Grumpy old school Richard Rich

You may remember Richard Rich, Sr. as the proud patriarch of the Rich family; an excellent businessman with immense pride in his son. He is constantly asking young Richie to deliver important documents, secure the house from thieves, inspect warehouses, attend business meetings, and usually save the lives of himself and everyone around from bad guys with guns.

But, in the early days of Richie Rich, Mr. Rich was not quite as loving toward Richie as we’re used to. He is a grumpy and hands off 50’s-style Dad, the kind to come home from work and spend time with his paper, brandy and pipe.

In this story he does some father-son bonding and discovers that Richie is far from a sissy and more of a stud.

The other thing I find interesting in this story is how Richard describes himself as a self-made man. This is one of the only times this is mentioned that I recall. In the later comics, it is assumed the Rich family has had money for eons. They refer to Rich ancestors in stories and paintings so it seems the Rich money has been handed down and increased from generation to generation. There are also many stories of Richie going back in time and meeting Rich ancestors, or telling them a tip from the future that then makes them wealthy. So, this is an anomaly, but still a fun story to read!

Illogical, yet interesting

It’s time for another story of Richie exploring the mansion, hurrah! As the years go by, I have never forgotten this story, it always lingers in the back of my mind. See what you think…

 

Interesting isn’t it? How he would not have been discovered in twenty years in what appears to be an empty attic is beyond me. And how she was just hanging out in the same attic? A closet? A drawer? Who knows? and clearly also stealing food each night, yet they never saw each other seems odd. One would also think that with all the clothes Regina Rich throws out, Lydia could have borrowed some new clothes in twenty years, but I guess she is a bit skinny for Regina’s current clothes. Although Mrs. Rich looked quite foxy in the green dress in the olden days. Ah, true love! And look, there are more servants than just Chef Pierre, Nurse Jenny, Bascomb, Cadbury, Mr. Woody, and Irona! Apparently, there is an old dude named Skadds hanging about. Who knew? What did you think?

And here it is again, recolored from the reissued Valentine’s Gems:

Richie meets his planetary doppelgänger and Gloria is a Billionaire?

My favorite stories are always the ones where Richie explores his house. I am so fascinated by the Rich mansion and how they only seem to live in about 10 rooms, and the other 990 are mostly unexplored. This story is not about the Rich mansion per se, but it does give us a tour of another Rich estate. Intrigued? Enjoy!

    

What did you think? I love how Richie’s relatives always look exactly like him and generally have the same name in the past and the future! And there are so many inventions featured in Richie stories that actually exist now, I have been waiting for the anti-collision stabilizer for years!  This story also makes me laugh because Richie is getting so pissed off on the last page and he is generally so jolly. It’s nice to see him annoyed!

It’s also a fairly ironic story because there are tons of Richie stories where he is showing someone around the mansion and saying, “Oh, that’s one of our 14 pools, oh, that’s my solid gold encrusted baseball bat.” so that he has the gall to think the future Richie is showing off, I say pot, meet kettle!

If you like seeing a rich version of Gloria, check out this story:

https://richierichcomicsfanclub.wordpress.com/2020/08/23/gloria-is-rich-and-richie-is-poor-plus-g-r-have-a-ball-at-the-mall/

I need to read more Richie Rich comics right now! What are my options?

Luckily for you, there are some great options!

1.) If you came straight to this page from a web search, click the home button above to begin reading all the Richie comics posted on this blog.

2.) There are lots of bloggers who have focused on Richie, check them out below:

OMGBEAUPEEP has tons of Richie Rich and Casper posted, you will be very, very happy!

http://www.omgbeaupeep.com/comics/Richie_Rich/674/

Occupy Richie Rich is a famous and funny tumblr blog of Richie stories and covers. But, beware the commentary is NOT SAFE FOR KIDS. It’s currently on hiatus, but there is plenty to read on there:

http://www.occupyrichierich.tumblr.com/

This nice person has uploaded a whole comic you can read.

http://onlineindiancomics.blogspot.com/2007/09/21-richi-rich.html

And if you like Crashman and Rippy, here’s one for you:

http://diversionsofthegroovykind.blogspot.com/2008/09/sunday-funnies-richie-rich.html

And here’s more:

http://www.bigblogcomics.com/2010/11/richie-rich-no-54-february-1967.html

http://www.bigblogcomics.com/2011/10/ernie-colons-richie-rich.html

http://www.bigblogcomics.com/2010/02/richie-rich-no-45-may-1966.html

http://peur-evol.blogspot.com/2011/02/richie-rich-and-expert.html

http://bloglarry.blogspot.com/2007/10/stinking-rich-and-scared-silly.html?m=1

http://www.misterkitty.org/extras/stupidcovers/stupidcomics343.html

http://www.misterkitty.org/extras/stupidcovers/stupidcomics399.html

http://skateandannoy.com/blog/2013/08/richie-rich/

https://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/5393044.html

Here is a site dedicating a year to commenting on Richie covers:

http://lileks.com/institute/comicsins/covers/rich/1.html

3.) Dark Horse has an entire book of Classic Richie. It’s all in black and white which stinks, but you do get used to it. Unfortunately, they did not publish enough copies and it is selling for quite a high price on ebay, but my local library has a copy and yours might too!

4.) For non-immediate gratification, there are always Richies selling on ebay. And there are some great digests that came out in the early 90’s on better paper stock with better ink that are easy to read and not yellowing and falling apart like the 70’s versions. The only negative is that you often purchase digests you already have because the new covers are different. It is nice to have them on the better paper so it’s not terrible, but it’s annoying when you were salivating for new Richie stories. See below, my old Richie from the closet and the new one I thought I was buying. This is not retouched, the new versions just look so much better!

5.) Ape/Kizoic came out with some new issues of GEMS in 2012. They contain recolored old favorites, new 2012 Richie Rich drawn in the new style, AND some new stories drawn in the old style by Ernie Colòn and Sid Jacobson! You can order them from Amazon or check your local comic book store.

http://ape-entertainment.com/kizoic/about/richie-rich-gems/

6.) Download the Richie Rich App in the App Store for your ipad or iphone.

UPDATE: THIS APP NO LONGER EXISTS. 😦  

I AM KEEPING THE BELOW INFORMATION JUST IN MEMORIAM FOR THE WONDERFUL RICHIE APP. 

CURIOUS ABOUT THE APP THAT ONCE EXISTED? CLICK BELOW:

https://richierichcomicsfanclub.wordpress.com/tag/richie-rich-app/

Ape Entertainment has created an app that allows you to download classic Richie and Casper comics that have been digitized for your electronic enjoyment! You can download free previews as well if you’re not quite ready to purchase.

PROS:

• $1 gives you 28 pages of classic Richie to read, with no filler. That means, no ads, no Little Dot, no Little Lotta, just Richie. For comparison’s sake, I just bought some Richie comics (not digests) at Comic Con 2013 for $3 each and when you subtract the filler, I probably had 12 pages of actual Richie to read. So, it’s a great deal!
• If you like/hate Crashman and Rippy, it’s even better because they are grouped C&R and non. You can get a whole comic of just C&R! Or, in my case, I hate C&R so I happily have not bought those four.
• They are so easy to read. If you’ve pulled out your old Richie comics recently, you will see that the yellowed pages and tiny print make them fairly difficult to read. But, getting them on the ipad is great! You can enlarge the frame and read happily with no fear of damaging fragile pages.

CONS:

• Only the first story is in color, the rest are black and white. It is a hard transition after the first story, but you get used to it.
• As of March 2014, they don’t appear to have updated the app to work with IOS 7 or 8 so you can’t download anything. Hopefully, when Ape finishes their restructuring, they will fix the app. If you have an Android device and the app still works, let me know. 🙂

When you’ve found some Richies, please tell us about any great stories you’ve read below!