Mike Ploog

            On Friday morning I worked out the chords for the third verse of “Le petit Lauriston” by Boris Vian. There are two long verses left. 

            I worked out the chords for the second dance instrumental and the second scat bridge of “Sacha Distel et Jean-Pierre Cassel’s Song and Dance” by Serge Gainsbourg. That’s half of the song. 

            I played my Kramer electric guitar during song practice. Tomorrow I’ll begin a four session stretch of playing my Martin acoustic guitar. 

            I weighed 86.8 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I filled all the cracks and holes in the bathroom that I needed to stand on a chair to reach. What’s left are the holes that I can get to while standing on the floor and they are the biggest ones. One of them holds an anchor bolt that I use to hang my mirror from a ring that’s screwed into the top of the frame, but I need to cover that hole and so I have to find a better hanging system. Sunday is the next day I’ll have time for the project but the hardware store is closed on Sundays until May so I’ll to fill in all the other holes first and go to the hardware store on Wednesday. 

            I weighed 87.35 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I went over to Metro Cycles to pick up my bike. Gordon had said it would take two days to install the fenders but he emailed me earlier that it was done. He said he stayed late last night just to get it done for me, so that was nice. The Axiom fenders look pretty cool but they were expensive at $90, plus the $80 installation fee. Gordon says that Axiom fenders are guaranteed for life though. 

            It was a little late to ride all the way downtown, but I needed some cash after paying for the fenders and so I rode to Mervish Village where the first Bank of Montreal on the south side of Bloor is located. Then I rode down Bathurst and decided to stop at Type Books across from Trinity Bellwoods Park to ask if they would order my book Paranoiac Utopia. This was the most receptive bookstore so far. The manager looked up my book and was impressed that it’s inspired by Parkdale because he lives in Parkdale. As other bookstores have said, my publisher Ekstasis falls outside their usual supply chain. But he said he’d try to find a way to order my book but if he couldn’t then I could sell it there on consignment. 

            When I got home I took my new bike down to Metro Cycle and asked Gordon to raise the seat a touch. I think it’s close to where it should be now but I’ll see how it feels. 

            I weighed 86.15 kilos at 18:30, which is the lightest I’ve been in the evening since February 9.

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:53. 

            I imported my WMV copy of Wings of Desire into Movie Maker and put it at the end of the timeline of my project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “Seven Shades of Blues”. Near the beginning I isolated a clip of the main character who is shown with wings and then shown with them fading away. That would work well for my line, “the angel that desires to be a man”, but I’ll keep looking. I went through the first fifteen minutes but there’s still two hours to go. 

            For supper I had tomatoes and avocadoes with lemon juice dressing and a glass of Garden Cocktail while watching episodes 5 and 6 of The Adventures of Batman cartoon series.

            In the first story the Joker breaks into the RX Chemical laboratory. He photographs top secret documents and then steals two goldfish, saying they are red herrings. Then Joker lets himself into the planetarium and after the robbery Batman and Robin are called. The director of the planetarium says all that’s missing are a few worthless souvenirs. Joker has also left his picture behind. Next Joker digs his way into Solar Dynamics Inc. He photographs some more blueprints and then steals a wheelbarrow. Batman figures that the petty thefts are red herrings but he still doesn’t know what Joker’s big caper is. Next Batman learns the Joker is at Gotham Industrial Labs. They arrive to see him running into the Jokermobile. The Batmobile follows but another car is driving between the Batmobile and the Jokermobile and blocking the way. There is no driver in the middle car. Batman punctures the middle car’s tire and puts it out of commission but the Joker puts a wall of flame in the Batmobile’s path. The Joker escapes but forgets to turn off his remote control. This allows Batman to trace the signal back to Joker’s hideout at the Funhouse on the fairgrounds. They enter the Funhouse and immediately fall down a trap door leading to a slide that is heading to the mouth of a furnace. Batman and Robin turn the power switches on their utility belts on high and short circuit them. The electrical shock demagnetizes the slide. They return to the Batcave where the Bat Computer analyzes the connection between the two labs, the factory and the planetarium. The answer is that all four are working on a giant solar mirror and the next thing Joker needs is the electronic detonator at the Power and Light Company. The Joker’s men gas the employees at Power and Light. They escape in Joker’s helicopter. Batman deduces that Joker would use the abandoned Power House to set up the mirror. They go there and use the Batmobile’s ejector seats to land themselves on the roof. Joker is about to fire the mirror at Gotham when Batman and Robin swing in. There is a final fight and the heroes defeat the henchmen but Joker activates the mirror. It can’t be turned off from outside and so Batman and Robin must shut it down internally. Inside there are twin electrodes that Batman and Robin must hit simultaneously. They are successful but the machinery blows up along with the building. The domed frame of the skylight flies through the air and lands on top of Joker like a cage. 

            In the second story the Penguin is in prison but the barred window on his cell is removable and he leaves every night to commit crimes then returns before dawn. This time he breaks into the museum and steals the Maltese Bat, leaving a baterang on the floor near the broken glass case. Penguin returns to his cell while the cops find the baterang. The chief says Batman is a suspect. Batman tells Robin to run and they evade the police and escape. The next night Penguin escapes again and lands on top of the city bank. He cuts through the roof with a Bat Raygun, but the police report activity at the bank and Batman gets the radio message. The Joker makes sure he leaves the Bat raygun behind. Batman wants to investigate the scene of the crime but would be arrested if he did, so instead he swings in quickly and steals the police photographer’s camera. At the Batcave he analyzes the photos to discover that the thief is wearing prison hobnailed boots. He deduces that Penguin is breaking in and out of prison every night. So next time they hear a police report they just go directly to the state prison where they intercept Penguin on his way back to his cell. 

            Some of the layouts and backgrounds were done by Mike Ploog, who later on became a renowned comic book artist for Marvel. I have issues of Man Thing that were drawn by Ploog. He began drawing as a child trying to depict the dramatic characters and scenes described on popular radio shows. Later in the Marines he did artwork for Leatherneck Magazine. He worked on backgrounds for both the Batman and Superman stories on the Batman Superman Hour in 1968. After that series ended he moved to Hanna Barbera where he provided layouts for the Wacky Races and the Scooby Doo pilot. He broke into comics at Warren Publishing for their black and white horror comic magazines. This led to him drawing Werewolf By Night for Marvel. He then helped launch the first Johnny Blaze Ghost Rider comics. Ploog drew the first six issues of The Monster of Frankenstein, which depicted the monster closer to the novel than any other comic. He drew issues 5 to 11 of Steve Gerber’s critically acclaimed Man Thing series. He was also the artist for Kull the Destroyer. Ploog returned to the movie industry and did post production work for Ghostbusters. He worked for Ralph Bakshi on his Wizards and Lord of the Rings animated films. He did design work for Superman II, Little Shop of Horrors, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Dark Crystal, and Labyrinth. He drew the graphic novel Abadazad. He illustrated cards for the Magic: The Gathering card game.