Obscurity of the Day: Richie Rich


Found at last! I’ve known that this feature existed for years, but only from hearsay. I finally found documentary evidence – it ran in the Philadelphia Inquirer for just a couple months in 1979.

Richie Rich was a comic book put out by Harvey Comics starting in 1960. The comic book was very successful, but this strip certainly wasn’t. The concept seems like a natural for the comic page, but there must have been some monkeywrench in the works because it took me ten or so years of looking just to find a single paper that ran it.

Maybe those of you who know comic books can help me with the credits on the strip. It is signed “Warren Kremer/L. Herman”. Can someone tell me which one is the artist and which is the writer? Does anyone know the specific running dates of the strip? Can anyone verify the existence of a daily version (both daily and Sunday were advertised, but I’ve only seen the Sunday)?

7 comments on “Obscurity of the Day: Richie Rich

  1. Len Herman (writer)
    Warren Kremer (penciller)

    ive seen examples of the daily in fanzines (maybe Edwin Murray’s Trefoil), but I have no idea if it was samples or from a paper —

    (if it was in ELM’s fanzine, it should be in the Murray Bros collection at duke U)

    steven rowe

  2. My notes say it ran 1979 to February 1980. I would have to check my records to see where those dates came from, but I just don’t have time right now.

    D.D.Degg

  3. I’ve seen one daily sample. Warren Kremer was the artist. He recently died in 2003. Lennie Herman was the writer. He died in the 80s sometime.

    If you have other samples, I’d love to see them. I publish a fanzine on Harvey Comics called “The Harveyville Fun Times!” and my website is at http://thft.home.att.net.

    -Mark.

  4. Sorry, Mark, but for strips that are still in copyright and especially for characters still in active use, I mostly limit myself to showing one example. I figure that much is reasonable under fair use, but I don’t want the corporate lawyers to get their dander up at me.

    Best, Allan

  5. while Mark is the expert on Harvey Comics, Warren Kremer didnt do much inking on his own pencils by this time (if he did any).

    You might check with Randy Scott at MSU to see if his library has a Trefoil with Richie Rich ….
    (if my files were organized, I could check myself – but I know where the needle in the haystack metaphor comes from)

  6. I claim the same excuse as Steven,
    though his is understandable having
    moved a while back. I don’t have that
    reason.
    As with the Green Beret note, I can’t find my records for Richie Rich.

    Will continue to try dig it up.

    D.D.Degg

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