Random Happenstance

So the other day I think I brought up Plop! in the comments, and while I think I've had the Best of DC Digest #60 for going on 35 years, I only recently picked up my first single issue of the book, and didn't remember it had the same cover! From 1975, Plop! #13, cover by Wally Wood. 

Actually, I have to take a gander if I actually do still have that digest, as I kind of feel it's one of a handful of books I've lent out and lost more than once. (See also: the Big Book of Urban Legends.) Until just now, I didn't realize there was another Plop! digest collection, Best of DC Digest #63. And none of the stories from inside this issue are reprinted in either one! That either means yay, this is the only way to read them, or boo, they were stinkers not worth reprinting? Let's see:

Sergio Aragonés draws the framing sequence--with Cain, Abel, and Eve trying in vain to avoid being 'Plopped!' upon--as well as the voodoo tale "The Banana Dolls" with Steve Skeates. When the workers on a banana plantation get nowhere complaining about the whippings from the cruel foreman, they take matters into their own hands with banana voodoo dolls. After the foreman and owner are killed, the cruel accountant takes over, but thinks he has the problem licked: no more whipping, "...from now on it's bullets all the way!" He knew a doll of him was forthcoming, but steals it in a hail of gunfire and locks it in a safe for well, safekeeping, and throws it in the river. Voodoo fans may see the flaw in his plan, though.

Most of the rest of the issue is "The Epic of Sidney Kidney," a young man of remarkable uglyness. It's mean and dumb and surprisingly has a punchline Plop! went to at least once in Best of DC Digest #60 alone! Boo. Even "Super Plops" with Kurt Schaffenberger art is weak. Maybe the 13th issue is unlucky after all.