Hi everyone and happy 50th anniversary of Scooby month!
Kicking off our month of daily fan spotlights is Grumpydrawer. Grumpydrawer is a very good friend of mine, who I’ve been talking with now for years. We got to know each other a bit after he sent me an email through my contact form back in December 2015. We got to talking a bit over email, and we still talk to each other pretty often through email even 4 years later! In fact I’d say our emails have gotten progressively longer over the years. I think each email on both our parts is 25+ full-length paragraphs long now, without exaggeration haha. So it should be clear that we both love to talk! He’s also written a fanfic about how the Hex Girls meet, and also going through all of their appearances in Scooby-Doo media like Witch’s Ghost and Legend of the Vampire. It’s entitled “It’s a Hex Life” which you all should definitely read! So how this will work is I’ve asked 13 questions (in some cases, 14 if people had anything extra they wanted to say) to allow you to get to know each Scooby fan. Each fan spotlight has given their responses to these questions, which highlights some of their favorite things about the franchise, how they got into Scooby, and much more about why they love Scooby so much! Without further ado, here’s Grumpydrawer’s profile: 1. What is your name? Grumpydrawer 2. How did you get into Scooby-Doo? Like everyone else did I imagine, watching it when it was on TV as a child. I can remember it being on after Tom and Jerry in the morning on the weekends. And as I was a bit obsessed with Tom and Jerry as a kid I always tuned in to it, thus why I end up watching Scooby Doo quite a bit too. 3. What is your favorite Scooby-Doo episode and film? Why? That’s a hard one actually. No episode stands out to me above the rest enough to be a favourite. Though if I did I’d say it’d be from either the SD Show or WNSD, as those are easily my favourite series. Film wise I’d say my favourite film is Boo Brothers. Always a good film to watch when I’m feeling down, picks me right up. Admittedly that is nostalgia talking a lot there, quite the nice blanket of it I get wrapped up in when watching it, but I do generally still find it quite funny still. The gorilla is easily one of the franchises best one off characters. Though Ghoul School (again in part due to nostalgia, though the pure amount of puns are great too) and the Witch’s Ghost (Hex Girls and Tim Curry, enough said there) are easily very close runner ups. 4. What ways are you involved in the Scooby fandom online? Mainly just emailing and general discussion with fans I’m already in touch with. I did use the ScoobyAddicts forum a bit two a year or two back, must get back into that again as I have to say it is quite the good place for discussing the franchise. Good community. And I suppose I should say I have written a fanfic too (a Hex Girls one, linked on this site actually), but that’s a minor thing. Would want to write more Scooby fanfics though, but writer’s block is quite the pain in the neck. 5. In your opinion, what is the best series or era of Scooby? I should pre-phrase this by saying I am in part utterly biased by nostalgia here, as this does crossover with the era I grew up with the franchise. The late 90s (start it at Zombie Island) to roughly the end of WNSD. We got quite a lot of high quality Scooby stuff then, from series, movies and other media (SD Night of 100 Frights is and will always be one of my favourite video games, highly recommend it to any fans of classic Scooby Doo). Not that the standard has necessarily over all fallen since then, but looking back there was a more consistent quality. And I think it can’t be argued against that the Zombie Island era movies are the best of the franchise. Plus credit where credit is due to Warner Bros (as I see them get a lot of flack from fans at times), but for their first shot at a Scooby Doo series they did great with WNSD. 6. If they could make a sequel to one Scooby-Doo series or film, what would it be? That’s a hard one. I want to say the Witch’s Ghost, so we’d get more Hex Girls and I really liked the setting of Oakhaven, but that movie was pretty self-concluding with how it ended. So I’d say a sequel to Ghoul School. Not sure what they could do, but it’d be excellent to see all the ghoul girls (or perhaps other characters from it too) return given they are quite beloved characters. And if not that then at least for the fangtastic puns. 7. What direction would you like to see the franchise go in the future? After a bit of thought, I’m not really sure. Other than a movie (or dare I wish, a series) with the art style/standard of the Zombie Island era films I don’t think I could give a good answer here. Other than I would like Warner Bros to release the select few episodes of the Scooby Doo Show that for some reason have never been released. And label it properly this time! Unlike how for some reason season 3 of that show is sold as season 3 of SDWAY. 8. Who is your favorite member of the gang and why? I want to say Scooby Doo, but in some series I don’t like him as much as others so I’m going to say Fred. He may be the member of the gang to (well up to BCSD) get barely any character development, but I like him. Even though over time his dumbness/obliviousness did get a bit too over the top and repetitive, I still found that funny (mostly in WNSD) and in BCSD he’s easily the most amusing character. Plus he’s one of the most vital members of the gang, without him who else would drive them everywhere? And I remember an interview I read once where Frank Welker mentioned that whilst he likes Fred the character came last in a survey on which was people’s favourite member of the gang. So well Frank, at least someone else has Fred as their favourite! 9. What is your favorite villain? Why? The Witch Doctor from A Tiki Scare is No Fair. Sure he’s pretty basic in design and doesn’t do anything too notable, but he scared me a ton as a child and has always been memorable to me for that reason. Something about his mask, that same expression no matter what emotion and the way the eyes always look like they’re looking at you. Still unnerves me a tad even when watching it today. Now that I think about it, may explain why I’ve never liked tribal masks you see in museums and the like. Runners up though would be Captain Cutler (sure he’s just a glowing yellow diver but he’s always been memorable to me), The Creepy Heap From the Deep (it’s so random, and the bit of it’s background about sucking out souls, complete with the captain who supposedly had his soul taken by it, is freaky) and the Snow Beast (I just think it’s really cool, always have). Though my favourite villain in terms of the guy or girl being the mask, so to speak, is easily Ben Ravencroft. Manipulative and an excellent planner, combining that with how he deceives the whole of Mystery Inc. and it makes him one of their most dangerous foes. Plus he’s voiced by Tim Curry. 10. In your opinion, who is the best recurring (non-gang) character in the franchise? I’ll cheat here a bit and add a “s” to the word character there. The Hex Girls, no thought required there. Just always been awesome characters, in any of their appearances (though the original Witch’s Ghost version is easily the best). Plus whenever they appear we get another song of theirs, which are usually pretty good. Runners up though are Mayor Fred Jones Sr and the Sheriff from SDMI. I admit, I’m not at all fond of that series. But those two characters never failed to be funny. Wouldn’t mind seeing the Sheriff return in some future series someday. 11. Do you have a Scooby-Doo collection? If so, what’s in it? Not really. Outside of DVDs and a couple VHS tapes all I have are the Mystery Machine LEGO set, the LEGO set with the mummy and two tshirts. I’ve said before I’d get more, but I’ve been saying that for a while so probably not anytime soon. 12. What do you think has made the franchise so popular that it’s still going strong after 50 years? A few things. One it has consistent formula (eg group of kids find mystery with a monster, find clues, unmask the villain, etc) means generations who watched the show can relate to each other about it, I’d argue anyone who's grown up in the western world at least knows the general plot/formula of the show. Two Scooby Doo, he’s just such a loveable character. Unless you had some fear or hatred of dogs I can’t see why anyone would dislike him. Three the show has universal appeal in how it’s inoffensive (only exception I can think of off the top of my head is Shaggy doing a slightly racially insensitive impersonation of a Chinese person in Mystery Mask Mix Up) and apolitical. So it can be enjoyed by anyone, not just specific audiences. Four people have always loved telling stories of ghosts and monsters living in the woods, abandoned buildings, caves, etc. It makes the world more interesting. That’s been true throughout history. Scooby Doo taps into that in a modern way. For though it has ghosts and monsters they’re (well except when they aren’t) always fake, with a mostly believable explanation for how they did all their tricks and stunts. Bit like how we look at Cryptids now days. We all love them (I do anyway), but have explanation to explain what people actually saw was something more mundane and real than some mystical creature. 13. What is one fun fact about you in real life? I’m a paleontologist, which explains in part why I love the Snow Beast so much along with the episode 3-D Struction. Then again despite that I don’t like Scooby Doo! Legend of the Phantosaur much, so maybe not the best explanation. Thanks so much to Grumpydrawer for offering to participate in this project, and for continuing to be an amazing friend over the years! If you have additional questions, comments, or anything you want to share with Grumpydrawer, please feel free to leave him a comment below! Check back tomorrow for another fan profile!
10 Comments
Grumpydrawer
9/1/2019 04:09:34 pm
Well this was a suprise to see. I'd forgotten about answering the questions for this haha.
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9/1/2019 06:18:48 pm
Ah you see but that was my plan all along, make you do it so long ago that you would forget about this by the time I actually posted it.
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Isaiah
9/1/2019 10:38:45 pm
I’d like to do one of these 9/2/2019 10:13:15 am
I actually have one person who said they want to do it, but hasn't responded yet (it's been since May, so I assume they're not going to do it). If you want to sent me an email at [email protected], I will send you the questions and you can do a profile as well. Thanks! :)
Scoob16
9/2/2019 12:20:40 am
Very interesting to get to know fellow fans! I actually can't remember when I answered my questions and I was searching my email for the thread and I couldn't find it! XP
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9/2/2019 10:11:57 am
You answered them sometime in late May haha. Yours is coming in later September :)
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Samuel Kirkwood
9/2/2019 03:06:00 am
Some very interesting answers. I look forward to seeing more of these and other fans views over the course of September.
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9/2/2019 07:27:58 pm
I love to see fan profiles! Great job with this Doo! It's such a wonderful idea to commemorate Scooby's 50th by getting fans involved. grumpydrawer, your answers were wonderful :)
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