Customer Reviews

Harvey Comics Classics Volume 5: Harvey Girls (Harvey Comic Classics)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As stated in the introduction, this is the fifth and final volume of the "Harvey Comics Classics" series from Dark Horse. (a moment of silence). The good news is that this offers the best of what are usually deemed "one-note" characters from Harvey and there is a glimmer of hope in the introduction that the Harvey characters will be back soon in some other form, but for now, grab this while you can!! It may be a while...

After reading this volume, you will discover that Dot had more dimension than just solely an obsession with dots and Lotta had more dimension than just solely an obsession with food. Admittedly, as time went on, the characters became stale for their constant repetition, but here they are in their prime.

And Audrey, she's much more of a mischievous scamp similar to Little Lulu that she was modeled after than the more bland stories of later years. If you are unsure of or dislike the Harvey Girls, give this one a read. It'll change your mind.

Having grown up in the wonderful Age of Harvey comics, I've always been a casual fan of Little Dot, Little Lotta, and Little Audrey. For so many great comics in one book, the price couldn't be beat, so I figured I would give it a shot.

I never dreamed I would like it this much, but to be honest, I loved it! I can't think of enough praise for Dark Horse Comics for doing such a wonderful job. I think young and old alike will love the humorous stories from such a carefree time.

According to Leslie Cabarga, this will be the last HARVEY COMICS CLASSICS release for the foreseeable future. Before getting on to the material at hand, I wanted to make sure to thank Leslie, Jerry, and the folks at Dark Horse for a reprint project that, while far from flawless, surely did well by the "Harvey World" standbys. Hopefully the hiatus is strictly due to the economy and new volumes will appear soon.

Volume 5 is, of necessity, a bit scrapbookish, covering as it does the early four-color careers of three characters, of whom one (Audrey) never crossed over to visit any of the other Harvey stars (at least, not until she got a brief -- and quite enjoyable -- opportunity to pair with Richie Rich in the early-80's title RICHIE RICH AND HIS GIRL FRIENDS). While Audrey had a respectable run, I can't help but think that had Steve Mufatti, Larz Bourne, et al. not showed such fidelity to the world of the cartoon shorts in the early AUDREY stories, the feisty kid might have used the extra "wiggle room" to squirm out of her neighborhood and into team-ups with Dot, Lotta, and others, which would probably have prolonged her active career. As it turned out, once Audrey's neighborhood gang (Melvin, Tiny, and Lucretia) was introduced, the AUDREY books basically became Harvey's hermetically sealed version of LITTLE LULU -- fitting, in light of the fact that Famous Studios created Audrey to replace Lulu when they lost the rights to the latter, but ultimately damaging to Aud's reputation as a formidable character in her own right. There's no doubt that the artwork of Mufatti and Howie Post has it all over Irving Tripp (John Stanley's main illustrator on the LULU stories) insofar as liveliness and charm goes, but, especially after Lucretia and her Annie-like buck tooth arrive on the scene, it's tough not to look at Audrey and not think immediately of Ms. Moppet and her cronies. Even the use of the supposedly "black" Tiny -- admittedly, a rather bold move for the 50s -- has to be qualified somewhat, as Tiny looks more like a crew-cut white kid colored black than, say, the more obvious black child Bumbazine that Walt Kelly drew for the earliest POGO stories. These stories are lively and fun and partake liberally of the charming atmosphere of Aud's better cartoons -- I especially enjoyed the "dreamed" South Pacific parody with Aud as a native girl and Melvin as "Safety Pinsa" (get it?) -- but the aura of "knockoff" will always linger, and that's a real shame.

The volume's true revelation, from my point of view, are the earliest LITTLE DOT stories, in which Steve Mufatti does a complete makeover on the not-very-inspired character of the same name who had been a backup feature in SAD SACK for several years. Insofar as Mufatti was a major artistic influence on Warren Kremer, this relaunch was one of the key moments in the development of the "Harvey World" style. In his introduction, Jerry Beck describes Mufatti's artwork as "slightly anachronistic, recalling late 1920s and early 1930s cartooning." On the contrary -- though a guy who was supposedly born in 1880 and therefore would have been over 70 at the time he drew these stories, Mufatti was right on the cutting edge of kids' comics of the day. The early Dot is simply adorable (though Mufatti takes a story or two to settle on giving her one ponytail instead of two) without being "cutesy" in the slightest. Conspicuous by its absence in these opening salvos is the "dot obsession" that would come to define Dot's character in future years. According to "Alphabet Land," Dot's sort-of-origin story in LITTLE DOT #5, she didn't even originally have dots on her dress. "Pop Goes the Measles" (LD #13) is the first story in which Dot shows any unusual interest in dots at all, and there, she's merely marveling over the fact that she's developed a case of ultra-rare "black measles." Like several other early stories, "Measles" takes the form of a "tall story" that Dot tells to her friend Lotta and her soon-to-be-dropped friend Red. This is definitely Lulu territory, and I get the sense that Bourne and the other writers may have been scuffling to distinguish Dot from Audrey in a way other than the fact that she has scads of oddball uncles and aunts dropping in at all times. (Some of these early "relative adventures," such as the ones with mountain-climbing Uncle Alp, wire-walking Uncle Balance, and lion-taming Uncle Fang, start with Dot being all but shanghaied by her compulsive clansfolk.) By issue #16, Dot is trying to convince a bandleader to put dots on uniforms and dreaming of becoming "Queen of Dot-Land," and it's all downhill (rolling, naturally, since these are round objects we're talking about) from there. Stories by Sid Couchey, the artist most associated with Dot (and Lotta), appear at the tail end of the Dot section, but they're not from his prime period, in which Dot occasionally got to participate in stories extending beyond five pages. Alas, Jerry and Leslie cut off their material at 1962.

Little Lotta runs the anchor leg of the volume, and, apart from being slightly smaller in bulk in the early days, she arrives on the scene pretty much fully-developed (stow the jokes about overeating, if you please!). There's no question in my mind that the fateful decision to allow Dot and Lotta to be pals (which they are from the very start, in LD #1's "Show Business") helped prolong the ladies' careers. A lot of the early LOTTA stories seem a little too willing to resort to the somewhat lazy "Lotta dreams up an adventure" gambit, but more fruitful developments, such as the introduction of Lotta's pint-sized boyfriend Gerald and her lively Grandpa -- for all intents and purposes, the "Harvey World"'s version of Poopdeck Pappy, and easily worth two dozen of Dot's carload of uncles and aunts -- presage a career that, like Dot's and Audrey's, proved more than respectable. Like Dark Horse's fine LITTLE LULU volumes, this is an ideal collection to give a young girl who might be interested in comics, but, as Jerry Beck correctly notes, these stories will be enjoyable to readers of all predilections... not to mention both genders.

I am so glad I found this reprint - I am trying to encourage my now 6 year old to read and none of the other books she will read on her own and I can't be with her to coax her to be reading the other books because of having full time work outside the house. This, however, definitely did not require a MUST read schedule. She would stay up at night and just pick it up during the day. Absolutely worth every penny!

this book was great.i did rember i liked the comics as a kid,then when i got my copy i realy rembered why.i couldnt help but smile and at times have a good laugh at the storys of the 3 title ters and their adventures.dot and lotta were the best in my view,but still a great book that older fans will love as they rember their childhood days and new fans will enjoy.great book.

Just your usual comic book. I wanted it for the little, just starting to read kids that come around. They love it.

"The Harvey Girls (Harvey Comic Classics, v.5)"
(Dark Horse Publishing, 2009)
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Here's the good news: this generously-packed volume collects vintage cartoons from the late, great Harvey Comics group, wholesome family-oriented comics from the 1950s and '60s that were geared towards very young readers. Parents who are looking for comic books that aren't overly violent or overly sexualized will be well advised to check these books out, since there is virtually nothing else like it on the market today.

Now for the downside: I have been eagerly awaiting a reissue project for the great, goofy "Little Dot" comic, which I would love to introduce to my young daughter. I am sad, though, that I'm going to have to skip this particular volume, since it also includes cartoons featuring Little Lotta, an overweight, food-crazed big girl with superhuman strength who is kindly, but also prone to feats of strength, sometimes to thwart bullies and bad guys, but often simply as an extension of her image as a freakishly large, boyish girl. Even as a child, I considered Lotta to be an offensive character, and since food issues are so psychologically charged and fraught with danger in our society, that I would never want to introduce this troublesome, horribly retrograde character to any small girl. Little Lotta can stay in the rubbish heap of history as far as I'm concerned.

Little Dot is a kook, but she's a fun, harmless kook, and I really wish the publisher had made a full volume of her stuff available, with just her stories and no one else. Well, maybe in the future, we'll get our wish... If anyone is listening out there, hey, how about a big, fat, full-color collection of classic "Little Dot" cartoons? I would be the first in line to pick *that* one up! (Joe Sixpack, ReadThatAgain children's book reviews)

I will not give Dark Horse more than 1 star for coming out with cheap paperbacks and black and white reprints. For the EC comics library they made them in hardcover and color corrected the pictures to the specifications of the original artists and the result is stunning. Unless Dark Horse releases material at this level Stu won't buy it. They at least owe us a long best of Harvey Comics color corrected hardcover special editioin volume. It is cheap of them to release it in B&W and a cheap and destructable paperback. Why couldn't have Fantagraphcs and Seth gotten the rights to this one? I love Harvey like everyone else but I don't collect junk.