NINTH ANNIVERSARY POST! The Grooviest Covers of All Time: Nine Nines for Our Ninth!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, Groove-ophiles!

Can ya believe it? Nine years ago today, Ol' Groove started this blog with no real idea of what he was doing! Now, after nine years--I still dunno what I'm doin'! I sure am having fun doing it, though! Ol' Groove hopes you are, too, 'cause it really is all for you, Groove-ophiles! Way back in 2008, I never dreamed that this blog would last this long, or that I'd meet so many far-out folks (fans and pros, alike), or that so many Groovy Age mags would finally wind up in tpb form for all the world to enjoy! Keep on truckin', Groove-ophiles! And to say "thanks for your support," here are nine of Ol' Groove's favorite ninth issue covers from the Groovy Age!

The Grooviest BACK Covers of All Time: Basil Wolverton Goes Plop!

Dig it, Groove-ophiles! The amazing Basil Wolverton provided the creepy/crazy/cool covers for the first fourteen issues of PLOP! but did you know that for the first ten issues he also provided the back covers? S'truth! Y'see, the first ten issues of DC's Magazine of Weird Humor was an ad-free enterprise. The back covers were what we'd now call "virgin covers", showcasing the art from the front cover with no copy. Even more importantly, the art was printed in an even larger size on the back cover, giving us a greater glimpse of Wolverton's gloriously grotesque but gleefully goofy guys and gals...

And, oh, yeah! Dig those wild and crazy Sergio Aragones cartoons beguiling us from the background!

Groovy Age Gold: "Where Monsters Dwell" by Basil Wolverton

Hey, hey, hey, Groove-ophiles! It's been a while since we rapped about Basil Wolverton, hasn't it? Too long, says I! Flipping through the pages of the first issue of Crypt of Shadows (October 1973), lucky Marvellites found "Where Monsters Dwell" sandwiched in between all kinds of groovy, Golden Age gruesomeness! My only question is...howcum they didn't reprint this in...Where Monsters Dwell? Ah well, some questions are gonna haunt us forever--like Wolverton's horrifyingly awesome comic art! Dig the blurb on the first page (probably written by EIC Roy Thomas) connecting Wolverton to the (then) currently trendy Underground Comix movement! Marvel always had their finger on the pulse of fandom, didn't they?

Oh, and for your bibliophiles out there, "Where Monsters Dwell" was first published in Adventures Into Terror #7 (December 1951).

Groovy Age Gold: "The Eye of Doom" by Basil Wolverton

Hey, hey, hey, Groove-ophiles! By the time Marvel launched it's "latest" (40 years ago, y'know) reprint/mystery mag Weird Wonder Tales #1 (September 1973), Young Groove was really into reprint mags. Whether it be DC's 100 pagers or Wanted Golden Age reprints, or Marvel Triple Action style Silver Age reprints, yers trooly was on the lookout for 'em. When Marvel reprinted stuff from their Golden Age, t'was a rare and wondrous thing, like Basil Wolverton's "The Eye of Doom" which was originally published in Mystic #6 (cover-dated January 1952). This story creeped me out in the best of ways, and did I ever grow to love the singular art stylings of Basil Wolverton. Check it out!

Sunday Funnies: Prescripion Plops

Hey, hey, and ha, ha! How's about a bellyful of belly laughs with a dose of Slim's Prescription Plops from DC Comics' PLOP! issues 4-10 (December 1973-December 1974)?


Not enough? Say you gotta have the strong stuff? How's about some Basil Wolverton? That'll cure what ails ya!

Halloween Plop!

I hit ya with a little bit of Plop! for our first (Weird) Sunday funnies edition (you can view it here) and promised you more info on that far-out fearsome funnybook. Ol' Groove keeps his promises (when he remembers 'em), so here's the skinny plus some cool covers and another spooky strip, to boot!

In early 1973, DC was running ads warning us that Plop! was coming. We didn't know what Plop! was, but we were definitely on the lookout. Plop! turned out to be the weirdest, wildest mag of twisted black gross-out humor we could imagine. Wanna hear the story about how it all began? Come closer, kiddies, and try not to get the furniture sticky with your candy-coated little fingers, okay?

In House of Mystery #202 (February, 1972), editor Joe Orlando (renowned as part of the E.C. gang back in the Fifties) ran a strange little strip by writer Steve Skeates and artist Sergio Aragones. With talent of that caliber, you knew it was going to be something special. "The Poster Plague" warned folks in a small town that Klop! was coming; and in the end it did--spelling disaster for the town. Darkly humorous disaster. The kind that makes you giggle in spite of yourself.

From there, Orlando pow-wowed with Skeates, Aragones, and then-DC publisher Carmine Infantino about doing an entire comic mag filled with gross-out, black humor. They kicked around several names and settled with Plop! Infantino had high hopes for the mag, publishing it as a full-length 36 page anthology with no ads for the same price as all the other comics on the rack (twenty cents at the time). He even hired humor/horror legend Basil Wolverton to do the covers (the back cover printed the image from the front cover larger and without copy). They decided to have their regular mystery mag hosts, Cain, Abel, and Eve host Plop!, and hired the best writers and artists around (including a few from the then-popular underground comix).

Plop! arrived on the stands in July of 73, fandom flipped out, man! It was a beautiful package, funny and gross as the comics code would allow, and unlike anything else out there at the time.
Plop! ran for twenty-four issues, ending August, 1976 as a much tamer mag, fifty-two pages (with ads) for fifty cents (regular sized comics were 25/30 cents at the time). Like many great ideas back in the Groovy Age, I suppose it was just a bit ahead of its time. But what fun we had while it was around!

Take, for instance, this gem from Plop! #4 (December, 1974) by Steve Skeates and artist (and legend) Frank Robbins..."The Last Laugh!"

How'd ya like that, Groove-ophiles? There's no way we could have a Halloween celebration without at least one axe-murderer, right? Right? Two more Halloween posts to go!