I did promise a few comics reviews last week, but never got around to posting them. Here's an issue of the latest Scooby-Doo series from our pals at DC Comics.
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Scooby-Doo! #87 (DC) - I’d be lying if I didn’t admit at the outset that I’m a huge Scooby-Doo fan. I have been since I first caught the show back when it premiered in 1969. Of course, being the SD ‘purist’ that I am, it’s really only the original foursome and their adventures which I hold as gospel. Those lesser shows with Scrappy and the “cousins” (whose names escape me) really don’t count. I think that I’m not the only one who feels this way as the folks who put the first SD film together demonstrated brilliantly.

Anyway, this issue of the comic was given away as a freebie at New York Is Book Country and I couldn’t resist (first, because it was FREE and secondly because I was curious how SD & Co. translated to the comics’ page). I believe there have been a few SD series from various publishers, but I don’t recall ever picking up an issue prior to this.

The first story “The Monster of Shoogy Cove” finds Mystery, Inc. visiting Shaggy’s uncle at the beach. Uncle Shoogy owns a small food stand (naturally!) and is being pressured by the larger hotels in the area to sell off his prime piece of real estate. While the gang is getting ready for some ‘sun & fun’ a mysterious shark monster begins terrorizing the beach. It’s up to the foursome to discover just who is responsible. Like the best of the cartoons the gang is all perfectly portrayed with all their trademark quirks in place. Writer Ivan Velee, Jr. does a nice job keeping the action and gags coming. The art by Robert Pope & Dave Hunt captures the look of the characters as we have come to know them. There’s nothing special here, but it’s true to the creations.

“Multi-Monster Mania” is a four page change of pace, which allows the reader to guess the identity of the bad guy by clues shown in the first couple of pages. John Rozum keeps the story short, just giving enough so the reader can play along. It was nice to see Joe Staton doing the pencils on this and the next story aided on both by Scott McRae with the inks. Staton’s cast is not exactly ‘on model’ as they say, but everyone is recognizable. His slightly cartoony style is perfect for this type of thing, although I miss his E-Man & Michael Mauser stuff.

The final story, “Unfair at the Fair”, by writer Robbie Busch takes us back to the classic type of SD story with the gang helping out Velma’s Aunt Gretchen. It seems that Gretchen’s medieval fair is being ‘haunted’ by a phantom jester. Could it be the work of her former employees the Razz Brothers, who have opened their own competing high-tech version of the fair nearby? Only the Mystery, Inc. gang can figure it out, and you know they will.

This is a fun title for kids and older fans of the cartoon show. Nothing classic or completely original, but that wasn’t why we all watched the show to begin with. It was just to spend time with that dog and his friends to see what mischief they could get in to, and then out of. Three stars.