To continue celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Scooby-Doo, let's go all the way back to the beginning... of Scooby's COMICS career! It all started with a rather ordinary blurb that would... um, "unleash" something special, that still continues today!
...But, first, some background!
The "Gold Key Comics Club" was, to me, a decidedly unwelcome alteration to my favorite line of comics, since it first appeared in issues released in January, 1967!
I first saw it in DONALD DUCK # 112!
It carved out SIX PAGES that would otherwise be devoted to comics material for nonsensical things having nothing to do with the particular comic or the characters found therein.
But, eventually, at least ONE PAGE of those wasted six would be put to good use, as a guide to what was coming up in Gold-Key-World!
And, in those days where there was virtually NO information available on which comic titles were available and which ones had been cancelled (without any formal notice), this was a very useful resource indeed!
Per that page, here are the Gold Key Comics that were released in December, 1969.
And, with all that good stuff to choose from back at the close of the 1960s, one might very well have overlooked a modest announcement of the first issue of a new title, based on a Saturday morning cartoon that had just debuted that past September!
And here IS that first issue of SCOOBY-DOO WHERE ARE YOU!
At the time, comic book distribution was so inconsistent and haphazard that, despite being a fan of the cartoon - and despite the notice from Gold Key - I never found that first issue! And would wait until I purchased it as a back issue (something also unheard of in 1969 - at least to me) in the 1980s!
I did, however, find the SECOND ISSUE at my corner newsstand/soda fountain/candy store... you know, the kind of place that you bought comic books from back then!
And, from that point on, I collected as many of them as the (...all together now) inconsistent and haphazard distribution methods of the time would allow...
...Eventually subscribing, once mail subscriptions to the SCOOBY-DOO title were allowed...
...And following Scooby and the gang through a variety of publishers!
GOLD KEY:
CHARLTON:
MARVEL:
HARVEY (Which reprinted CHARLTON, with only new covers!):
ARCHIE:
And finally - DC COMICS, where Scooby-Doo remains from 1997 to the present day, in a variety of forms:
...Including even THIS!
WHEW! That dog sure gets around!
But, it all started with THIS...
...Poor BANDIT, Hanna-Barbera's ORIGINAL cowardly adventuring dog can only look on in grudging appreciation of Scooby's comic-book accomplishments!
