There's a great history book called "The Romance of Accounting" that would make anybody proud to work in that industry.

I found it in a used bookstore. It looked great, but I made the mistake of putting it back on the shelf. A week later I realized what a gem it was and went back to pick it up, but it was gone. I did manage to get a similar book, also out of print, called "The Romance of the Law" and that was great. That pointed me to Blackstone's famous books which have probably instilled the love of law into more readers than any other books ever printed.

Mike: Thanks! I reprinted the portrait at the bottom of the post!

Jules: Haw! Yeah, his sci-fi is unique. I like the Venusian Brain Bat story.