| Parent company | Harvey Comics |
|---|---|
| Status | defunct, 1967 |
| Founded | 1965 |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Headquarters location | New York City |
| Key people | Joe Simon |
| Publication types | Comic books |
| Fiction genres | Superhero |
Harvey Thriller was a comic book imprint used by Harvey Comics for their brief foray into publishing super heroes and other non-'kiddie' comics in the mid-1960s. Overseen by Joe Simon, all the titles featured work by many well-known creators, including Jack Kirby, Bob Powell, Wally Wood, Otto Binder, and the earliest known work by Jim Steranko.
While Harvey Comics has for decades been known for their many kids' comics, such as Casper the Friendly Ghost, Richie Rich, etc., they have published other kinds of comics over the years. From 1955 to 1962, most of their non-kid comic output was done under the "Thrill Adventure" line, under the editorship of Joe Simon, after which they stopped publishing any non-kid comics.
In the mid-1960s, with the camp craze created by the Batman television series, Harvey approached Joe Simon again to oversee a new line of comics, mainly superheroes, but with science fiction/fantasy stories thrown in as well. They also continued the Thrill Adventures title Warfront, after a 7-year hiatus.
The line started off with one-shots Unearthly Spectaculars #1, Thrill-O-Rama #1, Blast-Off #1, and Warfront #36 in October 1965, using work that was apparently done for the 1950s Thrill Adventure line. The next issues did not come out until almost a year later in September 1966. Along with the new titles were two reprint titles for Fighting American and The Spirit, which did include new stories for these characters.
The line was unsuccessful, and all of the titles ended abruptly with the March 1967 issues. House ads showed the covers for Jigsaw #3 and Thrill-O-Rama #3, but those issues were never published.
After the line failed, Harvey stuck to producing children's comics until 1993. In 1993, there were later attempts to push Harvey Comics out of the kiddie market by launching two new sublabels, Nemesis Comics, which was used for teen and adult titles, mainly in the genre of superheroes, horror, and action/adventure, introduced in November 1993, and Ultracomics, which was used for comics based on the Ultraman comics, introduced earlier in February 1993.
Among titles from the Nemesis Comics imprint were new issues of Ultraman, and SeaQuest DSV, plus an original IP, Frank, created by Dan Chichester, Craig Mitchell and Denys Cowan, which was a modern-day reimagining of Frankenstein. The company is also slated to publish new issues of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, a revival of the 1960s Tower Comics series. The labels eventually shuttered in 1994 after Marvel Comics took over publication of the Harvey Comics titles.