Fan Spotlight Day 26: Greybishop

I’d like to introduce you to today’s fan spotlight, Greybishop! You may know Greybishop from his comments on this site, or through his own personal blog! Greybishop is also a very avid Scooby collector. Check out Greybishop’s profile below!

1. What is your name?
I go by Greybishop or GB.

2. How did you get into Scooby-Doo?
Scooby and I happen to be almost exactly the same age and I can honestly say that Scooby-Doo has been part of my life for as long as I can remember.  Various incarnations of the show were on Saturday morning tv on any given weekend of my childhood in the 70s. I've been a fan to varying degrees over the years and I never really stopped loving the characters.  

I have a huge dvd collection I started about 20 years ago, including what I believe to be a complete collection of DC Comics related dvds.  I long ago added the Batman meets Scooby-Doo crossover movies from the 70s to my collection as part of the DC Comics section and when Scooby and Batman again crossed paths in the recent The Brave and the Bold Scooby-Doo & Batman crossover dvd I decided it was time to add a Scooby component to my dvd collection. That kind of sparked a real rekindling of my love of the character and the gang.  Thanks to ScoobySnax.com's super list of releases, my collection is complete, minus only the as yet unreleased episodes.

3. What is your favorite Scooby-Doo episode and film? Why?
I love the Be Cool, Scooby-Doo episode Screama Donna. Kate Micucci's wrap up rap cemented her as my all time favourite Velma voice actress.  In terms of films, the two New Scooby-Doo Movies where the gang meets Batman from 70s are nostalgic favourites. Having Casey Kasem do double duty as Shaggy AND Robin makes them Scooby-Doo movie royalty in my opinion and the famous pants-less Batman moment in The Dynamic Scooby-Doo Affair is priceless beyond measure.

4. What ways are you involved in the Scooby fandom online?
I frequent ScoobySnax.com for release updates on dvds, mainly.  When there's something new coming out, you always seem to be on top of it, so kudos for that!  I actually got my dvd collection "to buy" list by using your "How to have a complete Scooby-Doo collection" page and thanks to that list I have a currently complete collection.  I also write about Scooby occasionally at my own blog as well.

5. In your opinion, what is the best series or era of Scooby?
Three part answer.  Three different reasons.

Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? is a nostalgic favourite.  To me it's warm jammies and a cozy blanket with warm cookies and cold milk.  Any one of the episodes takes me back 40 years. I love it for its purity and straight up approach. In its own way, it taught kids like me how the world really works.  In the end, behind every scary, awful thing you run into, there's probably a bad guy trying to make a dishonest buck.

That and life is generally better with snacks.

For artistic merit, What's New Scooby-Doo was a beautiful to look at show, well done all around.  The updated no ascot design for Fred was a clear miss but the animation and background painting were light years ahead of anything done for the gang before then.  

Finally, I'm a fan of the current era.  Seeing Scooby given a deep, convoluted story that played out over two seasons of Mystery Incorporated was amazing.  I'm not a fan of some of the choices the show made but it was still revolutionary as Scooby-Doo shows go. Be Cool, Scooby-Doo also has its own merit.  I'm not in love with the design of the show but the writing, direction and voice acting are as good as anything on television.

6. If they could make a sequel to one Scooby-Doo series or film, what would it be?
I'd like to see a spin-off series of the Brave and the Bold Batman Meets Scooby-Doo movie where Scooby crosses over with the rest of the DC Comics universe.  Scooby-Doo meets Wonder Woman, Black Lightning or Harley Quinn would make for some Super fine television. It's been done in print with the Scooby-Doo Team Up comic series from DC, so it's not an unprecedented idea.  It looks like The Flash, Wonder Woman and Batman are slated to appear in Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? so someone at Warner Bros is a superhero fan like me! 

7. What direction would you like to see the franchise goes in the future?
As long as the powers that be give us Scooby with quality writing, animation and voice work, I'm happy.  I will say I'm not overly interested in a computer animated Scooby like the upcoming Scoob! movie. I don't love the idea of casting the celebrity de jour as one of the gang simply to sell tickets.  I prefer traditional cel animation, voiced by professional voice actors who fit their roles.

I also REALLY wish that they would release all the shows complete on dvd.  Even a bare-bones MOD version through the Warner Archive would be adequate.  The completist in me hates the gaps in my collection.

8. Who is your favorite member of the gang and why?
Oh, that's Velma, hands down.  I probably had a crush on Daphne as a kid but I'm not a kid anymore.  Cooly logical, scientifically minded women in glasses are my kryptonite in real life, too..
 
Particularly if they sound like Kate Micucci.

9. What is your favorite villain? Why?
Old Ironface, easy.  What's cooler than a villain who water-skis on shark shaped torpedoes?

10. In your opinion, who is the best recurring (non-gang) character in the franchise?
Batman. 'Nuff said.  

11. Do you have a Scooby-Doo collection? If so, what’s in it?
Oh, yeah.  As I said above, thanks to ScoobySnax.com I have a delightfully complete Scooby-Doo dvd collection. I painted a mural of the gang in terrified flight on my front hallway wall recently.  I also have the LEGO Scooby-Doo Haunted House and Mystery Machine (it was the best way to get the complete LEGO gang, plus the two sets display very nicely together) as well as a very old Scooby-Doo bobble-head I picked up at a dollar store decades ago.  My most interesting piece is a non-official Scooby-Doo set of metal miniatures intended for tabletop gaming like Dungeons and Dragons. I paint miniatures and years ago I stumbled across this range of figures at Hasslefree Miniatures that looked suspiciously familiar.  The figures go by "Barney", "Felicity", "Wolsey" and "Louise" and there's a Great Dane mascot named "Hamlet". It's pretty clear what inspired the sculptors. They also have a post-apocalyptic version of the team, complete with weapons to fight a zombie apocalypse. I bought them on a whim then, but with my renewed interest in Scooby, I'm really glad I did.

12. What do you think has made the franchise so popular that it’s still going strong after 50 years? 
You know, I really have no idea.  I know I love it but there were a dozen similar shows that all hit Saturday morning around that same time in the early 70s and most of them are totally forgotten.  Aside from the obvious fact that they were all modeled on the template that Scooby established, they aren't much different and it's conceivable that any one of them could have found long term popularity.  Most of them were produced, written and acted by a lot of the same talent, but somehow lack that spark that makes Scooby magical.

I really don't know why a talking dog with a speech impediment and a motley gang of teenagers have endured so long and so well when all the rest faded into obscurity.  Glad it worked out that way, though. 

13. What is one fun fact about you in real life?
I've twice participated in The Three Day Novel Contest.

Every Labour Day Weekend, a group in Canada invites writers to lock themselves in a room and pound out a complete novel in just three days.

The best three day novel is rewarded with a publication deal.  It's totally insane to attempt and even more insane to actually do.  

I didn't win but eventually I self published the first novel I entered.  It's called "Bred in the Bone" and I actually made a few dollars profit on the self publication.  It's still up for sale on Amazon.com remarkably enough.

The best part of the whole crazy project was finding a signed copy of my book in a used bookstore years later.

14. Please feel free to share anything else you’d like to here!
I'm no fan of social media and left Facebook years ago, but I still love to blog.  I'm old and stubborn.

If you've read this far and aren't bored to tears by my answers, you might enjoy some of my other ramblings at
greybishop.blogspot.com where I tackle topics like science fiction, superhero and fantasy cinema, science news and whatever artistic project I'm into at the moment.  I love visitors! 

Thanks so much to Greybishop for his detailed responses!

We’re down to four days now for the fan spotlights, so be sure to keep checking the next few days to meet four more awesome Scooby fans!

Meanwhile, you can check out Greybishop's Scooby collection in the pictures below, including his metal miniatures in the style of Scooby Apocalypse.