The Funny side of Horror: The Gourmet - by Berni Wrightson - Plop ! #1

Plop! was sub titled "The Magazine of Weird Humor!" and for good reason it truly was a bizarre anthology comic featuring a heady mix of humour and horror strips. However, the reason that many comic fans of the time may have purchased the first issue was for the story “The Gourmet” written by Steve Skeates with art by the legendary master of the horror genre Berni Wrightson. The strip presented below, tells the tale of Vernon Glute a man who is willing to pay any price for a plate of frog’s legs!

Berni Wrightson would contribute only one other strip to Plop! in issue 5 a six page humour/horror classic tale entitled "Moulded in Evil" written by George Kashidan.

Plop! ran for 24 issues from September 1973 to December 1976 with the first 10 issues being advert free. The covers of most issues featured weird characters (like issue 1 above ) by Basil Wolverton and Wally Wood. Many of the earlier issues featured one page gags and stories illustrated by some of the biggest names in comics including Alex Toth, Wally Wood, Alfredo Alcala and Bill Druat, but the true star of PLOP! was the equally legendary Sergio Aragones.

Plop! was heavily advertised in various DC house ads at the time which featured a series of small adverts by Sergio Aragones each with a silly "plop" theme. These ads were not only humerous but they whetted my appetite to find out just what "Plop!" was. I sadly missed the first issue (only purchasing it around 10 years later) but I did manage to borrow a friends copy and found the mix of humour and horror fun. My first issue was Plop! #2 which is another story for another time.

Above: The first issue featured a collection of Sergio Aragones' fun one panel house ads.