Harvey Comics Entertainment, Inc. SCARCE - California ( Casper the Friendly Ghost Vignette )

Beautifully engraved SCARCE uncancelled stock certificate from Harvey Comics Entertainment, Inc issued in 1997. This historic document was printed by the United States Banknote Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of the company Jack in the Box logo and Casper the Friendly Ghost. This item has the printed signatures of the Company's President, Jeffrey Montgomery and their CFO. This is the first time we have had an issued certificate from this company for sale.


Certificate Vignette

Harvey Comics (also known as Harvey World Famous Comics, Harvey Publications, Harvey Comics Entertainment, Harvey Hits, Harvey Illustrated Humor, and Harvey Picture Magazines) 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. Harvey and Leon Harvey joined soon after. The company soon got into licensed characters, which by the 1950s, became the bulk of their output. The artist Warren Kremer is closely associated with the publisher.

Harvey's signature mascot is "Joker", a harlequin jack-in-the-box character.

In 1989, Harvey was sold to Jeffrey Montgomery's HMH Communications, located in Santa Monica, California. It was renamed Harvey Comics Entertainment (HCE), publishing reprints in the early 1990s as Harvey Classics. In 1993 the company created two imprints, Nemesis Comics and Ultracomics, to publish Ultraman comics, as well as a couple of other titles. HCE ceased publishing in 1994.

Meanwhile, however, Montgomery was distributing Harvey's animated catalogue in every market, and sold 20% of the company to MCA Inc., parent company of Universal Studios. (Universal licensed the characters for use in its theme parks.) Montgomery also optioned Richie Rich and Casper for two feature films: Richie Rich premiered in 1994, and Casper in 1995.

Montgomery also struck a publishing and distribution deal with Marvel Comics, which led Marvel to publish Casper titles, including an adaptation of the 1995 live-action Casper movie. Two issues of an ongoing Casper title were published in May 1997, followed by the short-lived Casper and Friends Magazine (May–July 1997).