Friday, October 30, 2009

Famous First Fridays: Mike Ploog's Eerie Premiere

"More Ploog! Halloween's almost here, the Countdown's almost done, and we need more Mike Ploog!" That's the hue and cry of Groove-dom on this All Hallows Eve--er--Eve, and ne'er let it be said that Ol' Groove would ever let his gang down. How's this for a tasty trick-or-treat--Ploog's first professional comicbook work! Believe it or not, although Ploog had worked as a cartoonist on military magazines like Leatherneck and P*S (where he worked with his inspiration, Will Eisner), and had even worked as an artist on many Saturday-morning cartoons (including Superman/Batman, Wacky Races, and Scooby-Doo), it wasn't until 1971, at the behest of legendary pros Ben Oda and Wally Wood, that Ploog sought work in comicbooks. Well, you know his moody, Will Eisner-inspired art got him gigs p.d.q., baby! From Warren's Eerie #35 (cover-dated September 1971), here's "The Tower of the Demon Dooms!" written by the great Gardner Fox. Enjoy!

2 comments:

  1. I Heart Mike Ploog!
    Thanks,
    Ivan

    ReplyDelete
  2. We'll that SUCKED literally! HHHaaa!! Another gem I've never seen! Thanks for posting this, I love Mike Ploog! I just wish I could reconnect with him. He now lives in Devon,England.

    Atleast the last I knew a few years back. I wish he still lived in Minnesota, where he once did. especially, since I live in WI.Still love to have him do a few commissions for me & illustrate my book I'm working on.

    ReplyDelete

LinkWithin

Blog Widget by LinkWithin
Special thanks to Mike's Amazing World of Comics and Grand Comics Database for being such fantastic resources for covers, dates, creator info, etc. Thou art treasures true!


Note to "The Man": All images are presumed copyright by the respective copyright holders and are presented here as fair use under applicable laws, man! If you hold the copyright to a work I've posted and would like me to remove it, just drop me an e-mail and it's gone, baby, gone.


All other commentary and insanity copyright GroovyAge, Ltd.

As for the rest of ya, the purpose of this blog is to (re)introduce you to the great comics of the 1970s. If you like what you see, do what I do--go to a comics shop, bookstore, e-Bay or whatever and BUY YOUR OWN!