BRAIN BATS
OF VENUS THE LIFE AND COMICS OF
BASIL WOLVERTON VOLUME TWO 1942–1952
GREG SADOWSKI
Basil Wolverton at 3612 H Street, Vancouver, Washington, c. 1945.
SEEING WHAT STICKS 1942–1945
BASIL WOLVERTON WAS BESET BY uncertainties during the war years. With the help of his New York agent, he forged a career as a professional comic book artist, but became increasingly convinced he wasn’t getting a square deal. The market remained volatile, better-paying opportunities were slow to materialize—and throughout much of it he was only a draft notice away from active military duty.
1942 as the war ramped up, so did wolverton’s involvement with civil defense. As neighborhood airraid warden, his territory was expanded to encompass a wider section of his home city, the Portland suburb of Vancouver, Washington. He was assigned a gas mask, and got fingerprinted to qualify for auxiliary police duty. In his diary entry of February 23 he wrote: First enemy shells (from submarine off California coast) landed on U.S. continent in this war. One wonders what will happen a week, a month, or a year from now. Damage caused by the twenty-minute attack on a Santa Barbara oil refinery was minor, and later found to be the work of a rogue Japanese submarine captain. But the incident made a West Coast invasion a very real possibility, and two weeks later: Phone rang at 3:35 a.m. Was dreaming of air raid. Phone call was from Warden Farrell: alert alarm. I dressed and dashed over to Ben Wells’ place. Couldn’t rouse him. Went to Bettesworth’s place and got him up. Reported to Farrell. He told me to rout out neighbors
who might help. I went after Frank Wanamaker and called Sollie. Then all-clear signal came. Went back to bed. The war also brought an end to Wolverton’s local radio show, Kernel Snootch, broadcast over station KVAN. He had been doing the program without salary, hoping it would get picked up by a network. It ended in March after over forty episodes, when on-air partner Lou Cook joined the Navy. In addition to Wolverton’s only regular assignment, Spacehawk for Novelty Press, he had recently sold two comedy features: Powerhouse Pepper to Martin Goodman’s Timely Comics, and Scoop Scuttle to Lev Gleason’s Comic House. All three companies were clients of his Manhattan agent, Funnies, Incorporated (henceforth referred to as “Funnies”), the comic book packager for whom he had been freelancing since early 1940. Funnies dealt directly with the publishers to negotiate an artist’s page rate, out of which they deducted a cut for their services. Funnies provided a path for him to get established in the new medium. He communicated via letters and telegrams, and saved a considerable amount of the correspondence he received. Though only a handful of the letters he wrote exist, the replies to them provide clues to their content, while the details of his career are mapped out by the diaries he began in 1941. In a letter dated February 4, Funnies Production Manager Jim Fitzsimmons addressed an issue troubling the artist. The Vancouver branch of the Kaiser shipyards, a major wartime shipbuilder, had recently opened, and Wolverton wondered if he should apply for a defense job there, possibly to reduce his chances of being drafted. In his reply, Fitzsimmons suggested a plan that insured he could also continue producing for Funnies:
Postcard from Funnies, Inc. editor Ray Gill requesting cover roughs for Target Comics, and Wolverton’s three rejected submissions, 1942.
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Above left: The Wolverton home at 3612 H Street; above right: Honor, Basil, and dog Zipper at the cement fish pool in their backyard, c. 1942.
With his eye on a Kaiser drafting job, on March 6 Wolverton went to an employment service to inquire about its drafting course, but balked at the $100 cost. He got a $120 check that day for an eight-page Spacehawk and a four-page Scoop Scuttle, but when he added up the bills he found they amounted to much more than that. There was also bad news from Fitzsimmons:
I have been pondering over your letter of January 27th, in which you query the advisability of forsaking your drawing board for the shipyards. Your problem is no more unlike that of the rest of us who are engaged in what may be considered unessential enterprises. Therefore, I will pass on to you what I, myself, think to be the wise course in this emergency. We are unquestionably going through a period of dislocation. This will not correct itself for at least another six months. At that time the demands for labor will be every bit as great as they are at this moment. If this assumption is true, then it would seem fruitless to throw over the work that you are now doing, because we might find at the end of six months that the entertainment of the children via the comics, to be listed as a very essential part of our defense program. If we are wrong, there will still be plenty of room in defense work. If you were to change over now to the shipyards, and six months from now a newly endowed comic market was to be launched, you might likely switch back again, and needless to say the changing over would be difficult. My advice to you is as follows: You are now certain of turning out at least twelve pages per month for Funnies and there is also, in the background, the possibility that these twelve pages may be increased by six or twelve pages more. Why don’t you arrange a portion of your day to the turning out of your comic material and in the remaining time either prepare yourself for a skilled job in the shipyards or actually undertake an eight hour shift.
There has been a general let-down in the whole comic magazine field for the period of the past several months. With the priority ratings on metals, the possible absorption of the present supply of paper, and the difficulty in securing the necessary base for certain inks, many publishers have adopted a program of retrenchment. During a period of this type, it is most difficult to induce the publisher to accept new features. As a matter of fact he is anxious to eliminate many of those he now has and consolidate the material in several books into one. It is for this reason primarily that we have not had any particular luck with Mike McNab the Radio Gab, and some of the other features which you have suggested to us. To date we have not had a sufficiently exciting report on the progress of our Comedy Comics. This is the magazine in which appears Powerhouse Pepper. [It actually ran in Joker Comics.] Until we receive a definite green light from the publisher, we will not instruct you or the other artists to proceed with any additional work. In spite of the rather pessimistic outlook of this letter, please do not think that the sun will not shine again. At least, do not forsake your drawing board for the shipyards, but rather try to ride out this period of readjustment.
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Yet Fitzsimmons’ disappointing news was contradicted three days later, when Wolverton received a letter from the new editor of Comedy and Joker Comics, Stan Lee: You may remember Joe Simon, of Timely Comics, Inc. Well, he is no longer with us, and I am taking his place. I have been looking over some of your old material, especially some of your comedy strips, such as Powerhouse Pepper, which you did for Funnies, Inc. I am going in for comedy in a big way for some of our books, and I was wondering if you would care to try a few humorous strips for me. What I am most interested in at present, is an animated style such as that Walt Disney uses. Please let me know if you can draw in this manner; if so, send me some roughs and samples. If not, I’d be glad to consider some new comedy material in your old style. I would rather you wrote your own stories—I will, of course, pay you extra for them. Unsure how to respond, Wolverton wrote to both Lee and Funnies, apparently asking if he should now deal directly with Timely. But Fitzsimmons wasn’t having it:
Above: Stan Lee’s letter of introduction as new editor of Timely Comics; opposite: Joker Comics 1, April 1942 (first appearance of Powerhouse Pepper).
tinued to sell his work through Funnies. But it didn’t help Funnies’ case when, as he leafed through comics at the local newsstand, Wolverton found his Splash Morgan in the April 1942 issue of Comedy Comics. He hadn’t been paid for the story or told of its acceptance. He alerted Fitzsimmons, who explained:
Under our arrangement with you Basil, I don’t want you to lose one cent of possible revenue. The main purpose originally of our acting as your agent was to control your competing with yourself. For example: we approach a client with some of your work, in the meantime you have sent samples to the same man. It is a relatively easy matter for him to bargain one against the other and the result is that neither of us profit from it. Stan Lee should have known of this arrangement and should have really come to me in the first place, but he claims an oversight on his part and in the future when he wants any work from you, he will contact me direct.
I am sorry that we overlooked the Splash Morgan pages but these were substituted for another feature at the last minute, and I guess in the rush and excitement we overlooked making out an order for them. I am glad you caught this because we might have gone along for some time without discovering our error. Splash Morgan never returned, but a pair of more durable features also made their debuts in titles dated April 1942: Powerhouse Pepper in Joker Comics, and Scoop Scuttle in Silver Streak. It was the first publication
Wolverton noted that he “received letter from Fitz straightening things out with Stan Lee,” and he con-
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Though Funnies continued to shop Billy Bug and Mike McNab, both remained unsold, and no examples of either have been found. As he kept busy with his three Funnies assignments, he sent an inquiry to International Correspondence Schools for “dope on ship drafting” and enrolled in its drafting course, purchasing the requisite tools and paper. He began receiving quarterly lessons, beginning with Elementary Arithmetic and Geometrical Drawing. In June he sent in his first examination, earning an “A” grade. On April 25, Wolverton “started to work on silly story to send in to Funnies.” This became “The Queer Case of the Cracker Crumbs,” his only humorous text story for comic books. It was initially returned because, as Fitzsimmons told him, “it was lacking about six to seven hundred words.” He then “worked on padding. Did the required 650 words” and sent the rewrite in June, along with a note stating that the five dollars he earned was little incentive to produce riveting prose. Fitzsimmons responded on July 3:
Above: Silver Streak Comics 20, April 1942. Opening page introducing Scoop Scuttle by Funnies staff artist Al Fagaly; opposite: Comedy Comics 9, April 1942. First and only appearance of Splash Morgan.
of humorous Wolverton material since Disk-Eyes the Detective in 1938’s Circus the Comics Riot. Wolverton responded to Lee’s request for a Disney-like feature with Billy Bug; samples were mailed to Funnies in late March. On April 1 Fitzsimmons relayed Lee’s response:
You are right when you say that this stuff doesn’t pay for your best efforts. Unfortunately we haven’t a liberal budget for this stuff—fiction text—and the only reason we use it is because of the Postal Rules and Regulations.
The regulation Fitzsimmons cited stated that comic books must include at least two pages of text to qualify for the discounted magazine subscription rate. Accompanying “Cracker Crumb” was a Spacehawk synopsis about a Nazi submarine base in Mexico. This would turn out to be the 30th, and final, Spacehawk. Novelty’s wish to bring the character “down to earth” and make him “less fantastic” reflected comments from the Target Comics letters page. In late 1941, reader Jacquelyn James wrote:
Stan Lee, of Timely, didn’t go too well for your Billy Bug. He is not too specific about just what he does want but it would seem that he is looking for something closer to Disney. I originally had the impression that he was looking for a Wolverton interpretation of Disney, and I thought that you did a pretty good job of it.
The character Spacehawk is a little too fantastic in the opinion of my friends and me. Many letters have been written about this but he still
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