October 14, 2022

The Many MANY Intros Of Scooby-Doo: Daphne Brings Back The Mysteries

For two seasons anyway.

The problem with the early Scrappy years wasn’t the appearance of Scrappy or even the rest of the gang besides Scooby-Doo and Shaggy. I mean, nobody would do a Scooby-Doo story without Scooby. That would just be silly. The problem was the absence of a mystery that the viewers could solve along with the characters. Shaggy did go to work for his uncle’s detective agency with Scooby and Scrappy in tow but it still wasn’t the mysteries we fans wanted.

So ABC finally returned to the mystery format…although they would still be doing shorts instead of a full episode mystery the majority of the time. And while they didn’t reunite the entire gang Daphne returned to join Shaggy and the dogs in the globetrotting mysteries. SO WHY IS NOBODY SUGGESTED SHAGGY AND DAPHNE WERE A COUPLE? What, Shaggy was allowed to keep Fred’s supposedly beloved Mystery Machine (as shown by more recent writers he’s as obsessed with that van as he is traps, which also wasn’t classic Fred) but he adhered to the “bro code” when it came to the hot redhead? Food only goes so far, folks.

The next two series, The New Scooby-Doo And Scrappy-Doo Show and The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries, would see at least part of the team back together. We’ll discuss this as we get into the intros.

Continue reading →

Posted by on October 14, 2022 in Animation Spotlight, Scooby-Doo and tagged , , , , , , .

Leave a comment

October 14, 2022

“Yesterday’s” Comic> Mystery Men Comics #1

I think I’ll stick with my surgeon.

Mystery Men Comics #1

Fox Feature Syndicate (August, 1939, as scanned here)

The Green Mask: A Modern Robin Hood

WRITER/ARTIST: Walter Frehm

Rex Dexter Of Mars: “Interplanetary Adventurer”

WRITER/ARTIST: Dick Briefer (apparently Comic Book Plus isn’t sure about that credit)

Billy Bounce: “How To Be A Detective”

WRITER/ARTIST: Norman Lee

Chen Cheng: no title

WRITER/ARTIST: Cecilia Munson (apparently the pen name of Munson Paddock–a male using a female pen name in comics in 1939?)

Wing Turner: “Skullduggery On Smokey Mountain”

WRITER/ARTIST: George Tuska

Zanzobar The Magician: “Trapped At The Top”

WRITER/ARTIST: George Tuska

Hemlock Sholmes & Dr. Potsum: “The Case Of Tintype’s Will”

WRITER/ARTIST: Fred Schwab

The Waco Kid: “Trouble At Gun Hollow”

WRITER/ARTIST: Arthur Peddy

Inspector Bancroft: “Another Bombing Outrage”

WRITER/ARTIST: Art Franklin

The Blue Beetle (finally): no title

WRITER: Will Eisner (though Comic Book Plus isn’t sure)  ARTIST: Charles Nichols

D-13: “The Panama Canal Affair”

WRITER: Will Eisner (again, not sure)  ARTIST: Bob Powell or S.R. Powell (also not sure)

Captain Danny Scott: “The Valley Of The Dead”

WRITER/ARTIST: John Lindermayer

Lt. Drake: “Saboteurs On The S.S. Regina”

WRITER/ARTIST: Klaus Nordling

Grab a seat, folks. This one is going to take a while, but if you want to get to the Blue Beetle story you’ll have to scroll down pretty far. I marked the paragraph.

Continue reading →

Posted by on October 14, 2022 in Yesterday's Comics and tagged , , , .

1 Comment

October 14, 2022

BW’s Daily Video> The Original Storyline Of Transformers: Beast Wars

Catch more of TJOmega on YouTube

I looked up the other 1996 Beast Wars figures, the first wave, and checked out their tech specs. Blackarachnia apparently shares Tarantulas’ perverse feeding styles, but otherwise there aren’t a whole lot of changes to Inferno or Tigatron, though old Tig only has a intelligence spec of 3. I’m guessing Polar Claw was the brains of the polar defense region. Oddly none of that year’s non-show character tech specs had anything further about the Earth they were on, but Buzzsaw, who shares Waspinator’s mold, was supposed to be Waspinator’s combat partner.

Posted by on October 14, 2022 in Animation Spotlight, Television Spotlight and tagged , , .

Leave a comment

October 13, 2022

The Future Of Cartoon Network In 2022?

David Zaslav continues to overall the Warner Brothers side of Warner Brothers Discovery, and when the small TV network franchise has less issues that the multimedia juggernaut something is horribly wrong. The latest victim appears to be Cartoon Network Studios, the animation studio tied to Cartoon Network. At least if you listen to the internet. According to Variety 82 existing staff members at Warner Brothers’ Television division were let go and the 43 already open positions eliminated or at least won’t be filled. This plus a bunch of animated shows disappearing from HBO Max (some of which doesn’t make sense to me but I’m not in the offices of Warner Brothers Discovery or Cartoon Network) has somehow led to “CARTOON NETWORK IS GOING TO DIE IN FLAMES OHMAYGHAD ANIMATION IS DEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!” or something to that effect. The internet was already declaring the death of Cartoon Network, not just the studio. Folks, if it survived CN Live and “let’s make them all short comedies like on YouTube because we don’t understand what a budget is” now is not the time to panic.

Yes, there have been cutbacks, but there have been cutbacks all over the new company. The Batgirl movie was apparently so bad that it was canceled before it saw the light of day. Someone tried to tell me that the movie’s test screening wasn’t any worse than Shazam, which actually makes me less interested in seeing either movie or The Violent Emancipation Of Black Adam. Even the supposed merger of Cartoon Network Studios and Warner Brother’s regular animation department isn’t happening, and they’ll be running as separate brands. So what is the future of former home of the greatest cartoon stars, as the promos used to say? Let’s speculate, because that’s all we can do and least I know I’m not an oracle. Continue reading →

Posted by on October 13, 2022 in Animation Spotlight, Television Spotlight and tagged , , , , .

Leave a comment

October 13, 2022

“Yesterday’s” Comic> Star Blazers: The Magazine Of Space Battleship Yamato #2

That’s a terrible parking job.

Star Blazers: The Magazine Of Space Battleship Yamato #2

Argo Press (October, 1995)

“The New Voyage” part 1

ADAPTATION/ARTIST: Tim Eldred

COLORISTS: John Ott & Tim Eldred

PUBLICATION DESIGN/FEATURES EDITOR: Bruce Lewis

Continue reading →

Posted by on October 13, 2022 in Animation Spotlight, Movie Spotlight, Television Spotlight, Yesterday's Comics and tagged , , , .

Leave a comment

October 13, 2022

BW’s Daily Video> How To Create Better Cartoon Titles

Catch more from The Mysterious Mr. Enter on YouTube

 

Posted by on October 13, 2022 in Animation Spotlight, Television Spotlight and tagged , .

Leave a comment

October 12, 2022

The Many, MANY Intros Of Scooby-Doo: And Along Came Scrappy

 

Alternate title: Scrappy-Doo and Guess Who.

ABC had Scooby-Doo only a few years and was already considering ending the show. It would have been the end for the show over two networks if they didn’t come up with some idea to freshen the show up. So they came up with Scrappy-Doo. Mark Evanier discusses how they came up with Scrappy, promoted it to Hanna and Barbera as well as ABC, and the various stages of Scrappy’s life he was involved in. Scrappy doesn’t deserve the hate he gets, as we’ve gone over before, but there’s still a trope (wrongfully) named for the character that arguably saved the Scooby franchise.

As a matter of fact Season One of Scooby-Doo And Scrappy-Doo, if you were to watch both, feels like a continuation of The Scooby-Doo Show. The art is the same, the mysteries on display outside of the final episode before the format change would have been a good fit with the previous show, and the only real change was Scrappy being added to the chase scenes with his Scrappy traps (imagine Fred’s traps but without the victory–it’s not like all of Fred’s traps worked as intended) and “PUPPY POWER!” It did also change the way Scooby’s relatives had been named in the previous show, from “Scooby-(X)” to the more familiar and better suiting “(X)-Doo”, so Scrappy has that going for him. It even got packaged with other shows and featured other family members like the previous show. And of course it had its own intro.

Continue reading →

Posted by on October 12, 2022 in Animation Spotlight, Scooby-Doo and tagged , , , , , , , .

Leave a comment