Basil Wolverton and Honor Bonita Lovette
Husband Basil Wolverton
Born: 9 Jul 1909 - Central Point, Jackson County, OR Baptized: Died: 31 Dec 1978 - Vancouver, Clark County, WA Buried: - Park Hill Cemetery, Vancouver, Clark County, WA Find A Grave ID: 45296753
Father: Clarence E. Wolverton {FGID: 45296754} Mother: Olive P. Hayes {FGID: 45259917}
Marriage: 9 Jul 1934 - Vancouver, Clark County, WA
Wife Honor Bonita Lovette
Born: 1906 - Mansfield, Douglas County, WA Baptized: Died: 12 May 2005 - Thousand Oaks, Ventura County, CA Buried: - Park Hill Cemetery, Vancouver, Clark County, WA Find A Grave ID: 20550511
Children
1 M Monte Kim Wolverton
Born: 25 Sep 1948 - Vancouver, Clark County, WA Baptized: Died: Buried:Spouse: L. Kayte Youngblood Marr: Cir 1970
General Notes: Husband - Basil Wolverton
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/45296753/basil-wolverton
BIRTH 9 Jul 1909
Central Point, Jackson County, Oregon, USA
DEATH 31 Dec 1978 (aged 69)
Vancouver, Clark County, Washington, USA
BURIAL
Park Hill Cemetery
Vancouver, Clark County, Washington, USA
PLOT E 111-1
MEMORIAL ID 45296753
Created by: Scott Bolliger
Added: 10 Dec 2009
Find a Grave Memorial 45296753
memorial page for Basil Wolverton (9 Jul 1909–31 Dec 1978), Find a Grave Memorial no. 45296753, citing Park Hill Cemetery, Vancouver, Clark County, Washington, USA ; Maintained by Scott Bolliger (contributor 49600767) .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basil_Wolverton
also from https://web.archive.org/web/20181225235821/http://www.comicbookdb.com/creator.php?ID=4342
"Basil Wolverton (July 9, 1909 – December 31, 1978)[1] was an American cartoonist and illustrator known for his intricately detailed grotesques of bizarre or misshapen people. Wolverton was described as "Producer of Preposterous Pictures of Peculiar People who Prowl this Perplexing Planet." His many publishers included Marvel Comics and Mad magazine.
His drawings have elicited a wide range of reactions. Cartoonist Will Elder said he found Wolverton's technique "outrageously inventive, defying every conventional standard yet upholding a very unusual sense of humor. He was a refreshing original." But Jules Feiffer stated, "I don't like his work. I think it's ugly."[2]
He was posthumously inducted into the comic book industry's Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1991.
Born in Central Point, Oregon, he later moved to Vancouver, Washington, and worked as a vaudeville performer and a cartoonist and reporter for the Portland News. At age 16 he sold his first nationally published work and began pitching comic strips to newspaper syndicates. His comic strip, Marco of Mars, was accepted by the Independent Syndicate of New York in 1929 but never distributed because it was deemed too similar to Buck Rogers, which debuted that year.[3]
Disk-Eyes the Detective and Spacehawks were published in 1938 in Circus comics. In 1940, Spacehawk (a different and improved feature) made its debut in Target Comics , published by Novelty Press. It ran for 30 episodes (262 pages) until 1942.[3]
Other Wolverton characters include Scoop Scuttle, a newspaperman who ran as a backup feature in Lev Gleason Publications' Daredevil Comics and Silver Streak Comics; and Mystic Moot and his Magic Snoot in Fawcett Publications' Comic Comics and Ibis The Invincible. "Bingbang Buster and his Horse Hedy" was a three-page backup story in Lev Gleason's Black Diamond Western #16–28 (1950–1952).[4]
Powerhouse Pepper and Lena the Hyena
Wolverton's humor feature Powerhouse Pepper, about a superstrong if none-too-bright boxer, appeared in various comic books published by Timely Comics, the 1930s and 1940s precursor of Marvel Comics, from 1942 through 1952.[4] The strip was characterized by alliterative, rhyming dialogue, screwball comedy and throwaway gags in background signs. The Timely titles, such as Joker Comics, Gay Comics and Tessie the Typist, debuted a number of his spin-off characters and features, including Flap Flipflop, The Flying Flash (who later appeared in Charlton Comics' Jack in the Box #13), Leanbean Green, "Cartoon Crime Mystery" featuring Inspector Hector the Crime Detector, Doc Rockblock, "Picture Poems about Peculiar People", "Funny Boners", Dauntless Dawson, "Hothead Hotel", "Bedtime Bunk", "Foolish Faces" and more.
Five issues of a Powerhouse Pepper comic book were released in 1943 and 1948 by Timely,[4] but not all the covers were by Wolverton and many interior pages were also not devoted to Wolverton strips.
In 1946, Wolverton won a contest to depict "Lena the Hyena", the world's ugliest woman, a running gag in Al Capp's Li'l Abner newspaper strip where Lena remained unseen beneath an editorial note stating her face had been covered to protect readers.[5] Capp, responding to popular demand, announced a contest for artists to submit their interpretations to be judged by Boris Karloff, Frank Sinatra and Salvador Dali. Among 500,000 entries, Wolverton's was the winner;[6] it appeared in a Li'l Abner daily and Life magazine. Wolverton's fame briefly led to Life and Pageant printing his caricatures. The Lena portrait typified the unique "spaghetti and meatballs" style he employed regularly thereafter.[3]
In the 1950s, Wolverton produced what some regard as his best work; 17 comic-book horror and science-fiction stories for Marvel and other comic-book publishers, including one story by author Daniel Keyes, which led to him being "hailed for creating uniquely grotesque monsters".[7] Among these tales were "The Brain Bats of Venus" for Mister Mystery #7 and "Where Monsters Dwell" in Marvel's Adventures into Terror #7,[4] the title of which was later used for a 1970s Marvel reprint series.
Mad
Wolverton first appeared in Mad with a single panel in #10, drew Mad Reader! for #11 and also contributed an iconic Lena-like image to the cover of #11, which was billed as the "Beautiful Girl of the Month".[4] Although Wolverton contributed sporadically to the title—appearing in just nine issues over two decades—his work was memorable enough that, in 2009, The New York Times dubbed him "The Michelangelo of Mad Magazine".[8] E.C.'s other humor title, Panic, edited by Al Feldstein (who later became Mad's editor for 30 years) also used Wolverton's art on a Panic cover, though publisher William M. Gaines was not a fan of Wolverton's work. Other humor magazines from other companies such as Cracked, From Here to Insanity and Cockeyed also featured Wolverton's work, as did an issue of Ballyhoo.
Later career
In 1968, Wolverton did the Ugly Posters series of trading cards for Topps, displaying his trademark twisted headshots.[9]
In 1973, he returned to mainstream comics, illustrating several covers for Joe Orlando's satiric Plop! at DC Comics. Comix Book, a joint production of Marvel Comics and Denis Kitchen's Kitchen Sink Press, featured two strips by Wolverton, "Calvin" and "Weird Creatures". His return was cut short by a stroke in 1974.
In 1934, Wolverton married his Vancouver High School classmate Honor Lovette (class of 1927). They remained married until his death.[10][11]
Wolverton was baptized into Herbert W. Armstrong's Radio Church of God in 1941 and was ordained as an elder in 1943. As a board member of that church, he was one of the six people, including Armstrong and his wife, who reincorporated the church in 1946 when it moved from its original headquarters in Oregon to California. In 1956 Wolverton illustrated Herbert Armstrong's apocalyptic booklet 1975 in Prophecy, and later, The Book of Revelation Unveiled at Last, offered free on Armstrong's radio show The World Tomorrow. In 1958, Wolverton began writing and illustrating The Bible Story, also titled The Story of Man, covering the entire history of the Old Testament, and serialized in the Plain Truth and later published in six volumes.
Wolverton died on December 31, 1978, at age 69.[1]
Wolverton's son, editorial cartoonist Monte Wolverton, draws in a style similar to his father's; the younger Wolverton also worked for The Plain Truth and contributed to Mad. Several cartoonists have been influenced by Wolverton's "spaghetti-and-meatball" style, including Ed "Big Daddy" Roth."
https://web.archive.org/web/20181226151048/http://www.angelfire.com/or/basil/words/article.html
"No Mirrors for Me!
by Basil Wolverton
Including the gallstone change, I gave up planes, boats and theaters a long time ago. It was too much to continue watching those dread-drenched faces every time I appeared in public. It was futile to try to explain to anybody that so many years of cartooning had caused my head to vaguely resemble a huge, human drawing pen. Only my creditors refused to avoid me, and of course they always shall. Occasionally some of them ask what turned me intoa monster artist. Naturally they refer to an artist who draws monsters as well as a monster who supposedly is artistic. That was another frenzied phase of existence that started years ago with a violent cirrhosis attack brought on by watching a horror movie titled "The Laughing Liver Larva." After hastily consuming a box of liver pills, including the more edible box, I eventually felt better.
But that wasn't the end of the matter. A few days later there was a telephone call from the editor of the comic books in which my features were published. Being the typical comic book editor, he was less difficult to listen to than to look at. Or perhaps it was the reverse. Or both.
"Why are all your cartoon characters turning out liver-shaped?" he demanded in his usual dose of decibels. "Your stuff looks as though it has been drawn in a cat food factory! Get it back to your usual stuffy style or your salary will get cut in half!"
This was a horrible shock. It meant possibly going back to four dollars a week. That would mean a total of only six dollars a week, including my unsocial insecurity.
My editor had grounds for his beef. Ground beef, one might say. It had been a mistake to draw my cartoons carelessly with my eyes glued to a television screen. There was no awareness of an uncanny urge, produced by the liver pills, to bat out everything in the distorted, liver-like shapes. Unkindly critics might even go so far as to say that I didn't know what I was doing. Even the kindly ones might say the same. It was far from obvious, even to my psychiatrist, that this was only the beginning of my drawings starting to resemble myself, my editor, my wife, my butcher, and even my brother in law.
The real trouble started when my brother-in-law and his family moved in with us. There has never been such a ghastly gang of goops. My brother-in-law, a naturally armless juggler who ridiculously manages to accomplish everything with his feet, including cleaning his fingernails, married the original ghoul girl. Without even planning they managed to come up (down is a better word) with seven unsightly savages.
My morale and blood sugar were already low from the liver incident. At the same time my blood pressure and purple corpuscle count were staggeringly high. It was almost impossible to work while this gruesome gob of guys engendered by my mother-in-law was crawling on the ceiling. Besides, they diverted my attention when it was time for Sesame Street. It was too late to tell my brother to leave. He had already borrowed my contact lenses, which he used in his ears at shower time to keep out water. If he should leave in a state of irritation, so would my contact lenses. Furthermore, there was the matter of my brother-in-law's wife. She had to stay plugged into one of our electrical outlets to keep her tired blood circulating. If her husband left, she would have to stay behind, and she was more grotesque than he was.
All this pressure exerted by the quaint characters hanging around was clearly affecting the quality of my cartoons. Happily, there could be only improvement. It was no surprise, therefore, when another coast-to-coast collect telephone call came from my editor.
"Congratulations on doing away with that liver look in your cartoons!" he bellowed, and hung up.
Leering with satisfaction, I stood rooted to the spot, having stepped in wide wad of my brother-in-law's discarded gum. The phone rang again. It was my editor with another collect phone call.
"I forgot to mention that you're fired!" he yelled. "Your cartoons may be less livery, but now they're somehow more morbid! And don't crowd your curiosity wondering about your replacement! We're hiring Henry Kissinger!"
Yes, my brother-in-law and his family are still with us, and inspiring me constantly as a monster cartoonist. Today only the very choice publications use my kind of work. They include The Abominable Snowman News, The Transylvania Transcript, The Martian Morning Menace, and of course, The Monster Times."
***NOTE: Basil's biography has been published in two volumes:
* Creeping Death from Neptune: The Life and Comics of Basil Wolverton Volume One 1909-1941
* Brain Bats of Venus: The Life and Comics of Basil Wolverton Volume Two 1942-1952
with Greg Sadowski
Information on other members of his family has also been collected from here.
General Notes: Wife - Honor Bonita Lovette
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/20550511/honor-wolverton
BIRTH 1906
DEATH 2005 (aged 98–99)
BURIAL
Park Hill Cemetery
Vancouver, Clark County, Washington, USA
MEMORIAL ID 20550511
beside that of BASIL WOLVERTON (1909-1978)
Created by: Sirenna
Added: 20 Jul 2007
Find a Grave Memorial 20550511
memorial page for Honor Wolverton (1906–2005), Find a Grave Memorial no. 20550511, citing Park Hill Cemetery, Vancouver, Clark County, Washington, USA ; Maintained by Sirenna (contributor 46504122) .
https://obits.columbian.com/obituaries/columbian/obituary.aspx?n=honor-wolverton&pid=3556305&fhid=2246
"HONOR WOLVERTON Longtime Vancouver resident Honor Wolverton passed away in Thousand Oaks, California on May 12, 2005, at the age of 98. She lived in Vancouver for 72 years. Her husband, cartoonist Basil Wolverton, died in 1978. Mrs. Wolverton was also preceded in death by her parents, Edgar and Laura Lovette; three brothers, Marion E. Lovette, Ronald G. Lovette and Gerard H. Lovette. She is survived by a son, Monte Wolverton and his wife Kayte, of Westlake Village, California; a granddaughter, Monika Spykerman and her husband Simon, of Monrovia, California; and a great-granddaughter, Annika Spykerman, also of Monrovia. She was born Honor Bonita Lovette on a farm near the small Eastern Washington town of Mansfield and grew up helping her three older brothers herd cattle and harvest wheat. In early 1926, the family moved to Vancouver. That year, her father was fatally injured in an accident at a logging operation near Yacolt. Honor graduated from Vancouver High School in 1927, and married her classmate Basil Wolverton in 1934. While Basil pursued his career as a cartoonist and writer, Honor attended business college, later working for an insurance agency in Portland. From 1951 until 1962, she worked as payroll clerk for the Vancouver School District. Honor taught Sunday school for many years at the First Baptist Church in Vancouver, later serving as a deaconess in the Worldwide Church of God. Honor continued to live in her home in Vancouver until 1998, when she moved to a retirement home in Thousand Oaks, California, to be near her family. She became a great-grandmother in 2003. Funeral services will be held on Saturday, May 21st, 2005, at 1 PM at Vancouver Funeral Chapel, 110 E. 12th Street in Vancouver, with interment following at Park Hill Cemetery. Viewing will be at the Vancouver Funeral Chapel from 2 to 7 PM on Friday, May 20th, 2005. Please sign the guest book at www.legacy.com/columbian.
Published in The Columbian on May 19, 2005."
Notes: Marriage
https://www.digitalarchives.wa.gov/DigitalObject/Download/3ae38b3d-46aa-456e-9175-233d67e8ca29
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