Volume Four, Number Five

Well Friday is the day after Canada Day and it is also banking day. And when I think of banking I think of....who else but RICHIE RICH.

Now I was never a fan of Richie. I always thought he was pretty lame. His dog was cooler than he was.

But I had a major crush on his girlfriend way back in 61/62. She had the prettiest red hair and ever since then I have loved red heads.

Red Heads according to some are going to be extinct by the end of the century. I sure hope not. Some of the best female characters in comics have red hair. We have Spidey's wife Mary Jane for starters, then we have Marvel Girl (or whatever she calls herself these days; hey; I'm a 60s guy folks!!) from the X-Men. And who can forget Ka-zar's blushing bride Shanna.

All great characters. All strong women. I don't believe of course for a moment it is because of their red hair but it sure suited their personalities.

Now what all that has to do with banking I don't have a clue but it gave me a chance to talk about red heads for a minute. Another strong female in real life who has red hair is the lead singer of Paramore. Hopefully I will be able to get up the video by them titled "Ignorance Is Your New Best Friend".

I like strong females both in comics and in real life. Strong, independent women are needed in this world. And in comics, well, if I was a super villain I would rather go up against Superman than Batgirl any day.

But I digress to borrow a phrase from Peter David. Back to Rickie Rich. I have sitting beside me as I type this RICHIE RICH DIGEST STORIES MAGAZINE #8 which I got sent to me by my buddy Richard Vasseur.

To be honest it is kind of a drag. I like the LITTLE DOT and LITTLE LOTTA fillers better than the RICHIE RICH stories.

No one I grew up with read RICHIE RICH. Like no one. Not even the girls. (Most of them read Millie The Model; so did the guys by the way but they would never admit it in public). So I always wondered how the heck did he end up with so many different titles. Who was buying them? Certainly not the people I hung out with as a kid. Heck we would by some obscure CHARLTON title before we would buy a RICHIE RICH.

RICHIE RICH just never did it for any of us and I have yet to meet anyone who bought the titles. So if anyone knows of anyone who was a faithful follower of RICKIE RICH please let me know. That has been haunting me for years.

Now before I go I do need to make a correction. In VOLUME FOUR NUMBER THREE there is a link that reads Susan McCabe. Now my webmaster, the ever-wonderful Groovy Agent, has it going to the correct site but the proper name for the link is www.shannonmccabe.com .

It is Shannon McCabe folks. Sorry for the confusion. At least I got a chance to mention my pal's website again.

Take care and be safe, everyone.

Jonathan "A" Gilbert