The Bizarre World of Basil Wolverton

This morning, I read a blog post by Austin Kleon talking about the ‘Gross Up’ in the Spongebob TV show. That post led me to this video, which describes what the ‘Gross Up’ really. (it really gets good and insightful around 2:05)

That video briefly talks about an artist I’d never heard of, named Basil Wolverton.
Here are images of him, and the bizarre world he created with his drawings.

Basil Wolverton

He lived from 1909-1978. He was published by Marvel and Mad comics throughout his career, and described as a “Producer of Preposterous Pictures of Peculiar People who Prowl this Perplexing Planet.” 

I’m not really a fan of a lot of his subject matter, but his skill with a pen is unbelievable, and the quality of his images are gorgeous.

It’s fun to find new illustrators like this that help to expand of understanding of what illustration can be.