“Yesterday’s” Comic> Scooby-Doo #19 (DC)

Fred went to visit his great uncle Indiana, and this happened.

Scooby-Doo #19

DC Comics (February, 1999)

COLORIST: Paul Becton

LETTERER: John Costanza

EDITOR: Dana Kurtin

“The Curse Of The Scary Scarab”

WRITER: Jesse Leon McCann

PENCILER: Joe Staton

INKER: Andrew Pepoy

“Psychic Psyche-Out!”

WRITER: Joe Edkin

PENCILER: John Delaney

INKER: Dave Cooper

The first mystery has Shaggy’s great uncle, who of course is an archaeologist because none of their family members are boring, disappearing and presumed dead. For some reason the will is read in the tomb he disappeared in and some bad guys and their giant snake want the jewel Shaggy inherited. Wow, that actually sounded dumb when reading it that way but I didn’t think about any of that in the story. It’s actually a really good mystery though some time with it properly (another victim of DC’s kids format when it isn’t a DCAU tie-in) might have allowed us to try to guess the villains of the story. Otherwise I really enjoyed it and it felt like it could work as an old Scooby-Doo story.

The others have the gang watching out for Shaggy’s elderly neighbor when she returns to England to find something she buried there. It happens that a psychic fair is in town and the Ghost Of Bath (I do like that the villain in this story got that legend wrong) seems to want that treasure for herself. It’s a pretty good mystery.

Overall I really enjoyed this issue but it does show the limitations of the two story format. Worth looking into.