Dale E. Basye

Dale E. Basye is an American author born in Dallas, Texas, best known for the middle-grade Circles of Heck series, a comic, pun-filled tour through Dante-inspired versions of the underworld for kids, beginning with Heck: Where the Bad Kids Go (2008) and continuing through sequels such as Rapacia, Blimpo, Fibble, Snivel, Precocia, and Wise Acres, illustrated throughout by Bob Dob. The series follows siblings Milton and Marlo Fauster after a fatal accident lands them in the underworld's youth division, mixing slapstick humor with historical and mythological references. Basye's work belongs to a tradition of comic afterlife fiction for young readers, using the structure of Dante's Inferno as a framework for satire rather than horror.