The Muse

Like James Ensor, Basil Wolverton is having a moment. Wolverton was a cartoonist, best known for his work with Mad Magazine in the 1950s, including this 1954 cover. There's a Wolverton show at New York's Barbara Gladstone Gallery, and in the New York Times review, Holland Cotter rattles off a list of artists "obviously influenced by Wolverton." He notes that his Post-Wolvertonite Brotherhood is strictly a boy's club; he doesn't mention that it's significantly weighted toward Los Angeles.

And it is worth adding that most of the late-20th- and early-21st-century artists obviously influenced by Wolverton are men. On that long list I would count Peter Saul, Gary Panter, Kenny Scharf, Jim Nutt, Robert Williams, Jim Shaw, Mike Kelley, Jeffrey Valance, R. Crumb and Cameron Jamie…