If someone told you there was a shonen manga with Bugs Bunny and Scooby-Doo battling like it was the Dio vs. Jotaro fight from JoJo's Bizzare Adventure, you'd think that person was screwing with you. However, this does in fact exist, and it may just be more fleshed-out than most manga in Shonen Jump. This is the severely underrated webcomic, Scoob and Shag, created by the appropriately named team Misterie Krew.
Beginning in 2018 on the webcomic platform Webtoon, Scoob & Shag starts as a simple yet hilarious series of gags and internet humor. It features the classic Hannah-Barbara duo, Scooby-Doo and Shaggy Rogers, with a bizarre twist on their daily life. Shaggy asks Scoob where's the mayonnaise, Scoob proceeds to vomit mayonnaise. What more do you need? Strangely, this little webcomic evolves over time. Misterie Krew starts dripping out an ongoing narrative, beginning with Scooby and Shaggy running from the cops with Kermit the Frog and seeking shelter in a spooky haunted house.
The quality of the art gradually increases as backgrounds get shaded in and the characters are drawn with more depth. The Krew leans more heavily into a horror-tinged lens with some of the imagery in this arc. Shaggy gets separated from Scooby and Kermit, and the pair meet a stranger wearing a decrepit Mickey Mouse costume. Mick's introductory panel is the most detailed panel up to this point, giving the impression he's not something familiar or understandable. The horror only grows from there as other familiar cartoon characters grow into dark disfigured versions of themselves.
After their deadly encounter in the haunted mansion, Kermit and Shaggy awaken to find themselves in a rebel base made up of other cartoon survivors being led by Popeye the Sailor Man. It's here the series transitions into a shonen battle manga in the vein of JoJo and Hunter x Hunter. As it turns out, our favorite cartoon characters are all from another planet advanced enough to transmit themselves into our TV screens. They were beloved by millions, and this love is what unlocked a power within them, The Ballyhoo.
Ballyhoos are Scoob and Shag's equivalent to Stands from JoJo or Quirks in My Hero Academia. The fun spin Scoob and Shag puts on such special powers is how each power relates to television broadcasting and filmmaking. Kermit the Frog, for instance, has the Ballyhoo "Product Placement," allowing him to manifest different branded items like a Pepsi machine or Doritos bags, great for making quick barriers or hurling at his opponents. Yogi Bear's Ballyhoo, Simulcast, allows him to replicate any physical attack made at him with equal speed and force, a strong ability but completely reliant on his opponent making the first attack.
Because the cast is made up of a crossover of cartoon characters from nearly every era in animation, some are more recognizable than others, and therefore, more powerful than others. Felix the Cat hasn't been in the public consciousness for decades, so he's already dead, but characters like Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse are nearly demi-gods, greatly outweighing the heroes in pure raw power. Scoob and Shag don't need to spend too much time building up its villains because we're very familiar with them already through pop culture. When Bugs Bunny enters the story there's an immediate sense of dread and anxiety because he's such an icon, even though we don't know what his aim is.
Beyond just the clever abilities, the life or death battles are excellently choreographed and filled with fun little details. Take the fight between Shaggy and Yogi, for instance. Just before Shaggy is about to attack, a diagonal split panel shows Shaggy tightening his fist and Yogi sliding his foot forward to counter the impact. It's a small detail, but it does a great deal of transferring the movement and action between the panels. The fights masterfully convey velocity and impact on a level similar to shonen manga like Bleach and Dragon Ball Z. The fight against Bugs in Chapter 65 is a particular action highlight, as his Ballyhoo "Dead Air" turns the energy around him into violent television static.
You may think such a comic couldn't possibly be taken seriously. After all, this is the same webcomic where Garfield holds the president at gunpoint and Patrick Star travels through time. However, there's just a sincerity behind Scoob and Shag that tells you the people who make it care about it. This care shows in the art, world-building and writing.
What's fascinating about Scoob and Shag is that a series like this could only ever exist as a webcomic. With the amount of red tape and copyright regulations surrounding the cast, an officially licensed comic would be far too expensive to ever get off the ground. If you're someone who wants just a smartly written shonen series or loves the idea of cartoon characters fighting a war, give Scoob and Shag a chance.
The series is completely free to read on both Webtoon and Tumblr. Misterie Krew also has a Patreon and Ko-Fi you can donate to.
