Bats What I'm Afraid Of

This needs a stretch. (Feel free to remove when satisfied of completion.)

Bats What I'm Afraid Of
Description
Part of	Scooby-Doo! #47
# of pages	12
Writer	Brett Lewis
Penciler	Joe Staton
Inker	Dave Hunt
Colorer	Paul Becton
Letterer	Ryan Cline
Chronology
Previous story	The Ex-Verminators
Next story	Tune Goon

Bats What I'm Afraid Of is a story in Scooby-Doo! #47 by DC Comics.

Premise

The Mystery Inc. gang goes batty investigating vampire bat trouble at a creepy coal mine.

Characters

Main characters:

• Mystery Inc.
  • Scooby-Doo
  • Shaggy Rogers
  • Fred Jones
  • Daphne Blake
  • Velma Dinkley

Supporting characters:

• Norma Mae ^{(only appearance)}
• Sheriff ^{(only appearance)}
• Deputy Jim ^{(only appearance)}

Villains:

• Five shadowy people ^{(only appearance)(disguise)}/
• F.D.M. Mining Co. head owners ^{(only appearance)}
• Silver miner with the clean work boots ^{(only appearance)(disguise)}/
• Spy ^{(only appearance)}
• Vampire bats (fruit bats) ^{(only appearance)(no lines)(redeemed)}

Other characters:

• Waitress ^{(only appearance)}
• Gang of silver miners ^{(only appearance)}

Locations

• Hilltopper
  • Diner
  • Old abandoned silver mine
  • Sheriff's office
  • Storage Shed
  • Phone booth
  • Hills
  • F.M.D. Mining Company

Objects

• TBA

Vehicles

• The Mystery Machine

Suspects

Suspect	Motive/reason
F.M.D. Mining Co. head owners	They had offered to buy out the shares of their own silver miners and give them work elsewhere.
Norma Mae	She was furious that all the town's silver miners were thinking of leaving the town. She was very rude to the gang.
Silver miner with the clean work boots	Daphne noticed that he had clean work boots, apart from all the other miners' dirty work boots.
Sheriff	He said his office had filled up with the vampire bats that he and his partner, Deputy Jim, had caught.
Deputy Jim	The sheriff's office where he worked with his employer, the Sheriff, was full of the vampire bats that they had both caught.

Culprits

Culprit	Motive/reason
Spy as the Silver miner with the clean work boots	He was posing as a silver miner to spy on everyone for five shadowy people in the storage room. He was supposedly the first of many non-union workers that the shadowy people's true identities hired to work in the mine and save millions.
The five head owners of the F.M.D. Mining Co. as the five shadowy people	They had just found a new vein of silver in the old silver mine and they did not want to split all the profits with their union silver miners. So, they faked a cave-in and closed the new mine in order to get all the union families to sell their shares. Then, they could hire non-union workers to work in the mine after they re-opened it and save millions.
Harmless fruit bats from Africa as the Vampire bats	They were being controlled by a signal beacon into thinking that everyone was big fruits.

Notes/trivia

• TBA

Reception

Plot: Bats almost entertainment folks.

While Brett Lewis uses the village under siege plot to good effect and comes up with an inventive motive, the story fails in its use of fruit bats as a disguise for the vampire species. There's no excuse nowadays for poor research when volumes of free information is but a click away. Fruit bats or Flying Foxes do not use echolocation. They prey on fruit. Fruit, brace yourself, does not move. Fruit bats, like humans, possess excellent stereoscopic vision. Were this mistake a mere aside instead of a plot point, I would mention it only in passing.

Joe Staton also must take a few lumps for poor research. His bats with their pushed up noses and big ears look like vampire bats, but fruit bats have doggy faces, snouts and smaller ears: remember, they don't hunt via echolocation. Am I to think that the miscreants behind the scheme attached to each bat a tiny mask?

Both creators do redeem themselves. Daphne is a scream. She spots a clue on page two, throughout the mystery looks delectable and actually seems to be in serious danger when the bats attack. Naturally, Daph stoutly surpasses her fear to be her usual valuable, competent self.