Pepperoni Poltergeist is the first of two stories in Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? #20, by DC Comics. It was followed by the reprint, Ghouls Night at the Opera.
Premise[]
Mystery Inc. visits Sal's pizzeria, but find a pizza monster is terrorizing the kitchen, and a rivalling restaurant threatens to put the pizzeria out of business.
Synopsis[]
Mystery Inc. visits Sal's pizzeria, where Shaggy admires his wall of "heroes" that visited the restaurant. However, Sal laments he is about to close the store because of his rival, Dino D'Onofrio, who had been copying his recipes and selling them at the store across the street, though using less fresh ingredients. He also says a monster had been terrorizing his restaurant, attacking him while he was cleaning the kitchen. Mystery Inc. offers to temporarily run the restaurant while they investigate the attacks.
Shaggy and Scooby prepare the tables for the customers, but a pizza monster attacks them, chasing them back to the kitchen. Velma collects a mushroom that came from a can as evidence, as Sal only used fresh mushrooms. Suspecting D'Onofrio, Fred, Velma, and Daphne visit his pizzeria and order a mushroom pizza, finding the mushrooms to the be the same as the one they collected. However, Shaggy and Scooby call them, having caught the monster themselves. Fred's group returns to the pizzeria and reunites with them.
The pizza monster is revealed to be Sal, who wanted to sabotage his own business so he could retire to Napoli. He had ordered D'Onofrio's pizzas and used his mushrooms to decorate his costume. Later, Mystery Inc. discovers Sal had decided to work together with D'Onofrio's company; running the sit-down restaurant as D'Onofrio managed takeout orders, though D'Onofrio had abandoned canned ingredients in favour of fresh ones. As they visit Sal's restaurant, Shaggy and Scooby find their picture on the wall of heroes.
Characters[]
Main characters:
Supporting characters:
- None
Villains:
- Sal (only appearance)(main story and flashback)(redeemed)
- Pizza Monster (only appearance)(Sal's disguise)
Other characters:
- Cooks (only appearance)(no lines)
- Waiters (only appearance)(no lines)
- Dino D'Onofrio (mentioned)
Locations[]
- Coolsville
- Italy (mentioned)
- Napoli (mentioned)
Objects[]
Vehicles[]
Suspects[]
Suspect | Motive/reason |
---|---|
Dino D'onofrio | To drive his rival, Sal, out of business. |
Culprits[]
Culprit | Motive/reason |
---|---|
Sal as the Pizza Monster | He was tired of running the pizzeria and wanted to retire to Napoli. |
Notes/trivia[]
Miscellaneous[]
- Disguises: None.
- Traps: None.
- Clues: A canned mushroom and a mushroom from Dino D'Onofrio's pizza.
- Scooby Snacks bribe: 0.
- "Ruh-roh" count: 0.
- "Zoinks" count: 1.
- "Jeepers" count: 0.
- "Jinkies" count: 3 (1 from Velma, 1 from Daphne, 1 from Fred).
Coloring mistakes[]
- None known.
Inconsistencies/continuity errors and/or goofs/oddities[]
- When Shaggy is explaining to the gang about the Pizza Monster, he says "Shaggy and I" instead of "Scooby and I."