Date: October 1979 Publisher: Harvey Comics Cover Price: 40¢ 2013 Price Range: $7.00 – $1.00 Stats: 21 color pages plus ads and a 2 page text story Writers: ? Artists: ? Notable Notes: It pokes fun of 2 popular 1970s TV series!
Do you ever watch old TV shows – like from the 1960s, 70s or 80s? I do, especially now that it is so easy to do with internet and video services like Netflix. I think “Bewitched” and “Magnum P.I.” are both still loads of fun to watch! Here’s an issue which brings to mind some of the popular series from the 1970s and makes use of one of the funnest characters in the Harvey universe to do so: Jackie Jokers!
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Date: January 1984 Publisher: Archie Comics Group Cover Price: 60¢ 2013 NM Price: $6.00 Stats: 23 color pages plus ads, Krazy Knits and Club News Writer: Frank Doyle Artists: Dan DeCarlo Jr., Jimmy DeCarlo, Bill Yoshida, Barry Grossman Notable Notes: Archie meets the Ga-Ga’s!
I know this is a comic book, and that Archie is perennially lucky when it comes to girls, but I still want to visit his laundromat! How come the laundromats in this issue (and TV series and commercials everywhere) are always full of nothing but beautiful women? Sure, I’ve seen a few pretty girls when visiting laundromats myself, but nothing like this. Sigh, oh well.
Date: October 1977 Publisher: Harvey Publications, Inc. Cover Price: 35¢ 2013 Price Range: $1.00 – $10.00 Stats: 21 color pages plus ads and “Richie’s Mailbox” letters page Writers: ? Artists: ? Notable Notes: Richie and Casper discover the value of a penny!
Have you heard about these people who do extreme up-trading? You know, they start with some small object (or amount of money) and then try to see who can get the biggest or best or most expensive object just by bartering? I’ve heard of some pretty cool things, like people who have acquired cars that way! This issue demonstrates that concept as the little master of money himself, Richie Rich, goes about doing that very thing!
Date: July(?) 1996 Publisher: Sirius Entertainment Cover Price: $2.50 2013 NM Price: $3.00 Stats: 22 black & white pages plus “Letters to Akiko” and one house ad Story & Art: Mark Crilley Notable Notes: Sea serpents and acid worms!
Do creepy-crawlies give you the creepy-crawlies? I am average when it comes to being squeamish, I guess. I don’t usually freak out around bugs… but if you were to put a spider on me I might do the mad “get-it-off-me” dance! Here is a story where Akiko and her friends must show great self-control to overcome some creepy monsters!
Date: November 1986 Publisher: Gladstone Publishing Cover Price: 75¢ 2013 Price Range: $2.00 – $16.00 Stats: 30 color pages plus house ads and “A Gander At Gladstone” column Writers: Volker Reiche, Geofrey Blum, Bob Karp, Carl Barks Artists: Daan Jippes, Volker Reiche, John Clark, Ken Feduniewicz, Al Taliaferro, Michael F. McCormick, Tony Strobl, Carl Barks Notable Notes: Several classic stories of Donald messing things up!
Have you ever tried to bluff your way through something? I sure have. Truth be told sometimes it works, and sometimes it fails spectacularly! I think Donald Duck is the master of saying he knows how to do something, when in reality he has no clue – I mean that is part of what makes his stories so funny! Here are some classic examples of Donald at his bluffing best!
Date: July 1983 Publisher: Archie Comics Group Cover Price: 60¢ 2013 Price Range: $1 – $8 Stats: 23 color pages plus ads and Archie Club News Writer: Frank Doyle Artists: Stan G, Rudy Lapick, Bill Yoshida, Barry Grossman Notable Notes: Archie and friends stay at a haunted cabin!
After reading about this series in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1696 , and learning that this was the adventurous and mysterious Archie series, I dug through my back issues to see if I had any copies. Lo and behold I did – so I figured I’d give it a go and see how it rated now that I understood a little bit more about the series. Here’s what I thought about it…
Date: October 1979 Publisher: Harvey Publications, Inc. Cover Price: 40¢ 2013 Price Range: $1.00 – $9.00 Stats: 23 color pages plus ads Writers: ? Artists: ? Notable Notes: Casper visits Cardland!
I’ve mentioned before that I grew up reading Harvey comics , and that they are a big reason I love comic books so much. Anyway, I thought Casper was cool but he wasn’t my favorite Harvey character – that honor belonged to Hot Stuff. Casper was definitely the most famous of Harvey’s characters though, and even now, years after the comics stopped being published, you can still find proof of the popularity of this friendly ghost!
Date: June 1996 Publisher: Sirius Entertainment Cover Price: $2.50 2013 NM Price: $3.00 Stats: 22 black & white pages plus “Letters to Akiko” and one ad Story & Art: Mark Crilley Notable Notes: A dream and a storm!
Have you ever had a very, very realistic dream? You know – the kind where when you wake up you’re shocked it wasn’t real? And maybe even sad that it wasn’t real? I have, and usually I feel a bit disappointed and cheated that I expended so much emotional energy on something that wasn’t even real! Oh well, better that than a nightmare eh? In this issue Akiko, our favorite 4th grader, has just such a dream.
Date: October 1986 Publisher: Gladstone Publishing Cover Price: 75¢ 2013 Price Range: $3.00 – $26.00 Stats: 32 color pages plus Gladstone info and 2 house ads Writer & Artist: Carl Barks Notable Notes: The first issue by Gladstone!
After reading Uncle Scrooge and the Prize of Pizarro as the first review for this blog, I realized that I enjoy adventure stories – especially ones that are set in the jungle. This comic is another classic adventure story from the early days of Disney comics. It reminds me of the Indiana Jones films, but with Donald Duck and his nephews filling in as the down-on-their-luck main characters. This is an excellent book and a prime example of how classic comics can be better than modern ones!
Date: October 2007 Publisher: Red 5 Comics Cover Price: $2.95 Stats: 22 color pages Writer: Brian Clevinger Artists: Scott Wegener, Ronda Pattison, Jeff Powell Notable Notes: 1st appearance of Atomic Robo!
I’ve been wanting to try out Comixology for a while, so I finally decided to make an account and check out some of their free issues. This one was free and looked really cool so it became my first read on Comixology! I still prefer physical issues of comics, but this wasn’t a bad experience. Here’s what I thought of the comic:
Date: October 1986 Publisher: Harvey Comics Cover Price: 75¢ 2013 NM Price: $6.00 Stats: 24 color pages plus ads, letters page, table of contents, letter from publisher and poster. Writer: ? Artists: ? Notable Notes: Hot Stuff returns after a 3 year absence!
When I was 12 years old I realized that I could no longer find Richie Rich, Casper or Hot Stuff comics anywhere! It was kind of shocking, because they were my favorite ones and I totally loved them. After asking around at several comic shops I found out that they weren’t publishing comic books anymore. I was sad… but a few years later I was delighted to find that Harvey Comics returned after some reorganizing at their company. This was the first issue I picked up in 1986, and it was a sweet reunion indeed!
Date: December 1995 Publisher: Sirius Entertainment Cover Price: $3.95 2013 NM Price: $5.00 Stats: 40 black & white pages Story and Art: Mark Crilley Notable Notes: 1st appearance of Akiko and friends
I started reading the Akiko comic series back in the late 1990s, and enjoyed it so much that I made an effort to get all of the comic books. It has taken me a long time, but with the purchase of this book I finally completed my collection! This one-shot was the first comic featuring Akiko and her band of misfit friends, then there was the regular comic series that ran for 52 issues. I must say, I’ve been please with all of them, and this issue is no exception!
Date: 2012 Publisher: KiZoic (an imprint of Ape Entertainment) Cover Price: $3.99 Stats: 28 color pages plus one house ad Writers: Sid Jacobson, Ralph Newman, Lennie Herman, Tom DeFalco Artists: Ernie Colon, Warren Kremer, Sid Couchey, Armando Zanker Notable Notes: An issue about aliens and robots!
I bought this issue along with Richie Rich: Rich Rescue #5 so that I could try out both new Richie Rich titles from KiZoic. While that one features the new look of the modern Richie, this one sticks with the classic style, and includes new, original stories as well as digitally re-colored old ones. I was impressed with the modern Richie Rich, so let’s see how this one stacks up shall we?
Date: May 1996 Publisher: Sirius Entertainment Cover Price: $2.50 2013 NM Price: $3.00 Stats: 22 black & white pages plus “Letters to Akiko” and “Akiko’s Bulletin Board” Story & Art: Mark Crilley Notable Notes: The gang battles monsters – arena style!
Akiko and her friends sure are lucky sometimes, and in this issue some pretty fantastic events happen to help them out of some pretty dire circumstances. But hey, that is part of the fun of comics right? This super-fun all-ages comic pushes the borders of willing suspension of disbelief, but I enjoyed it immensely none-the-less!
Date: 2012 Publisher: Ape Entertainment Cover Price: $3.99 Stats: 24 color pages plus one house ad Writer: Buddy Scalera Artists: James Silvani, Deron Bennett Notable Notes: Richie’s team is transformed into virtual super-heroes!
Several months ago I learned that Richie Rich comics were being published again – and I was ecstatic! These were my all time favorite comic books when I was a kid, and I was sad when they quit publishing them. These new ones have been going on for about a year now, but I had heard nothing of them until I saw a small review in Comics Buyer’s Guide recently. I decided to give this new series a try – and I wasn’t disappointed!
