Mike Ploog
Encyclopedia
Michael G. Ploog 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
, under whom he apprenticed.
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. his mother took the children to live with her in Burbank, California
. Ploog entered the U.S. Marine Corps at age 17, leaving in 1968, after 10 years. Toward the end of his hitch, he began working on the Corps' Leatherneck Magazine
, 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". 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".
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."
Ploog moved to New York City
and remained with Eisner for just over two years. As Ploog recalled:
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." 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. 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. 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).
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.
("All that stuff you saw on cereal boxes are my paintings") and with film director Ralph Bakshi
on the animated features Wizards
, The Lord of the Rings
, and Hey Good Lookin'. He was production designer on Michael Jackson: Moonwalker (1988), and has storyboarded or done other design work on films including John Carpenter's The Thing, Superman II
, Little Shop of Horrors 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.
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.
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.
Storyboard
Storyboards are graphic organizers in the form of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence....
and comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
, and a visual designer for movies.
In comics, Ploog is best known for his work on Marvel Comics' 1970s Man-Thing
Man-Thing
The Man-Thing is a fictional character, a monster in publications from Marvel Comics. Created by writers Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, and Gerry Conway and artist Gray Morrow, the character first appeared in Savage Tales #1 , and went on to be featured in various titles and in his own series, including...
and Monster of Frankenstein
Frankenstein's Monster (Marvel Comics)
Frankenstein's Monster is a fictional character based on the character in the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. The character has been adapted often in the comic book medium...
series, and as the initial artist on the features Ghost Rider
Ghost Rider (Johnny Blaze)
Ghost Rider is a fictional character, an antihero in the Marvel Comics Universe. He is the second Marvel character to use the name Ghost Rider, following the Western hero later known as the Phantom Rider, and preceding Daniel Ketch.Johnny Blaze was portrayed both in the 2007 film Ghost Rider and...
and Werewolf by Night
Werewolf by Night
Werewolf by Night is a fictional character, an antiheroic werewolf in the Marvel Comics universe. The Werewolf by Night first appeared in Marvel Spotlight vol...
. His style at the time was heavily influenced by the art of Will Eisner
Will Eisner
William Erwin "Will" Eisner was an American comics writer, artist and entrepreneur. He is considered one of the most important contributors to the development of the medium and is known for the cartooning studio he founded; for his highly influential series The Spirit; for his use of comics as an...
, under whom he apprenticed.
Early life and career
Mike Ploog, one of a family of three brothers and a sister, was raised first on a Minnesota farm. He began drawing while a young child whose imagination was fired by such old-time radioOld-time radio
Old-Time Radio and the Golden Age of Radio refer to a period of radio programming in the United States lasting from the proliferation of radio broadcasting in the early 1920s until television's replacement of radio as the primary home entertainment medium in the 1950s...
dramas as Sergeant Preston of the Yukon and Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....
, and such thriller anthologies as Inner Sanctum Mysteries
Inner Sanctum Mysteries
Inner Sanctum Mysteries, a popular old-time radio program that aired from January 7, 1941 to October 5, 1952, was created by producer Himan Brown. A total of 526 episodes were broadcast.-Horror hosts:...
and Tales of Horror. After his parents divorced and sold the farm when Ploog was about 10 or 11 years old. his mother took the children to live with her in Burbank, California
Burbank, California
Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States, north of downtown Los Angeles. The estimated population in 2010 was 103,340....
. Ploog entered the U.S. Marine Corps at age 17, leaving in 1968, after 10 years. Toward the end of his hitch, he began working on the Corps' Leatherneck Magazine
Leatherneck Magazine
Leatherneck Magazine of the Marines is a magazine for United States Marines. It was first published as a newspaper by off-duty Marines at Marine Corps Base Quantico in 1917, and was originally named The Quantico Leatherneck...
, doing bits of writing
Writing
Writing is the representation of language in a textual medium through the use of a set of signs or symbols . It is distinguished from illustration, such as cave drawing and painting, and non-symbolic preservation of language via non-textual media, such as magnetic tape audio.Writing most likely...
, photography
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
and art. After his discharge, in the late 1960s, he found work in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
at the Filmation
Filmation
Filmation Associates was an American production company that produced animation and live action programming for television during the latter half of the 20th century. Located in Reseda, California, the animation studio was founded in 1963...
studio, doing cleanup work on animation art for Batman
Batman
Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
and Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
TV cartoons.
The following season he was promoted to layout work. "Layout," Ploog recalled in a 1998 interview, "is what happens between storyboarding
Storyboard
Storyboards are graphic organizers in the form of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence....
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". At Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. was an American animation studio that dominated North American television animation during the second half of the 20th century...
the following season, he worked on layouts for the animated series Motormouse and Autocat and Wacky Races
Wacky Races
Wacky Races is an animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera. The series features 11 different cars racing against each other in various road rallies throughout North America, with each driver hoping to win the title of the "World's Wackiest Racer." Wacky Races ran on CBS from September...
, as well as "the first Scooby-Doo
Scooby-Doo
Scooby-Doo is an American media franchise based around several animated television series and related works produced from 1969 to the present day. The original series, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, was created for Hanna-Barbera Productions by writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears in 1969...
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
Will Eisner
William Erwin "Will" Eisner was an American comics writer, artist and entrepreneur. He is considered one of the most important contributors to the development of the medium and is known for the cartooning studio he founded; for his highly influential series The Spirit; for his use of comics as an...
seeking an assistant on the military instructional publication PS, The Preventive Maintenance Monthly
PS, The Preventive Maintenance Monthly
PS, The Preventive Maintenance Monthly is a monthly United States Army magazine published since June 1951 to illustrate proper preventive maintenance methods with comic book-style art...
. 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".
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."
Ploog moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
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 OdaBen Oda
Ben Oda was a Japanese-American comic strip and comic book letterer. He fought in World War II as a paratrooper and later provided lettering for many leading comic strips, including Apartment 3-G, Big Ben Bolt, Dondi, The Dropouts, Flash Gordon, Little Orphan Annie, Mary Perkins, On Stage, The...
and artist Wally Wood
Wally Wood
Wallace Allan Wood was an American comic book writer, artist and independent publisher, best known for his work in EC Comics and Mad. He was one of Mads founding cartoonists in 1952. Although much of his early professional artwork is signed Wallace Wood, he became known as Wally Wood, a name he...
, Ploog broke into comics at Warren Publishing
Warren Publishing
Warren Publishing was an American magazine company founded by James Warren, who published his first magazines in 1957 and continued in the business for decades...
, 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
Western comics
Western comics is a comics genre usually depicting the American Old West frontier and typically set during the late nineteenth century...
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
Johnny Blaze
Johnny Blaze may refer to:* Ghost Rider , second Marvel Comics character called Ghost Rider* Johnny Blaze, ring name of John Hennigan, professional wrestler better known as John Morrison* Johnny Blaze, alter-ego of American rapper Method Man...
version of the supernatural motorcyclist Ghost Rider
Ghost Rider (comics)
Ghost Rider is the name of several fictional supernatural antiheroes appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics. Marvel had previously used the name for a Western character whose name was later changed to Night Rider and subsequently to Phantom Rider.The first supernatural Ghost Rider is...
, in Marvel Spotlight #5 (Aug. 1972), and drew the next three adventures.
The specifics of the character's creation are disputed. Roy Thomas
Roy Thomas
Roy William Thomas, Jr. is an American comic book writer and editor, and Stan Lee's first successor as editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics. He is possibly best known for introducing the pulp magazine hero Conan the Barbarian to American comics, with a series that added to the storyline of Robert E...
, 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
Gary Friedrich
Gary Friedrich . is an American comic book writer best known for his Silver Age stories for Marvel Comics' Sgt...
collaborated on the first six issues of Marvel's Monster of Frankenstein
Frankenstein's Monster (Marvel Comics)
Frankenstein's Monster is a fictional character based on the character in the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. The character has been adapted often in the comic book medium...
(Jan.-Oct. 1973), the initial four of which contained a more faithful adaptation of Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley was a British novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus . She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe 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." 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
Steve Gerber
Stephen Ross "Steve" Gerber was an American comic book writer best known as co-creator of the satiric Marvel Comics character Howard the Duck....
on Man-Thing
Man-Thing
The Man-Thing is a fictional character, a monster in publications from Marvel Comics. Created by writers Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, and Gerry Conway and artist Gray Morrow, the character first appeared in Savage Tales #1 , and went on to be featured in various titles and in his own series, including...
#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
Werewolf by Night
Werewolf by Night is a fictional character, an antiheroic werewolf in the Marvel Comics universe. The Werewolf by Night first appeared in Marvel Spotlight vol...
. Ploog also drew the Don McGregor
Don McGregor
Donald Francis McGregor is an American comic book writer best known for his work for Marvel Comics, and the author of one of the first graphic novels.-Early life and career:...
story "The Reality Manipulators" in the black-and-white comics magazine Marvel Preview
Marvel Preview
Marvel Preview was a magazine-sized black-and-white showcase comic book published by Curtis Magazines, an imprint of Marvel....
#8 (Fall 1976), and the Doug Moench
Doug Moench
Douglas Moench , better known as Doug Moench, is an American comic book writer notable for his Batman work and as the creator of Black Mask, Moon Knight and Deathlok.-Biography:...
feature "Weirdworld
Weirdworld
"Weirdworld" was a fantasy series created by Doug Moench and Mike Ploog for Marvel Comics, set in a dimension of magic.-Publication history:...
" in the color comic Marvel Premiere
Marvel Premiere
Marvel Premiere is an American comic book anthology series published by Marvel Comics. It ran for 61 issues from April 1972 to August 1981....
#38 (Oct. 1977), among other items.
He left Marvel following what he describes as "a disagreement with Jim Shooter
Jim Shooter
James Shooter is an American writer, occasional fill-in artist, editor, and publisher for various comic books. Although he started professionally in the medium at the extraordinarily young age of 14, he is most notable for his successful and controversial run as Marvel Comics' ninth...
. I had moved to a farm in Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, 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. 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
Frank Brunner
Frank Brunner is an American comic book artist and illustrator best known for his work at Marvel Comics in the 1970s.-Comics:...
, Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby , born Jacob Kurtzberg, was an American comic book artist, writer and editor regarded by historians and fans as one of the major innovators and most influential creators in the comic book medium....
, Don McGregor
Don McGregor
Donald Francis McGregor is an American comic book writer best known for his work for Marvel Comics, and the author of one of the first graphic novels.-Early life and career:...
, Roger Slifer
Roger Slifer
Roger Slifer is a writer of comic books, animation, and video games, well-known for a run on Omega Men in the 1980s.-Biography:Slifer started out in comics as an editor at Marvel Comics where he also wrote a number of comic books....
, and Roger Stern
Roger Stern
Roger Stern is an American comic book author and novelist.-Early career:In the early 1970s, Stern and Bob Layton published the fanzine CPL , one of the first platforms for the work of John Byrne...
, refused to sign, resulting in cessation of work for Marvel. Ploog "took himself off the project," said Marschall, and retained his original artwork. Moench's script was eventually published as a 106-page story illustrated by penciler John Buscema
John Buscema
John Buscema, born Giovanni Natale Buscema , was an American comic-book artist and one of the mainstays of Marvel Comics during its 1960s and 1970s ascendancy into an industry leader and its subsequent expansion to a major pop culture conglomerate...
, inker Rudy Nebres, and airbrush
Airbrush
An airbrush is a small, air-operated tool that sprays various media including ink and dye, but most often paint by a process of nebulization. Spray guns developed from the airbrush and are still considered a type of airbrush.-History:...
colorist Peter Ledger
Peter Ledger
Peter Ledger was an Australian commercial airbrush artist and illustrator.-Biography:...
as the three-part "Warriors of the Shadow Realm" in Marvel Super Special #11-13 (Spring - Fall 1979).
Marginalia includes some work for Heavy Metal
Heavy Metal (magazine)
Heavy Metal is an American science fiction and fantasy comics magazine, known primarily for its blend of dark fantasy/science fiction and erotica. In the mid-1970s, while publisher Leonard Mogel was in Paris to jump-start the French edition of National Lampoon, he discovered the French...
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 GhostbustersGhostbusters
Ghostbusters is a 1984 American science fiction comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. The film stars Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Harold Ramis, and Rick Moranis and follows three eccentric parapsychologists in New York City, who start a...
("All that stuff you saw on cereal boxes are my paintings") and with film director Ralph Bakshi
Ralph Bakshi
Ralph Bakshi is an Israeli-American director of animated and live-action films. In the 1970s, he established an alternative to mainstream animation through independent and adult-oriented productions. Between 1972 and 1992, he directed nine theatrically released feature films, five of which he wrote...
on the animated features Wizards
Wizards (film)
Wizards is a 1977 American animated post-apocalyptic science fantasy film about the battle between two wizards, one representing the forces of magic and one representing the forces of industrial technology. It was written, produced, and directed by Ralph Bakshi...
, The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings (1978 film)
J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings is a 1978 American fantasy film directed by Ralph Bakshi. It contains both animation and live action footage which is rotoscoped to give it a more consistent look throughout the length of the movie. It is an adaptation of the first half of the high fantasy...
, and Hey Good Lookin'. He was production designer on Michael Jackson: Moonwalker (1988), and has storyboarded or done other design work on films including John Carpenter's The Thing, Superman II
Superman II
Superman II is the 1980 sequel to the 1978 superhero film Superman and stars Gene Hackman, Christopher Reeve, Terence Stamp, Ned Beatty, Sarah Douglas, Margot Kidder, and Jack O'Halloran. It was the only Superman film to be filmed by two directors...
, Little Shop of Horrors 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.
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
Graphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
adapting The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a children's novel written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. Originally published by the George M. Hill Company in Chicago on May 17, 1900, it has since been reprinted numerous times, most often under the name The Wizard of Oz, which is the name of...
creator's 1902 novella.
With old colleague Steve Gerber, Ploog drew the Malibu Comics
Malibu Comics
Malibu Comics was an American comic book publisher active in the late 1980s and early 1990s, best known for its Ultraverse line of superhero titles. The company's headquarters was in Calabasas, California. Malibu imprints included Aircel Comics and Eternity 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
CrossGen
Cross Generation Entertainment, or CrossGen, was an American comic book publisher that operated from 1998 to 2004.CrossGen Comics, Inc. was founded in 1998, by Tampa, Florida-based entrepreneur Mark Alessi who sought to create a comic book universe that was uniquely varied but also connected by a...
fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
Abadazad
Abadazad
Abadazad is an American comic book written by J.M.DeMatteis and drawn by Mike Ploog, with color by Nick Bell. Published in 2004 by Crossgen Comics to rave reviews , the series halted when Crossgen went out of business. Abadazad was co-owned by DeMatteis, Ploog, and CrossGen but in the stories the...
(May 2004). Ploog and DeMatteis announced they were collaborating again the following year on a five-issue miniseries, Stardust Kid, from the Image Comics
Image Comics
Image Comics is a United States comic book publisher. It was founded in 1992 by high-profile illustrators as a venue where creators could publish their material without giving up the copyrights to the characters they created, as creator-owned properties. It was immediately successful, and remains...
imprint Desperado Publishing.
Ploog has illustrated cards for the Magic: The Gathering
Magic: The Gathering
Magic: The Gathering , also known as Magic, is the first collectible trading card game created by mathematics professor Richard Garfield and introduced in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast. Magic continues to thrive, with approximately twelve million players as of 2011...
collectible card game.
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.
Interviews
- J.M. DeMatteis: Fantasy Life, Comics BulletinComics BulletinComics Bulletin is a website with an emphasis on the American comic book industry, updated daily with news, reviews, interviews, and editorial content. Coverage ranges from mainstream to independent/small press comic book and graphic novel publishers.-History:...
, January 14, 2004 - Dematteis & Ploog Together Again by Benjamin Ong Pang Kean, NewsaramaNewsaramaNewsarama is an American website that publishes news, interviews and essays about the American comic book industry.-History:Newsarama began in Summer 1995 as a series of Internet forum postings on the Prodigy comic-book message boards by fan Mike Doran. In these short messages. Doran shared...
, December 3, 2004 - Mike Ploog interview, page 1 and page 2, Alter Ego #62 (Oct. 2006), reprinted at NewsaramaNewsaramaNewsarama is an American website that publishes news, interviews and essays about the American comic book industry.-History:Newsarama began in Summer 1995 as a series of Internet forum postings on the Prodigy comic-book message boards by fan Mike Doran. In these short messages. Doran shared...
, October 7, 2006