more richie


Here's page 3 and the top tier of page 4 of that creepy comic.

On page 2, Richie lures Herman into his lavish home gymnasium, where he instructs Perkins, the butler, to help build Herman's confidence by secretly lowering the giant magnet they apparently have in the ceiling for just such occasions and making Herman think he's strong. Naturally Perkins replies "As you wish, Master Richie!"

On page 3 we meet still more mini-adult classmates. One of them even has a receding hairline! And we meet two other Richie-shaped boys whose heads are slightly more hydrocephalic than Richie's. The girls are drawn pretty consistently throughout, no mini-adult women appear in the story. And that's strange, because the girls are only there to giggle when boys pick on Herman. It seems like Herman's humiliation would be even more hilarious if a mini-adult woman, his sexual equal, were laughing at him.

At the bottom of the page we see a true adult, whose head is even tinier than Herman's! As you grow up in Richie Rich land your head gets smaller and smaller!

I just had to tag on the top tier of page 4 and share the reason for the adult male's walk-on appearance: So he could "OOP" comically as Richie yells "I'VE GOT IT!"

OK, see ya next week. Happy 4th!

9 comments:

eeTeeD said...

colon struggled in his early days at harvey with mufatti's designs and proportions. he complained that the characters could never do handstands with their big heads and stubby arms, nor could they reach the pedals of a bicycle with their stubby legs.

had he his druthers, he would have been drawing tintin. in fact, after a while, he got the writers to write tintin style adventures for richie, which he very much enjoyed illustrating.

enjoy your holiday

James Robert Smith said...

You did miss the fact that it's a girl who exclaims: "Chicken liver!"

I'm sure the cowardly Herman heard her.

James Robert Smith said...

I have to say that there were some really good Richie Rich stories illustrated by Ernie Colon. My favorite was one copped from Horatio Alger wherein Richie's dad loses all of his wealth due to a swindler in his company. He has to start over, and works his way back up the corporate ladder, one business at a time. Of course he does this in a matter of weeks. Ends up taking over all of his old companies and ruining the swindler. It was a really neat story and well illustrated.

Anonymous said...

kids in Richie Rich land apparently don't have knees either

Anonymous said...

He looks kind of devious in the last panel, when he's talking about being manager of the SWIMMING TEAM!

SWIMMING TEAM?????

Jed Alexander said...

What ever happened to the taunt, "Yak, yak"? You just never hear "yak yak" anymore.

And that "adult" is practically a GI Joe in proportion to Ritchie. It looks seriously wrong. I've seen weird hairlines (Charlie Brown's baldness has yet to be explained) and adult-like faces in comics before, but never this.

I was pretty young when I read those Ritchie Rich comics so my main knowledge of Ernie Colan is his DC superhero stuff. There was an interesting interview with him recently in the Comic's Journal that had me intrigued, though. He drew that 911 report comic, and he still has great chops, though I'm not sure how I feel about the 911 book as comics.

I looked him up and found these little spontaneous online strips he's been doing directly in pen. The strips aren't much as far as stories, but he draws them directly in pen! From his head! He's in his 70s and can still make it look easy.

And I swear to god I read that strip about Ritchie's dad losing his fortune. We had stacks of these things! In my early childhood Ritchie Rich and Archie from just about every decade were ubiquitous in our house--that was when you could still get old comics for a quarter at the flea market. Especially the less desirable Ritchies and Archies. And the adventure ones were always the best--there was one that had these lava creatures in it that I was totally fascinated by.

Anonymous said...

Uh... yeah?! Everyone knows that swimming is THE sport that demands respect from all the bullies! It's the speedos and rubber caps that say "Don't F with me, man!"

Anonymous said...

I like how Herman balances the pencil on his heel as he runs off... that's quite a talent!

SRBissette said...

See my blog today -- http://srbissette.com/?p=1633 -- the Springfield, VT 'home' theater of THE SIMPSONS burned this morning. Photos, info, links -- I'll keep y'all posted over there.