First Harvey Comics History Book Available Now!

[Mark Arnold]

Mark here from "The Harveyville Fun Times!" For those of you wanting to read more about the history of Harvey Comics, now you can order my first book "The Best of The Harveyville Fun Times!" through Diamond (see page 363 of the November 2006 "Previews") or directly through Lulu at www.lulu.com/thft

Here are some highlights:

Front cover by Shelley Pleger ("Mickey Mouse", "Shanda the Panda")

Back cover by Ernie Colon ("The 9/11 Report", "Richie Rich")

Forward by Tony Isabella ("Tony's Tips", Marvel Comics)

Edited by Mark Arnold ("Hogan's Alley", "ComicBase", "Atomic Mouse")

Additional material by Chris Barat and Joe Torcivia ("Carl Barks' Greatest
DuckTales Stories")

400 pages! Full color covers! Complete Harvey Comics history! Meet Casper,
Richie Rich, Hot Stuff, Sad Sack and all the rest!

Contact me at thft@att.net for more information...

Thank you for your time and your orders!!
__________________
Regards,
MARK ARNOLD
Fun Ideas Productions
__________________________________________________ _______
Please click on my web sites:
Fun Ideas - http://funideas.home.att.net
MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/fun_ideas_productions
The Harveyville Fun Times! - http://thft.home.att.net
Richie Rich's Vault - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/richierichsvault
Mark's Rare Comics - http://rarecomics.home.att.net

[Metamorpho]

I picked "other" while all these characters are great, gotta give some love to Little Lotta ;)

[Scott Shaw!]

I checked "other", too. My favorite Harvey characters are the Oddball ones, inclucing: Bunny -- Queen Of The In-Crowd (she's so yvoorg!), Fruitman, Miracles Inc., B-Man, Jackie Jokers and Tiger-Boy, among others.

But that's just me.

Aloha,

Scott!

P.S.: And what about SPYMAN No. 3's "Campy Champ, the Terrific Teen"? -- SS!

[Hintermann]

I checked on Sad Sack. He has always been by favourite comic character despite the repetitiveness of some of his antics. I guess there is a bit of a 'Sad Sack' in all of us......wanting to be napping instead of doing whatever it is that we are supposed to be doing. I have hundreds of Sad Sack comics, but not my favourite issue where the Sack has adventures on a secret military capsule designed to travel at extremely high speeds across land & sea.

[Mark Arnold]

Hey I wished I could have given more choices, but the forum only allows up to 10. Poo.

-Mark.:mad:

[telerites]

If there was an all, I would checked it. I went with Richie Rich. From his comics to his cartoon show, it brings back a lot of memories.

[hondobrode]

Hot Stuff rocks !

The bad boy of Harvey.

[Hintermann]

Hot Stuff rocks !

The bad boy of Harvey.

I think Spooky would dispute that. Booo!

[Stephane Garrelie]

arghh! I wanted to vote "Casper" and i did vote "Richie Rich"!!! I don't even know who it is!!!! argh!!!!!!!!!

[dan bailey]

I checked "other", too. My favorite Harvey characters are the Oddball ones, inclucing: Bunny -- Queen Of The In-Crowd

Awwww, man, I completely forgot about Bunny, whom I was so into at age 8 or so that I joined the "Bunny Ball In-Crowd Club" (or whatever they called it) for, I think, a quarter ... not sure what I got in return other than a blue membership card. *sigh* I went with Little Audrey instead.

[Lone Ranger]

As far as Harvey Comics go, my favourite are the horror and romance books from the 50s.

Are those areas covered at all in the book?

I am also a big fan of Black Cat - is she in there?

Sounds like a fun book - I'll have to check it out.

[Mark Arnold]

Sorry to inform that there is precious little information about The Black Cat, romance and horror titles, but I do cover it. I hope that doesn't discourage you from purchasing as there always can be a volume 2!!

-Mark.

[Hintermann]

arghh! I wanted to vote "Casper" and i did vote "Richie Rich"!!! I don't even know who it is!!!! argh!!!!!!!!!

Richie Rich is a 'Poor Little Rich Boy' who has more money than he knows what to do with. Upto the late 1960s, Richie Rich comics were tolerably good, but went rapidly downhill thereafter interms of quality of stories despite newer titles and more supporting characters.

[Mark Arnold]

I beg to differ on your assessment of Richie Rich as there were many fine Richie Rich adventure stories that were published from 1975-1977 as you will see reviewed in my book.

Read "Richie Rich and Casper", "Richie Rich Vaults of Mystery", "Richie Rich", and various stories in other titles.

"Richie Rich and Casper" (1974-1982) ranks up as one of the finest comic book series of all time with nary a reprint in site. The title deserves an anthology treatment similar to the "Little Lulu" series from Dark Horse.

Check it out and let me know what you think...

-Mark.

[Hintermann]

I beg to differ on your assessment of Richie Rich as there were many fine Richie Rich adventure stories that were published from 1975-1977 as you will see reviewed in my book.

Read "Richie Rich and Casper", "Richie Rich Vaults of Mystery", "Richie Rich", and various stories in other titles.

"Richie Rich and Casper" (1974-1982) ranks up as one of the finest comic book series of all time with nary a reprint in site. The title deserves an anthology treatment similar to the "Little Lulu" series from Dark Horse.

Check it out and let me know what you think...

-Mark.

As you say, opinions differ. My nephew used to get Harvey comics in the 70s & 80s and I have read quite a few of "RR&C" as well as the numerous other RR titles that took off in that period. Just becuase there were no reprints does not alter the fact that the stories were out of the bottom of the barrel. I would not have them in my collection if someone paid me to do so. I know plenty of other old Harvey fans who feel exactly the same way.

[Mark Arnold]

I think it might be what you grew up with regarding preferences. I like the 70s Richies as that's what I read when I was a kid.

-Mark.

[Hulkamaniac]

It's kinda weird but my first Harvey comic read and the first one bought were both Hot Stuff comics and I always adored that little devil:D

[Mark Arnold]

Even though I like Hot Stuff, Richie Rich, et al, my favorite was always Casper.

-Mark.

[Captain Jim]

Some of my fondest Harvey memories include a couple of excellent Phantom reprint comics. (I believe they did Dick Tracy, too, though I didn't have any of them.) Harvey was also responsible for my first exposure to Will Eisner's Spirit.

[Mark Arnold]

Yes, Harvey did them all, and in the case of "The Spirit", they were brand new stories along with some reprints.

-Mark.

[Hintermann]

I think it might be what you grew up with regarding preferences. I like the 70s Richies as that's what I read when I was a kid.

-Mark.

You're right. For example (and going non-Harvey momentarily to illustrate your point), I grew up with Paul Murry & Jack Bradbury's Mickey Mouse and therefore am unable to appreciate the older Floyd Gottfriedson's stories.

[Mark Arnold]

I don't know if "unable" would be correct in regards to older stories of any character published prior to your prime reading era as a kid. I think comics that were new and published when you were a kid still evokes a nostalgia. It's hard to have "nostalgia" for something that originally appeared before you were born, but I can "respect" those stories and in that circumstance, one can be able to appreciate the older material.

In the case of Mickey Mouse, if it weren't for Gottfredson, Murry's and Bradbury's stories probably would never have existed, so you've got to respect him for that.

In the case of Richie Rich, I find the earliest stories penned by Steve Muffatti charming if a bit one-note, but I know if those didn't exist, the later Warren Kremer and Ernie Colon tales wouldn't have existed and Richie would have remained a back-up feature in "Little Dot" and died a quiet death.

-Mark.

[Hintermann]

I don't know if "unable" would be correct in regards to older stories of any character published prior to your prime reading era as a kid. I think comics that were new and published when you were a kid still evokes a nostalgia. It's hard to have "nostalgia" for something that originally appeared before you were born, but I can "respect" those stories and in that circumstance, one can be able to appreciate the older material.

Mark.

Just so that we understand each other, I turned 51 today (yes, it's my birthday!) and have been reading comics since I was 7 years old - back in 1962. So a lot of comic book stories that I read in the 60s were contemporary to me. Of course, there were a few reprints from older issues. Since 1986, I have been slowly and carefully analysing my likes & dislikes and cataloguing my collection accordingly. My likes are Harvey, Dell / Gold Key, Archie Series, Classics Illustrated & Junior, Dennis the Menace and Lee Falk's Phantom & Mandrake. I have come to realise that almost all by favourite stories among all these publishers lie in the 'Silver Age' era of approx 1955 to 1968. There are a few exceptions; Some of the Gilberton Classics were published earlier and I continued to like Archie comics well into the 70s and beyond. But other than that I find that many Golden Age comics are too dated for my tastes and Bonze age titles and thereafter do not appeal at all. It is just a personal thing.

[Mark Arnold]

Happy Birthday! Since we're revealing ages here, I will be turning 40 in December, so my prime comic book reading years as a child rather than a collector was approx. 1966-1979 using your timeframe +11. I remember that it was 1976 that I first discovered that older comics were worth something and that changed my perspective quite a bit.

Harvey (and other publishers) realized that too as they began to emblazon their covers with things like "First Issue", "Collector's Item" and the like...

My tastes are very similar to yours and I do have an extensive collection of Archies, Dennis the Menace (US version), Gold Keys and humor mags like "Mad" as well as the Harveys. I got into the superheroes briefly, but I always preferred the "funny" in funny books and "comic" in comic books, than anything else.