You are currently browsing the harvey category

Isn’t this how Preacher started?

§ February 24th, 2012 § Filed under harvey § 11 Comments

image from Hot Stuff #98 (July 1970) – yeah, okay, I might have the genders reversed

And let’s not even mention the stain.

§ January 14th, 2012 § Filed under harvey, richie rich § 13 Comments

So I don’t know which is more disturbing:


That 1) there was a comic book series devoted to the love life of Richie Rich…

…or 2) that Richie Rich is totally ripped:


I’m half-surprised Harvey didn’t put out a title called Richie Rich and His Manly Torso, so long as they were putting out six dozen other Richie Rich series.

Spooky Saturday #1.

§ August 20th, 2011 § Filed under harvey, saturday § 8 Comments

BUT…BUT HE’S A GHOST

HOW CAN HE…HOW IS THAT EVEN….

from Spooky #144 (May 1975)

Have a Spooky Halloween!

§ October 31st, 2010 § Filed under halloween, harvey § 7 Comments


BOOOO!


BOOOOOOOOOO!


BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

FOO!

images from Tuff Ghosts Starring Spooky #40 (September 1971)
and Spooky Spooktown #66 (December 1976)

And now, something you weren’t thinking about until I posted this panel…

§ April 14th, 2010 § Filed under harvey, richie rich § 7 Comments

…and that would be THE LOVE LIFE OF RICHIE RICH:


…Well, Richie’s love life as Gloria is imagining it, but once seen, it cannot be unseen.

Please enjoy the rest of your day. Thank you.

from Richie Rich Bank Book #12 (August 1974)

"SHIVER with FEAR…SHAKE with LAUGHTER."

§ November 23rd, 2009 § Filed under harvey, richie rich Comments Off on "SHIVER with FEAR…SHAKE with LAUGHTER."

In the comments for yesterday’s post, both Tim and John comment on the “intense” adventure-oriented nature of the Richie Rich comic I presented. I’ve always thought this kind of Richie Rich comic, as common as it was, seemed a bit…peculiar, myself, contrasting the exceedingly cartoony nature of Richie with drama, action, and intrigue. Archie did it, too on occasion. I suppose ultimately it’s no more ridiculous than, say, Uncle Scrooge McDuck going on world-spanning and sometimes life-threatening adventures (though there are, I imagine, several reasons why Scrooge’s adventures feel less out of character than they do for Richie or Archie…perhaps a topic for another day).

I’ve presented these panels before, about five years ago, but this remains my favorite cognitively dissonant bit from one of the “adventure” Richie Rich comics…in this case Richie Rich Diamonds #56, where Richie is stranded in a foreign country and faces off against…um, the Vietcong, maybe?


Here’s another Harvey book I came across with a similarly out-of-character presentation:


Okay, not so much in the cover image but in the promises made in the blurbs: “shiver with fear..shake with laughter.” C’mon, it’s Casper…how much shivering in fear are we seriously expecting, here? (And the “shake with laughter” part…well, your mileage will vary, I guess.)


That’s about as scary as it gets. But it’s not as if we were realistically expecting “OH MY GOD! It’s Baby Huey…but where’s his head!? AAAAIIIIEEEE!!!” I’d totally read that, of course, but alas, our actual Harvey scares are more gentle and friendly in nature.

D.B. Cooper got sloppier as time went on.

§ November 22nd, 2009 § Filed under harvey, richie rich Comments Off on D.B. Cooper got sloppier as time went on.

Seriously, you think you’d want to double-check the latch on your case if you’re going to pull a stunt like this:

Richie Rich Gems #1 (September 1974)

WAIT, WHAT.

§ November 19th, 2009 § Filed under harvey Comments Off on WAIT, WHAT.


I was poking through Dark Horse’s new Casper the Friendly Ghost 60th Anniversary hardcover when I happened upon the above scene. I had no idea Casper even had a ghostly mother. In discussing this with pals Sean and Dorian on Wednesday, the idea was briefly floated whether this meant that perhaps a ghost woman was able to be impregnated and carry to term a ghost baby. However, we quickly realized that there were too many questions and/or potential problems involved in this hypothesis unanswered and unsupported by ghostly studies. Science tells us that we must turn to Occam’s Razor and assume the simplest explanation, the one that requires the fewest assumptions and conclusion-jumping, that Casper and his mom were two living people who died and became ghosts.

More troubling, however, is this portion of the opening panel from the very first Casper comic book, also reprinted in the anniversary book:


And Casper is, like, tooling around with guys on horseback and such, so it’s possible that the Friendly Dead Kid has been wandering the Earth for centuries. Particularly since other stories, such as the one with Casper’s mom, take place in modern…well, mid-20th century…times. Anyway, the talk of “olden times” and “castles” had pal Dorian theorize that perhaps Casper and his mom were deposed royalty, killed by their enemies, but who can say?

It was also thought perhaps that Casper’s origins in the distant past preclude the possibility of his being the spirit of the departed Richie Rich. I’ve theorized on Casper’s origins before, and the possible relation to Richie Rich, and you know, all it would really take is for the spirit of a dead Richie Rich getting trapped in Professor Keenbean’s time machine, and getting sent back to the Middle Ages, to clear up all those potential continuity problems. Well, okay, there’s the whole thing with Casper’s ghost mom, but maybe he was ghost-adopted.

This all makes perfect sense to me.

Charlie will soon discover that he shouldn’t have provoked the spectral terror of Casper the Friendly Ghost.

§ July 1st, 2009 § Filed under harvey Comments Off on Charlie will soon discover that he shouldn’t have provoked the spectral terror of Casper the Friendly Ghost.

house ad from Richie Rich Diamonds #44 (September 1979)


Actually, I like what they did with these black and white photos to make them appear more clearly on the newsprint page. They look a bit like woodcuts. Not sure if the ultimate effect is “more quaint” or “more terrifying.”

Hello to my three remaining readers!

§ December 15th, 2008 § Filed under harvey, retailing, richie rich, watchmen Comments Off on Hello to my three remaining readers!

  • Employee Tim noted something to me yesterday as he was working on the cycle sheets: Kevin Smith’s Batman: Cacophony #2 hasn’t come out yet. The first issue was released November 12th, and if it’s supposed to be monthly, issue #2 would have been out last Wednesday. And since it’s not going to be out this coming Wednesday, that means it’s a minimum of six weeks between these two issues.

    Not a big deal, especially nowadays where a delay of a week or two is fairly common on monthlies, but something to keep an eye on considering the assurances made ahead of time for this series. (‘Course, I think the assurances made have been more along the lines of “all the scripts are in” and “it won’t take years to complete, honest” rather than “this series won’t be late at all.”)

  • So that reprint of Watchmen #1 came out last week, and whenever we get a comic in with a promotional price point (like Watchmen‘s $1.50) I like to put a tag on the shelf to advertise it.

    Here’s the tag I put up…you can blame Employee Aaron for giving me the idea for the Watchmen-related details I added:


    We find our fun where we can.

    Now, I did make an effort to let people know that there was only going to be the #1, but I am curious to see if, a month or so from now, we start getting inquiries for the second issue.

    It does make me wonder, if DC went ahead and just rereleased the entire series, how it would sell. We ordered modestly on the first issue, figuring we might move a handful of copies off the shelf and then have them around as “samplers” for people who don’t want to drop twenty bucks for the softcover. But we sold through all our copies over the weekend, and that has me thinking that maybe there are enough comic fans out there who don’t tend to buy trade paperbacks to make a full comic book format reprinting of the Watchmen series worthwhile. I know it’s hard to imagine, given the general direction of the comics market from periodicals toward collections, but there are still comic fans who resist buying any squarebound reprint books. And, equally hard to believe I’m sure, there are still comic fans who haven’t read Watchmen. A full twelve issue reprint series could be a good way to grab at least some of those holdouts.

    Hey, with a movie coming out, you might as well hit every market level while you can. I’m hoping…praying…for a prose novelization of the Watchmen movie knocked out by Hacky McHackerton. You just know that would be fantastic.

  • I was poking through a copy of Harvey Hits #1 (1986) and noticed this story with Richie Rich and Little Audrey, ripped from today’s headlines 22 years ahead of time:


    Basically, they’re strapped into this menacing-looking chair and they’re “thought-projected” into a TV show they can watch:


    But there is one hideous, horrible aspect to these shows they’re generating:


    THEIR BIG HEADS ARE EVEN BIGGER.

    Seriously, this is terrifying, watching those big ol’ noggins threaten to snap their spindly little bodies like balsa wood.

    But this does bring up the idea of body-image in the Harvey-verse. Are the characters aware of the freakishly-large craniums they have? Does this awareness translate to an exaggerated self-image that, as seemingly evidenced by the thought-projection seen above, results in a belief in a body-versus-head size ratio far greater than actuality?

    Surely this serious topic requires further investigation.

« Older Entries Newer Entries »