Wikipedia

Harvey Comics

Harvey Comics(also known asHarvey World Famous Comics,Harvey Publications,Harvey Comics Entertainment,Harvey Hits,Harvey Illustrated Humor,andHarvey Picture Magazines) was an Americancomic bookpublisher,founded inNew York CitybyAlfred Harveyin 1941, after buying out the small publisherBrookwood Publications.His brothers, Robert B. and Leon Harvey, joined shortly after. The company soon got into licensed characters, which, by the 1950s, became the bulk of their output. The artistWarren Kremerwas closely associated with the publisher.

Harvey Comics
FormerlyHarvey Publications
IndustryComic books
PredecessorBrookwood Publications
Founded1941;84 years ago(1941)
FounderAlfred Harvey
Defunct2002;23 years ago(2002)
SuccessorThe Harvey Entertainment Company
HeadquartersNew York City,New York,U.S.
ParentDreamWorks Classics(NBCUniversal)

Harvey Comics' most notable characters areCasper the Friendly GhostandRichie Rich.Harvey'smascotis named Joker, aharlequinjack-in-the-boxcharacter. He was also the mascot of the cartoon shorts seriesNoveltoonswhich brought many Harvey Comics characters to life; he also appeared as a cameo in the ending scene of the filmWho Framed Roger Rabbit,alongside many other famous cartoon characters.

History

edit

Harvey Comics was founded by the Harvey brothers—Alfred, Leon and Robert—in the 1940s after first acquiring an existing—faltering—title from Brookwood Publications,Speed Comics.The title's headliners wereShock GibsonandCaptain Freedom,a patriotic hero like The Shield. Harvey added more anthologies, including Champion Comics and Pocket Comics. From the new titles only one would stay around for a while:The Black Cat,a Hollywood starlet-superhero, which was published into the 1950s.[1]

Harvey began a shift to licensed characters when in 1942 it took over as the radio heroGreen Hornet's publisher from Holyoke after six issues. Harvey added additional titles, such that most of their titles were licensed. Licensed characters includedJoe Palooka,Blondie,Dick Tracy,and other newspaper strip characters.[1]

The company ultimately became best known for characters it published in comics from 1950s onward, particularly those it licensed from the animation companyFamous Studios,a unit ofParamount Pictures,starting in 1951. These includeLittle Audrey,Casper the Friendly Ghost,Baby Huey,andHerman and Katnip.[1]Harvey also licensed popular characters from newspapercomic strips,such asMutt and JeffandSad Sack.[2]In addition, Harvey developed such original properties asRichie Rich,Little Dot[1]andLittle Lotta. While the company tried to diversify the comics it published, with brief forays in the 1950s and 1960s into superhero, suspense, horror, western and other forms in suchimprintsasHarvey ThrillerandThrill Adventure,children's comicswere the bulk of its output.

In July 1958,[3]Harvey purchased the October 1950–December 1959 Famous Studios cartoons (including character rights and rights to the cartoon shorts, but excludingPopeye). The Famous cartoons were repackaged and distributed totelevisionasHarveytoons,and Harvey continued production on new comics and a handful of new cartoons produced for television.Casper the Friendly Ghost,who had been Famous' most popular original character, now became Harvey's top draw. Associated characters such asSpooky the Tuff Little Ghost,TheGhostly Trio,Casper's horse Nightmare,Hot Stuff the Little Devil,andWendy the Good Little Witchwere added to the Harvey line. In 1963, when Paramount entered into a $78,000 agreement with Harvey to produceThe New Casper Cartoon Show,they also sold their pre-March 1962 library of cartoons to Harvey for $1.[4]

1980s decline and sale

edit

By the early 1980s,Marvel Comicswas in negotiations with Harvey Comics to assume publication of some of their characters. Harvey editorSid Jacobson,along with the other Harvey staff, were interviewed by Mike Hobson, Marvel's group vice-president of publishing (de facto publisher). As part of the process, Jacobson created several new characters which were well received by Hobson and effectively sealed the deal. Marvel Editor-in-ChiefJim Shooterappointed editorTom DeFalcoas executive editor to coordinate with the Harvey staff, who were hired by Marvel. On the day Marvel was set to take over the Harvey publications, Harvey Comics pulled out of the deal due to an internal disagreement among the two remaining Harvey brothers, Alfred and Leon. Harvey would cease publishing its comics in1982.[5]

In summer 1984,Steve Geppi(owner ofDiamond Comic DistributorsandGeppi's Comic World) paid $50,000 for, among other properties, Harvey's entire archive of original art from the Harvey comicSad Sack.Geppi made this agreement withSteve Harvey,who at the time was president of Harvey Publications Inc., as well as president ofSad Sack Inc.,a wholly owned subsidiary of Harvey Publications, Inc.[6]

In 1985 the Marvel imprintStar Comicspublished a title calledRoyal Roy.Harvey sued Star for copyright infringement, claiming that Roy was a blatant copy ofRichie Rich.[7]Veteran Harvey writer-artist Lennie Herman had createdRoyal Royfor Star Comics. Herman died in 1983[8]before the first issue ofRoyal Roywas published. TheRoyal Roycomic ended after six issues and the lawsuit was dropped.[5]

In 1986, Harvey resumed publication[9]under the leadership of Alan Harvey (Alfred's oldest son), focusing on a few core titles,digests,and reprints.

In 1987, Harvey suedColumbia Pictures,for $50 million, claiming that theGhostbusterslogo used in the 1984 film was too reminiscent ofFatsofrom the Casper series. The court ruled in Columbia's favor,[10]due to Harvey's failure to renew the copyrights on early Casper stories and the "limited ways to draw a figure of a cartoon ghost".

Later History

edit
Main article:The Harvey Entertainment Company

In 1989, Harvey Comics was sold to Jeffrey Montgomery's HMH Communications and was renamed asHarvey Comics Entertainment,later named The Harvey Entertainment Company.[11]located inSanta Monica, California.[12][13]Under the new ownership, the company emphasized on re-syndicating their properties for both television and in press.[14]

Following the initial wave of syndicating the Harvey catalogue, Harvey began producing their own original programs includingThe Baby Huey ShowandRichie Rich,as well as producing feature-length films under an agreement withUniversal Pictures,includingRichie RichandCasper,later outsourcing the production ofdirect-to-videomaterial for both franchises over toSaban Entertainment.[15]

Montgomery was ousted from the company in March 1998, and following various acquisitions and expansions to add content outside of the Harvey Classics including the purchase ofPM Entertainment,Harvey was close to going into liquidation. In February 2001, The Harvey Entertainment Company announced that it would sell the entire Harvey catalogue over toClassic Media[16],a deal of which would close by June 2001.[17] [18]

The rights toSad Sack,Black Cat,and certain other Harvey characters are still owned by Alan Harvey, and have been published under the names ofLorne-Harvey PublicationsandRe-Collections.In late 2000, Alan Harvey sued Steve Geppi over his 1984 acquisition of theSad Sackoriginal art,[19]charging that Geppi had plundered Harvey's warehouses.[20]Geppi countersued, claiming that he had legal title to the original art.[6]The suit was settled in late 2002; at the time of the settlement, theNew York Supreme Courthad dismissed Harvey's claims against Geppi. The settlement agreement allowed Geppi to keep the art, with no money changing hands.[21][22]

Distribution of cartoons

edit

For years, the television distribution rights to theHarveytoonslibrary were licensed toWorldvision Enterprises.Worldvision would hold distribution rights to many earlierFamous Studioscartoons (plus most of the cartoons byFleischer Studios) for a short time, until being absorbed by thetelevision divisionofParamount Pictures,which originally distributed the cartoons.

Universal Studios,which owns the pre-1950 Paramount sound features through itstelevision division,once held video rights to the Harvey-owned cartoons, until 2001 when Classic Media obtained the animated catalog. In 2016, rights to the Harvey Comics properties returned to Universal when they acquired Classic Media's parent company,DreamWorks Animation,who later producedHarvey Street Kids(later renamedHarvey Girls Forever!) based on Harvey Comics characters.

Harvey characters

edit

Harvey Girls

edit

Casper and his friends

edit

Richie Rich and his friends

edit

Other characters

edit

Harvey superheroes

edit

Golden Age

edit

Silver Age (Harvey Thriller)

edit

Titles

edit
Main article:List of Harvey Comics publications

See also

edit

References

edit
  1. ^abcdMarkstein, Don."Harvey Comics".Don Markstein's Toonopedia.Don Markstein.RetrievedAugust 5,2016.
  2. ^Mike Kelley.Minor histories: Statements, Conversations, Proposals,The MIT Press,2004, p. 19 n. 4.ISBN0-262-61198-8,ISBN978-0-262-61198-5
  3. ^"Paramount Cartoons 1958–59".Cartoon Research.RetrievedApril 23,2017.
  4. ^"Paramount Cartoons 1963–64".Cartoon Research.RetrievedOctober 18,2024.
  5. ^abCeimcioch, Marck (December 2014)."Marvel for Kids: Star Comics".Back Issue!(77).RetrievedNovember 20,2014.
  6. ^ab"Newswatch: Geppi: I Had Legal Title to Both the Pre and Post-1955 Harvey Original Art",The Comics Journal#229 (December 2000), pp. 7–8.
  7. ^"Harvey Sues Marvel Star Comics, Charges Copyright Infringement",The Comics Journal#105 (Feb. 1986), pp. 23–24.
  8. ^"Harvey Veteran Lenny [sic] Herman Dies ",The Comics Journal#87 (December 1983), p. 21.
  9. ^"From the Ashes: Charlton and Harvey to Resume Publishing This Spring",The Comics Journal#97 (April 1985), pp. 15–16.
  10. ^"Harvey Loses $50 Million Ghostbusters Suit to Columbia Pictures",The Comics Journal#117 (September 1987), p. 21.
  11. ^WHITE, GEORGE (1989-08-09)."Reviving Classics: A young entrepreneur has big plans for an old comic book publisher".Los Angeles Times.ISSN0458-3035.Retrieved2018-12-19.
  12. ^"Isssue #23 – Circles Magazine Tribute To Harvey Comics".Circles Magazine Las Vegas.2016-05-12.Retrieved2018-12-19.
  13. ^"Alfred Harvey; Comics Publisher, 80".The New York Times.Associated Press. 1994-07-06.ISSN0362-4331.Retrieved2018-12-19.
  14. ^Booker, M. Keith, ed. (2014).Comics through Time: A History of Icons, Idols and Ideas.ABC-CLIO. p. 613.ISBN978-0313397516.
  15. ^"Harvey announces video deals - UPI Archives".UPI.RetrievedAugust 15,2024.
  16. ^Arnold, Mark. "Blood and Thunder: Harvey Seeks SWM W/$$$",The Comics Journal#230 (February 2001), p. 3.
  17. ^DiOrio, Carl (2001-05-10)."Harvey sale a Classic".Variety.Retrieved2021-12-25.
  18. ^Janoff, Barry."Harvey Sells Casper, Changes Classic Brand Name",Adweek,June 26, 2001.WebCitation archive.
  19. ^Dean, Michael. "Newswatch: Sad Sack vs. Steve Geppi",The Comics Journal#228 (November 2000), p. 35.
  20. ^Dean, Michael. "Newswatch: Geppi Accused of Plundering Harvey Warehouse",The Comics Journal#229 (December 2000), pp. 5–6.
  21. ^Dean, Michael. "Newswatch: Sad Sack Suit Against Geppi; Countersuit Settled",The Comics Journal#249 (December 2002), p. 28.
  22. ^"Geppi and Harvey Settle Suit Over Sad Sack Art",ICv2 (June 19, 2002).
  23. ^Buzzy the CrowatDon Markstein's Toonopedia.Archivedfrom the original on April 5, 2015.

Further reading

edit
edit
Wikimedia Commons has media related toHarvey Comics.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Harvey_Comics&oldid=1274714075"