Catch more from Guru Larry on YouTube
Scooby’s next TV series would involve some interesting changes, which makes it fitting that it was titled What’s New Scooby-Doo. 2002 would see the first new Scooby TV series since 1999, and it would be on a new network. By this point Ted Turner had merged his company with Time-Warner, meaning the Hanna-Barbera library now belonged essentially to Warner Brothers. Hanna-Barbera was now completely gone, at least in the US (the UK still has their Hanna-Barbera), so the direct-to-video movies would be produced by Warner Brothers Animation and thus would appear on Kids WB. Shaggy had returned to his green outfit, Daphne would get something reminiscent of her old outfit as would Velma, but Freddy would lose his classic ascot for years until nostalgia recently returned it to him.
Scott Innes was out as not only Shaggy but as Scooby. I once heard it was because Casey Kasem was returning for what would be his last appearance as Shaggy before he passed away and wanted Innes out period. This led to Frank Welker, the voice of Freddy, taking over, and given what I’ve heard of Kasem over the years I can’t confirm it but I can believe it. Innes will return before Matthew Lillard from the live-action movies took over as Shaggy but Welker still voices Scooby. Velma and Daphne have new voices from the direct-to-video movies but the art style and lighter tone of this series would go into the home video movies, for better and for worse as they’re pale imitations of the first batch of movies. Of course the ones they make now seems to only be interested in retconning every paranormal element out they can but that’s an argument for another time. Let’s get into the intro.
Tell others about the Spotlight:
Well, if you weren’t watching your TV on your cell phone while driving….
Robotech Annual #1
Antarctic Press (April, 1998)
LETTERER: Doug Dlin
Three short stories, one for each of the three Robotech Wars of the original TV series.
Tell others about the Spotlight:
Catch more from Mohammed Agbadi on YouTube
I chose this one because it fits our Scooby theme, though he’s done a number of videos on the Twitter Art “Fixing” community, but also this is insulting to the original artist. And yes, I know I posted this.
The difference is this isn’t fan art, it’s promo art for My Adventures With Superman, a show I’ve heard nothing about since the teaser dropped, that turned Lois and Jimmy into alternate races. (Also for some reason Lois is a grown-up Lutz from The Owl House while Jimmy is based on the CW Supergirl version before he went bald.) What happens in the video is someone taking fan art of one show and reworking it into characters from a different show while calling the fan artist racist. I remember hearing some girl decided to draw the original 1980s version of Frosta from Princess Of Power, based on Nordic people, and the “good white people” yelled at the poor kid for race swapping because they only care about the 2010s Princesses Of Power version based on the Inuit, swapping one stereotype for another. Mykel also didn’t put his own watermark on it hoping someone would see his first and attack the actual original artist (my theory anyway). Had the fan artist done a piece based on HBO Max’s ethic cosplayers but made them white that would be one thing but it’s based on classic Scooby-Doo with Freddie wearing his What’s New Scooby-Doo outfit. A new movie with the classic take dropped this very month, where Velma is now a lesbian because frumpy turtlenecks are queer coding or something.
It’s strange that the supposed pro-diversity crowd seems to be going out of their way to make diversity look like a bad thing. I guess that’s what happens when you only look at the surface of people because trying to understand them AS people is too much like work.
Tell others about the Spotlight:
Well, not only did I not get this week’s Jake & Leon done by post time I didn’t even get the Sunday update post out on time. I’ve been tired all week and I’m not sure why. Hopefully things go better this week.
Over at The Clutter Reports I also had some tech issues. The only reason that had any impact on the comic is Saturday I was awake…and really, really annoyed!
This week it’s going to be all Scooby-Doo as the latest “Many, MANY Intros” concludes. That means no Chapter By Chapter this week, though it will return on Halloween. I considered just having the book review this week and having the final (for now) installment of the Scooby intros on Halloween but opted to go this way instead. Maybe it will give me an easier week. What am I going to talk about? Lazarus Planet? Don’t really care. She-Hulk? We already knew that was going to be a poor take because none of them care about comics or the comic universes they’re in charge of or adapting. Plus I need to get ready for Art Soundoff and that’s an apolitical event. Have a great week, everyone!
Tell others about the Spotlight:
Well, it seems I finally cleaned my Filler Video list on YouTube of usable TV shows and movies (though still some longform videos for filler posts). Now it’s time to dig through the Watch Later list for Saturday Night Showcase material.
In a previous Showcase we watched the first episode of Captain Scarlet And The Mysterions, a Gerry Anderson series during his Supermarionation days. In 2005 the new computer animated “hyper-marionation” remake, Gerry Anderson’s New Captain Scarlet, made it’s debut. Anderson took the opportunity to remake the show from the ground up but unlike so many other “reimaginings” this show is actually a proper update, taking cues from the original show and updating them while not tossing out the original entirely. In other words this is a proper remake.
Tonight we’ll look at the two-part pilot episode “Instruments Of Destruction”. (Yes, fellow Transformers fans, I know.) It features a somewhat updated origin for Captains Scarlet and Black while staying true to the original. How refreshing. Oddly the official Gerry Anderson YouTube channel only has a handful of random episodes so I’m taking Sci-Fi Central at their word that they licensed the series for YouTube. Enjoy.
Tell others about the Spotlight:
I’d make a joke about a cold machine going haywire but with Gyro that’s possible.
Gyro Gearloose And The Kolossal Defroster
Disney Comics (May, 2013; digital comic posted to comiXology)
WRITER: Gianluca Panniello
ARTIST: Davide Catenacci
And I had to go to another site to get that. Back before Amazon made the boneheaded decision to merge comiXology into the Kindle store before it was ready I could look up a comic even if it wasn’t offered so long as it was in my library. Not anymore. Thanks for ruining a great online reader, Jeff!
