Question about Muppet Show Preview Comic

[Dearth]

Hi all,

I was hoping to get some expert advice about the Muppet Show Preview Comic.

I live in a town where the only place to get comics is Books-A-Million, and that's pretty hit-and-miss. (For instance, I checked every couple of days looking for Muppet Show #4 Family Reunion, and they still had issue #3 on the shelf up until they replaced it a couple of days ago... with issue #5.)

Anyway, as I was digging around online to get some more info on the Muppet Show comics, to see if there was anything else I missed, I noticed that the description of the MUPPET SHOW PREVIEW COMIC on the Muppet Wiki mentions some details that weren't present in the issue that I bought on eBay.

Okay, mine has a one-page greeting from Mark Waid, a two-page Muppet Labs skit about time-travel, a three-page story about the baby on the doorstep and Sweetums, a one-page Muppet Ballroom (with Bert), and a two-page Pigs in Space tale.

So, when I first read the main three-page story-- which falls across the center of the book, right down the staples-- I felt like something was amiss. I couldn't follow the story. One minute there's a baby backstage, then there's some character I don't recognize, and then Scooter says (about Sweetums) "Looks like there WAS a baby here tonight after all!"

The entry on the Wiki talks about Babyface Magee, and how it turns out he wasn't really a baby but a midget acrobat.

So, apparently I've got a defective copy, with... what? Four full pages missing? Because if there's ONE page missing, it's got to fall right along the staples, right? You can't staple one page in there, so it can't be just two pages (front and back). It would have to be a folded (four-page front and back) page.

I know a lot of this material was intended for Disney Adventures (I need the Fozzie and Smedley story) but I was thinking that the preview comic was the only place it had actually seen print. Or did the full Babyface tale appear in Disney Adventures, and was truncated for the preview?

DN

 

[minor muppetz]

From what I understand, the preview comic was released that way, and then when the trade paperback "The Muppet Show Comic Book: Meet the Muppets" was released, that preview comic and all other unreleased Disney Adventures comics (excluding the "Pigs in Space" comic) was included, with more to the story.

So is that how the preview's laid out? We get sketches before and after the story but not during? In "Meet the Muppets" we get sketches between parts of the bckstage plot.

 

[Dearth]

Thanks for clearing that up for me. I just ordered the paperback from eBay.

Yes, in the preview, it's got the backstage story across three continuous pages with no skits interjected.

DN

 

[Dearth]

Okay, I got the Meet the Muppets trade paperback in the mail yesterday. Wow, there was a LOT missing in the preview comic.

After the reprints of the first four issues of the regular BOOM! Muppet Show comic book, there's a five-paragraph introduction to the bonus material by Roger Langridge which takes up a full page.

Next are the first two pages of the 'backstage story'. Kermit's line "send in the quacks" is (duh) a reference to a one-page Veterinarian's Hospital skit which follows. Floyd is the patient. The third page of the backstage plot shares the right-hand of this spread, with Piggy appearing in her Nurse costume for continuity.

Next is a Gonzo two-pager which further expands the backstage plot about the baby, and contains the original setup for the "Mrs. Paint in the third row" references to follow.

Next is the two-page Muppet Labs skit which is used as the first two pages of the preview.

The next left-hand page is more of the backstage plot (sixth or seventh page to this story) with Kermit calling for Muppet Ballroom in the last panel. The Ballroom skit is on the right-side page.

Next are the final two pages of the backstage plot. The very last page is the Fozzie and Smedley routine which appeared previously in Disney Adventures, or so I understand.

***

I've found at least two differences in the artwork. One is the oft-noted cameo by Bert from Sesame Street (at the bottom of the Muppet Ballroom skit in the preview), which is replaced by Dr. Teeth in the paperback.

Another is the final panel of the backstage story, with Sweetums as heckle control. Somewhere between the preview and the paperback, his stack of real bricks has been changed to a burlap sack of 'Acme Crowd Control Rubber Bricks'. Aw.

***

And the preview comic does contain two pages which aren't in the paperback, namely the Pigs in Space skit at the very end.

***

So just to recap, the preview comic begins with the Muppet Labs skit (pp. 7 and 8 of the paperback's story), then it has only the first two and the last pages of the backstage plot... smash-cutting from "send in the quacks" to everyone pouncing on Sweetums at the top of the final page (pp. 1, 2, and 12 of the paperback).

The Muppet Ballroom is the sixth page of the preview (p. 10 of the paperback) and the seventh and eighth pages are the exclusive-to-the-preview Pigs in Space story.

So, there weren't just four pages of story missing in the preview as I previously postulated... there are actually six. (Vet's Hospital and its backstage followup, Gonzo stunt two-pager, backstage plot page with setup for Muppet Ballroom, and one more left-hand page setting up the closing number.)

And the Fozzie skit on the last page would be a seventh 'missing' page, though it doesn't affect the overall plot.

Dearth

 

[Dearth]

Didn't spot this one at first... in Sweetums' song, the word 'boogers' in the preview becomes 'yoghurt' in the paperback.

DN