| Mike Ploog |
Article Index for Mike |
Website Links For Mike |
Information AboutMike Ploog |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT MIKE PLOOG | |
| people from minnesota | |
| ploog, mike | |
| american comics artists | |
| living people | |
|
(script), Ploog & Frank Chiaramonte (art)]] In comics, Mike Ploog is best known for his work on Marvel Comics' classic 1970s '' Man-Thing '' and ''Monster of Frankenstein'' series, and as the initial artist on the features " Ghost Rider " and " Werewolf By Night ". His dramatic yet cartoony style at the time, in which bodies appear almost to be made of soft wax, was heavily influenced by the art of Will Eisner , under whom he apprenticed — a resemblance particularly apparent in such female characters as Topaz (see at left) in ''Werewolf by Night'' #13 (Feb. 1974). ANIMATION AND EISNER Raised first on a Minnesota farm, and later in Burbank, California , Ploog entered the U.S. Marine Corps at age 17, remaining for 10 years. Toward the end of his hitch, he began working on the Corps' ''Leatherneck'' magazine, doing bits of Writing , Photography and art. After his discharge, in the late 1960s, he found work in Los Angeles at the Filmation studio, doing cleanup work on animation art for Batman and Superman TV Cartoon s. The following season he was promoted to layout work. "Layout," Ploog recalled in a 1998 interview, "is what happens between storyboarding and actual animation; you're literally composing the scenes. You're more or less designing the background, putting the characters into it so they'll look like they're actually walking on the surface." At Hanna-Barbera the following season, he worked on layouts for the animated series ''Autocat & Motormouse'' and ''The Wacky Races'', as well as "the first '' Scooby-Doo '' pilot; nothing spectacular, though. It was okay; it was a salary, y'know? ... I had very few aspirations, because I didn't know where anything I was doing was going to take me." [http://www.twomorrows.com/comicbookartist/articles/02ploog.html
MARVEL COMICS Eventually, at the suggestion of Eisner letterer Ben Oda and artist Wally Wood , Ploog broke into comics at Warren Publishing , doing stories for the company's black-and-white Horror -comics magazines. A Western sample he showed at Marvel got him a callback to draw ''Werewolf by Night'', which premiered in ''Marvel Spotlight'' #2 (Feb. 1972). After three issues, the series spun off onto its own book. Ploog launched on a second character, the Johnny Blaze ''Ghost Rider'', from that supernatural motorcyclist's premiere in ''Marvel Spotlight'' #5 (Aug. 1972) through the next three adventures. Ploog's creative high-water mark in comics may have been his six issues of Marvel's ''Monster of Frankenstein'' (Jan.-Oct. 1973), the first five of which contained one of the most faithful adaptations of on '' Man-Thing '' #5-11 (May-Nov. 1974), on stories involving a dead clown, psychic paralysis in the face of modern society, and other topics made far more entertaining than otherwise thanks to the creepy cuteness — like a rabid puppy — of Ploog's Pencils . His other regular titles at Marvel were '' Planet Of The Apes '', '' Kull The Destroyer '' and the series ''Werewolf by Night''. Ploog also drew the Don McGregor story "The Reality Manipulators" in the black-and-white comics magazine ''Marvel Preview'' #8 (Fall 1976), and the Doug Moench feature "Weirdworld" in the color comic ''Marvel Premiere'' #38 (Oct. 1977), among other items. He left Marvel following what he describes as "a disagreement with Jim Shooter . I had moved to a farm in Minnesota, and agreed to do a hand-colored 'Weirdworld' story. Marvel backed out of the deal after I had started. I can't remember the details, but it doesn't matter. I think I was ready to move on. Marvel and I were both changing. I finished off a black-and-white Kull book that was my last comic for many years." {Link without Title} Marginalia includes some work for '' Heavy Metal '' magazine in 1981 , and three "Luke Malone, Manhunter" backup features in the Atlas/Seaboard title ''Police Action'' #1-3 (Feb., April, June 1975), the first of which he also scripted. HOLLYWOOD Ploog returned to the '' (1988), and has storyboarded or done other design work on films including ''Little Shop of Horrors'' and ''The Unbearable Lightness of Being'', and, he says, several Jim Henson Company projects, such as the films ''Dark Crystal'' and ''Labyrinth'' and the TV series ''The Storyteller.'' RETURN TO COMICS Between movies, Ploog spent two to three years illustrating ''L. Frank Baum's the Life and Adventures of Santa Claus'' (1992; ISBN 0756766826), a Graphic Novel adapting '' The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz '' creator's 1902 novella. With old colleague Steve Gerber, Ploog drew the on the CrossGen Fantasy ''Abadazad'' (May 2004). Ploog and DeMatteis announced they were collaborating again the following year on a five-issue miniseries, ''Stardust Kid'', from the Image Comics imprint Desperado Publishing. Despite a relatively short initial stay in comics in the 1970s, Ploog left an indelible impression for his highly stylistic, immediately recognizable style and naively propulsive storytelling. QUOTES ''''' — a very lackluster character — called Stunt-Master ... a motorcyclist. Anyway, when Gary Friedrich started writing ''Daredevil'', he said, "Instead of Stunt-Master, I'd like to make the villain a really weird motorcycle-riding character called Ghost Rider." He didn't describe him. I said, "Yeah, Gary, there's only one thing wrong with it," and he kind of looked at me weird, because we were old friends from Missouri, and I said, "That's too good an idea to be just a villain in ''Daredevil''. He should start out right away in his own book." When Gary wasn't there the day we were going to design it, Mike Ploog, who was going to be the artist, and I designed the character. I had this idea for the skull-head, something like Elvis ' ''1968 Special'' jumpsuit, and so forth, and Ploog put the fire on the head, just because he thought it looked nice. Gary liked it, so they went off and did it." Friedrich on the above, in 2001: "Well, there's some disagreement between Roy, Mike and I over that. I threatened on more than one occasion that if Marvel gets in a position where they are gonna make a movie or make a lot of money off of it, I'm gonna sue them, and I probably will. ... It was my idea. It was always my idea from the first time we talked about it, it turned out to be a guy with a flaming skull and rode a motorcycle. Ploog seems to think the flaming skull was his idea. But, to tell you the truth, it was ''my'' idea." FOOTNOTES
REFERENCES
|
|
|