Scooby Doo, Where Are You? #5
This issue sits at the heart of a brief but historically meaningful interlude in Scooby-Doo's publishing history: the 11-issue Charlton Comics run (1975–1976) that bridged the long Gold Key era and the later Marvel run, representing the only period in which Derby, Connecticut's bargain-basement-but-beloved Charlton held the Hanna-Barbera license. Issue #5, published in December 1975, exemplifies Charlton's distinctly scrappy approach to the franchise — packaging multiple all-original mysteries per issue, a format that gave readers considerably more story content than the Gold Key books had typically offered. As part of the Charlton run that would later be reprinted by Harvey Comics in the early 1990s, and excerpted by Marvel UK in 1988, the issue's stories proved durable enough to travel internationally, cementing this short run's minor but real place in the global life of the Scooby-Doo brand.
ComicBooks.com Value
This exact issue on ebay
Raw / ungraded ▾ $9.99–$150 7 listings
More listings for this title
Read it digitally
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
Charlton acquired the Scooby-Doo license from Gold Key Comics when Gold Key's run ended in early 1975, and immediately launched the new series in April of that year under managing editor George Wildman, who oversaw Charlton's editorial operations through most of the Bronze Age. The series relied on the studio's signature house team: prolific scripter Joe Gill (Charlton's workhorse writer across dozens of titles) and artist Bill Williams, who handled both covers and interiors across much of the run. The issue also carried a non-Scooby children's text story with illustrations — a format staple Charlton used across its licensed humor titles to pad page counts and satisfy Comics Code content requirements for younger readers.
Trivia · 7 facts
- Published December 1975 by Charlton Publications Inc. as part of their 11-issue run (April 1975 – December 1976), which was the second publisher to hold the Scooby-Doo comics license after Gold Key.
- The issue contains four segments: the comic stories 'Hi, Spy!', 'Mummy's Little Helper', and 'Granny's Night Out', plus a non-Scooby children's text story ('The Golden Fish') with four illustrations — demonstrating Charlton's multi-story-per-issue approach that differentiated their run from Gold Key's.
- 'Hi, Spy!' features the villain characters Igor and Boris Brainyov, who use mind control to turn Daphne into an unwitting spy against her Uncle Verner, a government scientist — a Cold War-flavored plot atypical of the TV show's ghost-of-the-week formula.
- 'Mummy's Little Helper' sends the full gang to the Egyptian pyramids to contend with a mummy — keeping the supernatural-mystery format central to the brand.
- Managing editor George Wildman (Charlton's editor from the early 1970s through 1984) oversaw the issue; interior art and story credits across the run are attributed to Joe Gill (script) and Bill Williams (pencils and inks), though GCD records some attributions as unconfirmed.
- At least two stories from this issue were reprinted internationally: content appeared in Semic's Swedish digest Seriepocket #123 (1982) and in Marvel UK's The Marvel Bumper Comic #1 (October 1988) — giving the Charlton material a remarkably wide geographic footprint for a short-lived licensed run.
- Harvey Comics later reprinted material from the Charlton run in the early 1990s, and the Charlton issues are now recognized as the third distinct publisher chapter in Scooby-Doo comics history, between Gold Key (1970–1975) and Marvel (1977–1979).
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in Seriepocket #123 (1982), The Marvel Bumper Comic #1 (1988)
Key issues in Scooby Doo, Where Are You?
Reviews
Reader reviews
No reader reviews yet.