Basil Wolverton

Basil Wolverton (July 9, 1909 – December 31, 1978) was an American cartoonist and illustrator, and "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."

He was posthumously inducted into the comic book industry's Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1991.

Biography

Early life and career

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.

Wolverton

Coordinates: 52°03′46″N 0°48′37″W / 52.06265°N 0.8102°W / 52.06265; -0.8102

Wolverton is a constituent town of Milton Keynes (which is in north Buckinghamshire, England). It is at its northern edge, between Stony Stratford and Newport Pagnell. It is the administrative seat of Wolverton and Greenleys civil parish.

It is one of the places in historic Buckinghamshire that went into the foundation of Milton Keynes in 1967.

Recorded in Domesday, Wolverton suffered badly in the Enclosures, before reinventing itself as a railway town in the industrial revolution. Today, Wolverton is a thriving focus for the northern edge of Milton Keynes.

History

Old Wolverton

The town name is an Old English language word, and means 'Wulfhere's estate'. It was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Wluerintone. The original Wolverton was a medieval settlement just north and west of today's town. This site is now known as Old Wolverton, although the medieval village is all but gone. The Ridge and Furrow pattern of agriculture can still be seen in the nearby fields and the Saxon church of the Holy Trinity (rebuilt in 1819) still sits next to the Norman Motte and Bailey site. Only the earth mound remains of the Norman castle, though the Saxon tower still stands as central to the rebuilt church, clad in the early 19th century 'Anglo-Norman' style. Next door to the church is a house built in 1729 which later became the vicarage; the front door has stonework from the nearby, demolished manor house of the 16th century including the de Longueville family coat of arms, and pieces from the earlier church building. A talbot, another symbol of the family, once graced the side-entrance which now marks the boundary between the ground floor of the house and its downstairs toilet.

Wolverton (disambiguation)

Wolverton is part of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England.

Wolverton may also refer to:

Places

Other uses

Wolverton (surname)

Wolverton is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: