Brain Bats of Venus: The Life and Comics of Basil Wolverton Vol. 2 (1942-1952)

I had to wait what seemed to be years (and actually WAS) after consuming and savoring every page of CREEPING DEATH FROM NEPTUNE: THE LIFE AND COMICS OF BASIL WOLVERTON VOL. 1 - and I finally got my mitts on this, the second volume. Worth every moment, every disgruntled huff, and every penny - this is a true masterwork of devotion. I was both laughing and angry at the opening letters from Stan Lee and Marvel Comics telling Mr. Wolverton that his comic wasn't selling too well, so they'd be sticking with comic GREATS like "Millie the Model" and "Tillie the Typist" (REALLY!). A thick, beautifully printed tome chock-full of history, sketches, comic strips, stories and oh so much more.I wonder when that Tillie the Typist retrospective will be released?Get this TODAY!

I had been a longtime fan of Basil Wolverton, having first encountered his work in a Marvel reprint in the 1970s and the covers of DC's Plop! humor comic.This book is amazing in detail and relaying an inside view of the life of this unique comic artist. The books is peppered with examples of Wolverton's art and includes at the end some classic reprints of full stories. I wish other comic creators would receive such detailed treatment, well worth it. And if you have not done so seek out the first volume while I wait for the third to come out.

Greg Sadowski's Brain Bats of Venus is a great combination of a comic archives and comic history. His insightful biography of Basil Wolverton adds incredibly interesting context to the some of the best art and stories of the 1950s. This books is clearly a labor of love, but it also features some of the best reproduction you'll see in an archive project. This book, like its predecessor Creeping Death from Neptune, is at the pinnacle of comic archives and history. A must buy!

Fantagraphics did a bang-up job w their second volume of Basil Wolverton's life and art. The stories were definitely of their time (late Forties/early Fifties), but the art rendered such concerns as plot and character cohesion utterly beside the point. BW definitely deserves the level of scrutiny befitting an R Crumb, and the hope is these volumes do the job.

Amazing! So much info and art I’ve never seen before and I’ve been obsessed with Wolverton since I was a teenager in the eighties when some decent Wolverton reprint comic books were coming out. Vol 1 was so good and I knew we’d be seeing the sci-fi/horror stories (which look GREAT btw) but I didn’t realize how much other stuff they still had up their sleeves for this book. It was worth the long wait. Such a beautiful book! Thanks to Sadowski and FB!

Many author's works promise a thorough vetting of their subject, but rarely are tomes to creative talent as meticulously detailed, well researched and edited as Greg Sadowski's biographical retrospectives of the artist Basil Wolverton. The restored art is reproduced clearly and the information about his life in the world of comics is in-depth, providing a wealth of photographs and illuminating documentation. Highly recommended, as is the first volume.

The biographical section is well written, but it's the reprints of Wolverton's classic sci-fi stories from the early fifties that makes this a must-have!

Everything as advertised

Better than vol 1, huge book full of info and pictures. Wolverton's best comics are here too, so don't wait any longer and get it!

This book is packed full of amazing details and artwork. Basil Wolverton has been in need of a thorough retrospective and these books fill that void admirably!