A Complete Bibliography of
Gilbert
Shelton's "Wonder Wart-Hog",
from the first grunts in 1962 up to the
latest adventures.
Also known as "Wonder Warthog",
just because that's the way it's usually spelled, and people don't
remember the hyphen.
|
The
first Wonder Wart-Hog story,
in
the Austin Bacchanal.
|
Wonder
Wart-Hog at the peak of his
powers (1967).
|
For reasons I
can't fathom, there is no complete
source of titles for Gilbert Shelton's remarkable underground comic
"Wonder Wart-Hog". Until now. I've been collecting WW stories, in
original and reprinted editions, for
several years now, and believe I have compiled an (almost) complete
bibliography of the stories. I say "almost" because it seems that there
were many regional underground weeklies that ran some of the WW stories
in
the 1970s, and which are almost impossible to track down. I have
included all those titles I could find, but I feel certain that
there are others. There are also a couple of gaps where I have found
references to a WW story in a particular magazine, but was unable to
determine exactly which story it was. Or, I have found references to a
story
title but can't find where it was published. If you have additions or
corrections, I'd gladly incorporate them if you'll mail them to me
(address at the bottom of the page).
Justification for this madness: The artwork of
Gilbert Shelton and Tony
Bell in the Drag Cartoons era
was a huge influence on my own style. I drew a lot of wart-hog
cartoons, in a style shamelessly stolen from these stories, in the late
1960s. Of
course, I later recognized the similarity to other classic styles. (I'm
sure Gilbert and Tony were as fascinated by John Tenniel's
illustrations for "Alice in Wonderland" as I was, or maybe it was Jack
Davis in Mad).
And the humor (written
by Shelton and Joe Brown) was a weird blend of awful puns, shaggy dog
plots and sophisticated news references. The
combination of that frenetic cross-hatched madness and pun-ridden,
slapstick social commentary made a lasting impression on me.
I still laugh out loud when I read some of the old stories, and I offer
my
highest praise to Shelton for his satiric 2004 look at "homeland
security", "The Wart-Hog that Came In from the Cold". (Of
course, he doesn't have to live with it, lucky bastard.)
It has been pointed out to me that Shelton wasn't alone in this
undertaking. He certainly had a lot of good help: Joe Brown wrote and
Tony Bell drew with or for him on many stories. The ones where all
three are credited are arguably the pinnacle of WW's career. But it's
hard to tell where Gilbert left off and the others began. That 2004
story has the look and feel of the classic stuff, but both Tony and Joe
were gone by then. Al Capp got the credit for Frank Frazetta's work on
"Li'l Abner", VT Hamlin got credit for Dave Graue's, etc. Though the
Austin hippie scene was way different than a commercial art studio and
was probably much more collaborative, I'll continue the tradition of
crediting Shelton with setting the tone, laying out the stories,
developing the style.
If you want to
immerse yourself in that style, here's your map.
I'm not going to spend time making this page eye
candy. It's for
reference. Please refer to it often. Maybe one day I'll make it a
timeline, rather than organized by titles.
-- Vance Bass
First
stories
The
University of Texas has an illustrious tradition of satirical
magazines, as well as of producing noteworthy cartoonists
(Shelton,
Frank Stack, Berke Brethed, et al.). The Bacchanal
and Texas Ranger both
featured art by
Shelton and gave birth to the fearless, fighting, foulmouthed
Hog of
Steel.
Bacchanal Mar 1962 "Fearless, Fighting, Foulmouthed
Wonder Wart-Hog" (repr in Best of WW Vol. 2)
Bacchanal Apr 1962. "Wonder Wart-Hog Meets
Super-Fool" (repr in Texas Ranger and Charlatan)
Mademioselle
Aug 1962. "The Heavy Hand of College Humor". (p. 288) (Article opens
with the splash page from the Mar 1962 Bacchanal,
with a reduced
reproduction of the first panel page. Brief mention of WWH as a parody
of Superman.)
Texas Ranger Sept 1962, "WW meets Super-Hypnotist"
(repr in Charlatan v4n3, Help! Feb 64, HOS 2, , Best of WW Vol.
1)
Texas Ranger Oct 1962, "WW meets the Merciless,
Menacing Masked Meanie" (repr in HOS 2)
[According to Zap
No. 15, the story in this magazine was "WW meets Psuper Psychiatrist",
which is incorrect.]
Texas Ranger Nov 1962, "WW meets Super-Patriot" (repr
in Charlatan v2n5, Esquire (Sept. 1964), Underground Classics
WW Vol 2, Best of WW Vol. 1, U. of Florida
Orange Peel (Mar. 1963))
Texas Ranger Dec 1962, "WW Meets the Mob, Chapter 1
(rep in Charlatan v1n2, Best of WW Vol. 1, Underground Classics
5)
Texas Ranger Feb. 1963, "WW Meets the Mob, Chapter 2
(rep in Charlatan v1n3, Best of WW Vol. 1,
Underground
Classics 5)
Texas Ranger Apr. 1963, "WW Meets the Mob, Chapter 3
(rep in Charlatan v1n4, Best of WW Vol. 1,
Underground
Classics 5)
Texas Ranger Oct. 1963, "WW Meets Supercop" (rep in Drag
Cartoons
45, Best of WW Vol. 1, Underground Classics 7 WW Vol 2)
Charlatan Vol. 1 No. 1 (Sept. 1963), "Fearless,
Fighting,
Foulmouthed Wonder Wart-Hog” (same story as in Bacchanal, but with
different splash page)
Charlatan Vol. 1 No. 4 (Feb.
1964), "Wonder Wart-Hog Meets the Merciless, Masked
Meanie!" (reprinted from Texas
Ranger)
Charlatan Vol. 2 No. 1 (Sept. 1964), "Wonder Wart-Hog
Meets
the Mob!" (reprinted from Texas
Ranger)
Charlatan Vol. 2 No. 3 (Dec. 1964), "Wonder Wart-Hog
Meets the Mob, Chapter 2" (reprinted from Texas
Ranger)
Charlatan Vol. 2 No. 4 (Feb. 1965), "Wonder Wart-Hog
Meets
the Mob, Chapter 3" (reprinted from Texas
Ranger)
Charlatan Vol. 2 No. 5 (Apr. 1965), "WW
meets Super-Patriot" (reprinted from Texas Ranger)
Charlatan Vol. 3 No. 2 (Nov. 1965), "The Sublime
Adventures
of Wonder Wart-Hog and the Return of the Masked
Meanie!" (also in Help! No.
26)
Charlatan Vol. 3 No. 3 (Dec. 1965), "Wonder Wart-Hog
Meets
Super-Fool" (reprinted from Texas
Ranger)
Charlatan Vol. 4 No. 3 (Feb. 1966), "Wonder Wart-Hog
Meets
Super-Hypnotist!" (reprinted from Texas
Ranger)
Harvey
Kurtzman's Help!
Harvey Kurtzman (1924-1993) was the genius behind Mad
magazine and the long-running Playboy feature
"Little
Annie Fanny", as well as several lesser-known magazines. Among
those, Help!
was the longest lived, running from 1960 to 1965. Kurtzman was a
mentor
to many developing artists like Terry Giliiam and R. Crumb, and
ran
cartoons from college mags around the US. Thus, Wonder Wart-Hog
made
his first nationally distributed appearance in the pages of Help!
Help! Vol. 2, #4 (#16, Nov 62) "WW Meets Super Fool"
Help! Vol. 2, No.6 (#18, May 63) "WW Meets the Mob"
Help! Vol. 2, No. 8 (#20, Feb, 64) "WW meets Super
Hypnotist"
Help! No. 22 (Jan 65) "WW Meets the Merangsters"
Help! No. 23 (Mar 65) "The Wird Ones"
Help! No. 24 (May 65) "Super Granny"
Help! No. 25 (July 65) "WW Goes A-Freedom-Riding!"
Help! No. 26 (Sept 65) "The Return of the Masked
Meanie!" (also in Charlatan
Vol. 3 No. 2)
Fast-Acting Help! (1961 paperback) "WW meets Super
Hypnotist"
Drag Cartoons
Pete Millar was an
incredibly prolific cartoonist and publisher, churning out much of the
artwork for several magazines during the mid-to-late 1960s. He also
used some other top-notch illustrators like Alex Toth and, of course,
Gilbert Shelton. The stories in Drag
Cartoons represent the
largest group published in one place and also show the maturing of
Gilbert's style. Surely, working with Tony Bell and Joe E Brown, Jr
must have had an influence on this style, but it's clear that the
basics were there before and the polish remained after his work with
these collaborators.
Millar also produced two issues of the Wonder
Wart-Hog Quarterly. There were two because publishing
lead times meant that he didn't discover it was a flop until the second
issue was already printed. Millar took a huge loss on the magazine, as
well as on the even more esoteric Big Daddy Roth magazine.
These failures almost bankrupted him, and caused him to sell the
rights to Drag
Cartoons to his printer
and leave the country for a time with his family. Shelton, however,
forged ahead with WW in other venues.
No. Date Title
25 Mar 66 "WW Comes to the Drags!" [first appearance]
26 Apr 66 "WW Constructs a Wheelie-Turnin’ Toronado"
27 May 66 "WW Goes to Viet Nam!"
28 Jun 66 "WW meets the Menace of the Plastic Man"
29 Jul 66 "WW and the Merciless, Menacing Masked Meanie" (repr in HOS
3 and Rip
Off
No. 22)
30 Aug 66 "WW meets The Granny of Gruntville"
31 Sept 66 "Masked Meanie’s Marine Malfeasance"
32 Oct 66 "WW Meets the Bad Brainbender"
33 Nov 66 "Pie Man’s Funny Car"
34 Dec 66 "WW Meets The Dread Nazi Menace"
35 Jan 67 "WW Goes to Jail" (repr in Best
of Drag Cartoons #2)
36 Feb 67 "WW Builds A Dream Car" (repr
in Best of WW Vol III)
37 Mar 67 "WW Meets the International Order of Bomb-Flinging Fiends"
(repr in Best of WW Vol III)
38 Apr 67 "WW Discovers the Amazing Meanie Fuel" (repr in HOS 3,
49 May 99)
39 May 67 "WW meets the Famous Rushin’ Bear" (repr in HOS
1)
40 June 67 "WW Meets Evil Weevil"
41 July 67 "WW becomes an Ace Photographer"
42 Aug 67 "WW Gets a Flame Suit!"
43 Sept 67 "WW Opens a Concession Stand" (repr in Best
of WW Vol III)
44 Oct 67 "WW and the Comet Insurance Man" (repr in Best
of WW Vol III)
45 Nov 67 "WW meets Supercop" (orig Ranger 10/63, repr in Best
of WW Vol I, Underground
Classics
7)
46 Dec 67 "The Year They Blew Christmas" (repr in Best
of WW Vol III)
47 Jan 68 "The Name Game" (repr in Racin' Toons 6, Best
of
WW Vol III)
48 Mar 68 "WW & the Wird Ones!" (orig Help #23, repr in Best
of WW Vol III)
49 Apr 68 "WW Meets Pie Man" (last issue)
49 May 99 "WW Discovers the Amazing Meanie Fuel" (note duplicate
number; revived Drag Cartoons series
from
1999)
Wonder Wart-Hog The Hog of Steel Number One (Millar
Publ, 1968)
WW Meets Pie Man
WW Meets the Merciless Menacing Masked Meanie (reprinted a million
times)
WW Meets Super Fool (text story)
WW Meets His Maker (repr in Underground Classics WW Vol 2)
WW Visits the Ghetto (also Best of DRAG Cartoons, No. 5, Okay
Comics)
Everybody Seems to Be Going Over to Viet Nam! (not
the same as "WW Goes To Viet
Nam" in Drag Cartoons No.
26!)
WW Goes A-Freedom-Riding! (repr from Help!
25)
The battle of the Titans part I (repr in Battle of the Titans)
Wonder Wart-Hog Magazine Number 2
(Millar Publ,
1968)
WW meets the Mafia (repr in Underground Classics 5)
The amazing disappearing baseball team (text story)
The return of the masked meanie (repr in Not Only the Best of
WW Vol. II, HOS3)
Strike fever (repr in Underground Classics 7)
The Parable of Philbert and the Pusher
WW meets the zymotic zookeeper (repr in Hog of Steel Vol
1)
Phibert Desanex's 115th dream (repr in Philbert
Desanex's Dreams)
The Advemtires of Philbert Desanex
The Battle of the Titans Part II (repr in Battle of the
Titans)
Best of Pete Millar’s Drag Cartoons #1
WW Comes to the Drags!
Best of Pete Millar’s Drag Cartoons #2 (1969)
WW Goes to Jail
Best of DRAG Cartoons, No. 5
WW Visits the Ghetto (also in Wonder Wart-Hog Quarterly #1
and Okay Comics v1n11-12 (Mar 73)
CD-ROM
Pete
Millar also collected every WW story he had published on a CD-ROM. This
is no longer listed on the Millar
Publishing web site, but his daughter
told me in mid-2005 that they still had them. Get one now. This is the definitive collection
of the Drag Cartoons era WW.
Racin'
Toons, No. 6 (Aug. 1971)
"The Name Game" (orig. in Drag
Cartoons 47, repr in Best
of WW Vol III)
This is a fairly obscure magazine for which Millar did apparently did
occasional artwork after he returned from overseas. Issue No. 6 is the
only one I have found with WW material.
Other
Underground
Magazines
Pete Millar's misfortune left Gilbert Shelton looking for an outlet
just as the hippie scene began to flourish. Shelton joined Robert
Crumb
and other pioneers in creating the
so-called "underground comix" genre. These were comics that catered
to
the youthful stoners of the day, with stories about politics, drugs,
sex, and Wart-Hogs.
For a while, the ability to break comics taboos was tested with
exuberance that often exceeded the bounds of good taste. The low point
must surely have been "Wonder Wart-Hog Breaks Up the Muthalode Smut
Ring", featuring a brutal sexual assault purporting to be the gag at
the end. Luckily, the appeal of that direction wore off quickly,
perhaps helped along by the legal troubles caused by the smut ring
story. After publishing in Zap for a while, Shelton started Rip-Off
(named after the press he co-founded) and continued the WW saga there.
Interestingly, the five-part "Battle of the Titans", started in
Millar's quarterly, but left dangling after two installments, was
finished in Rip-Off
and later collected
into a separate title.
Zap Comix #3 (1968) "69 Issue". Wonder Blows an Easy
One
Zap Comix #4 (1968) WW Breaks Up the Muthalode Smut
Ring and Also 'Balls' Lois Lamebrain (This Zap
is still banned by Canadian
customs for obscenity.)
Zap Comix #5 (1968) WW’s Believe it or Leave It
Zam (Zap Comix Jam) (1974) Wonder Wart-Hog
Takes A Brief Sojourn In Outer Space
Zap Comix #15 (2004) The Wart-Hog That Came In From
The Cold
Radical America Komiks #1 (1969) "Smiling
Sergeant Death meets
WW". Publication of Students for a Democratic Society. (Reprinted in OZ
Magazine 31. UK, Nov/December 1970, Nurds).
Georgia Straight, Vol.3, No.74 (Sept.10, 1969) "WW
meets the Elusive Chimerical Chameleon!" (repr of story in Feds
‘n’ Heads)
Hydrogen Bomb Funnies (1970) "WW and the Invasion of
the Pigs from Uranus!" (repr. in Jymy Sarjat, Nasty Tales No. 2, Nurds, Underground
Classics
12)
OZ Magazine 31. (UK, Nov/December 1970) "Smiling
Sergeant Death meets Wonder Wart-Hog" (repr from Radical
America Komiks
#1)
Nasty Tales No 2 (UK, Aug 1971) "WW and the Invasion
of
the Pigs from Uranus!" (repr from Hydrogen Bomb Funnies)
Funnybook
#1 (San
Francisco, Almighty Publishing Co., 1971) "Hero of the Beach". A
one-page throwaway of about the same low quality as as the "Smut Ring"
story. A very obscure comik, and deservedly so.
OZ Magazine 41. (UK, April 1972) "WW meets the Elusive
Chimerical Chameleon!" (repr of story in Feds ‘n’ Heads)
Okay Comics (vol. 1, no. 11-12, 1973) WW Visits the
Ghetto (in two parts. Repr. of story in Best of
Drag Cartoons, No 5)
Jymy Sarjat (Number 4, 1973, Finland) WW and the Pigs
from Uranus (repr from Hydrogen Bomb Funnies and Underground
Classics
12), but
translated into Finnish
Winnipeg "Rag" No. 1,
May 1979. "WW and the Nurds of November" (This seems to be the first
appearance of this story. Also repr. in Nurds collection (1980) and
as a comic in 1988.)
Rip-Off #1 "WW Goes on Welfare!" (1977) (repr in Nurds)
Rip-Off #2 "Epidemic" (1977) (repr in Nurds)
Rip-Off #3 "Return from the Planet of the Pigs" (1978)
(repr in
Nurds, HOS 2)
Rip-Off #4 "Sudden Death" (1978) (repr in Nurds)
Rip-Off #5 "The Famous Superheroes School" (1978) (repr in Nurds,
HOS 3)
Rip-Off #8 "Battle of the Titans Part 1" (1984)
(repr
as book)
Rip-Off #9 "Battle of the Titans Part 2" (1984)
(repr
as book)
Rip-Off #10 "Battle of the Titans Part 3" (1984)
(repr
as book)
Rip-Off #11 "Battle of the Titans Part 4" (1984)
(repr
as book)
Rip-Off #12 "Battle of the Titans Part 5" (1984)
(repr
as book)
Rip-Off #13 unknown WW story (comic was advertised
but never published)
Rip-Off #22 "WW and the merciless menacing Masked
Meanie" (1989) (repr from Drag
Cartoons No. 29)
Fox River Patriot No. 71 (Wisconsin; Denis Kitchen’s
alt weekly, 1979)
unknown WW story
Drag Racing Online "WW Runs at Indy" (Vol III, No 7,
2001) http://www.dragracingonline.com/toc_iii_7.html (repr
from Nurds)
Books and Comik Collections
Wonder Wart-Hog, Captain Crud & Other Super Stuff
(1967) "WW meets Super Patriot" and "WW Meets the Mob" (both reprinted
from Texas
Ranger)
Feds ‘n’ Heads (1968) "WW Meets The Elusive,
Chimerical Chameleon!" (repr in Georgia Straight)
Not Only the Best of Wonder Wart-Hog Vol. I (1961-1963)
(The Print Mint, 1973) early stories from Texas
Ranger
WW Meets the Merciless Menacing Masked Meanie
WW Meets The Mob: Chapters 1, 2 and 3
WW Meets The Super-Patriot
WW Meets The Super-Hypnotist
WW Meets Supercop
Not Only the Best of Wonder Wart-Hog Vol. II (The
Print Mint, 1975) stories from Help!
and Drag
Cartoons
Fearless, Fighting, Foul-Mouthed Wonder Wart-Hog (1962 origin story)
WW Meets Super-Fool
WW Goes a-Freedom-Riding
WW Encounters Super Granny
WW and the Return of the Masked Meanie
WW and the Merciless, Menacing Masked Meanie
The Adventures of Philbert Desanex
WW Meets the Merangsters
Not Only the Best of Wonder Wart-Hog Vol. III (The
Print Mint, 1973)
The Wird Ones
The Year They Blew Christmas
WW and the Comet Insurance Man
WW Opens a Concession Stand
WW Builds a Dream Car
WW Meets the International Order of Bomb-Flinging Fiends
The Name Game
WW and the Nurds of November. Gilbert
Shelton's Exciting Cartoon Novel of Election-Year Politics,
International Nuclear Terror, Professional Football, Science Fiction,
Motorcycle and Auto Racing, Pestilence, Famine, Economic Collapse
and Romantic Love (1980)
216 pp.
Escape
from Planet Squootpeep (repr. in HOS1)
Wonder
Goes on Welfare
Epidemic
Return
from Planet of the Pigs
Sudden
Death
Philbert
Gets a Job
Philbert's
99,998th Dream
The
Famous Superheroes School
Philbert's
99,999th Dream
Wonder
Wart-Hog Runs at Indy (index reads "Philbert Runs at Indy")
A
Day in the Life
Philbert's
100,000th Dream
The
Nurds of November (repr. as a comic in 1988)
The
Pigs of Uranus (repr from Hydrogen Bomb
Funnies)
Smiling
Sergeant Death
meets Wonder Wart-Hog (repr. from Radical Amerika Komiks #1)
WW and the Battle of the Titans (1985)
Parts 1-5
Underground Classics 5 WW Vol 1 (1988)
Fearless, Fighting, Foul-Mouthed Wonder Wart-Hog (1962 origin story)
WW Meets the Mob (chapters I, II and III)
WW Meets the Mafia
WW Encounters Super Granny
The Adventures of Philbert Desanex
Underground Classics 7 WW Vol 2 (1988)
WW Meets Super-Fool
WW Meets Super-Patriot
WW Meets Supercop
WW Meets His Maker
Strike Fever
Underground Classics 12 "Gilbert Shelton in 3D"
WW and the Pigs from Uranus (repr from Hydrogen Bomb Funnies)
Wonder Wart-Hog and the Nurds of November (1988) (Only the
presidential election story.)
Philbert Desanex’ Dreams (1993)
Hog of Steel Vol 1 (1995)
Escape from the Planet Squootpeep
WW Meets the Zymotic Zookeeper
WW Meets the Famous Rushin’ Bear
Hog of Steel Vol 2 (1995)
Return from the Planet of the Pigs
WW Meets Super-Hypnotist
WW Meets the Merciless, Menacing Masked Meanie
Hog of Steel Vol 3 (1995)
The Famous Superheroes School
Return of the Masked Meanie
WW and the Merciless, Menacing Masked Meanie
WW Discovers the Amazing Meanie Fuel
Unknown
venues
"Millenium Fever" (1999) unpublished? Digital images found on Austin
Ghetto
web site.
"[I]nternational weekly syndication in the mid-to-late 1970s."
(Foreword to "Philbert Desenex’ Dreams".)
"Wonder Wart-Hog Saves the Day", reportedly in "Big Daddy Roth"
magazine, but that mag never ran a WW story. The title hasn't surfaced
elsewhere, though.
Updated 1 Feb. 2012.
Contents
copyright 2005-12 by Vance Bass (vrbass a t nmia dot com). To be used
for
personal enjoyment and education only. Wonder Wart-Hog and the images
presented here are, of course, the
creation and property of Gilbert Shelton and Rip-Off Press.
Big thanks to Guy at IITravel, Alan J. Thill and Kookie
for additional information!
