The first of two volumes reprinting copious amounts of comics stories and recounting the career of Mad Magazine cartoonist Basil Wolverton. Based on his correspondence and journals, the biographical portion of the books follows Wolverton from childhood to his adulthood in the Pacific Northwest, when he acted as a freelance cartoonist, itinerant handyman, persistent contest enterer, and local pastor of the Radio Church of God.

In the precious period before the industry calcified into a commercial institution, Wolverton was free to work under the radar to explore in detail his weird tales of the future. All of Wolverton s non-humorous comic book stories will be presented in full, along with prime examples of his humorous comics and dozens of pages of unpublished art, including editorial drawings, advertisements, caricatures, pulp illustrations, rejected comic book covers, and unsold features.