logo formerly called harvey comics industry film predecessor brookwood publications founded 1941 founder alfred harvey defunct 1994 headquarters new york city website web.archive.org web 20130112214655 http www.classicmedia.tv harvey pageload index.html harvey comics also known as harvey world famous comics harvey publications harvey comics entertainment harvey hits harvey illustrated humor and harvey picture magazines was an american comic book publisher founded in new york city by alfred harvey in 1941 after buying out the small publisher brookwood publications . his brothers robert b. harvey and leon harvey joined soon after . the company soon got into licensed characters which by the 1950s became the bulk of their output . the artist warren kremer is closely associated with the publisher . harvey s signature mascot is joker a harlequin jack in the box character . contents 1 history 1.1 1980s decline and sale 1.2 harvey comics entertainment 1.3 sunland entertainment 2 distribution of cartoons 3 harvey characters 3.1 casper and his friends 3.2 richie rich and his friends 3.3 harvey girls 3.4 other characters 4 harvey superheroes 4.1 golden age 4.2 silver age harvey thriller 5 titles 6 references 7 further reading 8 external links history edit this section does not cite any sources . please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . december 2010 learn how and when to remove this template message richie rich 1 nov. 1960 . cover art penciled by warren kremer harvey comics was founded by the harvey brothers leon robert and alfred in the 1940s . harvey comics first acquired an existing faltering title from brookwood publications speed comics . the title s headliners were shock gibson and captain freedom a patriotic hero like the shield . harvey added more anthologies including champion comics and pocket comics . from the new titles only one would stay around for awhile was the black cat a hollywood starlet superhero which was published into the 1950s . 1 harvey began a shift to licensed characters when in 1942 took over as the radio hero green hornet s publisher from holyoke after six issues . harvey added additional titles such that most of their titles were licensed . licensed characters included joe palooka blondie and dick tracy & other newspaper strip characters . 1 the company ultimately became best known for characters it published in comics from 1950s onward particularly those it licensed from the animation company famous studios a unit of paramount pictures starting in 1951 . these include little audrey casper the friendly ghost baby huey and herman and katnip . 1 harvey also licensed popular characters from newspaper comic strips such as mutt and jeff and sad sack . citation needed in addition harvey also developed such original properties as richie rich little dot 1 and little lotta . while the company tried to diversify the comics it published with brief forays in the 1950s and 1960s into superhero suspense horror western and other forms in such imprints as harvey thriller and thrill adventure children s comics were the bulk of its output . on july 27 1958 2 harvey purchased the entire famous line including character rights and rights to the cartoon shorts . the famous cartoons were repackaged and distributed to television as harveytoons and harvey continued production on new comics and a handful of new cartoons produced for television . casper the friendly ghost who had been famous most popular original character now became harvey s top draw . associated characters such as spooky the tuff little ghost the ghostly trio casper s horse nightmare hot stuff the little devil and wendy the good little witch were added to the harvey line . 1980s decline and sale edit by the early 1980s marvel comics was in negotiations with harvey comics to assume publication of some of their characters . harvey editor sid jacobson along with the other harvey staff were interviewed by mike hobson marvel s group vice president of publishing de facto publisher . as part of the process jacobson created several new characters which were well received by hobson and effectively sealed the deal . marvel editor in chief jim shooter appointed editor tom defalco as executive editor to coordinate with the harvey staff who were hired by marvel . on the day marvel was set to take over the harvey publications harvey comics pulled out of the deal due to an internal disagreement among the two remaining harvey brothers alfred and leon . harvey would cease publishing their comics in 1982 . 3 in the summer of 1984 steve geppi owner of diamond comic distributors and geppi s comic world paid 50 000 for among other properties harvey s entire archive of original art from the harvey comic sad sack . geppi made this agreement with steve harvey who at the time was president of harvey publications inc. as well as president of sad sack inc. a wholly owned subsidiary of harvey publications inc. 4 in 1985 the marvel imprint star comics published a title called royal roy . harvey sued star for copyright infringement claiming that roy was a blatant copy of richie rich . 5 veteran harvey writer artist lennie herman had created royal roy for star comics . herman died in 1983 6 before the first issue of royal roy was published . the royal roy comic ended after six issues and the lawsuit was dropped . 3 in 1986 harvey resumed publication 7 under the leadership of alan harvey alfred s oldest son focusing on a few core titles digests and reprints . in 1987 harvey sued columbia pictures for 50 million claiming that the iconic ghostbusters logo used in the blockbuster 1984 film was too reminiscent of fatso from the casper series . the court ruled in columbia s favor 8 due to harvey s failure to renew the copyrights on early casper stories and the limited ways to draw a figure of a cartoon ghost . harvey comics entertainment edit this section except for one footnote needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . february 2013 learn how and when to remove this template message in 1989 harvey was sold to jeffrey montgomery s hmh communications located in santa monica california . it was renamed harvey comics entertainment hce publishing reprints in the early 1990s as harvey classics . in 1993 the company created two imprints nemesis comics and ultracomics to publish ultraman comics as well as a couple of other titles . hce ceased publishing in 1994 . meanwhile however montgomery was distributing harvey s animated catalogue in every market and sold 20 % of the company to mca inc. parent company of universal studios . universal licensed the characters for use in its theme parks . montgomery also optioned richie rich and casper for two feature films richie rich premiered in 1994 and casper in 1995 . montgomery also struck a publishing and distribution deal with marvel comics which led marvel to publish casper titles including an adaptation of the 1995 live action casper movie . two issues of an ongoing casper title were published in may 1997 followed by the short lived casper and friends magazine may july 1997 . sunland entertainment edit montgomery was ousted from hce in 1997 and in 2001 9 the company sold its harvey properties and rights to the harvey name to classic media . hce was renamed sunland entertainment co. sunland produced additional films and distribute its library of 150 films and 60 television episodes . 10 the rights to sad sack black cat and certain other harvey characters are still owned by alan harvey and have been published under the names of lorne harvey publications and re collections . in late 2000 alan harvey sued steve geppi over his 1984 acquisition of the sad sack original art 11 charging that geppi had plundered harvey s warehouses . 12 geppi countersued claiming that he had legal title to the original art. 4 the suit was settled in late 2002 ; at the time of the settlement the new york supreme court had dismissed harvey s claims against geppi . the settlement agreement allowed geppi to keep the art with no money changing hands . 13 14 distribution of cartoons edit this section does not cite any sources . please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . december 2010 learn how and when to remove this template message for years the tv distribution rights to the harveytoons library were licensed to worldvision enterprises . worldvision would hold distribution rights to many earlier famous studios cartoons plus most of the cartoons by fleischer studios for a short time until being absorbed by the television division of paramount pictures which originally distributed the cartoons . universal studios which owns the pre 1950 paramount sound features through its television division once held video rights to the harvey owned cartoons until 2001 when classic media dreamworks classics obtained the animated catalog . in 2016 the harvey comics properties returned to universal . harvey characters edit casper and his friends edit casper the friendly ghost spooky the tuff little ghost pearl poil spooky s girlfriend ghostly trio nightmare the galloping ghost casper s horse hot stuff the little devil wendy the good little witch witch sisters thema velma and zelma wendy s aunts richie rich and his friends edit richie rich the poor little rich boy reginald reggie van dough jr. richie rich s antagonistic cousin cadbury richie rich s butler mr. rich richie rich s father freckles and pee wee richie rich s best friends jackie jokers the clown prince of show biz billy bellhops timmy time harvey girls edit gloria glad little audrey little dot little lotta mayda munny other characters edit aunt clinker hot stuff s aunt baby huey boys ranch created and owned by simon & kirby bunny teen girl buzzy the crow 15 the cowsills based on the rock group felix the cat flat top herman and katnip mama duck baby huey s mother mazie melvin little audrey s boyfriend modern madcaps assorted characters mutt and jeff papa duck baby huey s father rags rabbit sad sack stumbo the giant tommy tortoise and moe hare harvey superheroes edit golden age edit black cat owned by the harvey estate black orchid blazing scarab captain freedom clown firebrand fly man created by sam glanzman shock gibson barry kuda human meteor neptina night hawk phantom sphinx red blazer red demon scarlet arrow scarlet nemesis scarlet phantom spirit of 76 spitfire mahon stuntman owned by joe simon & jack kirby white mask zebra silver age harvey thriller edit bee man captain 3 d owned by simon and kirby captain flower fighting american a revival of the prize comics character owned by joe simon & jack kirby fruitman owned by warren harvey glowing gladiator jack q. frost jigsaw owned by joe simon magic master man in black miracles inc pirana owned by joe simon sooper hippie spyman owned by joe simon tiger boy owned by joe simon titles edit main article list of harvey comics publications references edit a b c d markstein don . harvey comics . don markstein s toonopedia . don markstein . retrieved august 5 2016 . http cartoonresearch.com index.php paramount cartoons 1958 59 a b ceimcioch marck december 2014 . marvel for kids star comics . back issue 77 . retrieved november 20 2014 . a b newswatch geppi i had legal title to both the pre and post 1955 harvey original art the comics journal 229 december 2000 pp. 7 8 . harvey sues marvel star comics charges copyright infringement the comics journal 105 feb. 1986 pp . p. 23 24 . harvey veteran lenny sic herman dies the comics journal 87 december 1983