Scooby-Doo...Where Are You! - Gold Key - Issue 12 - Comic

Scooby-Doo...Where Are You! - Gold Key - Issue 12

Released June 1972

Stories

The Bewitched Weather of Buccaneer's Bay

This is the fourth original story. A sudden change in the weather and Fred's poor driving strands the gang. They happen upon an inn and find out that others are being stranded near the inn due to unpredictable weather. They check in at the inn.

Fred, Shaggy and Scooby investigate in the middle of the night. They discover a haunted pirate attraction. The next day they investigate an observatory and discover the source of the mysterious weather. They find out that the inn owner's uncle was manipulating the weather to drive guests to the inn. Shaggy and Scooby instantly forgive him for putting their lives at risk and give him advice on how to achieve the goal of bringing guests to the inn without resorting to potentially deadly snow squalls. Shaggy suggests  making dramatic lighting around the sign for the inn or making a sunny day for the beach. 

I really enjoy the art in this issue. The pirate ship has cool pirate skeletons. The characters are distinct and interesting. They have fun with the details like the bear skin rug with the bear having a very unhappy look on his face. I think this is one of the best issues in the series so far.

Like the previous original stories, it eschews the guy in a mask format. There are creepy elements in each of these stories but they lack a guy running around in a rubber mask threatening them. The closest was the Galleon Ghost but that was a family dressed up as pirates in the vein of the Ghost of Redbeard. They weren't dressed as "ghost pirates", just pirates.

The Weird World of Dr. Strange

I really enjoyed this. A scientist turns himself into a werewolf then gets annoyed when he can't scare anyone because it's Halloween and everyone thinks he's in costume. It's compliments the Scooby story better than the previous short stories.