Here's the first appearance of a comics legend (over 100 series with his name in the title)...
...who, at the time this came out, was already an animation mainstay!
Utilizing story elements from Casper's first cartoon (1945's Paramount NovelToon "The Friendly Ghost", written by Seymour Reit and Joe Oriolo) this opener written by Isadore Klien and likely illustrated by one of the cartoon series' animators appeared in St John's Casper the Friendly Ghost #1 (1949)
Interestingly, though Harvey Comics acquired the character rights from Paramount Pictures and continued the series after St John went out of business, they never reprinted the covers or stories of the five issues by St John!
60th Anniversary Special
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Casper the Friendly Ghost was part of DreamWorks Media and Universal Studios.
ReplyDeleteIn the late 1980s, Dreamworks Media/Universal bought the whole "kit and kaboodle" of rights and material (video/audio/print) from the Harvey family, who owned the comic book company.
DeleteThe only things Dreamworks didn't buy were Sad Sack and the Golden Age/Silver Age super-heroes, Western, romance, and horror material.