A sample of Wolverton’s work:
I recently purchased “The Wolverton Bible” through Amazon. I have always enjoyed Wolverton’s illustration. The book includes an introduction by Grant Geissman, and I found this fun fact:
Before becoming a cartoonist, Wolverton had actually started out as a young Vaudeville performer in theaters in Oregon and Washington. “Eventually I heard or read,” recalled Wolverton, “that a two bit actor earns even less than a two bit cartoonist”
The introduction goes on to say the Wolverton was a devout Christian and took the job of illustrating the Bible very seriously.
On this excellent site, I learned this fun trivia fact about him.
Other sources of income were provided by his job as a journalist/cartoonist for the Portland News. One of his most exciting assignments was visiting the set of the film ‘The General’ and meeting Buster Keaton in person.
Wolverton’s work has a very sculpted quality about it, and it begs to be animated. I found this really well-done claymation based on his designs.
For a nice bio of Basil, with illustrations, I recommend THIS PAGE