Looking at Harvey Comics

The first comic books I ever owned were a stack of early 60s mostly Dells and Gold Keys, given to me by my babysitter Sandy, which included a few Harvey Baby Hueys and Caspers, including a classic Casper involving a defective electronic brain. After I started buying comics in 1967 I only rarely bought a Harvey—Casper, Spooky, Richie Rich, Hot Stuff, Baby Huey or Little Lotta. Never Sad Sack; I think the several Sad Sack titles were invisible to me on the comics spin rack, much like Charltons or romance comics.

Sad Sack—He was an incompetent little Army private with a huge nose. I do remember reading Sad Sacks at the barber shop (they were on the lower shelf by the cash register, not the higher shelf--that’s where the Playboys are!). Then in junior high I found out that a guy I knew in the neighborhood collected comics, so we started lending them to each other—his were mostly Sad Sacks. It’s weird to think that World War II soldier Sad Sack lasted into the 1980s, essentially unchanged.

Casper—Everyone remembers Casper from the original 1950s theatrical cartoons, in every one of which Casper is ostracized by the other ghosts for wanting to make friends, sets off to find a friend, inadvertently scares a few humans/animals/inanimate objects with would-be hilarious results, then meets a human or animal child who is too young and/or spectrally naïve to be afraid of him. After an interval of happiness, something occurs to reveal Casper’s ghostliness to the young human or animal, but Casper quickly proves himself by saving the youth from some danger. Much better were the early-60s TV cartoons, which were also much closer to the comic books: Casper is a valued part of a forest society that includes the Ghostly Trio, Wendy the Good Witch and her witch aunts, Nightmare the ghost horse, Spooky the Tuff Little Ghost, and assorted fairy tale and folklore characters. Some sort of problem arises, like a prince is turned invisible and can’t figure out how to reverse it or a friendly giant develops Tourette’s syndrome, and Casper is instrumental in solving it. The 1960s version also had a much better theme song—everyone can sing the 1950s one, “Casper the friendly ghost/The friendliest ghost you know” etc, but the TV show had the classic

Come along now and join the party
Come along now and have some fun
We are a lot of friendly people
And the fun has just begun

But of course, I’m talking about the comic books, not the cartoons.

Richie Rich, the Poor Little Rich Boy—I never got why they called him The Poor Little Rich Boy. All the stories were about how wonderful his life was—I don’t remember any where he was suffering from deep existential angst, or even any with a “money can’t buy happiness” message. He always seemed pretty damn happy. At any rate, there must have been more comic book stories featuring Richie Rich than any other comic book character (with the possible exception of some character from a foreign country—as if those are real comic books anyway). The original Richie Rich title started in 1960, followed closely by Richie Rich Millions, then Richie Rich Dollars & Cents in 1963 and Richie Rich Success Stories in 1964. The first Richie Rich explosion occurred in 1972-73 (fueled by the recession?), when new titles Richie Rich Fortunes, Richie Rich Riches, Richie Rich Diamonds, Richie Rich Money World, Richie Rich Bank Books, Richie Rich Jackpots, and Richie Rich & Jackie Jokers were added. 1974-75 saw new titles Richie Rich & Casper, Richie Rich Cash, Richie Rich Gems, Richie Rich Billions, Richie Rich Profits, Richie Rich Vaults of Mystery (really), Richie Rich Gold & Silver, and Super Richie (which only lasted four issues). Richie Rich Zillionz was added in 1976, then in ’77 there was Richie Rich & Dollar the Dog, Richie Rich & Gloria, Richie Rich & Cadbury, Richie Rich Best of the Years, Richie Rich Digest Stories, Richie Rich Inventions, Richie Rich Vacations Digest and Richie Rich Digest Winners. Two more titles were added in 1979: Richie Rich & His Girlfriends, and Richie Rich & His Mean Cousin Reggie. Meanwhile many of Harvey’s non-RR books had been canceled, so by 1980 they were publishing very few comics that did not have “Richie Rich” in the title. In 1982 Harvey folded their comics line (Casper, Hot Stuff, Sad Sack, Sad Sack & the Sarge, and about 25 Richie Rich books), though in 1986 they came back with just a few titles and lasted to the mid-90s.

Spooky, the Tuff Little Ghost—Spooky was Casper’s cousin, but unlike Casper he liked to scare people (and animals, and inanimate objects). This would seem to make him simply a typical ghost, and not a particularly tuff little one, but he had freckles, a derby hat, and an accent that caused him to call the hat a “doiby” and his girlfriend “Poil,” so you can see how tuff he was.

Hot Stuff, the Little Devil—Hot Stuff was a bright red child devil, with horns, pointy ears, a pitchfork, and for some reason a white diaper. He was clearly not meant to be an infant devil or even a toddler devil, so I never understood why he wore a diaper. Are diapers worn by devils of all ages, because of some colon condition inherent to the species? Anyway, his personality and character were similar to Spooky’s, without the accent, but with the bonus of burning or melting anything he touched. If you can call that a bonus.

Little Lotta—Unlike Little Audrey or Little Dot, Little Lotta was not at all little, so I’m not sure whether the name referred to her youth or was ironic. She was a big, stocky girl whose stories generally revolved around her super-strength, her weight, and her enormous appetite. Sometimes she would pretend to be a superhero named Leapin’ Lotta, but since she was essentially a superhero already, that seemed pointless.

Little Dot—Little Dot was one of the most psychologically troubled comic book characters ever created. She was obsessed with dots. Everything she owned was covered with dots. Any round object was to her a dot and therefore desirable. While an intervention or rehab would seem to be in order, her parents grudgingly enabled her.

Little Audrey, AKA Playful Little Audrey—I guess she was fairly playful, but in this group of characters that’s an awfully vague characteristic on which to hang plot points. She had a friend/rival named Melvin.

Wendy, the Good Little Witch—Wendy was very similar to Casper, a female non-dead Casper with a magic wand, living with three aunts instead of Casper’s three, well, whatever they were.

Baby Huey—Baby Huey was another character whose animated cartoons generally had only one plot: the other duck children won’t play with him, so he finds someone else to play with who turns out to be the fox in disguise, and Huey somehow saves the other duck children from the fox, so then they’ll play with him. The comics didn’t follow this formula and were better. Some of the stories featured a cousin of Huey’s named Dimwit, which is kind of like Donald Duck having a cousin named Angry; Dimwit seemed older than a child but younger than an adult, so I guess he was a teenage boy hanging out with a preschooler.

You know, now that I think about it, Archie has very possibly been in more comic book stories than Richie Rich…