While not nearly as cool as the "That's Snow Ghost!" Little Golden Book I did prior (and hold in high regard), this one was an original story focused specifically on the Easter holiday and had Scooby and Shaggy running around trying to find the missing Easter eggs before the Easter egg hunt they were having. Scooby was in a bunny suit (similar to Ralphie in A Christmas Story) for the entire affair. The villain was, literally, a generic Snidely Whiplash character who looked like he tied Daphne or Velma to the train tracks or something after he twirled and played with his mustache. It was not as inspired as it could have been, but it was aimed at kids.
I know the book was completed as I have a copy of the final galley to prove it existed. The art above was the opening title/credits page art. My designer mailed me a print out of it to see how the final version would look and if I spotted something that needed last minute fixing. That's all I actually have in my possession as I sold the original artwork for it many, many years ago.
To this day, I'm not sure whatever happened to it beyond the notion that it must have gotten lost in the Golden Books shake-up bankruptcy in 2001 which caused a lot of issues. That's what I'm thinking actually happened. But is it in the Warner Bros archives? I have no clue. This was one of a couple Scooby projects I did from that time period that are missing. The work was completed, and more importantly, I got paid for it.
Since this book never came out, I did wind up using the design of the villain (with a tweak or three) ten years later in a 2011 Scooby comic (Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? #14 for DC Comics) which was titled "The Long Nose of the Law." Waste not, want not.
I thought of posting the printouts I have but it's almost better to let it lie and let the mystery grow. Maybe one day, it will be found like the Dead Sea Scrolls... I doubt it though.
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