As a teenager, I was an avid reader of Mad magazine! My all time favorite 'Mad artist' was Mort Drucker.
His caricatures were superb and you can't help noticing his influence on many of the 'Mad' artists that followed.
It may surprise you to know that Mad magazine has had it's share of Bible artists too! The most recent one being Dennis Jones who illustrated the best selling 'See With Me Bible'. If you like Cartoon style Bible illustrations then this Bible is for you! His character designs really are superb, and full of humor!
Dennis Jones is not the only 'Mad' Bible artist. I recently came across an article about Basil Wolverton.
Basil Wolverton was one of the original artists at Mad magazine in the 50's. His Bible art concentrated on the 'End times' and is more apocalyptic in nature, (not for the faint hearted!) You can view his Bible art here.
If anyone knows of any other 'Mad Bible artists' please leave a comment.
above image © Mad magazine 2007
10 comments:
Thanks for the link to Basil Wolverton's site Graham. He also worked for various U.S. comic book companies. His artwork has a unique atmosphere and style especially suited to horror and sci-fi comics of the 1950s. So it's no surprise his often nightmarish style would be suited to the Apocalypse.
I personally feel Basil Wolverton's son made the wrong decision is choosing to colorize his father's original b/w illustrations. The power of Wolverton's work lay in his intricate line work. I hope his son kept the original b/w artwork untouched. He should place that on the site.
I would imagine it's been digitally colored, so it should be safe.
His style reminds me of the 'underground' comics of the 70's.
They featured Robert Crumb and others.
You might be interested to know Basil Wolverton was baptised into Herbert W. Armstrong's Radio Church of God in 1941 and was ordained as an elder in 1943.
Yes his style pre-dates Crumb and the underground comic movement. I personally dislike Crumb's work which I find crude, but like Wolverton's.
I hadn't come across Armstrongism until reading about Wolverton. I do remember seeing racks of the 'Plain Truth' magazine though.
Hi guys. I happen to have done a cover issue#333 and was one of the usual Gang of Idiots before i bowed out. Im goona be back to your site very cool thanks tom fluharty
Great to hear from you Tom!
Would love to hear more about your work.
Just checked out Toms work here:
http://thomasfluharty.blogspot.com/
It's Amazing! Check it out.
Norman Mingo was probably the only artist at MAD who was actually a born again Christian, signing his cover paintings with the ichthys (fish symbol) commencing with #174 in 1974. He developed the definitive Alfred E. Neuman in 1956 and regularly painted covers until 1976, switching to the MAD paperback book covers, and did an occasional cover (or three) in 1979 and 1980. He was of the same generation as Norman Rockwell, and had similar sensibilities. Mingo and his wife attended a Reformed Church in Tarrytown, New York.
Many thanks for that! Will look up Norman Mingo.
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