The latest art project was inspired by a totally absurd advertisement in a Richie Rich comic book, Richie Rich Vaults of Mystery #37 (Dec 1980). The ad was completely drawn in the style of regular Richie Rich comics, so it's understandable if kids of that time were confused and mistook it for a normal comics page.
ORIGINAL RICHIE RICH GRIT AD
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| Richie Rich "GRIT" ad, 1980 |
Richie asks his father how they got rich. Now, in the comics, the reasons vary. Some indicate that the Riches inherited money from a long line of wealthy ancestors. Some comics say that Mr. Rich was a self-made man. In this ad, Mr. Rich explains that, as a boy, he sold GRIT (the newspaper). It is implied that selling GRIT was the reason he eventually became rich.
Inspired by his father's advice, Richie runs out and spends his time going door to door selling GRIT for 35 cents a copy (1980 money). He whispers that he gets to keep 12 cents for each copy sold as a commission, and tells the reader that they too can earn prizes like bicycles, radios, camping equipment, footballs, etc. His girlfriend Gloria, hair recently bleached blond from the hair dye that she bought with her GRIT earnings, tells the reader that "Girls sell GRIT, too".
Reading this was one of those laugh-out-loud, double-over-in-hysterics moments. Richie, the richest kid in the world with a $25,000 weekly allowance, peddling newspapers for loose change, like he REALLY NEEDED THE MONEY. I thought this was the funniest thing I'd read in comics, eclipsing the gentle humor of the stories themselves.
Former Harvey staffer Paul Maringelli has the following information about GRIT ads in Harvey Comics:
- Paul, and some of the staffers laughed about the ad in the office.
- Alfred Harvey allowed it because as a young boy he sold GRIT (explaining who exactly the "famous people who got their start selling GRIT" were).
- The ad was drawn by Joe Simon (yep, the creator of Captain America) He was a friend of the Harvey brothers.
Thanks to Gee Bee's kind permission, here is an alternate version of the Richie Rich GRIT ad, from
April 1981. The conversation between Richie and his father had been altered, removing the implication that GRIT helped Mr. Rich become rich. Also, the specifics about how much an issue of GRIT costs, and how much money a child could make were also changed, no doubt due to the runaway inflation of the late 70's and early 80's. It would make no sense to print the older ad, since the price of magazines (including comics books) were rapidly changing.
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| Alternate Richie Rich "GRIT" ad, 1981 |
GRIT AD PARODY
Richie's friends, Freckles and Pee-Wee, live in pretty desperate circumstances. Here's a comic panel of their house- some real "poverty porn". Take a look- Leaky radiator that's dripping water on the floor! No interior walls
(therefore no separate rooms), so the beds are a few steps away from the
bathroom sink! Cracked plaster galore with plenty of wooden lath
visible! A sink that was obviously salvaged from an abandoned warehouse-
big enough to bathe in! And (sniff) the boys padding around barefoot on
dirty, bare floors. If anybody needed to sell GRIT, it's Freckles and Pee-Wee, not Richie Rich.
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| Freckles and Pee-Wee's rundown shack |
Just by accident, I sorta discovered that I have a bit of a talent
for drawing Harvey Comics characters. It didn't take too much study
before I was able to draw reasonable facsimiles of them, so I decided to
draw a parody of the GRIT ad, using characters who actually needed
money.
The final modification was changing GRIT to "GRISTLE". I came up with the idea when I was eating dinner, and saving a piece of gristle for the cat.
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| "GRISTLE" parody advertisement |
I'm not a particularly tight penciller, and all of my inking and coloring is done in Photoshop, but here's the rough pencil sketch:
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| "GRISTLE" parody advertisement, rough sketch |
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OTHER HARVEY GRIT ADS
The other GRIT ad that alternated with the Richie Rich one features Casper the Friendly Ghost and Wendy. This one's not quite as ridiculous as the Richie one, because it does not show Casper, Wendy, or any Harvey characters actually going door to door, selling GRIT to the humans. Instead, Casper addresses the reader directly to urge them sell GRIT for various prizes.
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| Casper and Wendy GRIT ad |
Wendy, showing off a bicycle, assures the readers that "this is more fun
than a flying broom". What? Bicycle vs. flying broom? Huffing and
puffing up hills, and hoping that some idiot in an SUV won't hit you,
and having cars whiz by you with only a foot of buffer space vs. flying overhead? I'll take the broom!
RELATED PAGES:
Richie Rich joins a 70's radical group! From CRAZY magazine, #69 (1980)
