At the end of the 1940s, superheroes were dying off and Harvey, like most publishers, was looking for alternatives. A couple of ideas for something different arrived from Alfred Harvey's old friends, Joe Simon & Jack Kirby. One was a variation on their kid gang comics with The Boy Explorers. The other was still within the realm of superheroes; but, transported to the world of filmmaking: Stuntman.
The Boy Explorers were Gadget, Gashouse, Smiley and Zero, who escape life in an orphanage to sail the world with Commodore Sinbad, aboard a clipper ship. The didn't get much adventure, as they only had one issue, though a second was prepared; but never released.
There's not a lot of art out there from this feature; but, it was typical Simon & Kirby.
Much more exciting was Stuntman...
Stuntman is Fred Drake, who is, surprise, a Hollywood stuntman. he is the stunt double for actor Don Daring, who would provide the comic relief. Fred dons a costume to fight crime in these action-packed, unrestrained Kirby stories.
These are Simon & Kirby spilling over with action and ideas taken from Hollywood movies, as can be seen in the Robin Hood splash above. You can almost see where Errol Flynn would be standing. Unfortunately, the ending of paper restrictions led to a glut of comics and the Simon & Kirby books were buried under other material. A third issue of Stuntman was in the preparation stages...
Simon & Kirby would also factor into Harvey's dabbling in westerns. As we saw before, Black Cat, for a time, turned into a western...
That wasn't much of a stretch, as Tim Turner was an old silent film cowboy, who lived on a ranch. Meanwhile, Simon & Kirby's contribution was the legendary Boy's Ranch...
The series features three boys: Dandy, Wabash, and Angel, who live on a ranch bequeathed to them. Adult frontiersman Clay Duncan is their mentor, while Willy Weehawken is their ornery cook. The stories are filled with adventures as natives and whites come to the ranch, mixing them in their affairs. The series differed from many westerns as the natives are portrayed as more noble and sympathetic, who get manipulated into attacks by outsiders.
The series is a favorite of both Simon & Kirby and is considered by many critics as their finest work, together. There is a depth in these stories that isn't quite seen in the Boy Commandos or Newsboy Legion. The finest story of an acclaimed bunch is "Mother Delilah," from issue #3. The story features an adaptation of the biblical Samson & Delilah. Clay Duncan has spurned a saloon girl, named Delilah. She decides to gain her revenge and uses Angel as the vehicle for it. Angel is the tough-talking, quickdraw deadly young man with a fiery temper. He is depicted with long blond hair and idolizes Billy the Kid. However, as an orphan, he longs for a family. Delilah soon insinuates herself as a mother figure to Angel. However, she realizes the evil that she is doing to Angel, whose love she is feeling; yet, she still goes through with her revenge.
Angel is unarmed and finds himself ridiculed by a mob that feared his gunarm. he is badly abused and beaten, until rescued by Clay and the others.
Angel goes back to confront the men, with his guns...
and Delilah jumps in to save him from an ambush...
You won't find many stories better.
Harvey, for a time, seemed to follow the lead of EC; where they went, Harvey followed. EC had romance and war comics; so would Harvey.
Some of these only lasted a couple of years, a few lasted until the tail end of the 50s. One lasted until 1963: First Love.
Harvey didn't quite go so whole-hog into the war comics and theirs lasted only during the sales peak of the genre, during the Korean War.
These weren't the more serious, anti-war comics of EC's Frontline Combat and Two-Fisted tales; these were fairly standard fare for the era. As Alfred and Leon Harvey were artists, they always used good artists. When the war ended and the fad died, Harvey moved on.
When EC started transitioning their romance comics to horror, Harvey started launching their own horror comics
As you can see from the covers, Harvey went in for very pulpy horror, with a lot of damsel-in-distress imagery. Like EC, many of their tales had an edge of satire to them, with twists to the story. Unlike EC, they did not uses hosts for the magazines. One of their more noted stories was "Colorama," from Black Cat Mystery #45.
A man is driving and sees a red orb envelope his car; but it disappears and there is only a red traffic light. He sees a blue blob and it turns into a police officer, ticketing him for not stopping at the red light. he goes to an optometrist...
Without the glasses the phenomena keeps happening. The man won't sell him the glasses; so, he breaks in and steals them. They sooth his problem; but, then, slowly everything starts to fade...
The interior story was from the great Bob powell, who did many comics for Harvey. The cover, however, is from Warren Kremer; the man who would give birth to and define Richie Rich! In fact, the face you see on the cover is Kremer's own, distorted for the effect.
Well, the fun wouldn't last as Frederick Wertham, Estes Kefauver and the Catholic League of Decency would come along and run the horror and crime comics out of town. Harvey was cited multiple times in Seduction of the Innocent, with Black Cat Mystery providing several examples. Harvey would quickly dump the horror titles and move on with humor, with a recent acquisition. We'll get to that next time. However, Harvey did follow EC in their brand of humor, if only very briefly...
This was a very short-lived Mad knock-off, lasting for two issues.
Here is a sample from #1, by Howard Nostrand...
As I said, with the heat on, Harvey folded up the horror comics and decided to go a more wholesome route. They were still publishing things like Blondie, Joe Palooka and Sad Sack and were about to add some characters from cartoons, as well as a few original creations. More on that, next time.