Welcome to Scooby Doo Meets Batman

 Guys, I have fallen down a rabbit hole and I do not want to dig myself out. I recently learned that DC has been writing comic books and mid-grade level books featuring the Scooby Doo meeting Batman and helping him solve crimes.

These are everything my inner child needs right now.

Cross overs are nothing new, in fact Scooby Doo first met Batman and Robin in the 1972 episode “The Dynamic Scooby Affair” from the show “The New Scooby Doo Movies”. This Scooby Doo series was nothing but crossover episodes with some of my favorite guests being the Addams Family and the Harlem Globetrotters. There were two Batman crossover episodes, but the first one (Dynamic) was the one most often replayed. 

Scooby Doo and Batman are nostalgic for me. Scooby Doo was a popular rerun block on the newish Cartoon Network in the 90s before getting a reboot run in the early 2000s. “What’s New Scooby Doo” was my jam in the 2000s and it coincided with the live action movies that came out in 2002 and 2004 respectively. I’ve somewhat kept up with the more recent Scooby Doo series - “Mystery Inc.” being the standout - and enjoyed watching the characters evolve over time. 

Batman was also an animated series in the early to mid 90s that shaped my understanding of the character. It was released shortly after the 1989 Batman movie. “Batman the Animated Series” along with a few other animated DC superhero (known by fans as the DCAU or DC Animated Universe) shows eventually became “Justice League” and “Justice League Unlimited” (or JLU). The DCAU also had a few cross over episode with my favorites being anytime Static Shock showed up - another standout early 2000s show.

However, Scooby Doo never made it to the DCAU. Though Warner Brothers owned both franchises by the 2000s, it wasn’t until a “Batman Brave and the Bold” movie that Scooby and the gang meet Batman and his friends again. A crossover movie that was released in 2018. That’s almost 50 years of them not interacting.

You may be thinking, but does Scooby Doo fit into the Batman and DC universe. The latest portrayals of the Dark Knight have been dark and edgy - way different from the more lighthearted Scooby Doo universe. Brave and the Bold doesn’t count because that series was for little kids, while The Animated Series and JLU were a lot darker with older teens in mind.

To which I counter: have y’all seen “Zombie Island” or “Witch’s Curse”? Those Scooby Doo movies have a very similar aesthetic as The Animated Series. Yes, Scooby Doo tends to err on the lighter side, but they are still dealing with criminals who dress up in costumes to do crime. Kind of like how super villains dress up in ridiculous costumes and do crimes in the DC universe.

In fact , I would argue that Scooby Doo’s villains fit in well with the villains running around in spandex of the DC universe (particularly the Flash’s Rogue Gallery, but that is neither here nor there). Why wouldn’t greedy land developers try to scare people away in silly costumes, if really bad guys are already terrorizing the general public in silly costumes.

Therefore, Scooby Doo and the Mystery Gang are a logical addition to the DC universe. 

The Scooby gang just doesn’t need to dress up because they don’t have the same tragic backstory Batman does.

Anyway, I bought both volumes of the recently released Batman & Scooby Doo Mysteries along with a mid grade novel that is very easy to solve if you are even fair-weather fan of Batman. They’re a lot of fun and feature a lot of the Batfamily, including Red Hood, Spoiler, Bluewing, Nightwing, Batwoman, and Ace the Batdog. 

However, the timeline is a little confusing. I’m not certain which Robin is in most of the stories. If there’s pants on the Robin it’s Tim or Damian, no pants and it’s either Dick or Jason. I’m pretty sure Jason is the Robin at one point, but it’s hard to tell. Also, there’s a fun “Pup Named Scooby Doo” issue that establishes that the Scooby gang is about five years younger than Batman (even Red Herring gets a mention), but this timeline is tossed out the window because I totally spotted Duke in the Batfamily reunion. Bruce is around 40 when Duke shows up in the current DC timeline, which would make Scooby one really old dog (maybe he too took a dip in the Lazarus Pits or he learned the secret of immortality from Alfred). 

Maybe it doesn’t really matter. Scooby was already an old dog in “Zombie Island”, so I can’t really complain. He’s also a talking dog - magic has got to be involved somehow.

The crossover comic series is a lot of fun and I can’t help but hear Adam West’s voice (despite my preference for Kevin Conroy) in Batman. The latest TV crossover did happen on the Scooby Doo series “Guess Who” in the episode: “What a Night for a Dark Knight” which was the final time Kevin Conroy would play my favorite version of Batman opposite my favorite Joker, Mark Hamel. Sadly, Mr. Conroy passed away in November 2022.

It was Mr. Conroy’s death that prompted me to return to the DC universe. Scoobytopia may have bought my attention to the latest Scooby Doo and Batman crossovers with his YouTube video “When Scooby Doo! Met Batman”, but it was Matt Baume’s video “The Gay Actor Who Bought Batman to Life: Remembering Kevin Conroy” that brought me back to Batman. 

For an entire generation of kids, myself included, Kevin Conroy was Batman. I still have a hard time accepting a different voice actor. We lost him too soon.

Scooby Doo and Batman are a part of American culture. Each decade seems to have a new series on TV or direct to consumer movies to watch. Both have their graphic novel universes and their live action movies. I’m happy that these s characters continue to grow and evolve for the next generation.

And most importantly, that a talking dog is still alive solving mysteries well past the point any dog should still be alive.

Until next week.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope y’all like hearing from me.

Welcome to Manga, Graphic Novels, and Comic Books

I love graphic novels, comics, and manga.

They were some of the first books I picked up and enjoyed reading. They seemed to be the natural extension of the picture book - at least that’s what young me thought. There is a lot more nuance to them than picture books.

My first graphic novel or comic book (depending on who you talk to) was my dad’s Asterix books that he had from the 60s. I found them at my grandfather’s house and brought them home to enjoy over and over again. I really liked Cleopatra.

One of my hardcover Asterix books along with Persepolis and a Haunted Mansion comic book. I was surprised by how much I liked the Haunted Mansion book - though the ending is a little abrupt.

Unfortunately, back in the 90s Astrix was almost impossible to find in the US. I had to wait until my dad traveled overseas for him to bring me back a copy...and that was only if he could also find an English book store.

Thankfully by the 2000s, bookstores in the US were starting to import manga and I was able to start collecting Yu Yu Hakusho. Though some of my favorite manga I found at my local library in the form of Kindaichi Mysteries (where you needed to really pay attention to the drawing to help solve the mystery).

One of my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vol., a collection of Zits (one of my favorite strip comics), and the manga My Brother's Husband about a man meeting his brother-in-law after his twin's death.

I’ve read a lot of manga, graphic novels, and comic books, but my knowledge only really scratches the surface of everything out there. I loved the drawings, the stories, and how easy they were for me to read.

And they were some of the first forms of story telling I wanted to write.

Except writing a graphic novel, manga, or comic is a lot tougher than most other media. Similar to scripts for plays, TV shows, and movies, there are a lot of moving parts to graphic novels, comics, and manga. The script can’t just include dialogue, but details as to what is going on in each panel. Consistency is very important.

Directions also aren’t like what you see in movie and play scripts. See writers aren’t always the artists, so the writers need to describe (in detail) every detail of a scene so that the artists gets it right early...instead of realizing later that the character should have been doing x for five panels when they drew the character doing y.

The script for a graphic novel must be finalized before drawing begins...and once drawing begins, changes are really hard to make unless you want to scrap the entire project. When I’m writing a comic script, I have to be conscious of what can fit on a page and how to build tension for when that page is turned. Knowing how to pull off a good transition is takes a lot of practice.

Then there’s the technique of using the panels themselves for story telling. The size, shape, boarder versus no boarder, and even the space between panels all enhance how the story is told. No boarders might show that time is open ended or extends beyond the boundary set up by the page. In consistent panel sizes or jagged shapes might show a character’s or situations’s instability. The spaces between panels might be neutral to show negative space or might be in dark shades to suggest a dream sequence.

Depending on where a person learns about the art of writing comics can drastically change their styles. I’m more familiar with Japanese and manga techniques as those are the books I read most often and I’ve taken classes on their style. European and American styles tend to have similar styles, but there are notable differences in how backgrounds and static lines are used.

Representing time and movement can be particularly challenging. How do you show a static character running? Panel over panel or with lots of lines or a cloud of dust rising up behind them? How do you slow a scene down to a crawl or build tension? Draw incremental movements within 5 panels then make the reader turn the page?

As more writers and artist collaborate, a mixing of styles has emerged. Which makes writing the scripts even more important.

I’ve written before how comic, graphic novel, and manga story telling can be preferred to more traditional text. Some people don’t have words, only pictures to convey a message. That’s okay.

Writing is art, though not all art is writing. If you’d like to try your hand at writing comics, manga, and graphic novels. I recommend reading the final products as well as the production notes and scripts.

I’ve been writing a webcomic for over 5 years (really just for the hell of it) and I’m still learning as I go. Sometimes I stare at my scripts wondering what the hell I was thinking or picturing. Other times, I forget entirely what it was I was trying to write.

But as my one yoga teacher likes to say - “the joy is in the journey”.

If you really want to write a comic, graphic novel or manga - go for it. Search for advice and take a class. Find out what works best for you.

And this ends my writing series (for now). I’ll be out next week. So I’ll see you next time.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please, like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope y’all like hearing from me.

Welcome to Inktober

There are a lot of great things about October. The leaves begin to change, Halloween is right around the corner, and pumpkin mania is at its highest peak (I regret nothing). I recently learned about another great reason to celebrate the month of October - Inktober!

Inktober is a month long celebration of ink drawings. This can include sketches, comics, webcomics, etc. People post them on [insert social media platform here] with the hashtag #inktober or #inktober2017.

#inktober #prompt8 #crooked

I love this idea. 

See I'm a big comic book, manga, and graphic novel reader. My first comic books were Asterix comics from the 1960s that belonged to my dad. And no, these books aren't just for kids. There are a lot of amazing stories to be read that include war, horror, romance, and mystery (to name a few genres). I am always surprised when someone writes off these stories as just being for kids (same thing can be said for animation).

There are a lot of great webcomics that I can recommend. Since it's October, the season of all things scary, check out Helsirvente. It's perfect for this time of year since it's all about ghost hunting. I even draw my own webcomic (not that I'm trying to plug it or anything - it updates on Thursdays at 6:00pm) and would love to one day have a published graphic novel.

That isn't to say that comics, manga, and graphic novels are the only things to celebrate during Inktober. There's a lot of art that is created using nothing but pen and paper. Some of it is super realistic that it's almost like looking at a photograph. Others are beautifully abstract and really stimulate the imagination. 

And don't forget about animation. A fair number of early animation shorts (when film was still in it's infancy) was created by cartoonists hand drawing each cel of animation. Out of the Inkwell was a series of shorts in the 1920s that shows a cartoon character coming to life from pen ink. Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck also references the ink animation technique in the classic Duck Amuck.

So what do you need to participate in Inktober if you haven't started already?

Nothing fancy. A piece of paper and a pen are all that you really need to get started. Maybe draw a sketch everyday day, or start a comic book/webcomic, or create your next/first tattoo.

Inktober also has a list of prompts for each day of the month. You can click here to learn more!

And don't get discouraged if you're not happy with the first drawings that you do. When I compare the latest pages of my webcomic to the very first that I posted (or even my high school sketchbook to the one I'm currently working in), I can visibly see how much I've improved. What matters is having fun and enjoying the art that's being created!

Happy Inktober everyone. I hope to see more sketches as the month goes on.

Until next week.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me. And if you guys have any webcomic/manga/graphic novel suggestions, please send them my way!

Welcome to Character Inspirations

After 4 years of producing one blog post a week (give or take a few skips here and there), I've finally hit my 200th post. I wasn't sure what I wanted to write about this week. I've been working on the icon series for a few weeks now, but I wasn't sold on the idea of limiting myself to my personal icons.

Instead I wanted to write about the many characters in books and graphic novels that have inspired me. They aren't in any order and there aren't any ranks.

1) Nancy Drew - she was my first strong female role model in books. For a long time all I would read were Nancy Drew books. I hope she keeps inspiring generations of young girls.

2) Cassie Logan - she was my second biggest female role model in books. I would recommend to anyone to read Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry at least once in their life. 

3) The Golden Trio from the Harry Potter Books (because I just can't pick one)- I was at the perfect age to grow up with Harry, Ron, and Hermione. These books shaped my childhood and continue to shape my imagination.

4) Asterix - Asterix was my first comic book hero. He and his good friend Obelix protected their village from the Roman invaders and went on tons of adventures. 

5) Jim Hawkins - I read Treasure Island in my early 20s and I wish I had read it sooner. It was a fun read and a great adventure novel. 

6) Tohru Honda - Fruits Basket was really popular in my middle and high school, which is how I got interested in the series. I loved all the characters, but Tohru really stands out as someone special. She's the most accepting character I've ever come across in literature and she really wants her friends and family to be happy.

7) Sherlock Holmes - I love the mysteries Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote. I also like the many new interpretations that have come out. I don't know how much I'd want to be like Sherlock, but he doesn't seem to care what anyone else thinks of him. He's fascinating person and isn't boring in the slightest.

8) Alice of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass - I love these books and the Disney animated movie. Alice is a true dreamer in every sense of the word.

9) Yusuke Urameshi - He might not be very smart and be a bit of a delinquent, but deep down he has a good heart and is super loyal to those he cares about. Yu Yu Hakusho was one of the first manga I read and I would recommend it to anyone who likes great characters with interesting stories to tell.

Each of these characters have their strengths and their faults. They're all very different characters and have very different stories to tell. Some people might not like the characters at all. 

What makes a character interesting or inspiring is left up to the reader. Yes, the author has the important job of shaping the character, but the reader is the one interpreting and judging them. I have found that the characters I love and am inspired by most are often very flawed, but are still able to do amazing things while flawed.

If you haven't read any of the books or graphic novels I have listed above, I totally recommend each of them.

What I have learned from each of these characters is to

Be as inquisitive as Nancy

Be as strong as Cassie

Have friends like Harry, Ron, and Hermione

Be as confident as Asterix

Be as adventurous as Jim

Be as accepting as Tohru

Be as fascinating as Sherlock

Be a dreamer like Alice

Be as loyal as Yusuke

And follow my own path to build my own story.

Thanks for sticking with me for 200 blog posts. Until next week...