If you happen to be in Los Angeles this Friday, April 3rd I highly recommend you run on over to Katie Vonderheide and Christopher Gere's SYNCHRONICITY SPACE  for a spiritual experience!

• Review: The A.V. Club gives Humbug an A-minus: "Fans of vintage Mad will immediately be at home thanks to familiar artists and attitudes, although Humbug ultimately feels a bit like an alternate-universe Mad, one 1950s grown-ups could stack between Playboy and Harper’s on the coffee table... Humbug remains a fascinating showcase for a group of artists operating at the height of their powers and inspiration. The lovingly assembled package — beautifully reprinted and filled out with extras like a long Roth and Jaffee interview — doesn’t hurt either."

• Review: The A.V. Club says "The Wolverton Bible shows the often-surprising result of [the] collaboration between a pulpit-pounding televangelist organization and one of the loopiest cartoonists of his era.... it features some of [Basil] Wolverton's most breathtaking art, and he finds plenty of opportunities in Bible stories and end-times predictions for his sense of the grotesque and horrific... for Wolverton fans, it's a must-see, and a look at a truly surprising chapter of the man's career."

• Interview: The Inkstuds radio programme has a lengthy chat with Ted Stearn

• Interview: Douglas Noble tipped us off to his late-2007 chat with Roger Langridge

• Awards: Congratulations to Snoopy, chosen "Cutest Cartoon Character" by the readers of Nickelodeon Magazine in the Nickelodeon Magazine Comics Awards

I think I might start posting weekend updates -- these Monday roundups are getting bananas...

• Review: We received a wonderful endorsement of Supermen! from Bud Plant, which we've proudly placed on the product page

• Review: John Mitchell on Supermen!: “Supermen points to a time when comic books were a new and exciting form — admittedly low brow in presentation, but filled with visual and narrative leaps that would affect how we told stories visually for decades to come... This book chronicles the exciting, silly, fun and experimental world in which these kinds of [superhero] characters were forged — fairy tales from the modern era."

• Review: Lady, That's My Skull takes lunch with The Wolverton Bible, saying "It is a fascinating look at the side of an artist that most fans are not familiar with due to the scarcity of the material."

• Review: My Year Online on Ted Stearn's first Fuzz & Pluck collection: "[I] laugh[ed] out loud at many points. This is all down to Ted Stearn’s genius in depicting expressions, his excellent slapstick timing and great storyboards, where you can never tell what will happen next..."

• Reviews: The blogger behind Fluid Motion has "been reading a lot of comics by Jason recently," offering micro-reviews of 3 of his books

• Review: Newsarama enthuses about Popeye Vol. 3 (scroll about halfway down): "As with previous volumes of Popeye, it's a cornucopia of mangled English, slapstick, violence and hamburger soliciting... Fantagraphics continues to knock it out of the park with their work on the production of these books... With his fun designs and slapstick exaggeration, Segar's art has always been a plus, and nothing about that changes here... It's packed with adventure and humor, strong art, inventive and complex stories, and features more slam-bang punching than any other ten comics. It is a true, to use a much abused word, classic."

• Review: Blogger Kevin Schulke particularly enjoys the hockey strips in The Complete Peanuts 1971-1972

• Review: I'm not sure if this review originally ran in Rain Taxi or is original to the Powell's Books blog where it appears now, but: John Pistelli delves into The Lagoon by Lilli Carré: "The Lagoon's artisanal craftsmanship and child's-eye ironies reflect the baffled wisdom of a heroine too young to be foolish... it is a gorgeously bleak work for so young an artist."

• Interview: Baldur Bjarnason presents a 21-minute audio interview with el jefe Gary Groth recorded at the 2000 San Diego Comic Con

• Commentary: In re Strange and Stranger, here's some further Ditko analysis from Ken Parille at Blog Flume

• Commentary: Movement Point looks at pop cultural references in Peanuts, citing an obscure example from The Complete Peanuts 1971-1972

• Things to see: Peter Laird presents a treat for Usagi Yojimbo and TMNT (*cough*Covey*cough*) fans: rough layouts for the Usagi/Leonardo crossover story

We have a whole mess of exclusive short excerpts of new and upcoming books that have gone up on the ICv2.com site recently. They're intended for "industry pros" but there's no reason everyone can't check 'em out:

• Mother, Come Home by Paul Hornschemeier (our product page)
• Humbug by Harvey Kurtzman et al. (our product page)
• Unlovable Vol. 1 by Esther Pearl Watson (our product page)
• The Wolverton Bible by Basil Wolverton (our product page)
• A Mess of Everything by Miss Lasko-Gross (our product page)

• Review of the Year: Brick Weekly holds forth on The Wolverton Bible: "If you think that God was the greatest contributor to the Bible then you are wrong. In fact, when compared to the creative feats of legendary cartoonist Basil Wolverton, God’s work seems trite and superficial at best. So, throw out all of your old Bibles because you don’t need them any more..." And it goes on from there...

• Reviews: The San Antonio Current says "The Wolverton Bible collects everything [Basil Wolverton] did for the [Worldwide Church of God], presenting illustrations in chronological Biblical order — from Adam springing up from earth á la Spider-Man’s nemesis the Sandman all the way through the Old Testament and then hopping to the fantasy-friendly Book of Revelation, where eyeless corpses run rampant and jet planes tumble helplessly from the sky"; furthermore, "Humbug could be a comics blockbuster... it fills gaps in some cartoonists’ CVs and entertains like hell while doing it."

• Reviews: Andrew Wheeler rounds up some recent books: of The Lagoon by Lilli Carré he says "Carré has an expressive style reminiscent of Richard Sala -- and her stories are in the same literary territory as Sala's as well, so the gloomy blacks and busy cross-hatching add to the ominous, overwhelming feeling... there's real spookiness in these pages -- and she's telling a story in ways (particularly trying to evoke sounds and scents through a comics page) that I've rarely seen"; and of Jessica Farm Vol. 1 by Josh Simmons, Wheeler says "Josh Simmons might just be the Gutzon Borglum of comics. Simmons's... plan... is crazy, and I admire it for that."

• Reviews: Read About Comics reads The Complete Peanuts 1961-1962 and states "Now that I've finally hit the 1960s strips... I can't help but feel that I've entered the real Golden Age of Peanuts... I can’t wait to dive into the next volume."

• Interview: ComicBookMovie.com chats with Stan Sakai about the success of Usagi Yojimbo

• Things to see: Jim Blanchard's awesome portrait of Marty Feldman

• Things to see (and buy): The Paul Hornschemeier show print previously Flogged here is now up for pre-order

Basil Wolverton's son, Monte, will share stories of his father's art and religious beliefs with Mr. Media live this Friday, and Monte will talk calls from listeners, so this is your chance, Wolvertooners. Go here for details.

• Review: Comic Book Resources gives 4 stars to Boody. The Bizarre Comics of Boody Rogers, saying it "features some of the nuttiest comics you'll ever read... Boody Rogers presents an off-kilter world of hilarity that seems like an oft-unheralded link between the Golden Age of the newspaper strips and the underground cartoonists of the 1960s."

• Review: In the weekly Robot 6 "What Are You Reading?" roundup, Chris Mautner says of Humbug, "It’s a really impressive collection of work... and the production design here is nothing short of stunning. Fantagraphics really knocked this one out of the park in restoration."

• List: At New York Magazine, Bob Fingerman, Dash Shaw and a host of other creators pick their favorite New York City-set comics

• Blurb: Trendspotting blogger RobOrange spots The Wolverton Bible

• Interview: The Daily Cross Hatch continues their conversation with Al Jaffee, focusing on his early career

• Things to see/read: Illustration and story by Tim Lane

• Things to see: "I did a whole bunch of illustrations for this Japanese business magazine ASAHI," says Johnny Ryan

• Oddity: Kitchen Synch stumbles across some Duplex Planet Illustrated synchronicity

• Review/profile: The Oregonian says that Most Outrageous by Bob Levin is "The most challenging and thought-provoking book I read last year... unforgettable... among the great essays on human frailty," and discusses how the commercial success of The Complete Peanuts enables us to publish more challenging work

• Review: Brick Weekly says of The Lagoon by Lilli Carré, "Carré’s cartooning is purely excellent, evolving nicely from her earlier work and pulling you into a world of vividly drawn characters and lush environments" (scroll past the video game review)

• Previews: Whateves looks at The Wolverton Bible

• Interviews: Robot 6 talks to our own Eric Reynolds about the current state of the indie-comics market (Diamond, economy, etc.)

• Things to see: A new batch of sketchbook drawings from Anders Nilsen

• Things to see: A fantastic splash page from Tim Lane's next book

• Review: Eric teased it; now read the New York Times Book Review review of Supermen!

• Review: Rob Clough examines Jules Feiffer's Explainers

• Review: Rob Clough again, this time reveling in Tales Designed to Thrizzle #4 by Michael Kupperman

• Review: Mania gives The Wolverton Bible an "A" (last item on the page)

• Review: At The SF Site, Rick Klaw says The Wolverton Bible is "amazing" (see sidebar)

• Review: Graphic Novel Reporter says Fuzz & Pluck: Splitsville by Ted Stearn is "a joy to read" (and favorably compares it to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)

• Review: The Quarterly Conversation examines "the genius" of Fuzz & Pluck: Splitsville

• Review: Sean T. Collins has a bone to pick with Mome Vol. 13

• Blurb: In Robot 6's periodic "What Are You Reading?" column, Tim O'Shea praises Boody: The Bizarre Comics of Boody Rogers

• Blurb: Boing Boing also features Boody

• Interview: I feel like maybe I've seen this Bookslut interview with Ivan Brunetti before, but it popped up in my search feeds today so here it is

• Things to see: Michael Kupperman - 3D!

• Things to see: A recent batch of commissioned artwork by Johnny Ryan

• Things to see: On the Covered blog, Derek Van Gieson does New Mutants #37

• Bookmark: New Mome contributor Hernán Migoya keeps a blog; his post about his Mome appearance is a good place to start

• Oddity: Mike Sterling quotes and comments on some classified ads from the July 1981 issue of The Comics Journal

The Wolverton Bible
By Basil Wolverton

Cartoonist Basil Wolverton was known for his grotesque drawings, fantastically odd creatures, spaghetti-like hair, smoothly sculpted caricatures and insanely detailed crosshatching. His career in the golden age of comic books 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.

Less well known and understood is his work for the Worldwide Church of God, headed until 1986 by radio evangelist Herbert Armstrong. From 1953 through 1974, Wolverton, a deeply religious man, was commissioned and later employed by the church to write and illustrate a narrative of the Old Testament (including over 550 illustrations), some 20 apocalyptic illustrations inspired by the Book of Revelations, and dozens of cartoons and humorous illustrations for various Worldwide Church publications.

Compiled and edited by Wolverton’s son, Monte, the 304-page Wolverton Bible 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, and some of the humorous drawings printed here rival Wolverton’s work in MAD magazine.

(While supplies last, all orders for The Wolverton Bible will also receive, FREE, a set of 10 Wolvertoons Postcards!)

320-page black & white 8” x 10” hardcover • $24.99
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