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.

Marvelmania: Comic book artists - Part 1 .

As a child in the late 1960’s early 1970’s I was always fascinated by the house ads that appeared in Marvel comics that seemed to offer an endless supply of merchandise featuring various Marvel characters. Of particular interest to myself were the posters of the artists that actually drew theses strips shown beavering away at their drawing boards some with representation of their characters interacting with them. Up until that point it never really occurred to me that there was a talented adult artist behind all these wonderful comics. I would spend hours looking at the miniature reproductions of some of these posters as they appeared in these half page ads, trying to get a better view of what the artist actually looked like.

The above ad appeared in various Marvel comics from around 1970 (this ad is taken from Daredevil #73) featuring 6 black and white artists self-portraits with biographies on the back for Gene Colan, John Romita, Herb Trimpe, John Buscema, Jack Kirby and Jim Steranko. However, from memory (but I could be wrong) I seem to recall an earlier ad that originally featured a Marie Severin poster that looks to have been replaced by Jim Steranko’s. Perhaps this was added as Steranko was the hot new talented at this time.

Herb Trimpe's poster was always my favourite . A fully coloured version of this poster was used as the cover to TwoMorrows book on Herbs work.

Gene Colan

John Romita. Like most of these posters this one has been repurposed several times as a poster, pin up page and/or the cover to comic art magazine.

John Buscema.

Jack Kirby - This version of the Marvelmania poster is taken from the cover of the "Jack Kirby Collector".

Jim Steranko's rather stilted offering.

Marie Severin. I seem to recall that the above art was originally used in an earlier advert for these postersin place of Jim Steranko's poster.

As noted above Jim Steranko seemed to be the hot property at this time and he produced 4 excellent posters specifically for Marvelmania.

The above poster of the Hulk was later used as the cover to FOOM issue 2. Below Spider-Man by Steranko.

I had always thought that Marvelmania was the official Marvel fan club that replaced the “Merry Marvel Marching Society” fan club, but it was actually a separate company set up by Don Wallace who licensed the use of the characters . Marvelmania operated from 1969 until 1971 and produced a plethora of merchandise including the Marvelmania fanzine, posters, superhero figurines, plastic pillows and LPs. Unfortunately the company folded in 1971 with debts and Wallace allegedly running off with any remaining cash before his creditors could catch up with him.

House ads: Part three - The other companies

In parts 1 & 2 I showed some of my favourite DC and Marvel house ads. However, it wasn't just the big two that generated a mountain of great looking adverts there were many other comic book companies that also got into the act and created some suberb pieces of art in their own right. The above advert (and the one below) for the Mighty Comics Group is one of the first house ads I can recall as a kid as I was a big fan of their comics (the Mighty Crusaders, Steel Sterling etc). Sadly Mighty Comics of the 1960's weren't really that good but their ads still retain that element of 1960's cool (to me at least).

Charlton comics were a regualr feature in spinner racks in the Glasgow area (at least) and as a result I picked up many of their comics. Although the paper that Charlton comics were publshed on wasn't of the best quality they did produce some really nice comic books over the years, and along with that some lovely house ads.

Harvey comics primarily published (licensed) children's cartoon comics (with a brief foray into superheroes titles in the 1950s/1960's) and they sold them by the bucketful. Many characters like Richie Rich had several (over 30) titles and as a child it was always fun seeing these ads advertising the many titles they produced.

Archie comics were another big favourite of mine as a kid and the good news is they are still going strong and producing some great versions of Archie Andrews and his pals.

And to round off the final part of my look at some of my favourite house ads below is the stunning ad that introduced Atlas comics to an unsuspecting (comic book) world in 1974. It's hard to describe to today's comic fans the excitment that was generated by this house ad illustrated by the late great Ernie Colon introducing a new company. Sadly, 12 months later it was all over and Atlas shut up shop.

House ads: Part two - Marvel comics

Unlike DCs house ads, Marvels ads of the early 1960s were at times pretty slapdash. Seemingly this was because DC had a fair sized production department which was overseen by Jack Adler who could call on the assistance of several DC artists and letterers to produces bespoke house ads. Marvel by comparison at this time had to rely solely on Sol Brodsky and John Verpoorten to produce their ads often with very little time to do so. Of course by the mid -late 1960s and into the 1970’s this all changed and Marvel produced some excellent and fun ads. Below are some of my favourite Marvel House ads from the mid 1960s to the 1970's.

Although the Marvel production department of the early 1960's may have been limited, by the mid 1960’s they were certainly starting to produce some great looking house ads the equal of their Distinctive Completion as can be see below.

House ads: Part one - DC comics

Back in the days before the internet, specialist comic book shop and professional fanzines like “Wizard” (are these still published?) one of the few ways you would find out about any new comic book being published was thought the various house ads that appeared in the comics of various publishers. Of course knowing that a new comic was due to be published back then didn’t automatically mean that you would ever see that new comic in the spinner racks, but it was fun and exciting a looking for them. Some of these House ads were really well presented pieces of comic book art and I find myself hanging onto certain comics I purchased back in the day just for these adverts alone. Below are some of my favourite house ads from DC comics.

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In part two I will bore you all with some of my very favourite 1960's /70's Marvel House ads!