My creator page was updated at Papercutz!

 

 

Papercutz has updated my creator page to reflect my current list of available books and they put up a pic and bio I gave them!

https://papercutz.com/creators/scott-neely

Got my copies of the PHINEAS AND FERB OGN Vol. 1 early!

Another box showed up today with the mail. It had the hardcovers I pre-ordered through Papercutz of the Phineas and Ferb OGN Vol 1: Phineas and Ferb's A-MAZE-Ing Creature Double Feature!

It was a long time coming for this release... for a long time I didn't know when it was actually going to be done (and I only did the cover art, which took six months!). If you can believe it, there was more drama behind-the-scenes than in the actual book itself. 

As I flipped through it today, I noticed a lot of story changes they did from the original script I got...

More on all this drama is coming, but I'm trying to celebrate the positive here! It's finally out, and it does look great!

The book comes out tomorrow officially! 

 

My order of PHINEAS AND FERB books from Papercutz arrived!

WOW! I got my big box of P&F books I ordered from Papercutz today! From the tracking I thought they would be delivered next week, but they arrived early today with the normal mail! I ordered all this when they had their site-wide sale for 50% off. I ordered two copies each of the hardcovers and paperbacks for my archives. Papercutz did a beautiful job with them and the hardcovers are simply beautiful!  

I will say that Papercutz does know how to pack a box! They wrapped the books in a big piece of bubblewrap and placed the stack dead center in a sturdy box and then dropped packing peanuts all around the sides and top. They arrived perfect! Amazon should take notice, though they have recently upped their game a bit for other orders I made through them by using proper shipping boxes for books. 

I also had to order some copies of the Comic Book Inator from Scholastic too. It was an exclusive and you had to buy it from the Scholastic site! Luckily, they also had a site-wide sale the same weekend as Papercutz! It's a good thing I checked when I did! I bought them right after I placed my Papercutz order and saved some money! I got these copies about a week ago and decided to add the pic of them to this post.

You're probably asking yourself, "Don't they give you copies of the stuff you work on?"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! No. 

I do have it in my Mad Cave Studios contracts to get two complimentary copies of both the Comic Book Inator and the A-MAZE-ing Creature Double Feature (OGN Vol.1) books. The Comic Book Inator was released back in August and I've still not received anything. The comic industry is in the toilet (DC Comics has always treated me fairly though), and you mostly have to buy your own unless you bother them about honoring their contracts.

Anyway, my box from Papercutz was a nice treat to receive after Christmas! They take a few weeks to fulfill your order, but they do take proper care in getting it to you!

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

This is a cropped close up of a digital illustration I painstakingly did for Delaware County Magazine, which I was Editor-in-Chief and designer for. Unfortunately, the publisher had to shut the business down in fall of 2024 as printer fees, paper costs, ink, distribution fees, etc, etc, etc all played their part. We kept it running as long as we could, and it was sustainable if it wasn't for the constant price increases our printer kept making us pay (I'm looking at you, Gannett). It was a great job and I had fun as I got to do a lot of different and creative work with minimal oversight!

I drew the initial design on paper based on the cover specs we used. Then scanned it in and painted over it in Photoshop, using my tight pencil sketch as a guide. I used the computer mouse to paint with and a set of brushes I had created at the time. Probably could have been much easier if I used a drawing tablet with pen sensitivity (didn't have one at the time) but it came out pretty great in the end! I did a lot more to the illustration than I needed to and used a lot of layers to keep it easy to change (or swap out) some aspect of it. I have 2/3rds of Santa's body done but only used the top half. In the end, I used it twice on two covers we published. First time was in 2019, and then tweaked it to look different in 2023.

This was all done in a pre-AI world. I still have the pencil drawing and still use my Photoshop brushes I created on various work like Scooby and the like.

This particular size and crop was for a holiday card version I created for the magazine to send out to our advertisers. I also created a computer wallpaper and email "thank you" pics.

Hope you like! 

 

Happy 100th Birthday, Winnie The Pooh!

On this Christmas Eve, exactly 100 years ago, Winnie-the-Pooh first appeared by name (he was originally called Edward Bear) in a children's story by A. A. Milne that was commissioned by London's Evening News for Christmas Eve! The story was later included in the first Winnie-the-Pooh book that was published in 1926! 

While my art I'm posting is of the Disney version (which most people generally think of), I'm happy to have worked professionally on such an iconic character who is celebrating a 100th Birthday all next year! 

Long live Winnie and his friends who inhabit the Hundred Acre Wood! 

My New PHINEAS & FERB book arrived on Christmas Eve Day!

I got a surprise today when I got home mid-afternoon from my last minute Christmas errands. My pre-order of the Phineas and Ferb Classic Comics Collection Vol. 5 arrived from Amazon! I ordered two hardcovers from Amazon on their Cyber Monday sale. They were released on the 23rd and I had them in my hands on the 24th! They were supposed to be here on Saturday but they arrived early. A nice Christmasy treat!

PHINEAS & FERB Classic Comics Collection Vol. 5 Out Today!

As this is the day of release for Volume 5, I thought I'd post this as the Papercutz site uses my story art in the preview!

Posted above is the original sketch of a panel and below is the final, revised, original rough art of the full page. You can see the final color version on the Papercutz site! The panel above shows Doof holding up a Perry the Playtpus mock-up which he called a "practipus." It's a log of wood (painted to look like Perry) with a fedora hat, a paper birthday party hat as a beak, tennis balls for eyes, tree twigs for arms, rubber gloves for feet, and a tennis racket (his tail) which is tied to the log. He uses it to taunt and train the Goozim to attack Agent P.

As you can also see at the top, the original title for the story was "Invitation Monster" which got turned into the more exciting "Night of the Goozim!" Things would get changed over the time you did them and you would see the final titles on the work contracts as the job numbers and titles had to match up.

No AI. It was all drawn by hand on paper with care. I feel stupid having to type that, but this is where we are sadly. The original art for this was sold. Another reason to draw on paper!

As with most Disney work, you would get the script and draw it, then submit it, then get any notes or changes to do. If you were lucky, most notes were about fixing small things like noses or hands. You submitted the revised page back to Disney for a final check. Once it was approved you moved onto the next step, which in this case, was the inking stage. Yes, I know my art looks inked. It was, but it was a rough ink job to lock in every aspect as this was Disney. I worked tight when I worked on licensed stuff. If I inked my own work I would normally tweak some minor things as I inked. Not always, but you could catch something that the powers-that-be might have missed. The approval times were quick then (which made it fun) and a fast turnaround to get paid (even better)! Not so much in today's world.

 

Ending the year with TWO new PHINEAS & FERB releases!

As 2025 comes to a close, I have not one but TWO Phineas & Ferb releases I'm part of coming out on Dec 23 and Dec 30! Wow!

DECEMBER 23, 2025

Phineas and Ferb Classic Comics Collection Vol. 5 is out today!

Published by Papercutz 
Distributed by Simon & Shuster

Phineas and Ferb: Classic Comics Collection, Volume 5 collects more of their comic adventures in their original release order — many never collected in a trade paperback before! I did a lot of P&F work and I’m listed as an artist inside, but I can’t tell you what I did inside specifically till I see one. The preview on the Papercutz website has some pages of my art!

Description
School is out for summer, and stepbrothers Phineas and Ferb are determined to make each day an exciting adventure through their outlandish inventions. Their elaborate projects frequently cause trouble for their older sister, Candace, who is constantly trying to catch them in the act and show their mother the evidence of their antics. Despite her efforts, the boys always manage to evade getting caught. Meanwhile, the family’s pet platypus, Perry, leads a secret double life as Agent P, a skilled operative who regularly battles the evil Dr. Doofenshmirtz. Dr. Doofenshmirtz is intent on taking over the Tri-State Area, but Perry’s quick thinking and bravery consistently thwart his plans.

Papercutz: 

https://papercutz.com/product/phineas-and-ferb-classic-comics-collection-vol-5

Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Phineas-Ferb-Classic-Comics-Collection/dp/1545820872

Barnes & Noble: 

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/phineas-and-ferb-classic-comics-collection-vol-5-scott-peterson/1146993046?ean=9781545820872

DECEMBER 30, 2025  

Phineas and Ferb's A-MAZE-ing Creature Double Feature is (finally!) out today!

Published by Papercutz 
Distributed by Simon & Shuster

I did the cover art for this long-awaited release!

Description 
In this outrageous and original double-feature graphic novel, Phineas and Ferb face an oversized maze full of oversized insects and oversized challenges, forcing them to invent their way home! The second story features an alternate reality adventure with Dr Doofenshmirtz as a horror movie TV host teaming up with Phineas and the gang to face real monsters, including a giant feral Perry!
    In the first half of this outrageous and original double feature, Phineas and the gang invent a maze to get lost in, but Doofenshmirtz’s ELONG-inator makes it so big that it absorbs all of Danville; and now everyone ELSE is lost too! Our heroes must invent their way out while Agent P stops Doof from exploiting the maze to take over the entire Tri-State area!
    The second story features an alternate reality take on our fan-favorite characters, with Dr. Doofenshmirtz as a cheesy, late night TV horror movie host. When Phineas and Ferb discover actual monsters in Danville, they seek out Doof’s help, even as Candace, a staunch non-believer, vows to reveal them as frauds. With the help of Doof and his horror movie knowledge, the kids build wild inventions to confront the creepy creatures, before facing their largest monster yet: a gigantic, feral Perry the Platypus! 

Papercutz:

https://papercutz.com/product/phineas-and-ferbs-a-maze-ing-creature-double-feature/

Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Phineas-MAZE-ing-Creature-Double-Feature/dp/154581322

Barnes & Noble: 

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/phineas-and-ferbs-a-maze-ing-creature-double-feature-the-disney-comics-group/1147396649?ean=9781545813225

PAPERCUTZ is having a BIG SALE this weekend! My PHINEAS & FERB work is 50% OFF!

Papercutz is having a BIG SALE from 12/5 to 12/7! Big discounts on my Phineas & Ferb work (50% OFF!), whether you want Digital, Hardcovers or Paperbacks! I think they have better prices than Amazon right now! 

Link here is to my creator profile page! Looks great! They're missing the Classic Comics Collection Vol 3 and the Classic Comics Collection 3-in-1 books on my profile page, but they're on the site and part of the sitewide sale!

https://papercutz.com/creators/scott-neely/

#papercutz #madcavestudios

 

Yet another SCOOBY cover variant that they did for Scholastic Australia!

Here's another interesting variant cover that they did for Scholastic Australia that I found online! This is a compilation book that collected the "Truth About..." book series into one volume. I forget how many were done, but I did two of them at the time. They took my Scooby art from the "Truth About Zombies" book and then changed the overall spotlight lighting and added some other monster art behind my zombies on the left side. It's another cool little find I found recently.

SCOOBY "You Choose" cover variant that was only available from Scholastic Australia!

Found this box cover variant online recently and it was only available from Scholastic Australia for my Scooby-Doo "You Choose" work I did! Looks great, huh? It would be nice if they let you know about it though, but I run across some amazing stuff online. I like to see the foreign/overseas releases. 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN with Phineas and Ferb!

Cover artwork I did for the Phineas and Ferb OGN that is finally coming out next month... though it seems to be more appropriate for the month of October! More on the cover art and all the behind-the-scenes drama soon...

Did not post much this past month as I was busy and had several things to get done in October... Will have much more soon!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SCOOBY-DOO!

On September 13, 1969, which was 56 years ago today, Scooby-Doo Where Are You? premiered on Saturday morning with the first episode titled "What a Night for a Knight"... and a legend was born! ZOINKS!

 

"PHINEAS AND FERB: COMIC BOOK INATOR" is out NOW as a SCHOLASTIC EXCLUSIVE!

Here is a larger version of the final cover art for the NEW Phineas and Ferb: Comic Book Inator I did for Papercutz/Mad Cave Studios! The lead story in it was originally slated to be a "Free Comic Book Day" comic back in May, but it didn't happen. So they merged the final comic with a bunch of classic P&F comics and worked a new deal for it to be released as a Scholastic Exclusive! You can order it directly from Scholastic.com!

More to come as I will be doing a long blog post about it's creation! Plus, the original comic art will be up for sale! No AI here, it was all done by hand on paper, baby!

Scholastic:
https://shop.scholastic.com/parent-ecommerce/books/phineas-and-ferb-the-comic-book-inator-9781545822289.html

DisneyTVAnimation.com posted new PHINEAS & FERB work I did!

DisneyTVAnimation.com posted the news about the NEW release of the Phineas and Ferb: Comic Book Inator that is NOW available, which features new cover art by me! A long post about the new cover will be forthcoming on my blog soon.

Official Link:

https://disneytvanimation.com/post/791886403735863296/papercutz-and-disney-publishing-worldwide-release 

 

My Scooby "You Choose" work available in Australia & New Zealand!

My work goes further than I do, and this time it's gone "down under" with Scooby!

I was checking to see if Capstone Publishing was going to release another box set of my Scooby-Doo "You Choose" books this year, and I ran across another box set available in Australia and New Zealand! 

Apparently, Capstone scored a deal with Scholastic Australia and they released several Scooby items I worked on! Above is the box art for a 4-book "You Choose" paperback set that was released in 2021! It's still out there and still available, even in the U.S.! It's even on eBay! Copy and paste the official title below and you'll see it pop up all over! 

_________________________________________ 

Scooby-Doo!: You Choose Mystery 4-Book Library (Warner Bros.)

Description:
Dive into the world of mystery and adventure with the Scooby-Doo!: You Choose Mystery Library from Warner Bros! This engaging 4-book box set, perfect for young mystery fans, brings the beloved Mystery Inc. gang to life, allowing your child to play detective in classic Scooby-Doo style. With stories like 'The Fright at Zombie Farm', 'The Ghost of the Bermuda Triangle', 'The House on Spooky Street', and 'The Mystery of the Maze Monster', kids can explore their choices and influence the outcome of each spine-chilling mystery.

Created by Scholastic Australia, this interactive reading experience is ideal for reluctant readers and Scooby-Doo enthusiasts alike. The unique format of these choose-your-own-adventure stories encourages creativity and critical thinking as readers follow clues or opt for a snack alongside Scooby and Shaggy. Not only does this box set enhance reading skills, but it also sparks imagination, making it a delightful addition to any children's book collection.

Each title in this mystery library is filled with colorful illustrations that add to the excitement of solving mysteries. 'The Fright at Zombie Farm' promises thrilling encounters with the undead, while 'The Ghost of the Bermuda Triangle' dives into nautical legends. 'The House on Spooky Street' and 'The Mystery of the Maze Monster' ensure that mystery lovers are captivated until the last page.

Join Scooby-Doo and the gang for a spine-tingling adventure where every choice you make could lead to a new discovery. Bring home the Scooby-Doo!: You Choose Mystery Library for hours of interactive fun! Get ready to solve puzzles, overcome challenges, and most importantly, enjoy reading!

CONDITION: Brand New
ISBN: 9781761123825
Publisher: SCHOLASTIC AUSTRALIA PTY LTD

Site Links:

https://shop.scholastic.com.au/Product/300012199/Scooby-Doo!-You-Choose-Mystery-Library-(Warner-Bros) 

https://smartfoxbooks.co.nz/products/scooby-doo-you-choose-mystery-library-warner-bros 

 

"Well, Gang, it looks like we have another mystery..." or my thoughts on the silent cancelling of SCOOBY-DOO & LOONEY TUNES at DC Comics

There's an elephant in the room that I've not spoken about lately. The fact that the Looney Tunes and Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? comic books from DC Comics seemingly disappeared without much fanfare.

I first learned about it live on the Scooby Addicts podcast in my interview with hosts Nikki and Wendy... and I was initially shocked by the news. There are rumblings on forums (there always are) but I can't say that I'm totally surprised by it either. I have worked off-and-on these books over the past 20 years (mostly on Scooby though).

These beloved characters are in a weird zone right now (I am including Tom & Jerry in this mess as well). This is not something that just happened overnight. It's been a slow crawl to limbo.

When I learned that there was no new Scooby comic scheduled to come out, my first thought was that it was getting cancelled so that they could restart fresh with a new #1 issue. 

I remember when they did this the last time and I expressed my dismay to my editor at the time about DC doing it. He commiserated with me, but what can you do? I've always hated disrupting the numbering system of a comic series just to get a "fresh start." I don't mind long runs of books but the industry has been doing this crap for ten years now. Amazing Spider-Man is incredibly hard to follow in terms of what to read and in what order. I can see a new reader saying the hell with it.

The first notion that something was amiss was when DC cancelled the Scooby-Doo comic in 2009-10 and then moved it to DC's imprint called Wildstorm who would then produce it. That was flat out weird! It seemed like they were finally ready to dismiss it and push it off to the side and say, "Yes, we produce this... but we don't like to talk about it."

Now this makes me laugh... as it was a deep, dark secret that in terms of actual press runs, Scooby-Doo was the biggest press run that DC had each month. Even over Batman and Superman, Scooby-Doo reigned. This is fact. I learned that from several of my editors over the years. DC never liked to acknowledged that publicly though. From 2015 to now, I don't know what the press run numbers were. A lot of things changed after the pandemic.

As they were winding down the previous comic series titled Scooby-Doo, they were already working on the new monthly series titled Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?. I think there was a month or two off before the new series started up and I wasn't informed about it until the first one was pretty much ready to launch. In fact, I was working on a comic for one of the final issues of Scooby-Doo when the editor finally told me about the new series. They had the first two issues already done in the can to get a jump start on it. I started working on the new series with issue #5. Scott Peterson was the new editor, and things continued along just fine.

Somewhere during the run, they stopped producing two new 10-page comic stories for each issue. It then became the standard to do just one new comic and then reprint an old one to fill the second spot. Both Looney Tunes and Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? started doing this around the same time. I don't fault them for this as I understand the economics of it, but it was now less work for the creative talent who produced the stuff. 

Some years later, they stopped publishing monthly and went to a bi-monthly schedule for both series. As a creative, this was not good news as it meant less work. They rotated each issue's art team so everyone would get some work. I like that they did that, but we were now down to only 6 issues per year instead of 12.

Then we got the Scooby-Doo Team-Up comics... like throwing baloney at the wall to see what would stick, they teamed Scooby up with anyone and everyone whether it made sense or not! Scooby-Doo and Batman made the most sense and would please a lot of fans. They should have done it years before, but they weren't allowed to. Don't ask. All this fun lasted several years, but even those got played out. The Scooby-Doo/Batman comics ended last year. At least, it kept the creative talent working though.

Looney Tunes disappeared in late fall of '24, and then in early 2025, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? mysteriously fell off the schedule. Since they were both bi-monthly books, people didn't notice right away. However, when eagle-eyed fans didn't see any new Scooby comic solicitations for the month of April, people started putting two and two together. 

The mystery continues... 

Right now, the only thing DC has coming out for Scooby-Doo is the complete series omnibus for Scooby Apocalypse. It comes out in September.

Currently, there are NO new publishing plans for Scooby-Doo material anywhere. I mean anywhere. I was initially told this by WB in 2019 (I've still got the email) and I've inquired at several places recently, and it's still in the same limbo.

Did Scooby-Doo fall out of favor with kids? I don't know that either. 

Kids don't read monthly comics and they prefer graphic novel formats. That's if they even read to begin with... which is another matter. The Scooby/Looney Tunes comic readers I've met were mostly older readers who grew up with it. 

Well, we still have the animated stuff! Oh, wait... 

Yep, it wasn't good news when they stopped production of the Direct-to-DVD movies for both Scooby-Doo and Tom & Jerry a few years ago. They had been reliable mainstays and were great as a branding tool in keeping the characters in the public eye. Sadly, most of the people I knew who worked on them are still looking for new work as the animation industry sits spinning in turmoil.

Currently, the pulling of content from the streaming services is also concerning... It makes you wonder what is going on? It certainly makes you happy if you bought it all on DVD and still have them! Physical media may be making a comeback!

My line of thinking at this point is that the suits at WB, or the head person I won't name, doesn't seem to care much about this material in general. I would think it's a license to print money, but what do I know. It's gotten to the point where I could honestly see WB selling off both Scooby-Doo and Looney Tunes outright to some other studio. 

In terms of comics, could Dynamite Comics get the Scooby or Looney Tunes licenses? It would make sense that they would get first dibs as they are the only ones doing some Hanna-Barbera related stuff currently. I don't see anyone else picking it up... and don't get me started on the non-existent page rates that artists are getting either, which is another whole post I could do!

One more point I'd like to make, as a creative, is this: Could DC have possibly cancelled the comics due to the horrendous approval times that may be involved these days? I've been complaining about this for the past year and how it's bad everywhere. Even working months out ahead of schedule, I wonder if DC's editors ran into approvals that just sat in limbo at WB? I don't know, but it never used to be like this. This is the main concern I have for all aspects of this industry and freelancers right now!

Any thoughts, or if someone else hears something, let me know! 

 

One From The Past: Master Ham-Ham!

I was going through some old art and teaching supplies that have been sitting in my basement the other night. Along with my easels and giant clipboards, I found two pads of 18" x 24" newsprint (in varying stages of aging) that had been sitting in a giant portfolio carry bag. One was barely used at all and I decided to keep it as the paper still looked okay. The other pad, however, looked mighty weary from battle... and it still had some drawings in it!

Laying on top of the pad was the drawing of Master Ham-Ham! 

I barely remember doing it till I thought about it. It's been a long time since I taught a class. Master Ham-Ham has been sitting for quite a while, but he still looks happy!

If I liked any drawings I did during a class, I would gently tear them out of the pad and place them at the front of the art pad to save them (if I didn't give them to students who requested them, which is what happened most of the time). It had to be from 15 years ago when I taught a class at the Delaware College of Art & Design, which is sadly no longer open.

When I uncovered Master Ham-Ham after all this time, I immediately felt his presence! He's loaded with appeal! Strong lush ink lines that make him pop! I still like him!

I decided to post this as I got some great response from people I showed him to, and to explain where he came from.

____________________________________ 

I always thought it was much easier to learn how to do animation character or prop turnarounds based on looking at an actual three-dimensional object or toy. You subconsciously pick up things like construction theory, shape, and form much easier. You can see why decisions were made at a design level because the final design is right in front of you. If you created something out of your head, the front or 3/4 front view would be fine but there would be problems trying to get it to match up when you did the other views. Turnarounds are not easy, and you only get good at doing turnarounds by doing them. 

I would bring a box of small toys into class (or one big toy) and let student draw them. Complex toys, simple toys, etc were all fair game. Which brings us to Master Ham-Ham...

I had a Dancing Kung-Fu Fighting Hamster toy made by Gemmy Toys in 2001. You squeezed his hand and it triggered the toy to start spinning his nunchucks and moving while it played the 70s song "Kung-Fu Fighting". It was a cute novelty toy.

 

Master Ham-Ham came from pushing students to move away from the realistic approach we had taken in the first drawings and to then do a more simplified redesign, all while retaining his character and look. Appeal is always key. 

After the students did their versions, I would then do my own version so they could watch me. I used gray magic markers to simulate pencils and then a black magic marker to finalize and ink the drawing. This approach still works as I would talk through my thoughts as I did it. My simplified design used the basic character construction that most of the Pokemon characters all had.

The "Warrior of the Round Wheel" tag line came from the fact that I used a round spinning cake stand (or wheel) in class. You place the stand on a stool and let the students sit around the stool in a circle and draw what was on the stand. I'd spin the stand every 15-20 minutes to give them a different view. We worked faster as I wanted them to pick up the main points of doing turns without getting bogged down in details.

For more complex turns, I'd give each student a toy or object and they could hold it in their hand and draw from it close up. It's still a great way to learn!

 

My DC COMICS Talent Directory page needs some updating!

If you do work for DC Comics, they have a talent directory page on their website that shows what you worked on. I went to mine to take a peek and saw that it was missing some stuff. Not to mention the chaos of stuff not being in any order by title is a bummer. I don't know what that's about, but it seems like it's just thrown together. It's not just mine, it's like this on every creative's page. DC needs to up their game here!

There are five covers I did that are not on here... 1 Scooby and 4 Cartoon Cartoons are missing. Coincidentally, the books that are not listed here are hanging on the walls of my studio.

Anyway, here's the link and if you click on the "Talent Directory" link at the top of their page, it will show you ALL the creatives who have worked for DC. 

https://www.dc.com/talent/scott-neely 

 

SCOOBY-DOO DVD cover art repurposed for JustWatch.com in Brazil

Recently, I saw that the DVD cover art I did for Scooby-Doo's 13 Spooky Tales Around The World was repurposed after all these years and is now being used as stock art on JustWatch's streaming news in Brazil. They're using it to advertise Season 3 of the original Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo cartoons!

Never let a good piece of art go to waste! It's why these corporations love having a huge backlog of material to pull from. 

For newer followers, you can see my original post I did way back on May 22, 2012! Check it out here! 13 Spooky Tales Around The World

It's the same art, but eagle-eyed viewers will notice that Fred, Daphne, and Velma were removed to focus on just Scooby and Shaggy. As much love that fans have for the other three, it all comes down to Scooby and Shaggy. Hence, why a lot of my Scooby art focuses on these two characters. It comes down to clarity of the image and how busy a final composition can be by adding too much. 

Every aspect of the art for the DVD cover was done on separate layers, so it would be easy to take out the three members of Mystery Inc. with a simple click to three.

It's odd that they left the other stuff on there though... Was there a UFO, Aztec/Mayan temple and stone warrior, etc in Season 3 of the Scooby-Doo & Scrappy-Doo? Maybe I'm reading too much into it. The art is small on the JustWatch site, so I'm guessing it was just used to plug a hole with a visual image. 

You can check it out on the JustWatch site, Click here!

Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo Season 3  

 

Checklist Insider has one of my SCOOBY sketch cards on their 2025 Fleer SCOOBY-DOO Checklist Guide!

I came across ChecklistInsider.com who has a complete listing of the 2025 Upper Deck/Fleer Scooby-Doo trading cards set! They're using one sample card for each section to show what they look like. When you scroll down and get to the "S-S-Scared S-S-Sketches" sketch cards, they're using one of my original sketch cards! WOW! They picked the one I drew of Scooby/Shaggy with the Zombie to represent! Pretty cool!

I took a couple screengrabs for my blog, but you can see the WHOLE checklist for the Scooby cards at their site! if you keep scrolling (it's really long!) you'll come across the list of names for the 74 artists who did sketch cards for the set.

https://www.checklistinsider.com/fleer-scooby-doo

 

 

My Disney work travels further than I do... and it goes around the world!

Through the glory of eBay, I found yet another gem that had my work in it! While it looked exactly like any other version of my Mickey Mouse work (which was printed out the wazoo)... this one was different. 

How was this one different, you ask?  

It was was printed in 2011, in Mumbai, by Disney (India)! On the inside cover, it says that it was for sale only in India. Wow! Someone must have traveled to India in 2011 and brought this back to America with them and eventually put it up on eBay. I bought it last week to add to my archive!

Needless to say, I bought it as it was one of those foreign rarities that had my work and  name in it, and I don't come across that stuff often. I only have a couple pieces like this in my archive so I didn't mind the slightly rough condition of it. It reminded me, yet again, of how far the work I do can go! 

Originally, the Mickey Mouse (and Winnie the Pooh) work I did in America had my art credit on all the early printings. This printed copy from Disney (India) still retained my credit on it, which is rare! Usually once it goes back to the company archive they can remove any credit and the work gets thrown in with all the other art (since Disney owns it all anyway). Yes, some artistic credits remain but it varies here and there. Bendon Publishing, who publishes a lot of my older work in America, doesn't give any artistic credit on anything from what I've seen. Hence, why I bought multiple copies of anything I originally did back when the work was first released! 

My SCOOBY-DOO Little Golden Book is back in print!

Another surprise I just found out about is that my Scooby-Doo Little Golden Book I did way, way back in 2000 is now BACK IN PRINT!

On September 7, 2021, Penguin Random House re-released a new printing of Scooby-Doo That's Snow Ghost! Exciting news as I've always been quite proud of the work and having the honor of worked on an official Little Golden Book.

In fact, this book was the LAST Little Golden Book produced and released before Golden Books had shut down in 2001. In a previous post, I talked about the second Scooby Little Golden Book I did in 2001 which never did see the light of day. 

When Golden Books sadly folded, Random House took it over, and to their credit, they continued the line of Little Golden Books ever since. This is a treasured line of children's books to be sure!

For those who may not know, this story is an adaptation of the classic "That's Snow Ghost!" episode from 1970. The original first two seasons of Scooby-Doo produced in 1969-1970 have the best stories and painted backgrounds to my mind. While this is adapted, we did tweak some things to make it work as a children's book with the page count we had.

Amazon also has a version of it available for Kindle users! 

You can buy it on Amazon and Barnes & Noble! Links below: 

Amazon: 

https://www.amazon.com/Thats-Ghost-Scooby-Doo-Little-Golden/dp/0593425367

Barnes & Noble:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/thats-snow-ghost-golden-books/1138717936?ean=9780593425367

 

 

Upper Deck / Fleer SCOOBY-DOO Trading Cards NOW ON SALE!

The Scooby-Doo trading cards are NOW ON SALE! 

I wrote Upper Deck yesterday to confirm that the release date posted on card-selling sites was correct. They wrote back that it was and the release date is, in fact, July 2! 

It's been a long time coming, but if you are a new follower, scroll down or hit "older posts" to see my in-depth Scooby sketch cards art post I did previously!

 

Found MICKEY MOUSE work I did at the local Dollar Tree stores this weekend!

My old Mickey Mouse Clubhouse work is STILL out there for sale! AMAZING!

I ran across EIGHT books that were on sale at two local Dollar Tree stores this weekend! They were published by Bendon and reprint my work that I originally did for Dalmatian Press. These don't give me a credit line on them, but I have all the original Dalmatian printings which did. I picked these up for my archives as I didn't know these particular books even existed. They take the same batch of work I did and reprinted the hell out of them with new cover art.

I also took a new pic of the original art that I did of Mickey and friends in his car. I still have the original and this piece of car art has been used an infinite number of times. This artwork and the piece I did of Mickey and Pluto in an airplane have seen the most usage since I originally drew them. 

 

 

As you can see the original art has a background on it that is different from the printed version. When I did the art originally it was for a giant Mickey floorpad coloring book that Dalmatian produced. Then they erased the background and just kept the car art and multi-purposed it for coloring pages, activities, mazes, etc in normal-sized coloring books. 

A lot of the character art I did for Mickey had some kind of background on them (which were mostly later removed) but to maximize some later art, we then did the character art and backgrounds separately. That way a designer could mix and match later on based on the dynamics of different page formats. 

When I finished work on Mickey I moved right into doing a ton of Winnie the Pooh work. My Pooh artwork is all single character art and background plates. That art is still some of the best I've ever done and why I've kept all my originals.

Finally, I'd like to mention that the only downside to working with separate pieces of line art is dealing with all the bad tangents that can happen when you drop a character onto a background plate. It doesn't happen with color so much, but with pen and ink drawings it can be brutal. You then have to take some time to slightly adjust some elements on the background plate as the character art can't be touched.

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UPDATE! Through the glory of eBay I found a Mickey Mouse coloring floor pad and one of the pics for it (that the seller took) was of the page with my art! What are the odds?! 

Here's the original usage of my art before the background was removed to repurpose it! This is exciting to show you! This particular coloring floor pad was produced in 2013 and was yet just another reprinting of the art I did. I do have the original floor pad somewhere that was first printed in 2007 (and all the first original printings for this material had my name in them), but they really kept my art in print for many years!

As a final note, here's another page from this pad that features what I talked about before where the character art and backgrounds were two separate things that were then combined to make up scenes. Mickey and Minnie are two separate pieces and the background of Mickey Park was a separate piece. I don't remember if the clouds in the sky were on that background plate but even they could have been taken from another background I did to make a scene work.

 

PHINEAS & FERB Sketch Cards are HERE!

I did 15 Phineas and Ferb sketch cards soon after I created my own sketch card as the cartoon series returned the airwaves. Each card was thought out and drawn with care like I did with my Upper Deck/Fleer Scooby-Doo cards. I used the same process and materials to create them, but the interesting thing is that I had a hard time making the art "pop" off the cards as Phineas and Ferb doesn't use any character shading. They use color line holds instead which creates a great look, but you can't do that on a sketch card. Everything just looked flat. To get around this problem I decided to add a white outline around the characters which I painstakingly painted with a "0" size brush. The photo above shows me doing it. I used a small art brush as it worked much better than using a messy paint pen. Yes, this took time, but it was worth it!

I wanted to cover the icons of the show and when you look at them all together they almost form a storyline of an adventure. It was not planned that way, but the overall result looks great! I wanted them to be colorful and exciting!

Since I'll be selling them, I tried to think of scenarios that would be appealing to fans of the show. When I was done I took a photo of them all laid out before I scanned them.

I tried to create an equal balance of Phineas and Ferb cards and Agent P and Doof ones, with some love for Candace thrown in.

Here is a scan of the final inked cards! I left some pencil lines on the cards to use a guide for where coloring effects would be done. I took a good amount of time making a color key guide that matched the style guide colors for the characters and backgrounds. I think I nailed it well although it took a couple trips to the art store to buy the right marker colors. 

The end result was that they came out really cool and they really do pop off the cards! These should be available to purchase soon!