 | Wendy the Good Little WitchOriginal Medium: Comic books Published by: Harvey Comics First Appeared: 1954 image: © Harvey Entertainment. |
Wendy the Good Little Witch was clearly inspired by Casper the Friendly Ghost, also published by Harvey Comics, which did both as part of a minor genre of kid-friendly versions of supernatural bugaboos. (Their third, Hot Stuff the Little Devil, was introduced in 1957.)
Wendy first appeared in the back pages of Casper's comic,
debuting in the 20th issue (May, 1954). She not only held down a
back-up series of her own, but also functioned as a playmate for
Casper, who lacked relationships in the mortal realm. Like most of
Harvey's back-up characters of the 1950s, she was tried out for a
comic of her own in Harvey Hits, which, like DC's Showcase, was used to test the waters
for proposed comics before committing the publisher to an ongoing
series. The first issue Wendy headlined was #7 (March, 1958). She
made a half-dozen more Harvey Hits appearances, the last
of which was dated June, 1960. The first issue of Wendy's own comic
was dated August of that year.
It was about then that Wendy first appeared in animated form, as part of Casper's TV cartoon show. That was her only major appearance outside of comic books until the late 1990s, when she was used as a supporting character in a sequel to Casper's live-action feature film.
Wendy's fortunes have pretty much parallelled those of her publisher. In the late 1970s, when Harvey was cutting back, Wendy's comic appeared only sporadically. She was used strictly as a supporting character throughout the 1980s, except when the Harvey comics were on hiatus altogether. She had her own comic again for a brief period in the early 1990s, but no Harveys at all have been published since 1994.
Wendy turns up occasionally in a Harvey-published magazine or on a Harvey-sponsored Web site, mostly to keep her trademark current. Like most of the publisher's characters, her future is uncertain.
