Speed Buggy??? No Really. I'm serious!!

[Jon-El]

I'm ashamed to ask a question about this comic. It popped into my head the other day. The first comics I ever bought were Super-Team Family #6 which feature the Composite Superman (I was hooked after that!!) and Speed Buggy. Remember virtually nothing about the Speed Buggy comic except something about a giant pickle or pickle shaped man. Or something. I was 6 so shoot me! Anybody know what issue that was. I'd kind of like to get it off Ebay. I'm old and nostalgic!

Go ahead and ban me from the boards. I wouldn't blame you after this question!::)

[shaxper]

http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/14108/400/14108_4_001.jpg

From Wikipedia:

"Speed Buggy was a Saturday morning cartoon produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions from September 8, 1973 to August 30, 1975 on CBS. Similar in style to Hanna-Barbera's successful Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, Speed Buggy followed the adventures of an anthropomorphic, fiberglass Dune Buggy, Speed Buggy (voiced by Mel Blanc), his driver Tinker (voiced by Phil Luther, Jr.), and Tinker's friends, Mark (voiced by Michael Bell) and Debbie (voiced by Arlene Golonka). The three young adults and their car traveled from race to race, often encountering spy capers and mysteries along the way. Speed Buggy's trademark quotes were always "Roger-Dodger!" and "Vroom-a-zoom-zoom!"

Though Speed Buggy (nicknamed Speedy by his friends) had a mind of his own (which was based on Disney's Herbie the Love Bug), he was vulnerable to commands given through a communicator/remote control device made by Tinker when he first built Speed Buggy. Speedy's friends rarely used the device to control his actions, using it mainly for its communication function, but criminals and other ne'er-do-wells would sometimes steal or duplicate the device and manipulate Speedy for their own purposes.

Sixteen 30-minute installments of Speed Buggy were produced in 1973. The show was a such a huge success that it aired on all three major networks (CBS, NBC and ABC) until 1979, then was picked up for syndication until 1983.

Most likely due to the shows inspiration, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, the character Tinker shares many visual likenesses to Scooby's beatnik best friend, Norville "Shaggy" Rogers. Also, there are some similar character traits between Mark and Fred Jones, and Debbie appears to be very similar to Daphne in multiple ways."


Of course, there's no info on the actual comic book, nor the giant pickle.

[Scott Shaw!]

Hopefully, you'll recognize one of these covers:

http://www.comics.org/covers.lasso?SeriesID=14108

Charlton's line of H-B comics weren't very well done, but SPEED BUGGY was a bit better than most of 'em.

Aloha,

Scott!

[Reptisaurus!]

I'm ashamed to ask a question about this comic. It popped into my head the other day. The first comics I ever bought were Super-Team Family #6 which feature the Composite Superman (I was hooked after that!!) and Speed Buggy. Remember virtually nothing about the Speed Buggy comic except something about a giant pickle or pickle shaped man. Or something. I was 6 so shoot me! Anybody know what issue that was. I'd kind of like to get it off Ebay. I'm old and nostalgic!

Go ahead and ban me from the boards. I wouldn't blame you after this question!::)

Speed Buggy isn't inherently dumber than Spider-man, or Super-Team Family, or Donald Duck. (Or, say, Dancing with the Stars.) And there were real artists, writers, and editors on the book, and it's good that their work is remembered.

In fact, this is the kind of question that some of us live for. :) That's the kind of knowledge you hardly EVER get to show off.

[Kan-Man]

I don't remember the comic but I loved the cartoon. I used to watch it in place of the vastly overrated "getting some fresh air".

[TVComicsFan]

I think Bill Williams was one of the artists (but I'm not positive). I have the
third issue, but it doesn't contain the story you mentioned.

[Scott Shaw!]

You're right about Bill Williams drawing SPEED BUGGY; he also drew TEENAGE PEBBLES AND BAMM-BAMM and GRAPE APE. You can tell he's rushing on 'em (Charlton's page rates were very low) but it's still solid work, just not up to the level of the stuff he did with John Stanley writing/drawing layouts.

Another nice-looking Charlton HB title was VALLEY OF THE DINOSAURS, drawn by Fred Himes. And, of course, there were John Byrne's WHEELIE AND THE CHOPPER BUNCH stories.

Aloha,

Scott!

[Sir Tim Drake]

I don't remember the comic but I loved the cartoon. I used to watch it in place of the vastly overrated "getting some fresh air".

"Getting some fresh air" was a pretty lousy cartoon anyway.

[TVComicsFan]

"You're right about Bill Williams drawing SPEED BUGGY; he also drew TEENAGE PEBBLES AND BAMM-BAMM and GRAPE APE. You can tell he's rushing on 'em (Charlton's page rates were very low) but it's still solid work, just not up to the level of the stuff he did with John Stanley writing/drawing layouts."

I'm pretty sure that he drew some of the SCOOBY-DOO stories for Charlton,
too.

[Jon-El]

Thanks for all the responses. I'll probably just buy a complete set on ebay. I spend so much time buying comics I had as a kid. It was a great cartoon too. Fun!