Warren Kremer. artist fpr Richie Rich
Hyfler/Rosner
By STEPHEN MILLER Staff Reporter of the Sun
Warren Kremer, a noted comic book artist whose strong lines gave Harvey
Comics a distinctive look, has died at age 82.
Millions may recall with a slight cringe Casper, the Friendly Ghost, and
Richie Rich, the Poor Little Rich Boy, as among their earliest literary
moments outside a classroom. The comic books featured firm, simple lines,
extremely straightforward plots, and transparently named characters like
Gloria Glad (Richie's girlfriend), Hot Stuff (a little devil), and Reggie
Van Dough (Richie's snobby cousin). There wasn't much irony in Harvey
comics, but revenge was plentiful. Morally, the Harvey world resembled that
of the Archie family of comics, minus the cantilevered bosoms and jalopies.
Neither Harvey nor Archie presented much challenge to the Comics Code.
That Casper and Richie so closely resembled each other - Casper could in
fact have been the dead Richie - could be credited to Kremer, who from about
1950 determined the artistic style at New York City-based Harvey Comics.
At its height, in the 1960s and 1970s, Harvey was selling more comic
books than any other company, and Richie Rich bestrode the nation like a
moneybagged toddling colossus. At one point, Richie Rich was being featured
in no fewer than 30 serial titles - most of them bimonthly - at the same
time. He was clearly having more adventures than any boy, rich or not, had a
right to. In all, more than 2,000 issues were devoted to him.
Richie Rich was developed in-house at Harvey during the 1950s and
launched as an independent title in 1960. There was always some question
over who should take credit for him. Some give Harvey's owner,Alfred Harvey,
the nod, while others credit Kremer and still others cite Sid Jacobson, who
worked as an editor at Harvey from 1952. Kremer's claim rests in part on the
fact he had a son named Richard. Given the collaborative nature of the
business, it is probably most accurate to say Richie Rich emerged from the
creative nexus at Harvey.
The origins of Casper were much different. He was initially the property
of Paramount Studios, whose animated cartoon unit also featured Little
Audrey, Baby Huey, and Herman and Katnip (a knockoff of Tom and Jerry). As a
result of its acquisition of television stations in the mid-1950s, Paramount
was forced by federal law to divest itself of the characters that would
appear on shows it was broadcasting, and Harvey ended up owning them. It
made the characters into comic books while leasing the animation rights back
to Paramount.
Casper, "a creature who lived amongst the gravestones," had been one of the
least popular of the Paramount characters. Kremer gave the ghost a friendly
makeover and the Harvey team gave him an abandoned house he could haunt
along with eerie beings like Spooky and Nightmare, Wendy the Good Little
Witch, and several other typically saccharine characters. Soon, Casper's
star was ascendant, with the comic books and animated cartoons working in
synergy before show business discovered the word.
For a period of nearly 35 years - from the early 1950s until 1982 - Kremer
created all the covers for Harvey's children's titles. He conceived of them,
sketched them, and in most instances even colored them himself - unusual for
the comics industry, where filling in the lines and backgrounds is
considered work for beginners. He also drew about 20 pages of sketches each
week of Harvey's most popular titles: Casper, Richie Rich, Little Dot,
Little Lotta, and Hot Stuff. He rarely worked on Harvey's other features,
even though he had been hired from the pulps initially to work on Harvey's
adult titles, such as Romance, Horror, and War.
Despite his prolific and distinctive output,he was never classed among
the giants in his profession - artists like Jack Kirby of "Captain America"
and Dan DeCarlo of "Archie" - because Harvey had a firm policy against
crediting individual artists.
Harvey Comics declined in the late 1970s, and Kremer was let go during a
layoff in 1982. Eventually, the characters were sold to other companies.
Kremer and several others from Harvey moved to Marvel, where they helped
start a juvenile division called Star Comics. Typical titles included a
comic book version of the daily strip Heathcliff and a series of books about
Ewoks, characters from the film "Star Wars."
Within a few years, he suffered a stroke that left his drawing hand
immobile. Although colleagues believed drawings he produced with his
stillfunctional right hand were of high caliber, Kremer would not be
convinced. He fully retired in 1989.
Casper and Richie Rich have returned as films and as new animated series,
and the comic books have been periodically reissued in collections. The
characters themselves are considered valuable properties, but for more than
a decade nobody has seen fit to issue new comic books featuring the innocent
young ghost or tycoon. It is possible the market has moved upscale, but more
probable that the demand is whistling in the graveyard.
J.D. Baldwin
In the previous article, Hyfler/Rosner <rel...@rcn.com> wrote:
> Millions may recall with a slight cringe Casper, the Friendly
> Ghost, and Richie Rich, the Poor Little Rich Boy, as among their
> earliest literary moments outside a classroom.
"Slight cringe"? Now that's a little uncharitable. These weren't
such awful comic books; the art, for example, was uniformly good.
The stories sometimes even rose a little above the formula.
Anyway, on this occasion, it's pretty well mandatory to recall one of
my favorite bits of "Simpsons" dialogue ever:
Lisa: If we don't get to the convention soon, all the good comics will
be gone!
Bart: Ah, what do you care about good comics? All you every buy is
Casper the Wimpy Ghost.
Lisa: I think it's sad that you equate friendliness with wimpiness,
and I hope it'll keep you from ever achieving true popularity.
Bart: Well, you know what I think? I think Casper is the ghost of
Richie Rich.
Lisa: Hey, they do look alike!
Bart: Wonder how Richie died.
Lisa: Perhaps he realized how hollow the pursuit of money really is
and took his own life.
Marge: Kids, could you lighten up a little?
--
_+_ From the catapult of |If anyone disagrees with any statement I make, I
_|70|___:)=}- J.D. Baldwin |am quite prepared not only to retract it, but also
\ / bal...@panix.com|to deny under oath that I ever made it. -T. Lehrer
***~~~~-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Miller - A Famous Rock Star!
J.D. Baldwin <ne...@baldwin.users.panix.com> wrote:
>
>In the previous article, Hyfler/Rosner <rel...@rcn.com> wrote:
>> Millions may recall with a slight cringe Casper, the Friendly
>> Ghost, and Richie Rich, the Poor Little Rich Boy, as among their
>> earliest literary moments outside a classroom.
>
>"Slight cringe"? Now that's a little uncharitable. These weren't
>such awful comic books; the art, for example, was uniformly good.
>The stories sometimes even rose a little above the formula.
>
This was my whole point in charting a "slight" cringe - rather than a whole-body-recoiling spasm of revulsion.
Perhaps I should have made it clearer that, while I disliked the writing, I thought the art was really nice. I added
the slight precisely in order to be charitable.
<snip>
>Bart: Well, you know what I think? I think Casper is the ghost of
> Richie Rich.
I thought I was the first to make this joke ... guess it just lodged itself in my subconscious.
>Bart: Wonder how Richie died.
>
>Lisa: Perhaps he realized how hollow the pursuit of money really is
> and took his own life.
>
>Marge: Kids, could you lighten up a little?
>--
> _+_ From the catapult of |If anyone disagrees with any statement I make, I
>_|70|___:)=}- J.D. Baldwin |am quite prepared not only to retract it, but also
>\ / bal...@panix.com|to deny under oath that I ever made it. -T. Lehrer
>***~~~~-----------------------------------------------------------------------
--
Steve Miller
Editor and Chief Copyboy
Goodbye! The Journal of Contemporary Obituaries - http://www.goodbyemag.com
If in NYC, buy the Sun and read the obits!