Pluggers: Calm in the Face of Disaster

The Pluggers comic strip is somewhat unique in that many of the ideas are suggestions put forward by readers. It is a working person's strip, documenting the ups and downs of people who do the real work of the world. The work comes in many forms, from housework to childcare to fixing the faucet. Working people also play and what they do in the off- time, what little there sometimes is, is also a topic of the strip. Fishing is the sport of choice for pluggers, they tend to be a bit on the heavy side and see no need to change by engaging in physical activity. Pluggers is a comic strip that you can look at and see yourself in, coping with life as it is so extremely imaginative in presenting you with new challenges. If you have ever kept an old pair of shoes, pants or car, fixed things with duct tape or been frustrated by technology, this strip is for you. From it, you can learn that you are not alone; you don't have eccentricities, just deeply held character traits.

Pluggers, that delightful little one-panel cartoon created by the immortal Jeff MacNelly, and still drawn after his death by his colleague Gary Brookins, is one of the few "ghost strips" which is actually BETTER today than when it was first created. The funny pages today are full of ghost strips, still going strong even though their original creators are now deceased, and their ranks include such stalwarts as Beetle Bailey, Hi and Lois, Love Is, Shoe, and Pluggers. These new artists, often the children or (in the case of Pluggers) former colleagues of their creators, often do an excellent job recreating the look and feel of the original. In almost all cases, however, something is missing. These "new versions" feel almost frozen, as if the new artists dare not alter the vision of the original masters. Sometimes a strip can get a total makeover and be brazenly reinvented for a new generation (as Jerry Scott did to that old museum-piece Nancy a few years back); sometimes, the readers warm to such makeovers, often they don't. Pluggers, however, has not only survived, but thrived in the new era, and the seed of it's transformation was planted by creator MacNelly before his death: have the readers write the strip!! To this day, fans of Pluggers can send in their suggestions and drawings to new Chief Plugger Brookins and, if he uses them, they will receive full credit in the strip. Calm in the Face of Disaster was the first collection of Pluggers, so most strips here are authored by MacNelly himself, with a few of the best reader contributions thrown in for good measure. What is a Plugger?? Well, they comprise approximately 80% of the American population and they are neither independently wealthy nor inordinately thin; their waistlines are often expanding and their wallets are almost always shrinking. If you are a blue-collar worker, you are certainly a Plugger, but if you have a white-collar job, but have to work long hours for little pay and recognition, you are a Plugger as well. In short, these fine folks are the backbone of this great nation, and MacNelly and Brookins are obviously very fond of them, mostly because they never stop plugging along. Here are Andy Bear, Sheila Roo, and the other denizens of Pluggerville, doing the two things they do best: working and smiling. In one strip, the Plugger party is obviously one which takes place in the kitchen rather than the living room, while in another, it is noted that "If doing lunch means opening a can, you are probably a Plugger." The best section by far is "Pluggers At Work": for instance, "If you're shoes are older than some of your coworkers, you are probably a Plugger," and "A Plugger is a plaid person in a pin-striped universe." Still, no one can doubt their hard work and tenacity: Another strip shows a Plugger filling his car from a fuel truck; the sign on the panel of the truck reads "Midnight Oil." If you can relate, then you are almost certainly a Plugger and should get this wonderful coll

What's a plugger? "Someone who plugs holes in the bucket of life, and stays calm in the face of disaster." Yep, it's we simple souls in fly-over country, who do our jobs, raise our kids, and generally keep society moving...well, moving anyway. This book is a collection of Jeff MacNelly's hilarious cartoons, all of which look at, laugh at, and glorify the simple lives of the simple people. If your motto is "Life is hard: plug on," then this book is for you!