Richie Rich: The Poor Little Rich Boy (Harvey Comics Classics, Vol. 2 ) [Paperback]

Jerry Beck (Author), Leslie Cabarga (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 16, 2007

Move over Uncle Scrooge! The richest character in comic book history is about to get his due. Harvey Comics' original creation Richie Rich, the Poor Little Rich Boy, represented the fantasies of every comic book-loving kid growing up in the 1960s and 70s. Now, Dark Horse is delighted to present the ultimate tribute to the boy who has everything - and we mean everything! This mega compilation of the essential Richie collects his earliest and most substantial stories for the first time ever. Created by Sid Jacbson and Warren Kremer as a back-up feature in Little Dot comics in 1953, Richie Rich went on to become Harvey's biggest money maker, appearing in over fifty different spin-off titles over the next 40 years. In addition to the magnificent comic art of Warren Kremer, Richie was also drawn by animation great Steve Muffatti and comics legend Ernie Colon.

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Dark Horse (October 16, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159307848X
• ISBN-13: 978-1593078485
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,237,046 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Hopeful (And Long Overdue) Return Of Harvey Comics, November 23, 2007

By 

ImEzekiel65 "Zeke" (WV USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Richie Rich: The Poor Little Rich Boy (Harvey Comics Classics, Vol. 2 ) (Paperback)

Really, really enjoy this book.

To paraphrase the quote, I had as much fondness for Harvey Comics as I did my superhero titles. As a child, I got every bit as excited seeing a Harvey title as I did any of the Marvels or DCs. Their bright four-color covers were only a preview of the goodness waiting inside.

When I was a kid, it was an excellent time to be a comic fan. Not only those mentioned above, but also Archie, Dell/Gold Key (which was a treasure in and of itself, what with all of the Disney, Hanna-Barbera, TV tie-ins, etc., under the same umbrella!), Charlton, Atlas, have I listed them all? Whatever the case, it was nothing but good times.

Reading a Harvey comic was like having a ice cold lemonade on a sweltering hot day. You could always count on them to give you a great time and a fun read. Fun, light-hearted, whimsical adventures featuring the likes of Richie Rich, Casper The Friendly Ghost, Spooky The Tuff Little Ghost, Hot Stuff The Little Devil, Wendy The Good Little Witch, The Ghostly Trio, The Sad Sack, Stumbo The Giant, Little Dot, Little Lotta, Little Audrey, heck, a "little" bit of everything;).

Under lesser hands, these characters could easily have become one-dimensional, cloying and downright annoying. But Harvey apparently realized this and took their readership on flights of fancy, oftentimes giving us multi-part stories, putting Richie and Casper (sometimes together) in all kinds of precarious situations.

Richie, in particular, was often aided by the likes of his trusty butler Cadbury, his hardscrabble friends, brothers Freckles, a redhead (also referred to as Tommy in some stories - could possibly have been Freckles' "real" name. Also has been a brunette on occasion.) and the mute Pee-Wee, (who actually spoke one line in the story "Problem Child", the only time I know of that he actually talked), as well as his girlfriend Gloria, a rare girl who was often repulsed by Richie's wealth, liking him for who he was inside. A real jewel, if you ask me. Plus, Richie was often bedeviled by the occasional visits from his obnoxiously snooty cousin Reginald "Reggie" Van Dough, who was the complete antithesis of his cuter and infinitely more lovable cousin. Reggie loved nothing more than pulling pranks on Richie and his very tolerant friends, until his foolishness would ultimately backfire on him, giving the stories happy endings, momentarily humbling Reggie (until returning to prank Richie another day).

In spite of all his enormous wealth, Richie simply wanted to be a little boy who belonged, wanting simply to be "one of the guys", playing sandlot baseball, going fishing, inviting all of his friends to either his mansion, yacht, or on some sort of fabulous vacation, etc.. It is really nice seeing Richie treating Freckles and Pee-Wee as equals and not making fun of them because of their being poor.

Seeing this book in the comic shop was a welcome surprise for me. It was an impulse buy, in which I immediately snapped it up, not knowing about it in the first place (I knew about the Harvey Comics Classics Volume 1: Casper, which I plan on getting very soon). And it has been a fun read. And no, I didn't realize that it was mostly black and white until looking at it, but it didn't take long for me to adjust to that. Sure, it would have been nice to have had color, but that's a minor point. What matters is that for the money, you are getting 480 pages of classic comic goodness from a sadly bygone era which we don't see enough of these days.

Nowadays, I would be hard-pressed to recommend any comic for a child to read, since the market has pretty well grown up. There just aren't as many comics out there for kids, which is sad, since children were the once-intended target audience. It's no wonder kids, for the most part, don't read comics today.

Here's hoping that Dark Horse will rectify this and put out future volumes of these "little" treasures. They could go on forever reprinting them, since there are literally decades of these to reprint. These comics deserve tender loving care and need to be introduced to a new generation (as well as reintroducing those of us in the previous ones). Perhaps D.H. will go the Archie route and market digests of classic reprints to be sold in supermarkets and such. What better way to introduce them, since it obviously hasn't hurt Archie. Now this would be absolutely swell.

Are you listening, Dark Horse? In other words, KEEP IT UP!!!!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic kids comics, April 9, 2010

By 

DJ Joe Sixpack (...in Middle America) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Richie Rich: The Poor Little Rich Boy (Harvey Comics Classics, Vol. 2 ) (Paperback)

I liked reading Richie Rich when I was little - a total fantasy title with some fun, clever stories and a nicey-nice nonviolent vibe that many parents might appreciate in these hyper-harsh media-saturated times. How ironic, though, that the book went out of print so quickly and now sells on the used market for ten times its original price... What happened? Did Reginald Van Dough corner the market or something? (Joe Sixpack, ReadThatAgain children's book reviews)

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another Harvey Classic makes the scene!, January 5, 2008

By 

Dunestar - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Richie Rich: The Poor Little Rich Boy (Harvey Comics Classics, Vol. 2 ) (Paperback)

As with Harvey Comics Classics Vol. 1 Casper, Richie Rich was the other Harvey Comic I used to read back when I was three or so with my Uncle Joe, and have kept reading them since.

Richie Rich was kind of Harvey's answer to Uncle Scrooge, James Bond, and Batman all rolled into one. Originally starting out as a filler strip for Harvey's Little Dot, Richie Rich was the wealthiest kid in Richville. Except unlike most rich people, Richie preferred playing with his friends Freckles and Pee-Wee, and enjoying the simpler things in life, even though sometimes his wealth and luck unexpectedly interfered.

Another happened to be Richie's love for Gloria Glad, who only loved Richie for himself, not his money. And always would get upset when Richie dared fuss over her. Of course, poor Richie can never win, since in one strip, Richie decides taking Gloria's advice. Regrettably, the time he decides on doing this, Gloria's trying to demonstrate to her cousin how Richie lavishes her with expensive gifts.

Later in the Seventies however, Richie started doing adventures with his butler Cadbury, as Harvey started introducing more serious tales, especially with their 'Vaults of Mystery' title. And as Ernie Colon mentions, later Richie always had some gadget or other to help him get out of tight spots. But still Richie normally used his wits about him and he was the first 'McGyver' long before the series hit television.

In fact, in HCC V2, you'll see how Richie and Gloria deal with modern day pirates after they shangai Richie's yacht and plan on using it for raiding other luxury liners.

Which was what made Harvey Comics so great, though the villains usually implemented firearms and such, Richie rarely struck back using deadly force. Usually he'd try solving the problem with his wits (and his wealth didn't hurt as well), over using brute force.

In this collection, you'll also see Richie's mischievious cousin, Reginald Van Dough, aka Reggie, and how he started pranking and getting into trouble with Richie. My own regret with the series is, I wish Dark Horse had selected some other tales showcasing the little known characters like Mayda Munny (Gloria's rival), Professor Keenbean, the modern version of Irona, Reggie's sister, Penny, and Jackie Jokers. But the way I see it, DH might be saving them for a future collection, as well as the 'Richie Rich and...' series where later Harvey spawned this spinoff from the titles 'Richie Rich and Casper' as well as 'Richie Rich and Jackie Jokers.'

To this day, I wish I could have found another copy of 'Richie Rich and Timmy Time' since my cousin destroyed my uncle's copy before I had a chance to read it.

Nonetheless Dark Horse has done an excellent job of bringing back the lost collections of Harvey Comics, and I hope these series might encourage them to come out with mini-digest collections of them and other characters, since I still have some of the original digests in my house.

I definitely would recommend this as well as all the Harvey Comics Collection series for those who are avid Harvey fans and classic comic collectors. But also for those who might like to see what comics were like before DC and Marvel took over the industry.