Plop Day!

Basil Wolverton was born on this day in 1909. I first encountered Wolverton's artwork in DC's wacky humor comic Plop! The images Wolverton created stick in the mind. He was a Golden Age artist with memorable features such as Powerhouse Pepper and Spacehawk among countless others. I've sought out and collected quite a bit of his work over the years, but those early covers still stick.

I was lucky to get hold of PLOP #1 when it dropped all those decades ago and I picked up an issue here and there before it closed up shop with its twenty-fourth issue. The series was famously inspired by a story entitled "The Poster Plague" which Steve Skeates and Sergio Aragones were finally able get into an issue of  House of Mystery.  A story dubbed "The Gourmet" by Berni Wrightson from the debut issue even won an award. This is a series screaming out to be collected in proper fashion for a new generation of fans. I think much of the humor is timeless.

Here are the covers for the entire run, most by the deliriously entertaining Basil Wolverton, assisted a few times by Wally Wood. Later the comic adopted a more traditional cover scheme with artwork by Joe Orlando, Dave Manak and others. The comics themselves are filled up with great Sergio Aragones artwork as well stories by the likes of Bill Draut, Alfredo Alacala, and Berni Wrightson.

Tbe PLOP covers changed consideradly with the twentieth issue when the bizarre characters were replaced by panel gags. After one cover by a classic cartoonist the balance of the run were produced by Joe Orlando or Dave Manak or so combination. Doubtless this was done to help sales but it was sad to see the menagerie of oddballs stop.

Below is one unpublished cover by Basil Wolverton -- I assume for issue twenty.

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The Toon Treasury Of Classic Children's Comics!

While The Toon Treasury of Classic Children's Comics is divided into five categories ranging from "Funny Animals" to "Fantasyland", the real categories in this book according to editors Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly really fall between four artists -- Sheldon Mayer, Walt Kelly, John Stanley and Carl Barks. The editors admit as much and work from these giants of comic art dominate this collection regardless of the category a story might fall into. 

Chapter One is titled "Hey, Kids!" and celebrates such titles as Sheldon Mayer's Sugar and Spike (three stories) and Scribbly (one lengthy sequence of one-pagers), as well as two stories featuring Little Lulu by John Stanley. Dennis the Menace makes two appearances in this section and talents such as Jules Feiffer and Harvey Kurtzman are represented by Clifford and Egghead Doodle respectively. We are also treated to a story of Intellectual Amos by Andre LeBlanc from the pages of The Spirit sections. 

Chapter Two is dubbed "Funny Animals" and leading the way is Walt Kelly with a few "Uncle Wiggly" pages, a skewed fairy tale titled "Hickory and Dickory  Help the Easter Bunny", as well as an early Pogo story from Animal Comics. Mayer returns with a funny Three Mousketeers story and we get three Fox and Crow stories by Jim Davis. Donald Duck by Carl Barks is on hand alongside John Stanley's "Jigger". Throw in a Nutsy Squirrel and you have quite a bevy of beasts. 

Chapter Three titled "Fantasyland" delivers the goods as might be suspected. Lots more Walt Kelly with stories (four to be exact) from Fairy Tale Parade and a new name George Carlson shows up with some offbeat fairytale variations. John Stanley returns as does Little Lulu with two offerings. We get a story by Popeye animator Dan Gordon featuring a prototype of Droopy and MAD man Dave Berg is represented with two stories adapted out of Alice in Wonderland. Add in a little Supermouse by Milt Stein and it's a festive section indeed. 

Chapter Four is called "Storytime" and seems to be a section in which some oddball stuff finds inclusion such as more Pogo, more Intellectual Amos, and even a C.C. Beck story starring "The Big Red Cheese" himself  titled "In the Land of Surrealism". The latter is a delight. But the highlights of this section are by Carl Barks who has two Duck stories, one featuring Donald battling bees and the other with Uncle Scrooge and the boys venturing to the distant paradise of Tralla La -- one of comic's great classics tales. 

Chapter Five wraps it all up with under the heading "Weird and Wacky" giving the editors free reign. Such things as three Burp the Twerp one-pagers by Jack Cole, four Hey Look! one-pagers by Harvey Kurtzman, alongside  a J. Rufus Lion story by Mayer and a Patsy Pancake yarn by Milt Gross. Dr. Seuss offers up the peculiar classic "Gerald McBoing Boing" and Dick Briefer's Frankenstein plays music. John Stanley's Melvin the Monster tries to catch a mouse and it doesn't go well. The highlight though of this section are several pages of "Foolish Faces" as well a complete Powerhouse Pepper story by Basil Wolverton. 

The main significant  difference between this 2009 collection and the exceedingly similar Yoe Book collection from 2011 I examined last weekend, is that the latter was more interested in a diverse range of examples from the public domain to showcase what had existed in kids comics. This collection was more about the pure quality of the stories and sacrificing some variety. There's not much to criticize about either collection though if you have any fancy at all for light-hearted comic book tales. 

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Klassic Krazy Kool Kids Komics!

This Yoe Book The Golden Collection of Klassic Krazy Kool Kids Komics is a feast of light-hearted fun and funny comics designed for kids. And there must be a little bit of kid in me because I enjoyed most all of them. The immediate drawing card for me was the staggering list of talent represented in this hefty tome. Names often associated with kids comics are evident such as Carl Barks, John Stanley, Walt Kelly and George Carlson. Less likely folks are Jack Kirby,  Steve Ditko, Frank Frazetta and Wally Wood. Add in typically sardonic cartoonists such as Syd Hoff, Harvey Kurtzman and Jules Feiffer and you have a heady brew here. There's even a complete (or attempt) vintage tale by the great Dr. Seuss. 

After a short introduction, Craig Yoe, the editor of this opus divides the stories up into some pretty entertaining categories beginning with "Old Skool" which is comprised of just one entry from the 1850's entitled The Adventures of Tom Plump. 

Following that is 'Fairy Tales & Fantasy" which offers up stories by the likes of Walt Kelly, Dave Berg (twice) and George Carlson. These are breezy samplings with fanciful critters, talking buildings and two takes on Alice in Wonderland. There's a retelling of the King Midas story featuring art from Wonder Woman great H.G. Peter. 

Next is a section called "Kid's Stuff" and we get a John Stanley piece about a kid named Peterkin Pottle alongside a lengthy story by Syd Hoff with a character named Tuffy. Jules Feiffer is represented with a few Clifford pages and even the Yellow Kid by R.F. Outcault shows up. 

"Funny Animals" is one of my favorite sections and kicks off with Harvey Kurtzamn story Pigtales about two enterprising porkers trying to sell door to door. Then there's a longish Felx the Cat story followed by a charming story about The Calico Pup. There are stories about dogs, cats, birds, and even bears. The last is Barney the Bear by Carl Barks. One of the doggie stories by by John Stanley again. Surprisingly Jack "King" Kirby checks  in not once but twice with a story about a rich rabbit and a big-mouthed crocodile named Lockjaw. In the Kirby's stories the animal is among people and in some of these the animals are ubiquitous in human roles. Frank Frazetta shows up with a Hucky Duck story as well. 

That lengthy section is followed by "People Are Funny" and that kicks off with two Jack Cole one-pagers about a blowhard named Windy Breeze. There's a bit by Mort Walker about a madcap reporter and Intellectual Amos by Andre Le Blanc is lovely to look at. There are some nifty stories by Jack Bradbury and Al Stahle as well. The highlight for me was the most recent story in the collection by decades, a story from 1997 drawn by Steve Ditko for Yoe when he was in charge of the freebie Big Boy comics.

"Super Duper Heroes" is next and we get Super Rabbit, Supermouse, and SuperKatt. These were drawn by Milt Stien, Al Hubbard, and Al Gordon respectively. There's another human one-pager by Gordon as well called Mussle-Man. One thing about superhero funny animals is that it's sometimes difficult to detect their powers since funny animals are not subject to normal physical laws anyway. 

The section titled "Nonsense" features all fourteen pages of Heji by Dr. Seuss. This abruptly stopped comic entry is even given a potential ending just for this collection by writer Clizia Gussoni and artist Luke McDonnell. A second highlight of this section is a Basil Wolverton story titled "Flap Flipflop and the Flying Fish". There are a few vintage fanciful tales but it's left to Wally Wood to close this section with his "Goody Bumpkin" story from Wham-O Giant Comics. ( It is of course reformatted.)

Following that is a section called "Total Nonsense" which defies description a bit and a wind up with the final part titled "Now It's Your Turn" with a two-page how-to-draw-comics bit. 

This is totally a book intended for kids to get kids excited by comics both old and older. It should work well in the capacity, but for this geezer it was a delight to read. 

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Look What Plopped Up!

Just ran across the ad below for an upcoming issue of MAD Magazine. I've been enjoying the rebooted MAD and I thrilled to get a little bonus when an issue will feature the complete debut issue of DC's infamous PLOP comic book.

I was lucky to get hold of PLOP #1 when it dropped all those decades ago and I picked up an issue here and there before it closed up shop with its twenty-fourth issue. The series was famously inspired by a story entitled "The Poster Plague" which Steve Skeates and Sergio Aragones were finally able get into an issue of  House of Mystery.  A story dubbed "The Gourmet" by Berni Wrightson from the debut issue even won an award. This is a series screaming out to be collected in proper fashion for a new generation of fans. I think much of the humor is timeless.

Here are the covers for the entire run, most by the deliriously entertaining Basil Wolverton, assisted a few times by Wally Wood. Later the comic adopted a more traditional cover scheme with artwork by Joe Orlando, Dave Manak and others. The comics themselves are filled up with great Sergio Aragones artwork as well stories by the likes of Bill Draut, Alfredo Alacala, and Berni Wrightson.

Tbe PLOP covers changed consideradly with the twentieth issue when the bizarre characters were replaced by panel gags. After one cover by a classic cartoonist the balance of the run were produced by Joe Orlando or Dave Manak or so combination. Doubtless this was done to help sales but it was sad to see the menagerie of oddballs stop.

Below is one unplublished cover by Basil Wolverton -- I assume for issue twenty.

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