Scooby-Doo Team-Up #29

The top dog meets Top Cat and his gang of felonious felines in this all Hanna-Barbera edition of Scooby-Doo Team-Up. Top Cat is up to his ways of playing tricks on Officer Dibble. This time, he's got one of his gang dressing up as the Ghost of Hoagy's Alley! With the Mayor making a real push to clean up the neighborhood, the policeman calls in the Mystery Inc. Gang to solve the mystery. 

In a twist on the corrupt land developer trope of Scooby-Doo stories, the detectives actually go out of their way to prove that the neighborhood really is haunt, least a pair of scheming real estate agents will buy up everything for real cheap and tear it all down to build luxury condominiums. This will not only evict Top Cat and his gang, it will put Officer Dibble on having to work a really dangerous beat. So cops and cat crooks work together to stop the plans of some modernizers from putting a lot of nice folks out of house and home. 

Community Gentrification. The only thing worse than monsters and ghosts. 

I'm not normally as much of a fan of the Hanna-Barbera crossovers as I am the DC Comics ones. They tend to be more formulaic and predictable. However, this story was such a switcheroo to the standard Scooby-Doo mystery that I actually felt like I was reading something entirely fresh and new. It probably helps that I know next to nothing about Top Cat. Still, what I know about Scooby-Doo, and I know a lot, is changed up so much to a point that everything was totally unexpected.

The writer Sholly Fisch is the reason this story was so original. He's a masterful writer who knows how to not just write for kids but the whole family! 

The only thing that I didn't like about the story was the unevenness of the art. But I don't blame Dave Alvarez for it. His renderings of the Mystery Inc. team is spot on. His drawings of the Top Cat universe of characters are great. However, the two franchises couldn't be any more different from each other. Shaggy, Fred, Velma and Daphne are drawn much more realistically than Officer Dibble and the developers. Scooby-Doo looks like a pure-bred next to Top Cat. Thus, when these two worlds of characters meet, it just doesn't gel. At least when the Flintstones meet up with the Jetsons, you felt like Fred really could have been George's long lost ancestor. The art styles of these two franchises are like Edward Hopper's Nighthawks meeting Picasso's 3 Musicians.

If you can get over how striking the artwork is, you're in for a treat. This really is one of the most original Scooby-Doo mysteries ever written and it's a ton of fun.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Looney Tunes Greatest Hits, Volume 2: You're Despicable!

Your favorite Looney Tunes characters are back in this collection of DC Comics. 

Magicians Bugs and Daffy complete are only the rabbit and duck could! Foghorn Leghorn recruits the Tasmanian Devil to get rid of the barnyard's protective pooch, Dawg. Pepe Le Peu searches for romance in the streets of Washington D.C. Granny adds a new security device to keep Sylvester from making a quick meal out of Tweety. And a pair of mice named Mac and Tosh try to teach the gang the importance of manners- to little avail!

This was a great read for a rainy day or a pick-me-up. This volume features story and art from some industry greats such as Dan Slott, Dave Alvarez, Terry Collins and Michael Eury.

There's one thing that perplexes me about this book; it's the title. This is Looney Tunes Greatest Hits, Volume 2. It reprints issues #41-47. Volume 1 covers issues 34-40. What happened to issues #1-33? Are they not considered greatest hits? 

While I am extremely glad that this book collects entire issues, I was expecting this to be a mix of stories. I mean it is a mix, it's just not cherry picker stuff. So if you are trying to collect the entire run of DC's Looney Tunes in one way or another, this is an affordable way to do it as the only original run content missing are the ads!

Fun stuff worth quite a few laughs!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Jonah Hex/Yosemite Sam Special #1

When prospector Yosemite Sam finally strikes it rich, it brings about the attention of some unsavory characters. Seeking protection, Sam hires the baddest bounty hunter in the Old West, Jonah Hex as his body guard. This usually isn't Hex's thing but he's got a week to kill before the fee for his latest capture gets delivered. 

Then in the second feature by Bill Matheny and Dave Alvarez, it's bear season and Sam and Hex reunite when their paths cross. Jonah is on the hunt for a renegade while Yosemite Sam is trying to catch a nasty bear that has become the stuff of legend for it's destruction of property. There's absolutely nothing that could link the two prey, is there?

The Jonah Hex/Yosemite Sam Special was really good. It was another great DC/Looney Tunes crossover that got overlooked by the magnificence that was the Batman/Elmer Fudd Special. When I saw the preview cover, I noticed that Foghorn Leghorn was on the cover. He's a giant talking chicken! So, I couldn't figure out how they were going to explain him in this book. Thankfully, writer Jimmy Palmiotti  (Harley Quinn's) explains it as Leghorn is a circus freak with feather who doubles as a strongman. 

The interior art was great. I really like Mark Texeira's (Black Panther) style. It's quite gritty and rustic. But I didn't like the cover so much. Hex looks great. Foghorn's okay. But what is wrong with Yosemite Sam? Isn't he supposed to be bowlegged? Texeira makes him look too static for some reason. But man, doesn't Jonah look awesome? Okay- my favoring of the cover was 50/50.

A really good Western/cartoon crossover with just a small cover issue or two...

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.