Casper's Weather Report

You know hold cold it is today?

It's so cold that time is frozen!!!

Sigh....

Casper #19 is from 1994

Ri¢hie Ri¢h's In¢eption

Cobb and his crew had a really tough time trying to plant an idea in this billionaire's subconscious:

Oh, wait, this wasn't a dream--THIS REALLY HAPPENED!!!

Nope, not a dream, just a mysterious coat of arms and some wishing cookies that Wendy The Witch baked lead to Ri¢hie and Casper going back in time to save his ancestor from a barbarian invasion and make sure his family ended up owning the oil fields there...

Mmm, am I sure that wasn't a dream...?

Casper Versus Capitalism--IN SPACE!!

Well, since my pal Siskoid was so enamored of a catch phrase from yesterday's post, it's only fair that we take a closer look at the main story from Casper In Space #7 (1973).

The funny thing is, it is a story that is absolutely nuts, and plays like nothing so much as a Doctor Who New Adventures novel, albeit with Casper in the role of The Doctor.

We start as Casper and his pals are kidnapped by a pink energy beam from space, and met by an Ambush Bug-looking dude:



And what is the yellow?





Ah, but what happens when they switch to green?


Hmmm, an entire planet that seems dedicated to serving consumer desires (and perhaps creating them). What could possibly go wrong?


Oh, dear.

Well, Casper gets away and does some snooping:



Purple ray? Oh, no...

Fortunately, Casper gets away, and encounters some of the actual denizens of this culture, who complain about the policy of their leader:


And how does he make an ennui-filled populace buy things?

Ahhh....

Sadly, the purple ray catches up to Casper...


But, fortunately, Casper's friends come to the rescue!


Robots???

Well, after a robust battle...


So, let me see if I have this straight. This culture somehow got taken over by robots who produce mass amounts of consumer goods. When the people can't afford the goods, the robots extend them easy credit. When consumers don't want anymore, the robots introduce "rays" that make then buy uncontrollably. And when, even then, the market is saturated, the start shanghaiing people from other galaxies so they can sell stuff to them??

You know, I really didn't expect that much allegory in a Harvey story...

Anyway, we get a real Doctor Who ending:


Yay!! The Doctor Casper has freed the people from an alien rule that is in no way an exaggerated metaphor for anything here on earth, and leaves them to run their own lives. (Yeah, it's also a Kirk ending, too, given the robots in control...)

[Please don't ask an inconvenient questions about who built the robots, or what happened to them, or how the whole culture fell under their sway. There is no explanation.]

BONUS IRONY: This odd anti-capitalist screed (odd for a Harvey book in 1973, at least) appears in an issue chock full of ads for Casper bed sheets, Casper (and other Harvey characters) record albums, and other assorted merchandise. I'm just sayin.'

Tales From The Quarter Bin--Jumping The Space Shark

There comes a time when you've got to retool your concept a little bit. A time when, as the society around you evolves and grows, a comic company has to act to make its intellectual property seem more modern, more in touch with the zeitgeist.

Of course, sometimes that can make you look fairly silly:

Yes, for a few brief, shining moments in 1972-1973, Harvey Comics actually gave us Casper In Space.

For the first five issues, the book was known by the odd title of:

But then, for issues #6-8, they switched it to the Casper IN SPACE title.

How could this idea NOT win? I mean, you've got a child ghost with another child ghost for a girlfriend and other ghosts and a witch as friends, and the hero can pretty much go anywhere and do anything. Boring, right?

So, with amazing intuition on a par shown by DC with the nu52, the Harvey braintrust recognized that the only way to make Casper interesting was...to put him IN SPACE.

(No, he did not become Space Ghost. Shut up.)

Sadly, after 8 issues of increasingly convoluted ways of getting Casper into space adventures (IN SPACE!), the plug was pulled on this fine endeavor.

The good news, we still had 8 issues of interesting cosmology:

And, the only recorded meeting between Casper and Ambush Bug (IN SPACE!!):


OK, it's probably not him. Then again, prove that it isn't Ambush Bug (IN SPACE!!)!!

Just for the record, I'm predicting that 10 of the nu52 comics will add IN SPACE to their titles before too long...