I can't remember when I first discovered Richie Rich from Harvey Comics. The other day I was going through some old pictures my mother has. They are from 77 or 78. And even though back then I either couldn't read or had just started learning how to,I had a stack of 10 or so Richie Rich comics sitting by me. This got me thinking back to how for about 5 or so years myself and my cousin were obsessed with Richie Rich. Buying every issue we found. Trading other comics from our collections for more Richie Rich comics. We even had a contest to see which of us could get the most Richie comics in a year. But after Harvey stopped publishing their kids comics in the mid 80s I pretty much forgot about the poor little rich boy. And the couple of hundred Richie Rich comics I had collected either got traded/sold or got burnt up in 96 when some evil evil person decided to cover with lighter fluid and toss a lit match onto almost my entire comic collection.
Skip ahead to 2009 and my parents had asked what I wanted for my birthday. I ordered the Dark Horse published "phonebook" trades of Richie Rich and Hot Stuff the Lil Devil. And these trades reignited my passion for Richie.
Ever since that time anytime I find a Harvey comic and it is 2 bucks or less I grab them. By doing this I have build up a decent sized collection of various Richie comics. Back during their peak in the mid to late 70s Harvey had close to 30 Richie Rich titles. Stuff like Richie Rich Gems,Richie Rich and Dollar his dog and many many others. Back then as a kid I never paid much attention to what the title was,just would grab anything with Richie or Hot Stuff.
Now last year a buddy and I had went to the sadly now closed shop Comic Commander. This was a tiny comic shop that was so good. And it was a comic shop. Not a "comic shop" that is 25 percent comics and the rest is CCGS and Funko Pops. This place was 80% comics. And the other 20% being used dvds and action figures. We walk in and right by the front counter was two long boxes packed full of kids comics. If I had know the store was close to cloing I would have just offered the owner say 100 bucks for both longboxes. But having no idea this amazing shop was closing soon I sat on the floor and for almost 30 minutes dug through each longbox. Grabbing any Richie Rich comics I found. The resulting big stack of kids comics got placed on top the laundry hamper in my bathroom. Cause I learned years ago that Harvey comics are perfect for when you are in the bathroom and need something to read while taking a dump.
All of the above is just the preamble,a bit of my history with a character that was my favorite comic character when I was really young. And one that I wish was known by kids today. Figured this history of me and the character would come in handy.
Cover date is May of 1976 on issue 15 of Richie Rich and Jackie Jokers. With this coming out in the Bicentennal year the cover is a nice touch. Who is Jackie Jokers. IIRC he is Richie's cousin. Who is a comedian. And kid that appears to be 10 or so that is the best known comedian in the world. Harvey would take Richie team him up with someone and make that a series. Being a bi-monthly series this issue came out near the beginning of the third year of the title.
To connect the inside stories to that great cover the first page of the comic story is the 3 guys on the cover explaining how they will be playign various characters in the comic. Up first is Jackie Jokers as Yankee Doodle Dandy. Jackie starts off the comic with a 5 page story about the Boston Tea party. And while the story isn't bad the standout of this first part of the comic is the page below.
I love the various comic strips Hostess would do to advertise their various snack cakes. Sure most people of a certain age will remember the Marvel and/or DC ads like this. But seems like most have forgotten Harvey got in on the game too.
Kool Katz is second up,do not really remember him. And he is playing Paul Revere. This is a one page gag strip. With Katz as Revere riding through town at night screaming "The British are here!" then entering a hospital zone and changing to holding up a sign with "The British are here" on it. Harvey would do stuff like this in their comics. Having a longer story followed by a 1 page story. Kinda of like how every Harvey comic I have owned that came out before their revival in the early 90s has the first page of the comic being an ad. It was rarely an ad for Harvey comics. This comic has an ad for GRIT.
Jackie is back next with a four pagers. Where he meets Ben Franklin and sees the infamous kite with a key being hit by lightning. I like how Harvey is trying to not only entertain the kids but also educate them a bit.
Like how the first page of any Harvey comic was an ad page,almost every centerfold in the comic would have a big ad showing you what all Harvey Comics are coming out the next 5 weeks. Each week three standard size Harvey comics come out. These are 25 cents an issue and have on average 21 pages of comics,1 or 2 pages of letters and the rest is ads. Then every week they put out one issue of one of their 52 page comics that cost 50 cents each.
Now remember how earlier I mentioned how Harvey put on plenty of titles starring Richie Rich? Lets look at this ad and see how many Richie comics are hitting the newstands in the next 5 weeks. The last week in January there is Richie Rich Profits and Richie Rich Ca$h,both of which are the standard 21 pages of comics for a quarter titles. Richie Rich Diamond$ is the single 52 page 50 cent comic that week.The first week of Feb has 2 more standard length Richie titles,Money World and Fortune$. The 52 page comic this week is Harvey Collector$ Comic$. This title was usually a Richie title. That would reprint 2 older Richie issues. 2nd week of Feb for standard length Richie comics we again got two,Vault$ of Mystery and the title just called Richie Rich(which I'm pretty sure is the first Richie Rich comic series). And again the 52 page comic this week is Richie related. It is Gold&$ilver. I do not remember Gold&Silver but I bet I had a few issues of it as a kid. Week 3 of Feb in the standard size again we get 2 Rich titles. This time they are Richie Rich Gem$ and Richie Rich and Jackie Jokers(the cover they show for this one is the issues I am talking about here). For the first time in the ad the 52 page comic released the 3rd week of Feb is a Casper title. Wrapping up the ad we are now in very end of Feb. We get two standard page count issues of Richie. Millions and the other title is Riches. Plus the 52 page comic this week is Billions. That means in 5 weeks there is 15 Richie Rich comics. Cover price to buy all those comics adds up to $4.50. And today most single comics cost $3.99 or $4.99.
Another Kool Katz as Paul Revere one page gag strip follows. Again it is lame.
Then a 2 page Jackie strip. Followed by single page Richie strip,with Richie as General George Washington.Feels odd to be this far in the title before we see Richie. Since his name comes first in the title. I bet Harvey did that to get the kids to buy what is really a mostly Jackie Jokers series.
Finally we get a story with both Richie and Jackie. Again it is a one pager.
We get the final Kool Katz story. This time being a 2 pager. I do like how each story not only follows the one before it. But as we see in the next story,also the final story in the comic, all the stories in the comic follow each other and tell what is one longish story broke up into many parts.
This final story,titled "Freedom at Last!" has Richie and Jackie teamed up again.Jackie gets captured by the British. Thankfully General Washington(Aka Richie) replaced the British in the firing squad. On the final page of the story we see Kool Katz riding by telling Richie and Jackie "THE BRITISH ARE COMING!". Richie lets Katz know that the war is over and we end with the following panel.
So while the story of the comic is over I got one final page to show y'all.
Harvey was smart they knew kids would want merch of the Harvey characters. So Harvey made a bunch of 45s. From what I can find each 45 had two songs,a song on each side. I never had any of these and have never seen any in person. But I bet with some skilled searching someone might be able to find the songs on Youtube. What stands out to me from the top half of this page of ads is how while the ad is really really focused on the records,they also throw in small pictures of 10 NEW HARVEY COMICS you can buy. As you can see the ad claims the 5 hit records is a 5 buck value. And the 10 new Comics is a $2.50 value. A total value of $7.50,but Harvey has a deal for you. You get 5 records,for a total of 10 songs,and 10 comics for $5. Plus 50 cents postage.
The bottom half of the page is a ad for all the Sad Sack comics Harvey put out. Sad Sack appears to be almost the forgotten Harvey character. I have never seen any Sad Sack stuff that isn't a comic. Richie Rich has had a few cartoons,a handful of movies. Casper has had cartoons and movies. Even Hot Stuff,another character Harvey appears to have forgotten,has some merch. For years I had a pair of Hot Stuff the Lil Devil boxer shorts I got for Valentines Day. But never seen any Sad Sack merch that wasn't a comic. And on the occasions I find stacks of Harvey comics,be it at a comic shop,junkstore or as a kid trading comics with friends,that stack is lots and lots of Richie Rich and Casper. Maybe a few Little Lotta or Lil Dot. Even some of the Hot Stuff comics. But never any Sad Sack.
Well I hope y'all enjoyed my look at this comic that is almost as old as I am.
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