View source for Plop!

{{Short description|Comic book anthology series}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox comic book title <!--Wikipedia:WikiProject Comics-->
|image               = Plop1.jpg
|imagesize           = <!-- default 250 -->
|caption             = Cover of ''Plop!'' #1 (Sept.-Oct. 1973), art by [[Basil Wolverton]].
|schedule            = Bi-monthly
|ongoing             = y
|Horror              = first
|Humor               = y
|multigenre          = y
|publisher           = [[DC Comics]]
|startmo             = September/October 
|startyr             = 1973 
|endmo               = November/December 
|endyr               = 1976
|issues              = 24
|main_char_team      = 
|writers             = [[Steve Skeates]]
|artists             = [[Sergio Aragonés]] <br> [[Basil Wolverton]] <br> [[Wally Wood]]
|pencillers          = 
|inkers              = 
|letterers           = 
|colorists           = 
|editors             = [[Joe Orlando]]
|creative_team_month = 
|creative_team_year  = 
|creators            = 
|TPB                 = 
|ISBN                = 
|TPB#                = 
|ISBN#               = 
|subcat              = DC Comics
|altcat              = 
|sort                = Plop
|addpubcat#          = 
}}
'''''Plop!''''', "The New Magazine of Weird Humor!", is a [[comic book]] [[Comics anthology|anthology series]] published by [[DC Comics]] in the mid-1970s. It falls into the [[Horror fiction|horror]] / [[humor]] [[genre]].<ref>{{cite book|last=McAvennie|first= Michael|editor-last = Dolan|editor-first = Hannah|chapter= 1970s|title = DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle|publisher=[[Dorling Kindersley]] |year=2010 |isbn= 978-0-7566-6742-9 |page= 156 |quote = Edited by Joe Orlando with contributions from comics' finest creators, ''Plop!'' was truly 'The Magazine of Weird Humor!'}}</ref> It lasted 24 issues and the series ran from Sept./Oct. [[1973 in comics|1973]] to Nov./Dec. [[1976 in comics|1976]].

==Background and creation==
According to [[Steve Skeates]], ''Plop!'' was based around a horror / humor story he wrote called "The Poster Plague", which was published in ''The [[House of Mystery]]''.<ref name="Back21">{{cite journal|last= Cassell|first= Dewey|date = April 2007|title= The Hellish Humor of ''Plop!''|journal= [[Back Issue!]]|issue= #21|pages= 21–27|publisher= [[TwoMorrows Publishing]]}}</ref>

The title initially was intended to be called ''Zany''. A number of the one-panel cartoons published in the comic included the visible prefix ZA, in reference to the originally intended title. [[Sergio Aragonés]] credits publisher [[Carmine Infantino]] with coming up with the final title: "[[Joe Orlando]] and I were sitting in a restaurant talking with Carmine Infantino. They wanted a magazine that was different, something about black humor. Carmine came up with the name. We were talking about it and he said, 'What will we call it?' And I said, 'We can call it anything, because if the magazine is good, then it will stay'. And he said, 'No, we can't call it, for instance...PLOP!' And I said, 'Yes, we can'. And so I started making sketches of things going PLOP! and they laughed and decided the name was good".<ref name="Back21"/>

==Contents==
Each issue was centered on a [[frame story]] starring three ghoulish characters with Biblical names: [[Cain (DC Comics)|Cain]], [[Abel (DC Comics)|Abel]] (previously introduced in ''The [[House of Mystery]]'' and ''The [[House of Secrets (DC Comics)|House of Secrets]]'', respectively) and [[Eve (DC Comics)|Eve]]. An issue would typically contain a story told by each of the characters, each bidding to outdo the others in fiendishness.

Stories for ''Plop!'' were generally created in one of three ways. The most common was that [[Steve Skeates]] would write the stories himself, using the [[full script]] method. Due to a brief feud with editor [[Joe Orlando]], for a time Skeates' stories were written under the [[pseudonym]] Chester P. Hazel. The second way was using plot ideas submitted by readers of the anthology. Orlando would select which plot ideas would be used and Skeates would then write the full story. The third way was that Aragonés would write the plot, and someone else would write the script once the story was fully drawn.<ref name="Back21"/>

An illustrative tale drawn by [[Berni Wrightson]] involved a gourmet diner whose love for [[frog legs]] leads to a predictable amphibian revenge: he is left without lower limbs and is doomed to negotiate the world on a trolley.<ref>{{cite comic | writer= [[Steve Skeates|Skeates, Steve]] | penciller= [[Bernie Wrightson|Wrightson, Bernie]] | inker= Wrightson, Bernie | story= The Gourmet | title= Plop! | issue= #1 | date= September–October 1973 | publisher= | page= | panel=}}</ref>

[[Basil Wolverton]] and [[Wallace Wood]] provided covers for the first 19 issues, each depicting a freakish character of some kind. The cover borders hosting a plethora of creatures, however, were drawn by [[Sergio Aragonés]]. All three artists worked on ''[[Mad (magazine)|MAD]]'', and the logo of ''Plop!'' is reminiscent of the early logo of that magazine. Wolverton's covers were not drawn for ''Plop!''; they were inventory pieces which he sent to [[DC Comics]] as a general submission. When all of the drawings he submitted were found suitable for use in ''Plop!'', Wolverton briefly came out of retirement so that he could continue drawing covers for the magazine. After he had a stroke, the magazine turned to Wood as the new cover artist.<ref name="Back21"/>

Aragonés drew most of the frame stories. Later MAD contributor Dave Manak also did art.<ref>{{cite web |first=Todd |last=Klein |author-link=Todd Klein |url=http://kleinletters.com/Blog/?p=8276 |title=Logo Study: PLOP! |date=March 15, 2010 |access-date=March 23, 2010}}</ref>

The magazine was first published without ads but, when sales proved insufficient, advertisements were brought in for later issues. The magazine sold so poorly that, even with the added advertising revenue, DC Comics lost money on each issue, leading to its cancellation.<ref name="Back21"/>

==Awards==
The series received a number of awards, including the [[Shazam Award]] for Best Humor Story in 1973 for "The Gourmet" in issue #1,<ref name="Back21"/> and another nomination for the same award for "The Escape" in the same issue. [[Steve Skeates]] also won the Shazam Award for Best Writer (Humor Division) in 1973 for his work on the series.<ref name="Back21"/> The comic was nominated for the [[Eagle Award (comics)|Eagle Award]] for Favourite Comic (Humour) in 1977.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.eagleawards.co.uk/category/previous-winners/1977/|title=1977 &#124; the Eagle Awards|date=April 4, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120404034513/http://www.eagleawards.co.uk/category/previous-winners/1977/|archive-date=2012-04-04}} at the official Eagle Awards website, archived at the [[Wayback Machine]]. (Retrieved 9 September 2018.)</ref>

== Collected editions ==
* '''''The Steve Ditko Omnibus Volume 1''''' includes ''Plop!'' #16: "Love is a Dandy!" by [[Steve Skeates]] and [[Steve Ditko]], 480 pages, September 2011, {{ISBN|1-4012-3111-X}}

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
{{Refbegin}}
* {{gcdb series|id=2102|title=Plop!}}
* {{comicbookdb|type=title|id=8042|title=''Plop!''}}
{{Refend}}

{{DC Comics Mystery Titles}}

[[Category:1973 comics debuts]]
[[Category:1976 comics endings]]
[[Category:Bimonthly magazines published in the United States]]
[[Category:Comics by David Michelinie]]
[[Category:Comics by George Kashdan]]
[[Category:Comics magazines published in the United States]]
[[Category:Defunct American comics]]
[[Category:Magazines disestablished in 1976]]
[[Category:Magazines established in 1973]]
[[Category:Satirical comics]]
[[Category:Satirical magazines published in the United States]]