Retro Comic Review: “Scooby-Doo Surf’s Up!” Part 3

Goop On The Loose Review

Two youths head into the Tunnel Of Love and are almost immediately attacked by two man-shaped pink globs. Mystery Inc. is enjoying opening day at the theme park when they hear the screams and run to help.

Art: Joe Staton, talk about a mixed bag!
Parts of this one look like they were done in such a rush that it’s almost tragic, while other parts look like he toiled away many an hour to get them just right. The highlight being the entire 4 page rollercoaster sequence, which is one of the best sections of a Scooby comic I’ve seen.

The low points being almost any shot of Freddie, who looks awkward and chunky.
There is, again, that gross overuse of the blank single color background too.
Mostly early on is where I have a problem with it, in the back half of the story it’s used logically so I can’t complain there. In quite a few spots, Velma feels a bit too frog-like.
I think I say this (or at the very least feel it) a lot with Staton’s artwork, but there’s way more good than bad here.
So, we’re still on the plus side with this one.

Story: Goop On The Loose by Rurik Tyler.

The Gang shows up at the Tunnel of Love and finds the two kids and the theme park owner, Mr. Tonklin, who immediately recognizes them as the mystery solvers with the van. Tonklin stresses the importance of the big opening day firework display going off without a hitch then he splits, leaving the attacked twosome to explain how they were assaulted. As they’re describing the incident, Scooby sniffs around and finds a glob of the pink stuff that was hurled at the lovers.

Fred wants to get a closer look at it but Scoob already horked down the evidence, which was theme park favorite cotton candy. That’s right folks, we have every little kids dream creature, and old school Scooby favorite, the Cotton Candy Glob, this time multiplied!
So the gang splits up to search the snack stands but, given the task, Velma suggests somebody chaperone Shag and Scoob, which falls to Daph.

Daphne, Shaggy, and Scooby interview one attendant and find out the dude what worked that stand previously, with his buddies, was a scientific genius and had sorted the food and supplies by chemical composition. As soon as our three heroes step away from the stand they’re attacked by a trio of cotton candy globs!

The globs chase them onto a roller coaster and start firing wads of candy at them.
As I said in the art portion of this review, this is among the best Scooby art I’ve ever seen. I know it sounds simplistic, it’s 3 carts going up and down hills, blobs of candy floss flying through the air, but it’s great!
It truly is a thing of beauty.

So, as the chase continues, on of the creatures extends it’s arm out toward our heroes’s cart and Shaggy grabs ahold of it thinking it’s a free snack, and the monster immediately starts retracting it’s arm and reeling him in. As Shaggy starts to be pulled out of his seat, Scooby and Daphne quickly grab his legs, and in the struggle the candy is pulled off the monster’s arm revealing a hose.
They pull Shaggy back into his seat and bring the monster with him, pulling so hard that they rip the person buried deep within the mountain of candy out.

Mr. Tonklin, Fred, and Velma run up as the coaster comes back to the beginning of the ride. Daphne steps forward with the unmasked perp that Tonklin quickly recognizes as the science genius he recently fired for screwing up the parks food supply system.
And this here is where I start having problems with the whole thing.

I’ve always been a believer that journey is more important than the destination, but if you go on a magnificent journey full of stunning views and then you trip and fall face first into a huge steaming pile of elephant dookie…that can, in some way, affect the whole trip.
First off, they don’t name this kid, or even his buddies, everybody simply calls him “science genius kid” and that’s just plain lazy. Call the little brat anything, just give him a bloody name for cripesakes! The other thing that bugs me is that his motivation is so ambiguous, he says “with my chemical knowledge, I could have made your snacks the envy of the world!”…and???
Are you mad you were fired?
Are you mad that the old dude wouldn’t listen?
Why not go to his competition?
What the hell do you want kid?
It’s extremely rare for a Scooby villain to be called a genius which is why I think the ambiguity of his unspecified motivation bugs me so much. I mean, even Gibby Norton and Jason Priestly tried to use their brains to impress somebody (Velma in both cases), but captain wow over here seems to have done it all simply because he was bored.

So the cops take what’s his face and his evil super best buds away…but there are two more candy monsters, Mr. Tonklin notices. The monsters unleash streams of goop from their arms and glue Tonklin, Fred, Daphne, and Velma’s feet to the cement.
Then an unearthly voice rings out telling them that their souls will forever be devoured in the pits of…okay, I’m just screwing with ya!
Really, Shag and Scoob covered themselves in candy. The hungry duo proclaims this their tastiest case ever. Tonklin leads the entire Gang away with promises of a lifetime passes and free food as Shaggy and Scooby eat the candy off of themselves.

It was a great story, no doubt about it, but that ending is a tough pill to swallow.
I can’t honestly sat that it ruined it completely, but it did put a stanky little funk on a story I was really groovin’ on, man.
The art does make it totally worthwhile though, check it out for that alone.

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