Richie Rich (comics)

**Richard "Richie" $ Rich, Jr.** (often stylized as **Ri¢hie Ri¢h**) is a fictional character in the Harvey Comics universe. He debuted in *Little Dot* #1, cover-dated September 1953, and was created by Alfred Harvey and Warren Kremer. Dubbed "the poor little rich boy," Richie is the only child of fantastically wealthy parents and is the world's richest kid. He is so rich, his middle name is a dollar sign, $.

During Harvey Comics' heyday (1950–1982), Richie was the publisher's most popular character, eventually starring in over fifty separate titles, including such long-running comics as *Richie Rich*, *Richie Rich Millions*, *Richie Rich Dollars and Cents*, and *Richie Rich Success Stories*.

In 2011 Ape Entertainment began publishing a new licensed Richie Rich comic book series, taking the character in a very different, action-oriented, direction.

## Publication history

Although created in 1953, Richie didn't have his own title until 1960. Once he did, however, he quickly became Harvey's most popular character, eventually starring in over fifty separate titles. The flagship, *Richie Rich*, ran 254 issues from 1960 to 1991 (with a hiatus from 1982–1986), followed by a second volume which ran an additional 28 issues from 1991–1994. Other long-running titles were *Richie Rich Millions* (113 issues from 1961–1982), *Richie Rich Dollars and Cents* (109 issues from 1963–1982), and *Richie Rich Success Stories* (105 issues from 1964–1982). (Harvey ceased publishing in 1982, but started up again in 1986 under new ownership; this hiatus resulted in the cancellation of many titles.) Richie (along with many of the Harvey characters) have been published only sporadically since 1994.

Writers for the Richie Rich comic books and syndicated comic strip included Sid Jacobson, Lennie Herman, Stan Kay, and Ralph Newman. Richie Rich's most famous illustrator is Warren Kremer. Other illustrators included Ernie Colón, Sid Couchey, Dom Sileo, Ben Brown, Steve Muffatti, and Joe Dennett.

## Character

Despite any negative stereotypes associated with his incredible wealth, Richie Rich is portrayed as kind and charitable. (In fact, his moniker is "the poor little rich boy.") He lives in an expensive mansion and owns at least two of everything money can buy. Richie appears to be around seven to ten years old and wears a waistcoat, a white shirt with an Eton collar (which is obscured by a giant red bow tie), and blue shorts. He occasionally attends school in his hometown of Harveyville. Other times he's classmates with Little Dot and Little Lotta in Bonnie Dell.

### Ape Entertainment

For the Ape Entertainment comic book series debuting in 2011, the character was updated by emphasizing his altruistic side: "A mix of James Bond and Indiana Jones with the bank account of Donald Trump, Richie Rich is an altruistic adventurer who travels the world helping the less fortunate!" The new Richie was joined by updated versions of his robot maid Irona and his butler Cadbury.

## Supporting characters

### Rich family

* **Mr. Richard Rich Sr.** – Richie's father; an industrialist (first appearance *Little Dot* #3)
* **Mrs. Regina Rich** – Richie's mother (first appearance *Little Dot* #1)
* **Aunt Noovo Rich** (a pun on the French term *nouveau riche*) – Richie's wealthy but very eccentric aunt who is crazy about posting signs; has a tendency to show off her wealth. While few of Richie's aunts and uncles are clarified to be paternal or maternal, Aunt Noovo is known to be his paternal aunt, Mr. Rich's sister.
* **Uncle Titus** - Although just as wealthy as the rest of the family, Uncle Titus is fanatical about saving money; he typically wears the most threadbare of clothes makes every conceivable effort to avoid spending money, to the extent that his house is equipped with an alarm that goes off if he carelessly leaves the house with "too much" money. Some in the family have nicknamed him "tightwad Tite-wad," a name he accepts with good humor.
* **Aunt Mintley** – Oft-bewildered aristocrat.
* **Aunt Cleo** — animal lover.
* **Uncle Worry** – Richie's uncle, former coach of a professional football team known for its long losing streak.
* **Uncle Stormy** – Another of Richie's uncles, whom Richie initially mistakes for an impostor named Blackie Bludsoe in one issue.
* **Dollar** – Rich family dog, a "Dollarmatian" (like a Dalmatian, but with dollar signs instead of spots).

### Van Dough family

* **Reginald "Reggie" Van Dough Jr.** – Richie's mean cousin, known for playing constant pranks on everyone, most notably Richie and his family, which causes his father to punish him. Treats his servants shabbily (often by calling them "peasant," which causes them to call him "monster", but they swiftly correct themselves and call him Master). (first appearance *Little Dot* #2)
* **Reginald Van Dough Sr.** – Mrs. Rich's brother and Reggie's father, often angered with Reggie's non-stop pranks, and often punishes him for them (usually by spanking).
* **Vanessa Van Dough** – Reggie's mother; not as quick to punish Reggie for his pranks, but she doesn't tolerate Reggie's unabashed cruelty either.
* **Penny Van Dough** – Reggie's baby sister, she talks only in "baby talk." The curl on her head is shaped like a dollar sign.

### Richie's friends

* **Gloria Glad** – Richie's redheaded girlfriend, notorious for her regular refusal of the many luxurious gifts Richie offers, and for her disdain for the open display of money, diamonds and other forms of wealth in Richie's household, despite his efforts to conceal it from her. Regardless, she always wins his attentions in comparison to Mayda Munny.
* **Mayda Munny** – (whose name is a play on the phrase "made of money") Richie's snobby ravenette wannabe-girlfriend, who never wins his attentions; like the Riches and Van Doughs, her family is fabulously wealthy. Immensely jealous of Gloria, and often angry when her plans to snare Richie's attention backfire on her. Like Reggie, Mayda is snobbish and addresses those beneath her as "peasant".
* **Freckles** and **Pee-Wee Friendly** – Richie's poor but most-prized friends (first appearance *Little Dot* #2), whose blue-jeaned playtime attire sharply contrasts Richie's bow-tied formal suit. Despite his working-class background, Freckles doesn't object to Richie's wealth the way Gloria does, and at times even enjoys it. Pee-Wee plays along with all of Freckles' and Richie's activities without ever saying a word.
* **Billy Bellhops** – A redheaded boy who worked as a bellhop at his father's hotel. Premiered in "Richie Rich and Billy Bellhops" in 1977 but was short-lived. Created by Alfred Harvey's son Russel.
* **Timmy Time** – An extraterrestrial boy who time-travels to present-day Earth with his robot friend Traveler (landing on the Riches' private beach) from the year 2019 in search of tholarine, a substance he needs for spaceship fuel back in 2019. He appeared only in *Richie Rich Meets Timmy Time* #1 (September 1977). Timmy Time was created by Ernie Colón as Mark Time. Colón's frustration at Mark Time being renamed Timmy Time and presented as a Richie Rich spin-off, when the original agreement had been that the character would debut in his own series, led him to abandon the project.

### Rich employees

* **Herbert Arthur Runcible Cadbury** – The Riches' butler who attends to the Rich estate. British born, Cadbury gives the image of propriety and servility. When need demands, however, he becomes a tough, gun-toting man of action. He is also a master hypnotist, ventriloquist and wood-carver.
* **Irona** – The Riches' robot maid and Richie's bodyguard
* **Bascomb** – The Riches' chauffeur
* **Chef Pierre** – The Riches' chef extraordinaire
* **Mr. Cheepers** – Mr. Rich's accountant
* **Mr. Woody** – The incompetent Rich estate carpenter who has this unique talent in annoying Mr. Rich. His work falls apart with a light touch, except for one time when he built an unsightly structure so sturdy that Mr. Rich could not demolish no matter what he tried.
* **Nurse Jenny** – The Rich family nurse; was Richie's nanny when he was a baby
* **Professor Keenbean** – The head of the Rich research and development department and Richie's personal tutor
* **Professor Mindblow** – A worker at the research and development department.
* **Chadwick** – The Riches' assistant butler
* **Minnie Mintz** – One of the Riches' cooks
* **Captain Fuzzby** – A member of the Riches' estate police

### Villains

* **The Onion** – A recurring villain with horrible onion-powered breath capable of knocking victims unconscious with a trademark "hashoo!"
* **Dr. Robert Blemish** – A recurring villain, an evil genius scientist and nemesis of Prof. Keenbean.
* **Dr. N-R-Gee** – A recurring villain with the distinguishing feature of a huge red light bulb for a head, caused when scientist **Phil Lament** (a pun referring to a light bulb's "filament") suffered an electrical accident in his lab.
* **The Condor** – A billionaire mastermind with his own terrorist army, and the Rich Family's worst enemy, whose only desire is to take over Mr. Rich's empire.
* **The Swiss Cheese Bandit** - introduced in 1982, he used a ray gun to create holes in just about anything, and refuses to undo them unless he receives some ransom.
* **Judd and Scrudd**: Two brothers who kidnap Richie and Gloria while the bad guys are invisible, and hold the kids hostage inside one of Richie's playhouses.
* **Lotta Kvetch** - Not to be confused with Little Lotta, she is a gypsy who ends up scamming people.

## In other media

### Animated TV series

* Beginning in 1980, Richie Rich appeared in his own Saturday morning cartoon show, *Richie Rich* where Richie Rich was voiced by Christian Hoff and then Sparky Marcus. The show aired on *The Richie Rich/Scooby-Doo Show* from 1980–82 and *The Pac-Man/Little Rascals/Richie Rich Show* from 1982–84. In the animated version, Richie and his pals are somewhat older, around 12 years old. In the cartoon, Richie wears a red sweater with a large gold letter "R" in front. Gloria was voiced by Nancy Cartwright, with the voice talents of Dick Beals as Reggie Van Dough, William Callaway as Professor Keanbean, Joan Gerber as Irona and Regina Rich, Christian Hoff as Freckles and Pee-Wee, Stanley Jones as Cadbury and Mr. Rich, and Frank Welker as Dollar.
* In 1996, the second and most recent *Richie Rich* animated television series aired in non-network syndication, starring Katie Leigh as the voices of Richie Rich and Irona. The series ran for 13 episodes and portrayed Richie in his "classic" tuxedo outfit. The show also features the voice talents of Jeannie Elias as Freckles, Gloria Glad, Reggie Van Dough, and Pee-Wee, René Auberjonois as Richard Rich, Chef Pierre, and Professor Keanbean, Pat Fraley as Dollar, Martin Jarvis as Cadbury and Bascomb, and Susan Silo as Regina Rich.
* Richie Rich was parodied in the Adult Swim cartoon *Robot Chicken* with the TV show *MTV Cribs*, where the character is portrayed as a playboy and a rapper, and he shows his house in the same style as the MTV show. His wardrobe in this parody was similar to the 1980s cartoon series.

### Live action TV series

Netflix debuted a 2015 half-hour comedy series titled *Richie Rich* with Jake Brennan starring as Richie Rich, along with Joshua Carlon, Jenna Ortega, Lauren Taylor, Kiff VandenHeuvel, and Brooke Wexler. The show is executive produced by Jeff Hodsden and Tim Pollack, from *The Suite Life of Zack & Cody* and *A.N.T. Farm*. The show is produced by DreamWorks Animation.

### Movies

* *Richie Rich*, a live action film adaptation, was released in 1994, with Macaulay Culkin as the titular character, Edward Herrmann as Richard Rich, Christine Ebersole as Regina Rich, Jonathan Hyde as Cadbury, Michael McShane as Professor Keanbean, John Larroquette as the evil Laurence Van Dough, and Frank Welker providing special vocal effects. It was produced by Silver Pictures Davis Entertainment and released by Warner Bros. under its Family Entertainment label.
* A live-action sequel, *Richie Rich's Christmas Wish*, followed in 1998. This film starred David Gallagher as the titular character replacing Macaulay Culkin, Martin Mull as Richard Rich, Lesley Ann Warren as Regina Rich, Keene Curtis as Cadbury, Don McLeod as Irona, Michelle Trachtenberg as Gloria, Eugene Levy as Professor Keanbean, and Jake Richardson as Reggie Van Dough.

## Trivia

* There's a fan theory that both Richie and Casper, the friendly ghost, are one and the same due to them belonging to Harvey Comics and they share the same face