About.com Rating

Introduction:

The classic cartoon series is seeing new life in the world of comic books with these mini graphic novels that retell cartoon episodes for new generations to enjoy. They are made with a thicker cardboard cover to survive the handling of the little ones and come with an inexpensive price tag that will make it easier on the pocket book, but is it worth it?

Vitals

Title: Scooby-Doo! A Merry Scary Holiday
Adapted By: Lee Howard
Artist: Alcadia Scn
Based On The Episode By: John Collier, George Doy IV, Jim Krieg, and Ed Scharlach
Content: Scooby-Doo!

A Merry Scary Holiday is for all ages. It has some scary situations.
Publisher: Scholastic
Cost: $3.99

Story:

The gang is on their way to Daphne’s Uncle's house for the holidays when an unexpected bridge closure forces the group to hole up in a nearby inn. A run in with a creepy snowman monster sends Mystery Inc. into action to discover why the creature is destroying all the chimneys in the village.
Fingers are pointing towards many people in the town, from the sheriff who just happens to show up after the monster disappears to the innkeeper who is making a lot of money off of the cold townspeople. The legend of the town points to Blackjack Brody, a villain who stole a pile of gold and as legend has it, died from being frozen in a snowman, with the gold never being found.

It is up to the team of Mystery Inc. to solve the riddle and save the town from the terror of the creepy snowman, or they all might be left out in the cold.

Review:

Working with and having small kids, I love having comic books like this.

They are cheap, colorful, and pretty durable. Kids read them over and over and we get to share our love for these classic characters.
The art is right out of the cartoon series and I don’t know if the art was just lifted from the carton or redone, but it looked great. It was all very fitting and in line with the cartoon and I enjoyed it.

The story itself is classic Scooby-Doo where the villain isn’t what it seems to be and Scooby and Shaggy are always causing their shenanigans. Everything is summed up and nobody gets hurt, making it just right for young readers. These stories are something you can hand to your kids and not worry about, unlike the content of some of today’s comic books.

One thing I really didn’t like was how the comic book was laid out. There were these narrator boxes that were interspersed throughout most every page and were used to tell us what was happening. We see these in many comics, but here they often felt clunky out of place, interrupting the story rather than aiding it. I would have preferred some of the narration to have come from the characters or perhaps just let the art tell the story. Maybe they were there to up the word count, but I think a more creative way to help tell the story was in order.

Conclusion:

Bottom line, these are really good for young readers and would make a great stocking stuffer or extra gift for your kids. They are relatively cheap and are just right, both in their reading level and their content. Comics like this are a great way to introduce kids into the medium of graphic storytelling and are great to read with them to boot.
It may not be the perfect kids comic, but these kinds of comics are great in that kids that might not want to read will be sucked in by the characters and stay for the story. I love them to help generate an interest in reading and the fact that we can share something from our childhood makes it even sweeter.