ERNIE COLON INTERVIEW in SCARCE 77 (2011) Part 2: The Harvey Years

ME: Did you enjoy working as a letterer or was it mostly for you a way to enter the comics field? Did your years as a letterer teach you anything that you later used as a penciller?

ERNIE: I read in the Times Harvey was looking for a letterer. I am acknowledged to be the worst letterer in the business. They sat me down next to Joe Rosen, acknowledged to be the best. Leon Harvey took one look over my shoulder and said, simply, "you're no letterer" and walked away.

I went for the door, but Vicky Harvey, Al's wife, who knew my work, stopped me. She told me to wait while she spoke to Al. She apparently advised him not to let me go, because Leon came back and offered me a job doing paste-ups in the art department.

I did that for a year while practicing drawing their characters at night. They then hired me as a freelancer and I worked for them for 25 years drawing most of their characters, but mainly Casper the Friendly Ghost and Richie Rich.

- Casper and Richie Rich were the two character you worked mostly during your 25 years stay at Harvey (from around 1955 to 1980). You drew hundreds and hundreds of page of Casper, following Warren Skeemer. Did he gave you advice when you started doing it and did yourself, many years after that, gave advices to young people coming in, thinking that drawing it would be a piece of cake?

-Warren Kremer was a mentor to me. He gave freely, patiently and generously of his time and his talent.

He was the best at Harvey's and could hold his own with Disney artists.

I respected his generosity by helping young artists whenever I could. I'm not sure about them thinking this career option is "a piece of cake", but they all share the same kinds of dreams I had at their age--fame and--if not riches--then a good living being paid for what they love to do.

-Do you think that in US, people working for many years on those long-terms non-super-heroes classic characters like Casper/Richie Rich have the acknoledgement they deserve?

-Not really.

When I went to Marvel, they called the work I did at Harvey "big foot." It wasn't meant as a compliment. Nor did they consider that work as part of their world.

-That's at Harvey that you met Syd Jacobson, who would proove to be one of the creators you would most work with. Was there already at Harvey any hint that you would be on the same lenght and create something together later? He was your editor on both Casper and Richie Rcih, am I right?

-Sid Jacobson was the editor in chief at Harvey. He oversaw all scripts and scrutinized the art before handing it to the art director. He maintained the character of the characters--an important aspect of editing often overlooked.

We became close friends. Though there were years in which we didn't see each other--he had moved to California--we kept in touch. We worked on some small projects and then the 9/11 Report came out and we were suddenly in a very different place.

-That is also at Harvey that you first began writing stories, I think because you began to be a little annoyed by Richie Rich constant empty show-off of his money, isn't it? Was writing stories something you enjoyed right from the start?

-The size of Richie's vaults and piggy banks became the center of many stories. Huge amounts of money spilling everywhere. We forgot what the money was for.

I wanted Richie to be like Les Aventures de Tin Tin, where he traveled allover the world--even to the moon!

And all on a young reporter's salary! How much more could Richie do with his billions. The stories did change, but it was mainly through the creativity of a writer named Lenny Herman.

He created Irona the Maid, Chef Pierre and his nemesis, the dog Dollar, the Dollarmatian. These characters broadened the scope of Richie stories for years.

-Do you think that such a character as Richie Rich would still be loveable today, with all the money scandals that arise with the financial crash, or would it need some serious changes to work?

-It always depends on the quality and adaptability of the writing--as it does in all story-telling arts.

-How did the people at Harvey react when they saw your work on such horror titles like Eerie, Creepy.. Did they not care or were there concerns that it could "taint" you in any way for them?

-They didn't care about the content of what I was doing for other companies--they only cared that work elsewhere took me away from their work

- Was Sid Jacobson presence (editor of the Star line) a key factor in your agreeing to work on the line?

Yes, of course. By then we'd been working together for many years.

- Were the rates per page at Star comics similar to other Marvel titles?

-Don't recall. It was good pay.

- Despite the fact that line was a rip-off of Harvey, were you happy working there? Why did you no work more longer there?

-I didn't care for our being that close to the Harvey line. I felt Star Comics was an opportunity to start something new, original. Not sure what, if anything, was proven by aping Harvey. And the line failed--which it should have.

 - Your final work for Marvel will be the Casper Movie adaptation in 1995. It came at a time when the comics market was falling down. After that, we will almost not see any comics work from you for years to come. Did you feel back then that you had made like a loop (beginning and finishing on Casper) and that it was like the end of an area for you?

-Did I do the adaptation? Hm. The end of the Casper era was when the Harveys went bankrupt. As to the movie--we were not consulted for it nor for the Richie Rich TV series. Typical of Hollywood. I didn't watch either.

-Did you receive any acknowledgment, or were you consulted in any way in the production of the Casper movie of its tie-in products?

-Nope.

- Harvey closed shop on 1982. Then it was bought by Jeffrey Montgomery in 1989. He first published reprints, then tried to resume publication with new titles and relaunched ones in 1991 (until 1994, when it closed shop again). You were part of this relaunch on some titles. You drew severals Richie Richie titles, featuring the "music" group The New Kids of the Blocks, the first issues of Beetlejuice, Monster in my pocket and you were the ongoing penciller on a japaneses mecha adaptation, Ultraman. Let's start with those new Richie Rich & the New Kids on the Block. How was it to come back to this character after many years on such a forced marketing ploy to attract readers?

-All of it was for a paycheck. There was no camaraderie or sense of purpose as there was at Harvey Publications.

- Now that the Harvey brothers were not at the helm of the firm anymore, how could you compare the new Harvey management to the old one?

-There was no management--only a sense of opportunism.

- I suppose that you were the one that proposed to Harvey to use Dwayne Mc Duffie on some of the titles you worked on (Monster in my pockets + the first Ultraman mini)?

-No, that was probably Sid Jacobson. I certainly would have seconded the recommendation, as I believe Dwayne to be very talented.

-Among those titles you drew for the new Harvey, one stands out: Monsters in my Pocket. There was finally only 1 issue, but, contrary to the others one, you seem totally free and inspired on this one (see image attached). Did you like to draw all those mythics creatures like Frankenstein, Dracula, the Gorgon, the Mummy etc...?

-Yes, I did have a lot of fun with the monsters--what cartoonist wouldn't? Where do you dig up all these archeological oddities? I see them as if for the first time.

TO BE CONTINUED