Caleb Orecchio here with thoughts on Plop! and other news.
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A couple of months ago, I wrote about a 1979 article in an issue of The Comics Journal where the cover story by Steve Skeates calls for the death of the superhero and the further advocation of comics like Howard the Duck and Plop! Read all about it here if you want.
I was recently flipping through my copies of Plop! with new eyes due to Skeates’ insistence that this was the title that could have saved comics. Friends, I must say, the comics industry had to have been in such a sordid state if Plop! and Howard the Duck were the ponies to bet on.
I mean, I kinda like Plop! It’s silly, but rarely funny. The best part about the books are usually the covers (a la Basil Wolverton and Wally Wood). I enjoy Sergio Aragonés’ strips that ring-in each issue and then cap it off. There is also enough Bernie Wrightson comics within the series to encourage my forgiving attitude. But ultimately, Plop! is a bust.
It’s not funnier than MAD or any other fellow rip-off like Cracked. It might be funnier than Crazy (Marvel’s hat in the ring of MAD rip-offs). I love Aragonés’ strips he writes and draws himself, but typically he is charming up some boring script intended to be clever. Plop! is almost 100% void of cleverness. Wrightson’s comics often are interesting to look at, but in the end are illustrating a really stupid script that doesn’t stick the landing. Each story fails, unlike its EC Comics predecessor, to end each story with a cherry on top or in a neat little bow.
Oh and when the art is not drawn by Aragonés, Wrightson, Wally Wood, etc., it’s drawn by the worst cartoonists in the business. I can only assume they were in between jobs at DC and trying to make it in the newspaper one-panel strip business. Yikes, it’s just plain bad comics half the time at Plop! Not the kind of comic I’d encourage more of if I’m trying to save the industry and kill the superhero.
But why do I really buy the back-issues if they suck so bad?? The covers!
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if you don’t know, now you know
- The National Cartoonists Society has announced their Cartoonist of the Year 2017 nominees.
- Sloane Leong is the most recent guest on Process Party.
- At TCJ.com, Tegan O’Neil on Crisis on Infinite Earths and Brian Nicholson on Dalston Monsterzz by Dilraj Mann.
- Todd Allen at The Beat informs us of a presentation and signing for Mark Burstein’s book, Dave Sheridan: Life with Dealer McDope, The Leather Nun, and The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Fransisco, on April 24th.
- Dayton’s son, Mike Peeters is celebrating 50 years of strip making in Dayton, Ohio. Amelia Robinson has the scoop at Dayton Daily News.
- I would be remiss not to mention Isao Takahata has passed at age 82. Probably made one the most difficult and emotional movies ever in my opinion.
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Announcing the Spring Semester of thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers
8 weeks! $500 bux! 10 spots available!
Rolling start date because of spring break – start NOW!
Deadline to apply is April 12th.
Read all about the course HERE and email santoroschool@gmail.com for more details or to apply.
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