Scooby Apocalypse Volume 2
Things kick off here with the gang breaking out of the Mall-Mart and then getting back on the road in the Mystery Machine, driving through a landscape intermittently filled with monsters spawned by the nanite plague created by Velma. She naturally feels a lot of guilt over this, but is excused because (1) her intentions were noble, and (2) somehow the nanites were either corrupted by someone or self-evolved so as to turn people into so many colourful, plastic-looking demons.
But despite all of the driving they do there wasn’t any sense that the story was going anywhere in the six issues collected here. The series is actually quite episodic, with some of the links between the issues feeling a bit herky-jerky. Scooby-Doo is missing at the end of issue #7, but at the beginning of issue #8 he’s rejoined the gang with only a cursory explanation later served up as to how he got back. Then issue #10 takes us out of the main timeline entirely into what is only revealed at the end to be a dream. Now it’s a dark and interesting dream, and the hospital story in issue #8 was a fun diversion, but none of this carries things forward.
And indeed at the end of this volume we still don’t know anything new about the nanite plague or what caused it. It feels like we’ve just been driving around. Scrappy-Doo has a couple of quick cameos, revealing him to be a tortured, enhanced-canine soul. But nothing much comes of it. And one of Velma’s powerful brothers makes an appearance as a Donald Trump clone, holed up in an apartment tower with his last name in giant gold letters out front. This made me wonder if somebody is keeping a record of all the different presentations of Trump-like figures in popular culture there have been. I think that would be a book in itself.
And then things end with another cliff-hanger.
This second volume wasn’t bad, and I thought the haunted hospital issue was great, but overall I was losing interest in the storyline and the characters. It’s a bit darker than the first book, with some downright nasty stuff in places (Rufus Dinkley/Trump is a real piece of work), but I felt like I needed a break from the series by the time I got to the end. Originally I thought the fact that this wasn’t just another zombie apocalypse was a big selling point, but it didn’t take long before I was tired of the mutants and missing the more traditional, flesh-eating walking dead. That’s not a good sign moving forward, but I’ll keep giving them a chance.
Alex Good 
A lot of the artistic types have a good idea but they aren’t disciplined enough, or talented, to keep things going.
But seriously, how hard is it to keep a Scooby Doo comic going? I bet even YOU could do it…
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You’re quick on the draw this morning!
Yeah, they had a good idea here but they didn’t have a strong narrative spine holding it together. There’s an outline but that’s about it.
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One of those “wake up early” mornings
If I was an executive, I’d make sure the artists gave me the whole shebang so I knew I wouldn’t be producing garbage. But maybe the Exec’s don’t care either?
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It’s also always worth remembering that in any media most of what gets produced is crap. The really great stuff is maybe 5% of what you actually see. Then there’s another say 30-40% which is OK. And just over half I’d say is crap. This comic is OK, which all things considered has to be considered a win.
As various people have observed in other industries, it’s a popular illusion that there’s all kinds of great creative talent out there that can’t make it through to a big book deal or record contract or whatever. There’s less of that kind of talent than we think. So executives are sort of in the business of throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks. As William Goldman put it about Hollywood years ago, “nobody knows anything” when it comes to chasing hits.
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I liked the scooby doo cartoons and i even liked the 2 live action movies.
But stuff like this makes me want to institute “The New and Improved Bookstooge Death Sentence”. If it doesn’t amuse me, I cram the paper down the artists throats until they choke to death. Seems fair and equitable to me 😀
Think I have a shot of making that a reality in Canada?
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First you’d have to get here. Might be hard with us building a wall to protect our southern border. Of course, I’ve heard rumours of an underground pipeline used to smuggle bootleg syrup that maybe you could use, for a price.
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Good walls make good neighbors!
I’ve heard of that. The Underground Pipeline, led by that notoriously anonymous A Tubman…
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I hear that guy is awesome AA.
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Probably go down in the history books too. The Man Who Saved Canada.
Big stuff. Maybe I should write a comic about that…
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Guaranteed to sell a couple of copies.
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If we price it at Brzrkr levels, we’ll only need to sell a couple and then it will riches and fame for the rest of our (short) lives.
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Just market it as a (very) limited edition. We can even sign both copies. That’s worth a million each right there.
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Heck, I’ll sign it twice, just to up the collectible value.
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As long as you sign with two different names. Don’t want to confuse people.
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The next big hurdle, as I see it, is getting a name for the comic. That’s the hook that’ll get people in.
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It’s where so many great ideas get stuck.
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I was wondering about “Bookyboo and the AAA Gang”. We could could change that to The Triple A Gang though if necessary.
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That’s good. Catchy, plus it doesn’t give any indication of what it might be about. Really draws the reader in.
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I figure we can do little standalone stories. Really milk things.
We can show how Bookyboo and the AAA Gang created Canada, saved Canada and then, in a totally unexpected plot twist, show how their plan all along was to destroy Canada.
Great drama.
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As long as everyone drowns in syrup at the end it’ll be great.
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We can make that happen.
You want a giant nuclear syrup bomb, or a disease vector that turns blood to syrup? We’ve got options.
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I was thinking of turning Niagara Falls into syrup and then flooding the entire Great Lakes.
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Oh, great thinking outside the box! Fanbois will eat that up. Should give them days and even possibly weeks to concoct elaborate theories.
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Am I in the gang? I’d like to save Canada too!
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Absolutely!
Would you like to be Frelma or Fraphne? hahahahahahaa
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No gender stereotyping! She could be Fraggy or Frooby-Doo. Or . . . FrFred.
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FrFed? I don’t know, I really don’t see her pulling off the ascott look…
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Not sure I could pull off the doggy look either! Let’s stick with the gender stereotyping,
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You wear glasses, right? So Frelma it is, hahahaahaha 😀
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She knows style. I have confidence. It’s Fred’s walk that might give her a problem.
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Too late, I’ve been Frelma’d!
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Also I’m having Danish maple syrup pastry for breakfast with a drizzle of Canadian maple syrup on top! Awesome sauce!
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Sounds like a breakfast of champions!
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It was! Had a cinamon swirly thingy as well. 🤣
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Just got back from the grocery store myself. Was tempted by double-chocolate chocolate muffins on sale, but didn’t know how they counted as breakfast. Aren’t they just brownies?
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Never had chocolate muffins, or any other muffin come to think of it, and not had a brownie either. I am not a fan of cakey sort of things. I think though muffins are lighter, i’e dryer fluffier innards, and brownies are more stodgy and sticky with fugey sort of innards. Probably need to ask an American person.
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fudge-y not fugey, that’s something else!
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I haven’t had these particular muffins but I’m guessing they are VERY fudgy inside. Basically chocolate cake with chocolate chips in it, so if you heat them up they melt and make it all gooey chocolate inside.
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Too rich for me.
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