What a great time to best enjoy yesteryears comics.
I had the good fortune of growing up with Harvey classics like Casper, Wendy, Spooky and the gang on the small screen and I’ll forever have good memories of the those feel good cartoons. The image of Harvey’s jack-in-the-box stretching out the logo, and the accompanying music, on so many of those great cartoons is likely forever seared in my mind. But I never really had much exposure to the comics outside of some Felix the Cat issues I picked up as a teenager and several Dagwood/Blondie issues that I picked up much later in life. Thanks to some discussion of these elsewhere I had Harvey on the brain and I’d love to read more.
Enter Dark Horse and the several volumes of Harvey Classics that they’ve recently reprinted in hefty 480 page tomes. They look fantastic and appear to be about the best entry point into Harvey comics that I could’ve asked for. So, to that end I purchased the Casper the Friendly Ghost, and Hot Stuff the Little Devil volumes and I can’t wait for them to arrive. I managed to snag them for under $15 dollars apiece and you just can’t beat that for all the reprint material inside. If these are even half as good as I’ve heard, or remind me of the care-free days of my youth on summer days watching those old cartoons then it’ll be money very well spent.
More on those below:
Harvey Comics Classics Volume 1: Casper contains over 100 of Casper’s very best stories, from the beginning of the Harvey series in 1952 through the classic years of the mid-1960s. The art is reproduced from crisp black-and-white printer’s proofs and original artwork from the old Harvey archives, along with sixty four pages of color meticulously restored from the original comic books. The book includes a comprehensive introduction illustrated with historic memorabilia.
* Features an introduction by Jerry Beck.
Who’s the hot-headed little devil with a tail as pointed as his personality? It’s Hot Stuff! This adorably mischievous imp has delighted comics fans since the 1950s, and now Dark Horse is proud to present a new collection of over 100 of the funniest (and hottest!) classic Harvey Comics cartoons featuring Hot Stuff and his pals. Harvey Comics Classics Volume 3: Hot Stuff brings back the beautifully imaginative artwork, inspired humor, and long-out-of-print stories featuring the adventures of the sprightly little demon, his pals the Devil Kids, Stumbo the Giant and other timeless favorites.
* Harvey Classics Library volumes 1 and 2 Casper and Richie Rich were both immediate best-sellers!
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