CASPER! As Seen On TV

Although he never had as many just flat out insane types of adventures as Hot Stuff, Casper did share in the Harvey weirdness from time to time.
This story has a television time machine which leads to the usual shenanigans.

from CASPER STRANGE GHOST STORIES #4, June 1975
















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Before The Harvey Comics

Trivia time.
A lot of people don't know that Casper, Baby Huey, Buzzy Crow, Little Audrey, and the cat and mouse duo Herman And Katnip were NOT original Harvey Comics characters. Actually, all of them were created by the animators at Paramount's Famous Studios, with the exception of Casper, who was created by freelancers that were not on staff.
So there ya go. Y'all just learned something. To help you remember, here's a few pages of comics that pre-date the Harvey era. You'll likely notice that prior to these characters being purchased by Harvey they looked very different. That's very evident. Why they changed the looks, I really don't know for certain. But I believe it was a marketing thing in much the same way that Stan Lee or Walt Disney wanted to have an immediately recognizable style to match their brand names.
But enough of my yammering, just enjoy this brief interlude of golden age goodness. You're welcome.

art and story uncredited
from CASPER #4, March 1951







BONUS! Here's a Baby Huey one pager from the same comic. I actually prefer him looking like a real goose instead of his 'classic' look.



And that just goes to show ya, the real 'goose that laid the golden egg' for the Harvey brothers wasn't the goose, it was the ghost. Casper proved to be infinitely more popular and profitable than Huey (or Audrey, etc, etc).
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Casper And Stumbo Original Art

I happened to come across these two items while surfing the web. Two complete story sets that are on sale on eBay right now. That is, if you're reading this on the same day that I post it; even a few days from now the items will likely be gone. And that's why I wanted to post these immediately - because these scans will likely disappear after they're sold.
If you're interested in buying them, the item descriptions are listed before each story.

BILL HUDSON - CASPER #9 COMPLETE 5-Pg STORY ART BOO SCOUTS(1953)






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ERNIE COLON - HOT STUFF #112 COMPLETE 5-PG STORY ART STUMBO "MIGHTY MODEL"(1972)






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Casper And The Evil Planet

Moving forward into the 1970s, both Casper and Richie Rich began to have longer and much more fantastic adventures. I honestly can't remember either of them having had more than a full 20 page adventure, but this was still a step up from the previous 10 page limit that existed before. It was also during this period that the numerous characters would begin to officially cross over and appear in stories together (with the notable exceptions Hot Stuff and Stumbo, who for all intents and purposes, lived on Harvey's Earth-2, I guess).
This story isn't one of the classic Richie/Casper crossovers (but I will post one eventually), but it does feature an amusing spoof of classic character Flash Gordon. Although this is not a very flattering parody as you'll see now.

from CASPER IN SPACE #6, June 1973
















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★RELATED LINKS★
Casper done as a real ghost story: at CRACKLE.COM
Casper cartoons at HULU
How to draw Casper at DRAGOART
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A BOO'FUL BABY

From a title character that was already known for being cute and sweet, we get this story. I have to warn you: If you have already high blood-sugar, this is probably sweet enough to put you in a sugar coma.
Cuteness overload imminent.
MANAGEMENT NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR SPONTANEOUS OUTBREAKS OF *AWWW*S

from CASPER & NIGHTMARE #46, August 1974






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