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I have issues with Scooby-Dum. Most people have issues with Scrappy-Doo. I don’t mind Scrappy or his non-stop use of the phrase “Puppy Power!“, no I feel the real issue here folks, that we have overlooked as a people, is the true menace of the Hanna-Barbera world, which is Scooby-Dum. As I am watching a ton of Scooby-Doo cartoons here for the holiday season, I have been running into this fellow, with his little buck teeth and stupid hat, and I have to say Scooby, when your shows finally jumped the shark, it was with the introduction of this guy. Just my two cents, and with that I welcome you back to another week of From Friendly Ghosts To Gamma Rays, here at ComicAttack.net!
Now my first shout out this week is another at Hostess. My friend Mike bought some Flash Cakes this week. They didn’t increase speed or give him a cool suit that he hides in a ring on his finger, heck he said they didn’t even taste very good, but here ya go fans, a shot of the elusive Hostess Flash Cakes (maybe if we keep our fingers crossed we’ll get some Hawkman mini-muffins yet):

Collection of Awesomeness: Beetle Bailey – 1965 Daily & Sunday Strips
Publisher: Titan Books
Story and Art: Mort Walker

Our friends at Titan Books have once again put together another awesome comic strip collection and have given us Beetle Bailey – 1965 Daily & Sunday Strips. For 60 years now, since the 1950s, Beetle Bailey has been entertaining as arguably the world’s laziest army private. Till this day, generation after generation have been entertaining us in newspapers across the country. This collection brings together all of his daily and Sunday strips from 1965, giving us Beetle and all his friends from Halftrack, Cookie, even my personal-fave, his dog Otto, and more. The work on the strips from 1965 is some of the best quality the strip had ever seen and are still funny, holding up today. A testament to the quality of these strips is that in 1965, Beetle Bailey was the second comic strip in history to reach over 1,000 newspapers, so that alone should tell you this is the work at one of its high points.

In addition to the wonderful strips collected here, Titan Books also gives us an all-new foreword by Mort Walker, the creator of Beetle Bailey himself, an essay titled The Beetle Bailey Story by Brian Walker, detailing the history of Beetle Bailey, and Celebrity Gallery featuring art by other comic strip artists drawn for Mort over the years, in honor of his time on Beetle Bailey. These additional items are a nice cherry on the top for a wonderful collection.

In stores from Titan Books now, for the super low price of $19.95, the right price for a great collection.

Stomping Our Way Soon: Godzilla
Publisher: IDW

IDW and Toho Co. Ltd announced this past week the relaunch to comic books of the greatest monster-hero ever to grace the silver screen, Godzilla! Starting in February 2011, IDW, who has done many movie adaptations to comics, from Star Trek to Transformers and more, will be relaunching the king of the monsters (his last stomping ground was a few years ago at Dark Horse Comics). Of course if you are a regular of this column, you know my love for the monster-heroes of Japan, so I’m super pumped about this.

HERE’S THE COOL TWIST! For years, Godzilla fans have been wishing that other giant monsters from the movies could join the Big-G in battle on the 4-color page. Well IDW is making that a reality and has swankily announced that fan-favorite monsters Mothra, Rodan, King Ghidrah, and possibly more, will all be joining Godzilla finally for some American comic book brawl action! All of this is ridiculously cool, and a nice build up to Godzilla’s return to the movie screen in 2012 from Legendary Pictures (the studio behind The Dark Knight and more), showing us that still after 56 years, you just can’t keep a great property down. Long live the king of the monsters! To the right is the teaser image IDW has posted with their press release!

Something To Watch: Casper, The Friendly Ghost: Scare Up Some Fun

Your Something To Watch of the week is an entry to keep the Halloween season going, and that is the second volume on DVD of the Casper Classic Collection, Casper, The Friendly Ghost: Scare Up Some Fun. Casper along with Wendy, the good little witch, have a ton of fun adventures in this collection of twelve shorts on DVD. These cartoons, originally produced in the 60s, are wonderful and just a damn good time to watch. Highlights include a crazy Arabian Nights-esque adventure, and a day where Casper and Wendy square off unknowingly against each other’s evil-doppels, in a secret plot to try and de-friend our cute lil’ duo. Although these shorts can all be found on the Harvey Toons collection on DVD, if you just want some Casper only fun for a quick treat, the DVD is cheap and the right price for the best known quality of these classic shorts. Watch it this weekend!

Purchase of the week: Evil Devil Smurf

That’s right. Nothing really says Halloween season to me like when I find an evil-looking devil Smurf! This figurine is part of the line still produced by European company Schlelch, based on the European comic strip (or better known here in the States for the cartoon version produced by Hanna-Barbera). Just looking at this cool little figurine gives me all sorts of hope for the future and was worth a $2.50 investment. You can find these online or in select toy stores:

Well my friends, that’s it around these parts for this week! I’ll see ya’ll very soon! Keep rocking out the Count Chocula and remember, Godzilla loves you!

Drew McCabe
drew@comicattack.net