Little Dot

**Dorothy "Dot" Polka** (billed as **Little Dot** in Harvey Comics) is a young girl published in Harvey Comics from the 1950s through 1994. She is a friend of Richie Rich, and is also in the same classroom as Richie. She lives in the town of Bonnie Dell, which is believed to be a suburb of Richville.

## About Dot

Dot is best known by her fondness for dots, and for anything else spherical (read: circle-shaped). In all of her appearances, she wears a red minidress (or, occasionally, a red bikini) with big black polka dots. Her parents are often annoyed by this obsession; they encourage her to develop new interests, but every attempt fails. If Dot's parents force her to wear a plain dress (curious that they have no apparent qualms about her strolling around in short skirts), she'll think nothing of painting nice big polka dots on the dress herself...even using mud or tar, if no paint is available.

Dot has numerous uncles and aunts in her series of stories (there is even a series, *Little Dot's Uncles and Aunts*, which showcases her many aunts and uncles). The two most visible of Dot's uncles include Uncle Branes, who invents devices used for safety reasons or to keep her out of trouble or harm's way - his inventive skills compare to Professor Keenbean in *Richie Rich* stories, albeit klutzy at times; and Uncle Rush, who is very speedy and doesn't hesitate to go places he wants to go - he is so speedy, he can make a kite fly without him being seen, but on some occasions he goes so fast he forgets something important such as his wallet.

Dot does not have a boyfriend in the comic book series, though in a one-page story in Richie Rich #2, a boy invited her to accompany him at a school dance, only to end up being a square dance, which angered Dot.

## Publication history

Dot had her own self-titled comic book series which launched in 1955 and ran until early 1976. The series spun off into two different titles: *Little Dot's Uncles and Aunts* and *Little Dot Dotland* - the former of the spinoffs ran from 1961 through 1974, while the latter series ran from 1963 through 1974 (though the final issue of that series was renamed *Dot Dotland*). After all three *Dot* series ended, reprints of her stories were later republished in *Richie Rich* publications, usually featured near the back of the issue - except for digests (though Richie Rich Digest Magazine #3 and #11 - dated December 1986 and October 1987 respectively - had a Little Dot story near the back of those issues).

### Appearances in Richie Rich comics

Aside from reprints in *Richie Rich* comics, Dot started teaming up with Richie in stories with Richie Rich as the only billing in the late 1970s. Dot made minor or cameo appearances in Richie Rich-billed stories as early as the 1960s, but were very uncommon.

In 1974, an attempt at a Richie/Dot team-up series was launched, titled *Richie Rich and Dot* (removing the word "Little"), the first Richie Rich team-up series involving one of the Harvey girls (several years before *Richie Rich and Gloria*) - however, the series was discontinued after only one issue. In April 1979, a new publication, *Richie Rich and his Girl Friends*, was launched, and featured team-ups of many of the Harvey girls (aside from Dot, Lotta Plump, Audrey Smith, Gloria Glad, and sometimes Mayda Munny) appearing mainly in five-page comedy stories (ironically, there was no Richie/Dot team-up in the first issue of the series, but instead it was an older story with Little Dot as the only billing).

## Trivia

* On rare occasions, there have been stories with Little Dot as the billing in which no references to her dot obsession prevailed. One such story was "A Weird Sit-uation", published as recently as August 1982 in *Richie Rich Millions* #112.
* The ABC Network used Dot's likeness (wearing a yellow dress with large black dots instead of red) in two promos in the early 2000s:
	+ She was used as a static image in on-air promos for ABC's Dot Comedy.
	+ She was mentioned in a promo for ABC's website as early as late 2000.
* *Little Dot* was being considered for a Saturday morning cartoon series in the late 1980s, which was being considered by Ruby-Spears Productions. However, the company ceased operations and merged with Hanna-Barbera Productions in 1996, and the project was since scrapped.
* Dot, along with Little Audrey and Little Lotta, were the main characters seen in the Netflix series *Harvey Street Kids* (later retitled *Harvey Girls Forever!*). Unlike in the comics, Dot was an African-American girl with brown hair, and was interested in science and not dots (though many of her outfits and gadgets had dots on them).