Mike Ploog

Michael G. Ploog (; born July 13, 1940 or 1942) is an American storyboard and comic book artist, and a visual designer for films.
In comics, Ploog is best known for his work on Marvel Comics' 1970s "Man-Thing" and "The 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.
Biography.
Early life and career.
Born in Mankato, Minnesota, Mike Ploog was one of a family of three brothers and a sister raised, initially, 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, his mother took the children to live with her in Burbank, California. Ploog entered the U.S. Marine Corps, 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.
Around 1969 he began working on Batman and Superman animated TV-series at the Los Angeles studio Filmation, doing what he called "cleanup work for other artists." The following season he was promoted to layout work on those' characters' series. "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". Moving to the Hanna-Barbera studio 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 [sic; Ploog was still in the Marines that year]. 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:
Marvel Comics and Ghost Rider.
Eventually, at the suggestion of Eisner letterer Ben Oda, Ploog broke into comics at Warren Publishing, doing stories for the company's black-and-white horror-comics magazines. A Western sample he showed Marvel got him a callback to draw "Werewolf by Night", which premiered in "Marvel Spotlight" #2 (Feb. 1972). As Ploog recalled,
After three stories in "Marvel Spotlight", the feature 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 "The 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.
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", "The Lord of the Rings", and "Hey Good Lookin'." He was production designer on "" (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 "The Dark Crystal" and "Labyrinth" and the TV series "The Storyteller."
Between movies, Ploog illustrated "L. Frank Baum's the Life and Adventures of Santa Claus" (1992; ), a graphic novel adapting "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" creator's 1902 novella.
With old colleague Steve Gerber, Ploog drew the Malibu Comics Ultraverse 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 has illustrated cards for the "" collectible card game.