Depending on how you consider when the week begins, we're just 2-3 short days away from the Thanksgiving holiday week beginning and just a touch bit further away from the official start of the 2022 Holiday Season! I couldn't be more excited. Time away from work, a chance to put my knowledge of exterior lighting to the test and of course a chance to read holiday comics.
I really wanted to get started early. So I went to MyComicShop.com, the web page of Lone Star Comics. Lone Star does this really cool thing where the post theme lists of comic titles in order to help just about every collector out there. 2 weeks ago, they had a list of available Thanksgiving books and I snatched up several that I felt were affordable within my price range. I bought some old titles, new stuff and some adult stuff. Above all, I bought some Scooby-Doo stuff!
This issue contains 3 stories. Unfortunately, only the cover and the first story are set during Turkey Day. In the opening mystery, the Mystery Inc. crew are on their way to Daphne's aunts house for their annual Thanksgiving feast. Almost there, the meddling kids spot a man running in terror. Then a few brief moments later, they witness Daphne's uncle being attacked- BY A GIANT TURKEY!
Folks, this is my worst nightmare. I am scared to death of turkeys. Those suckers are mean. I've personally seen them chase down a child and viewed videos where these big birds will go after law enforcement agents and mail carriers. If ever there was an argument that birds come from dinosaurs, the turkey is the de facto winner of said disagreement.
The second story takes place on the Moon! Yes- the detectives are summoned to a space station on the moon where a werewolf is attacking crew members! Episode 3 takes place at a Chinese restaurant. The owners recently bought some ancient armor that might be cursed because the ghost of a Chinese warrior is not only scaring off customers, it might have also kidnapped the niece of the owner as well!
When it comes to this issue, I've actually been waiting almost a full year to read this one. The copy I bought last year was missing a couple of pages due to a publishing error. My replacement didn't arrive until after Thanksgiving. Thus, I held on to it as at the time, I only had 1 other Thanksgiving book in the wings for this current reading season. But boy- was I disappointed with this read! Despite the fact that this book is over 20 years old, don't read any further if you don't want any spoilers.
With the Turkey story, we're to believe that the guy running in fear is the one behind the mask of the giant fowl. Not the mysterious research corporation that wants to buy Daphne's family plot. But there's no way that guy could have run away, put on the costume and then beat up the uncle! Not in that amount of time! There had to be a second culprit.
With the Moon story, I knew who the villain was as soon as I met them. Same goes with the bad guy behind the kidnapping and haunting at the restaurant. The problem with both these stories is that there seems to be a substantial amount of missing evidence in these stories. Velma knows what's happening. But for some reason the viewer is not made privy to what clues are being uncovered by her.
Here's what I think the problem is with this entire book: it's only 32 pages long and that's just not enough room to squeeze in 3 coherent and plausible mysteries. The editors at DC should have reduced it to only 2 stories and added 3-4 more pages with more apparent clues and less speculation. Sure, I bet the powers that be thought that a kid's attention can't be held for more than 8-10 pages per story. But kids are smarter than you think and they know when something has been dumbed down to them. AND THEY HATE THAT!
And the Moon? Really? Weird things happen on a space station and the Mystery Inc. folks are who NASA calls? Not buying it!
The artwork was good and there were some really smart moments. For example, one of the lunar werewolf victims mentioned that the attack happened during a full moon to which Velma states that on the moon, it's always full. That little statement just blew my mind! However, those kind of moments were few and far between.
Parents, the holiday season is upon us. There's going to be a few kid approved Christmas reads coming. I know Archie has one or two planned. I seem to recall that American Mythology has a Zorro Feliz Navidad special in the works. However, from what little I have seen, it appears that 'horror holidays' are the main theme of publishers this year. So, feel free to explore the internet for some Christmas Comic Book reads. At last count, I've documented nearly 1000 holiday themed comics and a huge majority are appropriate for the whole family. As the great reading advocate LeVar Burton once said- 'if your kid loves comic books, then dammit, buy them comic books!' And if the young reader in your life loves the holidays, then gosh darn it, buy them holiday themed comics!
Just be sure to save a few for me...
Rating: 4 out of 10 stars.
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