Sad Sack and the Sarge #128

If the cover to this 1977 Harvey Comic was Christmas themed, I would call this book a 'Scrooge'. We get this really really festive Halloween cover with Sad Sack skewering his gruff, but caring Sarge, as the most frightening decoration for the Army base's upcoming Halloween bash. But in terms of any of the stories being Halloween themed, there's absolutely nothing.

There are 4 stories starring Sad Sack, the Sarge and other characters in this book. 3 are paneled stories. 1 is prose. The artists and writers might have set these tales during the month of October. But there's nothing to the plot or settings that imply that the characters are in the throes of the season of the witch.

The opening story was the best. Sad Sack and Sarge are going on leave via air travel. Sarge got business class while Sad Sack flies 2nd class. The differences in the experiences of the 2 characters couldn't be more polarizing or funny. The middle story was interesting as it's got Sad Sack being an Army test subject to early virtual reality and hard light hologram technology. A funny read but lacking the magic of the opener.

The prose yarn was a rambling mess. These fillers were merely requirements to help meet first class postage standards and the lack of care and finesse shows. But it seems that whomever plotted the prose tale also scripted the last story which sees Sad Sack and Sarge on horseback getting lost on a vacation excursion at a dude ranch. 

There were also a couple of one-page gags that were okay. But again, not involving Halloween. In fact the only thing Halloween themed was an ad for UNICEF starring the main characters of Harvey Comics, including Richie Rich, Casper and Baby Huey. 

This is the second time that I have been burned by an issue of Sad Sack. I bought a reprint of Sad Sack: At Home for the Holidays that features a beautiful cover of the main character coming back to his metropolitan home for a Christmas break. But it was devoid of Holiday cheer. At least one story was set during Sad Sack's trip back home and there was snow. But none of the sets were decorated with boughs of holly; nor were there any 'fa-la-la-la-laaas' in the air.

If I had spent a ton of money on this book I would have been really disappointed. But the asking price was only 90 cents and I think I used trade credit. And at least half of the material in this book was decent. However, if I come across another Sad Sack comic book with a holiday cover of any sort of celebration, you can be assure that I will be making sure there's at least 1 themed tale in the book before I shell out some cash to purchase it.

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.

Little Audrey TV Funtime #10 (2025 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

If you ever thought that the character Little Audrey was a nicer version of Marge's Little Lulu, with way less attitude, you might be on to something. After Paramount decided to not renew the contract to produce further Little Lulu cartoons under their Famous Studios division, Little Audrey was created as a replacement for which the studio would have full creative rights to. That also means that the early Harvey Comics staple didn't debut to the world in comic book form. Little Audrey got her start as an animated cartoon designed by animator Bill Tytla. 

The first Little Audrey short debuted on the silver screen in the December, 1947 holiday tale  'Santa's Surprise.' In it, the New York based Audrey along with separate children from around the world, all get the idea to stow away in Santa's sleigh. Tired from his trek around the globe, Santa falls asleep back at the North Pole. Silently, Little Audrey and friends sneak out of the sleigh and clean up St. Nick's workshop for the many gifts he's bestowed the children of the world. Then using an unexpected mastery of Santa's sleigh, the children all return home without Santa being none the wiser.

From 1947-1958, Little Audrey starred in 16 animated shorts for Paramount. 17, if you count her cameo in a 1948 Popeye cartoon featuring Olive Oyl. Little Audrey's appearance with Popeye's girlfriend was fitting as both characters were voiced by Mae Questel, who also was the voice of Betty Boop from 1931-37. 

Little Audrey's move from the silver screen to comics was spurred on by competition. Disney and Warner Bros were poaching the best of the best in the animation business. The quality of Famous' new releases were showing major signs of decrease. Paramount began to sell off its catalog in order to keep the animation studio afloat. The character had previously been licensed to St. John's Publications from 1948-52. 24 issues of her own self titled publication were released. But during that time, Paramount still owned the rights to Little Audrey. With the purchase by Harvey in 1952, the publisher owned the character outright along with Casper the Friendly Ghost, Baby Huey and others.

Over the course of the 1950s, Little Audrey's design evolved from how she looked in the animated shorts to a style that was more uniform with the rest of the Harvey line. Instead of a Kewpie doll with rosey cheeks dressed in blue, she adopted a red and white ensemble and a face that looked more like she was a distant cousin to Richie Rich. 

Little Audrey TV Funtime was one of 4 titles that started Little Audrey and friends during her heyday at her new home. The series ran from 1962-1971 for 33 quarterly issues. This book was a tie-in for a weekly syndicated TV series than showed Harvey's inventory of shorts produced by Famous in the 40s and 50s. This issue has at least 2 ads for the TV series. Though why Harvey Comics only released a TV Funtime based on Little Audrey and not her fellow co-stars is unknown. However, this reviewer speculates that it has something to do with how strikingly different Little Audrey looks on TV compared to her Harvey Comics adapted style. 

Little Audrey's cast was nearly identical to Little Lulu. Her best friend and sometimes foil, Melvin had a clubhouse with a sign out front that said 'No Girls Allowed', just like Tubby. Lucretia, Audrey's best gal pal, was a poor little waif who's not very bright, in the vein of  Annie Inch, while diminutive Echo was a less bratty version of youngster Alvin Jones.

One thing that Little Audrey outpaced Little Lulu at was diversity. One of her best friends is a bald black child named Tiny. Just like with The Little Rascals, Tiny interacted freely with the white children in a community that seemed to ignore racial segregation. Tiny's vernacular was not made up of broken pigeon English like the character of Ebony White from Will Eisner's The Spirit and his mother appeared as an upper middle class stay at home mom who isn't afraid to clash with anyone, including the local police, when Tiny is confused as being a bank robber in this issue.

Other stories inside this issue includes Little Audrey confusing an insect collector and a hobo both as her long lost uncle, her trying to keep cool with pals Melvin and Lucretia and Tiny accidentally scaring his friends when they turn a haunted house into their new clubhouse. There's also an improbable farce where Lulu thinks she broke her father's favorite chair and is able to replace it with a new one at the department store for just a dollar down.

By 1976, Little Audrey was all but forgotten at Harvey. All of her titles were quietly cancelled; replaced by Wendy the Girl Little Witch, a polka-dot loving clone named Little Dot and the ever hungry Little Lotta. Little Audrey  did return in the 1980s; albeit for a very brief period. In 1988 Harvey reissued several classic Little Audrey stories in a 3-D gimmicked one-shot. During Harvey's short-lived revival period when it was purchased by MHM Communications, Little Audrey returned with all new stories in the early 90s. Unfortunately, that series along with several others was quickly cancelled with the new owner focusing on cartoon and live action franchise opportunities. 

Since then, the character has been relegated to just a couple of blink and you miss it cameos in media based on Richie Rich and Baby Huey. A classic design of Little Audrey was to appear in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, but had to be scrapped as the license couldn't be cleared in time.  Little Audrey along with her contemporaries who succeeded her were all given contemporary makeovers the animated series Harvey Girls Forever that aired for 4 seasons on Netflix. 

Still no return to comic book form in almost 35 years. 

Completing this review completes Task #2 (Comic from the Silver Age (1956-1970) ) of the 2025 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Richie Rich: Vaults of Mystery #28

A villain from Richie Rich's past returns. Known as the Iceman, this fiend has the ability to freeze things. When Richie uses a heat ray gun that he borrows from Rich Labs, he accidentally turns the Iceman into the Scorcher! Now with the ability to produce intense flames, you won't believe what the Poor Little Rich Boy used to cool off this hot shot baddie. Or maybe you will. This comic was published by Harvey Comics...

Then Richie gets the upper hand over a girl who tries to scare his girlfriend Gloria.

Lastly, a bogus fortuneteller tries to separate Richie Rich from some of his money. But in a strange series of events, just plain dumb luck keeps dogging the swindling swami at every turn. 

Vaults of Mystery was known by Harvey Comics fans to be a series that was a bit more mature than its numerous Richie Rich sister series. In an earlier issue I've read and reviewed, Rich is shot at, kidnapped and his pop even packs a piece! Now just 14 issues later and that saccharine humor mixed with misunderstandings and happenstance just oozes through every page. I don't like it. I don't know why, but I prefer the edgier Richie Rich. I don't want Cadbury to die in a hail of bullets or anything like that. I guess with the more serious storytelling, I feel more mature. 

Honestly, I'm not surprised someone hasn't rebooted Richie Rich into a grittier, unfeeling rich boy yet.  It would be perfect fodder in the vein of Riverdale or Nancy Drew. Oh, don't worry. It's coming soon one day. But until then, it's a MEH from me.

Rating: 5 out of 10 stars.

Hot Stuff the Little Devil #95

For today through July 26th, I will be celebrating Christmas in July! Today's book is what I call a Scrooge because only for the cover, there's nothing else holiday related. There are a couple of stories that are seasonal. But when it comes to the holidays, they are close but no cigar.

The opening page gag involves Winter and Hot Stuff absolutely hating it. The first large story that stars the Little Devil is seasonal as well with Hot Stuff visiting a toy factory in order to buy a birthday gift for a friend. Only, Santa Claus is not in charge of this facility, but a set of robots that seem to have malfunctioned. 

There are several other gags and stories. One of them is with the star of the book. The other two are with a giant named Stumbo. I've been reading Harvey Comics since I was a kid. And as a little one, I read a bunch of books starring Richie Rich, Casper, Little Lotta and the bunch. Never have I read a Stumbo the Giant story. I've seen him used in a lot of advertising. But it took me reaching my mid-40s to finally read some of his adventures. They're cute little fairy tales. But I can see why he never became a star on par with some of those other characters. 

Now let's talk about that cover. It's a beautiful piece of work by Warren Kremer. One of the Facebook groups that I am a member of has a daily post called 'Breakfast with Kremer.' I don't think we've ever reviewed this cover. But if we ever do, I will marvel over the candy cane striped pitchfork, the roaring fire over in the right corner and Hot Stuff's face of pure joy. It almost makes me forgive Harvey Comics for gifting us fans of holiday comics with a fruitcake instead of a roast turkey with all the fixings...

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Richie Rich: Vaults of Mystery #14 (2023 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

Richie Rich: Vaults of Mystery ran from 1974-1982 for 47 issues that were published on a semi-regular basis. The first 5 issues were known as Richie Rich: Vault of Mystery. But in an effort to remain consistent with the pluralization of the rest of the Richie Rich supplemental line, publisher Harvey Comics changed the title at issue #6. 

In this series, Richie Rich and his friends would solve mysteries that occurred in the community. Being one of the wealthiest families in the world, criminals would often try to steal something from Rich Manor. As a result, the Poor Little Rich Boy would be the one to play Sherlock Holmes and solve the mystery. In this series, Richie and his father would sometimes fund expeditions to mysterious and exotic locales. Mr. Rich would also fund the dynamic research of genius inventors and crackpots alike. These grants would sometimes bring nefarious elements out of the woodwork as it this case with this issue.

In this issue, a scientist develops a disappearing ray that would bring about the end of nuclear weapons. The scientist wants to give the very dangerous device to the United States government. But before he can do that, the researcher is killed by an unknown assailant.

To fulfill the inventor's dying wish, Mr. Rich promises to deliver the weapon to the authorities. However, the unseen criminals have no intention of letting the Pentagon receive such a destructive weapon. With bullets flying, Mr. Rich arms his staff including faithful butler Cadbury. Even the cook has a piece! The FBI brings their top man to assist in the delivery of the invention to the military. And Richie ends up a hostage in the hands of the gangsters!

Vaults of Mystery is unlike any Richie Rich title out there. Car Chases, kidnappings and theft are not unexplored territory for the Rich family. But to see Mr. Rich carrying AND shooting back as baddies! Cadbury too! If family dog Dollar was in this book, he'd probably be packing as well!

Fans note that this series was a bit more mature compared to the other Harvey Comics titles on the market. To have a character not just shot but to die at the hands of a sniper is something many readers of Richie Rich or many similar Harvey Comics publications just weren't used to encountering. Vaults of Mystery was an Comics Code approved title and regulations under the CCA were loosening when this book was published. Yet, the Harvey books are looked at as the stuff of the youngest of comics readers. It's all a bit unsettling and exciting at the same time. 

As for those vaults, this story does utilize them as a plot device. The device is placed in one of the Rich family vaults, under armed guard, until the G-Man arrives. Then when Richie is kidnapped, he's taken hostage in either the same strongroom or another similar locale on the estate. Nice to see that for at least 1 issue, the inside material matches the title of this book perfectly.

If all Vaults of Mystery issues are this much more mature in tone and action, then I want to read more of these!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Completing this review completes Task #43 (Something Bought From a Dollar Bin/Bargain Bin) of the 2023 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Black Cat #8 (Home For Christmas)

   

This Alfred Harvey collection of Black Cat reprints is supposed to be a holiday issue. But with many holiday issues, the contents inside doesn't always match the festive cover.

Looking at the cover, I imagine a hip 1940s apartment that's as fun as it is inviting. If I lived in the late 40s, this would be the domicile I'd probably choose. Thus, despite my misgivings with the series itself (what little Black Cat I've read, I haven't been a fan) I was lured to purchase this issue thanks to the yuletide cover.

Inside is a trio of stories. The first two tales have nothing to do with Christmas. In one tale, Black Cat's father is shot and held hostage in a race against time. The other involves a cowardly actor whose last act saves the life of our heroine. I thought the earlier tale was ludicrous. There's no way anybody would survive the back and forth cat and mouse trauma like Cat's wounded father. But the second tale was actually pretty good.

Our final tale involves Black Cat's alter ego. In real life, she's a film starlet named Linda Turner. Along with some of her famous friends, Linda visits an orphanage. Everything seems to be going swell until one boy reveals that his wish from Santa was to get to meet the Black Cat and Santa didn't deliver. Well, that kid picked the right group to confess his Christmas list with!

The story was heartwarming, but it was a little lame. No, it wasn't because of the incredible stroke of luck the little orphan child had. It was due to  Linda's famous pals. Though they weren't actually named, her friends were based on Groucho Marx, Bing Crosby, and Benny Goodman and his faithful (but stereotyped) servant Rochester. The jokes were lame and unless you were alive during the 40s, you probably wouldn't get them. As for the Groucho character, his awful barbs were pretty off-color for not only the time period but to be told to youngsters in a group home.

    This so-called holiday themed book was actually better than my previous encounters with Harvey's Black Cat, but it doesn't mean I'm going to run out and buy more books in the series anytime soon. It was good but not great with the art being typical of its time period.

   More than likely, I would've overlooked this book if it wasn't for the holiday cover. In a way, I wish I had. It's like visiting a relative's house whose door has a lovely wreath and lights on the door, but the only thing Christmas inside are some holiday cards from friends gone by. Deceptively inviting.

  Worth Consuming

   Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Saved by the Bell Holiday Special

If you grew up in the 80s and 90s, you probably remember this live-action TV series. It's main star was blonde and brash Zach Morris and his adventures (or was it misadventures?) at Bayside High School. The show aired on NBC and spawned at least 2 spin-offs and numerous merchandising goodies. I don't think that many people thought the show would thrive as it did in syndication but it's been almost 25 since the show began and it still airs on various channels, including one of the MTV stations.

   Anyhow, items that were released during the run of the show did abound but they weren't huge sellers. As I said, Saved by the Bell more or less became a cult classic after it was finally cancelled. So, a book like the Harvey Comics publication is considered rare. But rare thus not always mean valuable. Plus condition matters too. This isn't in the most perfect of shape. I found this for only a dollar in a bargain bin. However, some Saved by the Bell comics have a value of anywhere from $20-$50 depending on the condition. But again, that's if you can find it.

    In this holiday special, we've got a couple of tales along with a fun and games page and a couple of pin-ups. In the first story, Zach is trying to win Kelly's heart again. So, he tries to recreate her hometown as it would be for the holidays. But troubles bound to happen when he mixes up St. Paul, Minnesota for St. Paul, Florida! Then, Principal Belding decides to impose a rule where no Bayside student can go to the Winter Dance if they do not bring up their grades by a single point. Enter businessman Zach to turn the students of Bayside into a tutoring racket to line his pockets.

    The quality of the stories weren't bad. They captured the essence of the characters quite well. The art, however, was abysmal. They didn't look anything like the actors who starred on the show. Well, Belding looked pretty good but for all I know, the artist was drawing 6 random people to star as Zach, Kelly, AC, Screech, Lisa, and Jessie.

It's not the worst comic I've read, but it is one of the worst drawn comics based on a licensed property of all-time.

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.

Johnny Boo & Harold in Tricky Treaters (Family Comics Friday)

Sorry about not posting yesterday folks, but as you may remember, I’ve got a broken foot and spent some time on my back propping up. Also, I got some really good news about a project that I hope to be able to talk more about soon. But, I needed to devote some energy to that and so that’s why we’ve got this special Saturday Edition of Family Comics Friday.

Gone are the days of Casper the Friendly Ghost, Wendy the Good Little Witch, and Hot Stuff. Their publishing rights disappeared when the comics company, Harvey Comics, closed up shop in 1994. But, the spirit of those comics lives on. In the past few years, Dark Horse Comics has been reprinted some of the tales from the Harvey kid’s line. Every once and a while, a character like Richie Rich pops up in a new series by an independent published. And I guarantee you that in every comic convention in America (except for ComiCon in San Diego) you can find tons of Harvey Comics in bargain bins for a $1 or less.

Despite all of this, that is no way means that new kid-friendly comics starring ghosts, vampires, and other spooky characters aren’t available on the market right now.

In this 2012 Halloween Comicsfest Exclusive (BTW next Saturday is this year’s Comicsfest at your local comics shop, so check it out!) we get a short story about a young ghost named Johnny Boo and his pet ghost, Squiggle. Here, Johnny Boo tries to hide all of the ice cream from trick-r-treaters but ends up in a little bit of a mess. Then we meet Harold, a long-necked vampire with 2 bats for friends. The bats don’t quite get things right and when Harold forgets to decorate for Halloween, the bats do the unthinkable and gross out a bloodsucker.

Johnny Boo has at least 6 volumes of comics on the market. A new volume is due out this month. As for Harold, this is the first on only story I can find about him. It’s possible that he stars in the Johnny Boo series in his own mini-feature. The Johnny Boo series is published by top Shelf Productions and run for $9.95 a pop. Johnny has also been featured in Top Shelf’s annual Free Comic Book Day release for at least the past 4 years. Those issues can be found online for a couple a bucks each.

One other thing, the Johnny Boo books are published like a typical comic book is with 2 staples. These volumes are released like a digest with a solid paste paper spine. So, if you go to the kids section of your local comics shop, be sure to look on the collection shelf and not the new release section. Better yet, ask your friendly neighborhood comic book clerk for help finding them.

Johnny Boo is for ages 5-10.

Worth Consuming

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

NBC Saturday Morning Comics

This one-shot from the summer of 1991 was published by Harvey Comics in co-operation with NBC and Toys r Us to promote that season's new fall-lineup of cartoons and kid shows. For one time only, fans of Malcauley Culkin, Michael Jordan, Bo Jackson, and Wayne Gretzky got to see their idols in comics form for the shows Wish Kid and Pro Stars. As a kid I was a huge Gretzky fan and I thought the sun rose and set on Bo Jackson. It's pretty much the only reason I got this comic. If I even get to meet Bo, I'm gonna surprise the heck out of him by having him autograph this instead of a ball or trading card.

  Along with the aforementioned stories, this comic included a Yogi Bear comic; something called 'Spacecats' and a short story involving the gang from Saved by the Bell. This comic also doubled as an activity book with some puzzles and a maze to solve. I highly doubt there are very many pristine issues of this comic in existence due to these activities and I was lucky to find one.

  The biggest problem with this comic is that every story ends with "To be continued" and would only be resolved when the reader saw the show on its premiere date in September. To my knowledge Pro Stars and Wish Kid, and probably Spacecats has never appeared on VHS or DVD. So, I don't think I'd ever find out how these tales were resolved. (I'm not losing sleep over it, but it bears mentioning.)

  The comic also featured a voting contest for readers to vote for their favorite series. I was actually interested in this aspect and did a search about this. However, I couldn't find any hits regarding the voting in my search results. So, I couldn't tell you who won or lost.

    The concept behind this comic was a clever ploy of marketing. I'm sure kids were delighted with this, even if they had to shell out a buck twenty-five for it. This time period is pretty much the end of both the Saturday morning cartoon on the big three networks as well as the end of Harvey Comics. From that historical aspect, this might be a book worth collecting or if you are a fan of any of the athletes or characters featured in this book. Ironically, the fan base that probably would be the most interested in this comic (and know the least of its existence) would be fans of the teen series Saved by the Bell. With the show riding a nostalgic high and a planned tele-pic about how the show was made in the works, SBTB stuff is very popular right now and extremely hard to come by.

rating: 6 out of 10 stars.

Recollections Sampler by Alfred Harvey Presents

In the 1940s and 50s, before the company focused exclusively on the adventures of Casper the Friendly Ghost and Richie Rich, Harvey Comics was heavily investing in publishing tales of horror, adventures, and noir crime. The company was probably the biggest competitor to EC Comics during the 1950s before the coming Comics Scare of one Dr. Wertham. Though Harvey Comics wasn’t as good in terms of art quality or even story plotting, Harvey published dozens of titles focusing on the gritty and macabre. Amongst those titles were the Totally Rad Tales (which really doesn’t seem like a 50s title but something you’d see on SNICK in the 90s) which boasted a mix of weird genre tales, Man in Black a sort of Many Ghosts of Dr. Graves knock-off, and Black Cat one of the first titles to feature a female hero and full of S&M leather and over sexualized stereotypes. Harvey dabbled a little in humor tales as well before being more kid friendly. An example of that was the WWII comic Sad Sack.

A small example of all of the titles I just mentioned is included in this sampler. The Black Cat story has some pretty good action but is laughable. A fiery redhead who is sexistly put in her place by her beau and father by day, the girl’s private detective  boyfriend can’t put two-and-two together when she disappears in her secret identity and a spicy red head in black leather suddenly appears when things get rough. Daddy knows really what’s going on, yet the boyfriend chalks it up to her being a scaredy- cat little girl. It’s definitely not a shining example of women’s lib.

The Man in Black tale has the title character telling a legend of a young man and his sister held captive by an Arab prince. They can leave his kingdom peacefully if the boy chooses which jar has a massive ruby hidden inside. But if he chooses wrongly, the girl becomes a concubine and its sudden death for the male sibling. I enjoy anthology horror tales, but this one isn’t all that. I prefer EC’s work better. Even Charlton’s hit and miss selection of horror comics is far more superior than this example of what Harvey had to offer.

The same goes for the Totally Rad story. It involves a murdered store owner and a motley line-up of country bumpkin stereo-types that are suspects in the crime. Each suspect’s testimony is captivating but the ending is rushed and it’s not clear if the person being accused of the crime or the person you assume is getting away with murder are in fact the actual murderers.

I can’t really judge the Sad Sack material. There’s only a one page sight gag. I laughed, but it takes up less than 1% of the entire book.

I got this comic for free from the publisher during a convention years ago. If I was offered more freebies, I would give them a try. Hey, they’re free. But would I lay down my hard earned bread for further volumes of these? Probably not. Maybe if I came across them in a dime box, but that’s about as much I am willing to shell out for more of the pre-comic code reprints of Harvey Comics. (One exception: there is a Black Cat Holiday special that I want- make that need- for my holiday/ Christmas comics collection)

Not Worth Consuming!

Rating: 4 out of 10 stars.

Harvey Hits Comics #3

The verdict isn’t quite out on this book. Though it is touted as a holiday issue, none of these issues take place during the holidays.  A couple of these stories do take place during the winter and snow does play a major factor in all of those stories. So, if this was titled a “Winter Special”, then I wouldn’t have any qualms. But, once again, the cover has a fun holiday cover and yet not even in one tiny panel is there a stocking, reindeer, or Christmas light dangling in the back ground.

Bummer-

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.

Holiday Rating: 2 out of 10 jingle bells.