Mike Ploog is born in Mankato, Minn. in 1940. The award-winning illustrator, storyboard artist, animator and production designer’s career included work with famed writer/artist Will Eisner, as well as layout for Scooby-Doo, film work on Ghostbusters, The Thing, Little Shop of Horrors, The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, but Ploog is remembered most for his work as artist for Marvel’s horror comics in the 1970s, creating or co-creating the look of Ghost Rider, Werewolf by Night, Man-Thing, and Marvel’s Dracula and Frankenstein characters. Ploog also illustrated Marvel’s black-and-white Planet of the Apes magazine and Warren Publishing’s Vampirella.
This Day in Halloween: Award-winning illustrator, animator and production designer Mike Ploog is born in Mankato, Minn. in 1940. / Illustration by Mike Ploog