Little Dot | |||||||||||||||||||
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Publication information | |||||||||||||||||||
Publisher | Harvey Comics | ||||||||||||||||||
First appearance | Sad Sack Comics #1 (1949) | ||||||||||||||||||
Created by | Alfred Harvey (writer) Vic Herman (artist) | ||||||||||||||||||
In-story information | |||||||||||||||||||
Full name | Little Dot Polka | ||||||||||||||||||
Species | Human | ||||||||||||||||||
Team affiliations | Little Lotta | ||||||||||||||||||
Abilities | Dottiness, Love of Dots | ||||||||||||||||||
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Little Dot is a comic book character published by Harvey Comics about a little girl who is obsessed with dots, spots, and round, colorful objects. She was created in 1949 by writer Alfred Harvey and artist Vic Herman. [1]
Dot first appeared in 1949 as a supporting feature in Sad Sack Comics, Humphrey Comics and Little Max Comics. Until August 1953 (issue date) she was referred to as "Li'l Dot". In September 1953, she was given her own series named Little Dot, drawn by Steve Muffati, joining Harvey's growing cast of child-oriented comedy characters. [2] The title lasted almost three decades between 1949 and 1982, and then sporadically until 1994. Dot introduced several other popular headliners (including Little Lotta and Richie Rich) as back page fillers. Another spin-off title which ran for thirteen years was Little Dot's Uncles & Aunts, about the adventures of Dot's impossibly extended family, each with an obsessive interest or quirky personality trait of their own.
Like most of the so-called "Harvey Girls", appearing also in the Richie Rich Girlfriends title, Dot reached her peak between the mid-1950s and the late 1960s, eventually eclipsing Little Audrey in terms of sales. Her popularity began to wane during the 1970s as an industry-wide distribution slump began forcing child-oriented comics off the newsstands. Dot's eponymous title stalled between 1982 and 1986, before being permanently discontinued in 1994.
Apart from the main title, Little Dot, the main character's screwball relatives proved popular enough to rate their own series: three issues of Harvey Hits in 1957, '58 and '59; and a "king-sized" comic titled Little Dot's Uncles & Aunts, published between 1961 and 1974.
Little Dot (real name Dorothy Polka) was a "one-note character" with a reliance on formulaic gags and repetitious images (i.e. Dot's dots). Her stories also involved a considerable amount of slapstick humor and domestic comedy. The character's signature theme only became apparent in 1953, after she was redesigned to conform to the company's emerging house style. Consequently, as Dot became a virtual clone of Famous Studios' Little Audrey (which Harvey was licensing at the time), the 'Dotty' aspect was emphasized so that the two characters wouldn't appear too similar. [3]
Dot's obsessive nature presaged the development of Harvey's quirky child-friendly characters, many of which deviated from the Audrey model by incorporating fantasy elements (Hot Stuff, Spooky), or oddball behavior (Little Lotta). On the other hand, generation-based humor always played an important role in Little Dot's storylines. Like her in-house contemporaries, Dot frequently found herself at odds with parents, teachers and other representatives of Bonnie Dell's adult population. Frequent plotlines involved her parents or teachers, who are annoyed with her obsession with dots, trying to trick her into giving up her dot addiction and catching it themselves. Another recurring story source is her numerous aunts and uncles who have myriad eccentricities that Dot has to deal with. In addition, Dot made regular crossovers with Little Lotta from the beginning of the sixties, usually with disastrous consequences (although Dot's fixation and Lotta's insatiable appetite often played only a peripheral role in such pairings). She and Lotta are classmates with Richie Rich. [4]
Richard "Richie" $ Rich Jr. is a fictional character in the Harvey Comics universe. He debuted in the comic book 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, $.
Royal Roy: A Prince of a Boy was a 1985-1986 bimonthly comic book from Marvel Comics' younger-readers' imprint Star Comics. It was created by Lennie Herman and Warren Kremer.
Harvey Comics was an American comic book publisher, founded in New York City by Alfred Harvey in 1941, after buying out the small publisher Brookwood Publications. His brothers, Robert B. and Leon Harvey, joined shortly after. The company soon got into licensed characters, which, by the 1950s, became the bulk of their output. The artist Warren Kremer was closely associated with the publisher.
Wendy the Good Little Witch is a fictional comic book character from Harvey Comics. Like Casper the Friendly Ghost and Hot Stuff the Little Devil, Wendy is an opposite-type character, a girl witch who does good deeds.
Little Audrey is a fictional character, appearing in early 20th century comics prior to starring in a series of Paramount Pictures' Famous Studios cartoons from 1947 to 1958. She is considered a variation of the better-known Little Lulu, devised after Paramount decided not to renew the license on the comic strip character created by Marjorie Henderson Buell. Despite some superficial similarities between the two characters, the Famous animators were at pains to design Audrey in contrast to Lulu, adopting an entirely different color scheme and employing the stylistic conventions common to Famous Studios' later 1940s repertoire, as opposed to Buell's individualistic rendering of Little Lulu. Veteran animator Bill Tytla was the designer of Little Audrey, reportedly inspired by his daughter Tammy. The original voice of Little Lulu was performed by actress Cecil Roy. Little Audrey was, instead, voiced by Mae Questel, who also voiced most of Paramount's other major female cartoon characters, including Betty Boop and Olive Oyl from the Popeye cartoons.
Spooky the Tuff Little Ghost is a fictional character that appeared in titles published by Harvey Comics. Spooky first appeared in Casper the Friendly Ghost #10. He is Casper's cousin, although their exact relation is never specified. He generally resembles Casper except he has freckles, a derby hat, and a large, black nose.
Hot Stuff the Little Devil is a comic book character created by Warren Kremer who first appeared in Hot Stuff #1, published by Harvey Comics. Imbued with a mischievous personality and able to produce fire, Hot Stuff appears as a red child devil who wears a diaper and carries a magical sentient pitchfork, which is a character in its own right. Much to the consternation of his demonic brethren, Hot Stuff sometimes performs good deeds to irritate them.
American Comics Group (ACG) was an American comic book publisher started in 1939 and existing under the ACG name from 1943 to 1967. It published the medium's first ongoing horror-comics title, Adventures into the Unknown. ACG's best-known character was the 1960s satirical-humor hero Herbie Popnecker, who starred for a time in Forbidden Worlds. Herbie would later get his own title and be turned into a "superhero" called the Fat Fury.
Richie Rich is a Saturday morning animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and was broadcast on ABC from November 8, 1980, to September 1, 1984, based upon the Harvey Comics character of the same name. The series shared time slots with Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo, The Little Rascals, Pac-Man and Monchhichis over its original four-year broadcast run. 13 half-hours were produced, split into segments of 12, 7 and 4 minutes.
Bob Oksner was an American comics artist known for both adventure comic strips and for superhero and humor comic books, primarily at DC Comics.
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Little Lotta is a fictional character published by Harvey Comics from 1953 to 1972, and then sporadically until 1993. A contemporary of Little Audrey, Little Dot and Wendy the Good Little Witch, she was one of Harvey's best-known female characters during the 1960s and featured in many of the company's child-friendly comedy titles. Like many of Harvey's comic headliners, Lotta was notable for a quirky defining characteristic - in this case, an insatiable appetite giving rise to superhuman strength.
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Magazine Enterprises was an American comic book company lasting from 1943 to 1958, which published primarily Western, humor, crime, adventure, and children's comics, with virtually no superheroes. It was founded by Vin Sullivan, an editor at Columbia Comics and before that the editor at National Allied Publications, the future DC Comics.
Sid Couchey was an American comic book artist best known for his work on the Harvey Comics characters Richie Rich, Little Lotta and Little Dot. His style is known for big, friendly faces and a sharp sense of visual humor.
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Casper the Friendly Ghost is the fictional character who serves as the protagonist of the Famous Studios theatrical animated cartoon series of the same name. He is a translucent ghost who is pleasant and personable, but often criticized by his three wicked uncles, the Ghostly Trio.
Richie Rich is a 1996 animated television series produced by Harvey Films and Film Roman and distributed by Claster Television. It is based on the Harvey Comics character of the same name. It aired for one season, and also includes select Harveytoons shorts. Unlike the Hanna-Barbera version which depicted a somewhat older Richie closer to adolescence, this revival series was more faithful to the comics, as Richie Rich appeared in his original form as a younger child in his tuxedo and shorts.
Harvey Girls Forever! is an American animated comedy television series produced by Brendan Hay and Aliki Theofilopoulos for DreamWorks Animation Television, and is based on comic book characters from Harvey Comics. It premiered on June 29, 2018, on Netflix and concluded on January 10, 2020.