Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Wendy, The Good Little Witch (1962)

Let's enjoy a great character who has gone sadly unappreciated here: Wendy, The Good Little Witch! Like Casper, with whom stories are often shared, Wendy is simply and purely good. The following stories demonstrate her good heart beautifully and also exemplify what I love about Harvey Comics from this period: They are beautifully done stories, with magnificent cartooning, done for kids without the slightest wink to adults. The following artwork, including the cover, is all Warren Kremer - one of the all-time greats (Wendy, The Good Little Witch No. 10, February, 1962).

Enjoy also the following two pages of advertisements. I see about four things I want.

22 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing this! I remember reading these stories when I was a kid. I never knew the artist's name until recently (probably learned it here), but I totally agree that he was a great artist for the Harvey characters. These two stories are both very clever and a little off-beat. I'm sure a good little witch must be a tough character to write, but these stories really effectively convey her personality, particularly the cartoonist story. Although I'm sure that even without Wendy's magic wand interfering, a cartoonist would have a hard time keeping Wendy from getting out of character--at least for long.

    Will we get the other two stories in this issue any time soon? Some great memories here!

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    1. Scarcrow: Since you asked, I'll post the Casper and Spooky story included in this issue next post. I loved that first story and wonder if it might be based on one of Harvey's artists wishing to jazz Wendy up a bit, but finding her character simpy too good to mess with.

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    2. oops, sorry,Scarcrow - I won't be able to post the rest of the stories - They are to damaged (scribbled throughout by previous owner) to post.

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  2. Harveys are always fun, Thanks Mykal for sharing!

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  3. I think that when people think of comic book witches, poor Wendy gets upstaged by Archie's Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

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    1. Ain't it the truth? The squeaky wheel always gets the grease, even in the comic book world of witches.

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  4. Doesn't this sort of thing ALWAYS happen when an EC Comics artist comes to work for Harvey? Great Stuff1

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  5. Joe: Great stuff, indeed. I believe Kremer was one of the all around great artists that ever worked in the medium.

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  6. Just got around to reading this story...that was a good one! Speaking as an artist myself, sometimes my characters seem to do what they want regardless of what I want them to do (although Mervin has the opposite problem of Wendy...I just can't make him do something nice!).

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  7. Thanks for the post Mykal! You have opened my eyes to the beauty of these Harvey artists with this and your previous posts! Thanks so much!

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  8. WOW! I'm so happy do discover this blog :) So much to read...

    BTW -> If you love Disney comics as well, you might enjoy this story I did...
    http://panmilus.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-adventures-of-gyro.html

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  9. Stories published in the late '60s and during the '70s show Wendy having a feisty streak. That came out whenever she saw people mistreating Casper or one of her other friends.

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    1. I know! She was very protective of Casper.

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    2. Of course. Even if they couldn't outright say it (despite showing the two on outings together, regularly), Casper was Wendy's "boo", to use a colorful play on words.

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    3. ThereaIRNO: That was the feeling.

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  10. I remember stories drawn by Ernie Colon showing the great resourcefulness of both Casper and Wendy. I hope you can reprint the story in which Casper and Wendy are in a conflict with "The Master of Evil." It's obvious who The Master of Evil really is but I guess Harvey had a policy back then which prohibited the use of the word "Satan."

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  11. Colon always brought the darkest edge to Harvey comics.

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  12. MYKAL, have you ever heard of Casper & The Spectrals? Wendy's amazing in that.

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    1. Lionel: I have not - I'll have to check it out.

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