Greg Turner revisits a very odd comic, indeed! Plop #1, debuting from DC Comics in 1973, looked to claim some of the readership of Mad Magazine. Here’s Greg’s retro review in video!
Full Text:
Hi, Greg Turner here, with something new this week, a video Retro Review!
And for April Fools Day, I thought I’d review D C Comics Plop # 1, cover dated October 1973, the new magazine of weird humor, or so said the cover copy, which featured a strange character called “Arms Armstrong” drawn by Basil Wolverton on its inaugural cover.
The book itself features short five and six page humorous stories by various writers and artists. As well as, page after page of short cartoons brought to the reader by Sergio Aragones and others.
The first five page story is; “The Escape” by the afore mentioned Sergio Aragones, a whimsical look at what dungeon life may have been like.
Up next is another five page story entitled “Kongzilla” by Frank Robbins and George Evans, no, not a new monster combining King Kong and Godzilla, but a King Kong story with a twist!
The third story is “The Message”, a two page, brief yarn about why TV reception might be ruined by ghosts! If you’re a baseball fan you might dig this story! It gave me a chuckle!
And the reason why you might want to own this oddball comic book is the fourth and final story, warranting six pages, it’s called; “The Gourmet” and is brought to life by Steve Skeates and Bernie Wrightson.
It’s a tale about a man, Vernon Glute, who would pay any price for a plate of frogs legs!
Wrightson’s Glute reminds me of the character Mister Creosote, from Monty Python’s Meaning of Life, and I thought he might have been based on that character, but Plop # 1 came out in 1973 and Monty Python’s Meaning of Life came out in 1983, so it may have been the other way around.
Terry Jones who played Mister Creosote may have gotten the idea from this very issue of Plop. I have heard that the Python’s were fans of American comic books, so it is possible!
Anyway, that’s it for the first video Retro Review, other than to say I rate this comic three (3) out of five (5) Legion Flight Rings! This is Greg Turner for Back to the Past Pop Culture TV!
