Comics Review: "SCOOBY-DOO, Where Are You? #130" Showcases Valerio Chiola

SCOOBY-DOO, WHERE ARE YOU? (2010) #130

DC COMICS

STORY: Sholly Fisch; Scotty Beatty

PENCILS: Valerio Chiola; Robert Pope

INKS: Valerio Chiola; Scott McRae

COLORS: Valerio Chiola; Heroic Age

LETTERS: Saida Temofonte; Dezi Sienty

EDITORS: Courtney Jordan; Kwanza Johnson (reprint)

COVER: Valerio Chiola

32pp, Color, $2.99 U.S. (December 2024)

Ages 8+

“Mayor May Not!”

Welcome, dear readers, to my continuing journey through the Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? comic book series, which began publication in 2010.  I continue to renew my subscription so that I can continue to review this series for you, dear readers.

Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? #130 opens with “Mayor May Not!,” which is written by Sholly Fisch and drawn by Valerio Chiola.  The story finds Mystery Inc.:  Scooby-Doo, Shaggy, Fred, Daphne, and Velma attending a costume ball thrown by Mayor Flowers.  The party is also a campaign event for the mayor's reelection campaign.  It seems as if the mayor has invited the whole city to this event, but did he also unknowingly invite a werewolf?

As usual, the second story, “Paranoidal Activity,” is a reprint story.  It is written by Scott Beatty and drawn by Robert Pope and Scott McRae.  [This story was originally published in Scooby-Doo, Where Are You #19 (cover date: May 2012).]  The story opens as the Mystery Machine drives up to “the Spectral Silk Mill.”  Mystery Inc. has been called to this old silk mill by its current owners, Mr. Stanislaus and Mr. Oliveri, to discover if the place really is haunted.  For their latest case, the gang has decided to test their new high tech equipment in the detection of ghosts.  Will that work, or will it just get in the way of the ghost-busting?

Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? #130 doesn't really have a theme so much as it finds its ghostly instigators in suspects that manage to be both surprising and expected.  This isn't a particularly good issue, but like #129, the lead story is drawn by Valerio Chiola.  I really dig Chiola's quirky and funky illustrative style which brings some needed freshness to the pages of this series that is well into its second decade.  Chiola's squashed and stretched art reminds me of legendary cartoonist and Plastic Man creator, Jack Cole, and it looks like some of the graphical storytelling frequently found in kids' comics and graphic novels.

Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? #130 may not be top of the line, but it is still a Scooby-Doo comic book.  So grab your “Scooby Snacks” and read this issue, and maybe watch a Scooby-Doo movie, later.  And until next time, Scooby-Dooby-Doo!

C

[This comic book includes a seven-page preview of the DC Comics original graphic novel, “Deadman Tells the Spooky Tales” by Franco and Sara Richard, Isaac Goodhart, and others.]

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a."I Reads You"

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