Mike Ploog

Michael G. Ploog (born 1942, Mankato, Minnesota,Mike Ploog interview, in Modern Masters Volume Nineteen: Mike Ploog (TwoMorrows Publishing, 2008), p. 6. ISBN 978-1605490076 United States) is an American storyboard and comic book artist, and a visual designer for movies.
In comics, Ploog is best known for his work on Marvel Comics' 1970s Man-Thing and Monster of Frankenstein series, and as the initial artist on the features Ghost Rider and Werewolf by Night. His style at the time was heavily influenced by the art of Will Eisner,Werewolf by Night at Don Markstein's Toonopedia: "Ploog, who had previously worked in animation, was unknown in comics when 'Werewolf' started, but quickly made a name for himself in that medium. His artwork was strongly influenced by Will Eisner...." WebCitation archive (January 10, 2011). under whom he apprenticed.
==Biography==
===Early life and career===
Mike Ploog, one of a family of three brothers and a sister,Ploog, Modern Masters Volume Nineteen: Mike Ploog, p. 6 was raised first on a Minnesota farm. He began drawing while a young child whose imagination was fired by such old-time radio dramas as Sergeant Preston of the Yukon and Gunsmoke, and such thriller anthologies as Inner Sanctum Mysteries and Tales of Horror. After his parents divorced and sold the farm when Ploog was about 10 or 11 years old.Ploog, Modern Masters, p. 7 his mother took the children to live with her in Burbank, California.Ploog, Modern Masters, pp. 7-8 Ploog entered the U.S. Marine Corps at age 17, leaving in 1968, after 10 years.Ploog, Modern Masters, p. 11 Toward the end of his hitch, he began working on the Corps' Leatherneck Magazine,Mike Ploog at the Lambiek Comiclopedia. Note: Source erroneously gives Ploog's birthplace as the nearby Saint Thomas, Minnesota. 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 cartoons.
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".Mike Ploog interview, Comic Book Artist #2, Summer 1998. WebCitation archive. At Hanna-Barbera the following season, he worked on layouts for the animated series Motormouse and Autocat and 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".
A Hanna-Barbera colleague passed along a flyer he had gotten from writer-artist Will Eisner seeking an assistant on the military instructional publication PS, The Preventive Maintenance Monthly. Ploog was familiar with it from his Marine Corps days, and knew well the art, though not the artist's name. "I'd been copying his work for years", Ploog said, "because I was doing visual aids and training aids for the military for a long time".Archive of Mike Ploog interview, The Comics Journal #267, April–May 2005. WebCitation archive. Original page. 
Eisner in 1978 recalled that, "Mike came in working for me in 1967. I was looking for someone who could work on the PS magazine ... and Mike sent me his material, or somebody sent it to me, I don't remember which, and I found myself in California, talking Mike into coming to work for us.... We had a very happy relationship for maybe two or three years, four years.""Will Eisner Interview", The Comics Journal #46 (May 1979), p. 37. Interview conducted Oct. 13 and 17, 1978
Ploog moved to New York City and remained with Eisner for just over two years. As Ploog recalled:
===Marvel Comics and Ghost Rider===
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. He had previously had his first comic story published in the magazine Car-Toons #42 (1968). His then-girlfriend was a model for one of the characters in the story. A Western sample he showed 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 then helped launched the initial, Johnny Blaze version of the supernatural motorcyclist Ghost Rider, in Marvel Spotlight #5 (Aug. 1972), and drew the next three adventures.
The specifics of the character's creation are disputed. Roy Thomas, a Marvel writer and the editor-in-chief at the time, recalls, 
Friedrich has responded that,
Ploog recalled, in a 2008 interview:
Ploog and writer Gary Friedrich collaborated on the first six issues of Marvel's Monster of Frankenstein (Jan.-Oct. 1973), the initial four of which contained a more faithful adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel than has mostly appeared elsewhere; comics historian Don Markstein said, "It was faithful to the story even to the point of leaving the monster trapped in the ice at the end — so of course, the fifth issue began with him being rescued."Monster of Frankenstein at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived October 25, 2011. In a 1989 interview, Ploog said, "I really enjoyed doing Frankenstein because I related to that naive monster wandering around a world he had no knowledge of — an outsider seeing everything through the eyes of a child." The following year, Ploog teamed with writer Steve Gerber on Man-Thing #5-11 (May-Nov. 1974), penciling a critically acclaimed series of stories involving a dead clown, psychic paralysis in the face of modern society, and other topics far removed from the usual fare of comics of the time, with Ploog's cute-but-creepy art style setting off Gerber's trademark intellectual surrealism.
Ploog's 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."Ploog & Kirby Quit Marvel over Contract Dispute," The Comics Journal #44 (Jan. 1979), p. 11. Marvel and I were both changing. I finished off a black-and-white Kull book that was my last comic for many years." Richard Marschall, editor of what was to be a 60-page "Weirdworld" by Ploog and writer Moench for one of the Marvel Super Special series of one-shots, said at the time that Ploog had been given four months to complete the art, and when it became evident the deadline would not be met, arranged to publish the story in two 30-page installments, giving Ploog two more months. Ploog sent Marvel photocopies of the first 31 pages, and was paid for them. During this time, Marvel had given work-for-hire contracts to its freelancers, many of whom, including Ploog, Frank Brunner, Jack Kirby, Don McGregor, Roger Slifer, and Roger Stern, refused to sign, resulting in cessation of work for Marvel. Ploog "took himself off the project," said Marschall, and retained his original artwork."Ploog & Kirby Quit Marvel Over Contract Dispute", The Comics Journal, January 1978, p. 11 Moench's script was eventually published as a 106-page story illustrated by penciler John Buscema, inker Rudy Nebres, and airbrush colorist Peter Ledger as the three-part "Warriors of the Shadow Realm" in Marvel Super Special #11-13 (Spring - Fall 1979).Marvel Comics Super Special #11, #12, and #13 at the Grand Comics Database
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.
===Later career===
Ploog returned to the movie industry. By his account, he has worked in post-production on the movie Ghostbusters ("All that stuff you saw on cereal boxes are my paintings") and with film director Ralph Bakshi on the animated features Wizards,Ploog, Modern Masters, pp. 36, 40-42 The Lord of the Rings, and Hey Good Lookin'. He was production designer on Michael Jackson: Moonwalker (1988),Ploog, Modern Masters, p. 54 and has storyboarded or done other design work on films including John Carpenter's The Thing,Ploog, Modern Masters, pp. 43, 45 Superman II,Ploog, Modern Masters, pp. 44-45 Little Shop of HorrorsPloog, Modern Masters, p. 47 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.Ploog, Modern Masters, p. 49
Between movies, Ploog spent two to three years illustrating L. Frank Baum's the Life and Adventures of Santa Claus (1992; ISBN 0-7567-6682-6), a graphic novel adapting The Wonderful Wizard of Oz creator's 1902 novella.
With old colleague Steve Gerber, Ploog drew the Malibu Comics one-shot Sludge: Red X-Mas (Dec. 1994), but otherwise remained away from comics for another decade before teaming with veteran writer J.M. DeMatteis 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.
Ploog has illustrated cards for the Magic: The Gathering collectible card game.Mike Ploog entry at Gatherer: Magic Card Database. WebCitation archive.
When CrossGen went out of business, Hyperion Books, a division of the Walt Disney Company, purchased the rights to all of CrossGen's publications including Abadazad. In June 2006, Ploog and J.M. DeMatteis teamed once again to release Abadazad Book #1: The Road to Inconceivable & Abadazad Book #2: The Dream Thief.
== Notes ==
==References==
* Mike Ploog at the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators
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==External links==
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===Interviews===
* J.M. DeMatteis: Fantasy Life, Comics Bulletin, January 14, 2004
* Dematteis & Ploog Together Again by Benjamin Ong Pang Kean, Newsarama, December 3, 2004
* Mike Ploog interview, page 1 and page 2, Alter Ego #62 (Oct. 2006), reprinted at Newsarama, October 7, 2006
Category:People from Mankato, Minnesota
Category:Living people
Category:Magic: The Gathering artists
Category:1942 births
Category:American production designers
Category:Storyboard artists