One of our favorite contemporary comic books is SCOOBY-DOO
TEAM-UP, my discovery of which is chronicled in THIS POST, and another
extraordinary issue is discussed HERE.
This wonderful title, in which the Scooby-Doo Mystery Inc.
gang can apparently crossover with (presumably) the entirety of the DC Comics,
Warner Bros. and Hanna-Barbera “Universes”, consistently showed great
imagination and wit, as well as SUPERB character bits and observations (some seen
below) in its first four issues.
Issue # 5 with Wonder Woman and Issue # 6 with the Super
Friends seemed just a “little less so” in the “superb character bits and
observations” department, though still very enjoyable…
…But I expect this to seriously rebound in Issue # 7!
According to “Friend of This Blog” Dan Cunningham – he of
the superlative Blog series on Disney Comics that I never miss an opportunity
to plug -- Issue # 7 of SCOOBY-DOO TEAM-UP will feature (…Drumroll!) THE FLINTSTONES!
HERE’S the link provided by Dan!
The basic story idea sounds a bit like Vic Lockman and Phil
DeLara’s “The Flintstones Meet Frankenstein and Dracula” (THE FLINTSTONES # 33, April, 1966), with the Scooby-gang being brought back in time to the days of
Bedrock… to (guess what?) solve a mystery.
Maybe even Perry Gunnite will be on hand (...or, thrown overboard).
Or, the Gruesomes?
Or, dare I possibly hope for Alvin Brickrock?
With the generally high quality of SCOOBY-DOO TEAM-UP,
anything’s possible!
No matter, with all the talk about (and built-up desire for)
a FLINTSTONES comic, as seen in THIS RECENT POST and THIS ONE, I expect this
issue of SCOOBY-DOO TEAM-UP to be popular with, and well-received by, the readers of
this Blog.
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| "Like, haven't we met a CAVEMAN, before?" |
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| Sing it with me: "Scooby, Dooby-Doo! Where are You? We've got some work to do now!" "Scooby, Dooby-Doo! Where are You? We need some help from you, now!" |
I can’t wait for the on-sale date of November 05, 2014!
Yabba-Dabba… er, “Doo”!
Run (or fly) to your comics retailer to get a copy!
11 comments:
I will! Let's hope Scoob doesn't come back from the past with a Dino Peptic Germ!
I believe the closest they have come so far to a crossover was in the Laff-a-Lympics, where Scooby was one of the team captains and Fred and Barney sometimes served as special judges. They have sometimes appeared together in publicity posters along with other H-B characters, but pretty much the Crystal Cove crowd has been kept apart from the Bedrock bunch.
Oh, yes...there was a giant Fred Flintstone balloon featured prominently in one of the Scooby Doo Movies team-ups with Batman.
This new team-up is bound to be interesting and highly entertaining...and the first Flintstones comics appearance since the late 90's! "You'll see Fred and Barney, too (Yabba Dabba Doo!)" in the new Scooby com-ic book!
JoeC:
I think Scoob is more likely to return to the present with a sack of Bronto-Burgers, rather than a Dino Peptic Germ.
However, if it is the germ that takes the trip forward, and not the burgers, let’s hope Mystery Inc. doesn’t make a stopover in the FIFTIES, on their way back to the 21st Century, because Ralph Kramden might believe HE has the germ, and all sorts of pre-1960s-Flintstones hilarity could very well ensue!
Then again, anyone who has seen the entirety of SCOOBY-DOO MYSTERY INCORPORATED (2010-2013: a GREAT SERIES, and one truly for the ages, seriously!) – and interprets the final episode in the same way as *I* interpret it, knows Scooby’s timeline is already (shall we say) a “slippery slope”. …I sure hope some reference is made to THAT ASPECT of Scooby-Lore, as long as they’re addressing time travel.
Given the book's track record, if such a reference could occur ANYWHERE, it would be in the pages of SCOOBY-DOO TEAM-UP!
Scarecrow:
I didn’t occur to me until you mentioned it but, oddly enough, LAFF-A-LYMPICS could very well take place in the same “pocket universe” as SCOOBY-DOO TEAM-UP, where anybody could meet anybody! …Or, wherever “The Flintstones at the New York World’s Fair” 1964 souvenir comic book took place! No doubt, if it were the “1969 or 1970 World’s Fair” (…or, whenever the next one took place), Scooby and the Gang would have been there too – along with some Wacky Racers, Space Ghost, and Secret Squirrel.
Poor Loopy De Loop… If memory serves, he didn’t even make it into THAT all-encompassing “H-B Universe” comic book! …“Zere, is NO PLACE for ze Goof Wolf, no?”
Imagine if we still had World’s Fairs today: “Family Guy Presents: The Griffins at the 2015 World’s Fair”!
It would have characters from AMERICAN DAD, THE CLEVELAND SHOW, and (in keeping with the TV events of September 28, 2014) a special guest appearance by The Simpsons! Hmmm… I’d actually buy that!
And, yes… We’ve been waiting QUITE SOME TIME for some comics Flintstones! I’m very much looking forward to this!
Joe, scarecrow & joecab:
This upcoming issue was a true thrill to have discovered! Quite promising to think that the Flintstones and Rubbles are slowly being positioned to re-gain recognition from kids today beyond cereal box icons.
Scooby-Doo Team-Up has handled their subjects so cleverly thus far, I can't be anything but optimistic about what we're going to see in that issue! Not to mention, this could provide a measuring stick to see sales reaction on the return of the modern Stone-Age family to comics after a decade +.
Alvin Brickrock and Perry Gunnite would make FANTASTIC additions to the story... looking forward to seeing who might show up in that story.
Incidentally, when Time Warner acquired the I.P. from Ted Turner's (mid-1990s) it happened during my days working at the Warner Brothers Gallery. The initial roll-out of H-B characters into the WB Studio Stores showed up as a selection of coffee mugs, pins, T-shirts and writing pens—it was a test run with 6 sets of characters to see which ones resonated best with consumers. The six to choose from were:
Yogi Bear
The Flintstones
Scooby-Doo
The Jetsons
Hong Kong Phooey
Dastardly & Muttley
The character choices by WB consumer products was based on what had already been deemed the most globally popular characters (Dick Dastardly & Muttley and Wacky Races was and continues to be hugely popular overseas!)
Of course, Scooby-Doo won that race hands... uh, paws-down, and he was used liberally alongside Bugs and Batman in merchandise and promotions until the Studio Stores closed up shop in 2001. Luckily, we in the Galleries got to deal with some beautiful hand-painted cels, many perfectly re-creating classic scenes featuring just about all the early H-B characters, and signed by Bill and Joe.
As mentioned in an e-mail to Joe, I can only postulate what comes after Mystery, Inc. visits Bedrock: since we're talking time travel it only makes sense that they'll wind up in Orbit City on the way back home, right?
Or further out in time to, say, the 24th and 1/2 Century to assist a feathered Hero and eager young Space Cadet?
There's a lot of Team-Up possibilities out there, which we've mentioned in previous comments sections here at TIAH. Here's a wilder one... a joint book with Archie reuniting Mystery, Inc. with Josie and the Pussycats? The Archie folks have been doing some crazy stuff as of late, I bet it's not completely out of the spectrum of possibility! - Dan
Dan:
The irony never ceases to amaze me that Warner Bros., the creative entity behind some of the greatest animated characters in history, continues to regard Batman and Scooby-Doo as the two most merchandisable characters under their vast umbrella! …And, number three is probably MGM’s Tom and Jerry! Not that I don’t love Batman, Scooby-Doo, and Tom and Jerry, it’s more the “acquisition over creation” thing that gnaws at me.
Never mind an entity like “Classic Media” (do they still exist, or have they been swallowed-up by Dreamworks, or something?), that merchandised SO MANY different properties, including (I believe) some of the original creations of Gold Key Comics – but never created anything!
I suppose buying something is less effort-intensive than creating something.
You also bring up something that’s been in the back of my mind, since discovering SCOOBY-DOO TEAM-UP.
So far, the team-ups have involved primarily “human characters” – even extremely exaggerated, cartoony “human characters” like Issue # 4’s Teen Titans. If there WAS an animal character present, it was one that was analogous to Scooby, like Issue # 2’s Ace the Bat-Hound. In that vein, I expect we will eventually see Dyno-Mutt and Blue Falcon, since that was a classic-era team-up and, thus, a natural. Space Ghost will surely show up, as will Jonny Quest, and maybe even Frankenstein Jr. and Buzz Conroy.
The “cartoony human characters” precedent, set by Teen Titans, is what opens the door for The Flintstones and The Jetsons. Perhaps even less-likely pairings like The Space Kiddettes and The Impossibles. I’m still holding out hope for Freakazoid!
But, what of a team-up with ACTUAL walking, talking “funny animal” characters, as you suggest with “Duck Dodgers and Eager Young Space Cadet”? Or, Quick Draw McGraw? Lots of western mysteries waiting to be solved – and all of them would probably be costumed bad-guys, anyway – so it’s another natural!
What I’m really getting at is: Is it within the parameters of SCOOBY-DOO TEAM-UP to visit a full-out “funny animal realm”, where the animal characters are not just pets or companions, but the main characters of their universe? Looney Tunes, early Hanna-Barbera, and MGM characters would all qualify, and I’d love to have been party to the editorial discussions when THIS topic arose!
To briefly digress, YOGI BEAR actually DID have an odd “Blink-And-You-Miss-It” cameo in SCOOBY-DOO MYSTERY INCORPORATED! One day, I might have a post on it!
What if they “split-the-difference” and meet the Wacky Racers, or Dastardly and Muttley and Their Flying Machines? Humans and a funny-animal semi-talking dog. That MIGHT seem a little “more in line” than Duck Dodgers, I suppose.
On that subject, as far back as 1970, I said that Scooby-Doo, Muttley, and Astro should be able to have a conversation, given their “Messick-onian linguistic roots”.
The Jetsons team-up you envision would doubtless HAVE that Scooby / Astro moment! The strange thing is, by the end of SCOOBY-DOO MYSTERY INCORPORATED while voiced by Frank Welker, Scooby was practically “speaking the King’s English” (as opposed to the more “dog-like” way Don Messick inaugurated him, back in 1969), and he might find Astro a bit too primitive or pedestrian for his tastes!
…Then again, as I hinted at above, in consideration of SCOOBY-DOO MYSTERY INCORPORATED, Scooby-Doo’s entire timeline (including his evolution and possible de-evolution) might be a very slippery slope – he says cryptically to avoid spoilers!
Me? I wanna see Pinky and The Brain? Acme Labs could be haunted, and it could turn out to be Elmyra! Now THAT’S scary!
Seeing one of the scenes of a Huckleberry Hound story from the Charlton's Hanna-Barbera period (drawn by Ray Dirgo), the incidental character looks like a character drawn by Mort Walker (from the Beetle Bailey fame), due to the "Conneticut style" (very characterized by the "stylized bigfoot" seen on the characters drawn by Mort). And the Charlton Comics central was located in Conneticut.
Rodinei:
I suspect there’s a great deal of truth in your assertion of a “Connecticut Cartoonist’s Style”, or at least a “King Features Comic Strip Style”, pervasive among some of the Charlton stuff.
The Huckleberry Hound artist was Frank Johnson, who did the King Features strip “Boner’s Ark” (…try getting that name past an editor today!).
I remember liking “Boner’s Ark” back in the day – but that does not, by ANY stretch, make Johnson’s particular style acceptable for Huckleberry Hound! Indeed, as published in THIS POST, Johnson’s work on Huckleberry Hound is absolutely hideous! Especially so, if you were to hold the art of the great Harvey Eisenberg as the standard for Hanna-Barbera characters in comics.
And that, to me, was the overarching problem with the Charlton Hanna-Barbera comic books of the ‘70s… no one (…and I mean NO ONE) there seemed to have ANY sense of what was “good” and what was “bad” for these comics – and “bad” became the default setting… for BOTH writing and art!
Joe Torcivia,
Don't forget that Frank Johnson worked as Mort Walker's assistant in the Beetle Bailey comic strip.
Rodinei:
That would explain the “Beetle Bailey” / “Hi and Lois” look to “Boner’s Ark”!
I liked all of those, but that still doesn’t make it a good look for Huckleberry Hound!
I also like of all these comic strips created by the great Mort Walker (Beetle Bailey, Hi & Lois, Boner's Ark), as I also like of Hägar The Horrible (created in 1973 by the late Dik Browne, and it's nowadays produced by his son Chris).
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