Exciting Harvey news and guest blogger tells of Richie facing the Manta Menace!

VERY VERY EXCITING NEWS in Harveyland! Casper and Hot Stuff and even dear Richie are coming back! Two different publishers are involved, one will do reprints of old material (at this time, not Richie, sob!), and one will be new material drawn in new designs.

See below from Harvey Historian Mark Arnold:

NEW HARVEY COMICS UPDATE:

•  Joe Books AND American Mythology are BOTH allowed to publish Harvey Comics. Here’s how it breaks down as I now understand it:
• The American Mythology agreement is for Casper and his associated characters (Wendy, Hot Stuff, Spooky, Nightmare, Ghostly Trio, etc.) They are allowed to reprint old Harvey comic book material and are trying to keep everything similar in spirit and design to the old Harvey Comics and is based upon the comic book Casper.
• Joe Books’ agreement allows them access to all of the Harvey characters, but they have to be done in new designs and not the classic Harvey designs. They can do all of the Harvey characters, but apparently the Casper-related characters are based upon the animated versions and not the comic book versions.
• To clarify also because people always ask. Universal Studios now owns Classic Media which owns the Harvey characters like Casper and Richie Rich.
• The Harvey family STILL owns the rights to Sad Sack and The Black Cat. They can license all characters out together or separately, so the way that they did it can make it so two publishers can and are publishing the Harvey characters at exactly the same time.

For articles on the above, check out these links:

http://www.cbr.com/casper-the-friendly-ghost-comics/

http://comicbook.com/2017/02/23/richie-rich-casper-and-other-harvey-comics-characters-to-be-revi/

http://www.newsarama.com/33292-casper-richie-rich-and-more-harvey-heroes-return.html

Dan Parent (of Archie fame) posted what his version of the Harvey characters will be, I am really excited about these! So cute!

HOORAY! 2017 may be another 2012 with Richie and Harvey everywhere! So exciting!!!

And now, drum roll please….a guest blog! Hurrah! I don’t have to listen to myself! Thank you Ze-Mastor for sending us one of his favorite stories from Success Stories #23. Enjoy!

Commentary by Ze-Mastor:

Pg 1: Yay! This is looking like a new Richie Rich adventure! Check out your new crew, Richie. And make sure your Dad has a copy of the crew manifest. Who knows what will happen?

Pg 2: The Riches advertise for crewmen in the classified ads in a newspaper? And… don’t they already have a Captain? The guy in the black jacket on page 1?

Pg 3: Uh oh! Richie, you know that Manta is bad news, just based on how he hisses!

Pg 5: Let’s advertise to any passing ships that we’re pirates. We’ll lose the element of surprise, but that doesn’t matter.

Pg7: Yarrr! We don’t know what that other ship is carrying, but we’re pirates! Let’s ignore the idea of holding Richie Rich for ransom and make our money by petty larceny.

Pg10: Those are some suction cups! Not only do they support the weight of two people, they can stick and unstick at will! Now, why haven’t we invented anything like this that really works, 45+ years later? Look at all that cargo! Nevermind how long it may take to fence it all off. There’s gotta be a market for fake electronics and toys made in China painted with lead-based paint, right? And wait! See that sailor with a pistol in his belt? Take some names, Richie!

Pg12: Very clever, Richie! Let’s see how Manta takes it.

Pg13: Owwwww! Froggy, ol’ boy, Manta is sure a hard boss to work for, eh? And look, another sailor on guard with a rifle. Where did these extra goon squad guys come from? Hold that thought! Richie is bringing some canned spinach, so he can Popeye his way out of this? Let’s see!

Pg14: Help is coming, but wow, Manta finally has the clue that he can leverage the kids as hostages and get away with all of that piracy!

Pg 15: The good guys won! How did you find out about us? Well, since you raided several ships and didn’t sink them, they simply radioed us and sailed back to port and reported it. And, since you have a pirate flag flying, and we all know what happened on the Oceanic… oops, scratch that… it’s all because heroic Richie Rich painted that message on the side of the ship. Oh, and by the way, Richie said to get the crew manifest and arrest EVERY ONE of those blighters. They were the HIRED crew of Richie’s father to sail his yacht. They SAW Manta and his 2 thugs take over, and engage in acts of piracy and kidnapping, and they went along with it and JOINED IN! They aided and abetted Manta by navigating for him, going on guard duty for him, had access to firearms and used them in his service, against all maritime law and against the wishes of the ship’s owner and his family. Is there a problem with that? Aye! ARREST THEM ALL!

 

Thank you so much for guest blogging! I love reading other people’s thoughts! And I’m so happy you posted this because Richie using the suction cups has been in my head for years and I didn’t remember why. This is not the type of story I would have been into in the olden days (too boy for me), but because it had Gloria, I do remember reading it!

And the Manta saying, “Shut up, stupid kid!” to THE Richie Rich makes me chuckle.

Have a great day and be so excited we will soon have some non-browning and crumbling Harveys to read!