Hot Stuff The Little Devil!

I'd love to have been in the meeting in which Hot Stuff was first proposed to the folks at Harvey as an ongoing children's character. He's a devil with horns and a pointed tail and he carries a pitchfork. That's the kind of demonic satanic image we want to mass produce and send out to the newsstands across America. That should go over with little or no fuss. Oddly that seems to have been the case. Maybe it's because of the ground plowed by Casper as a supernatural character proper for kids or maybe Hot Stuff is just so dang cute that people overlook his demonic details. The diaper is a weird touch too. 

(1957)

Hot Stuff's gimmick of setting fire to things around him, often without any conscious decision to do so is pretty visual. It was much like Casper's constant walking into and through solid objects. Both characters don't fit into the natural world, nor do we expect them to do so. Whereas Casper is always nice and even downright a milquetoast of a character, Hot Stuff as we'd expect is a bit more inclined to lose his cool. Casper is white, the absence of color and Hot Stuff is bright brilliant red. 

(1960)

Harvey Comics Classics Volume Three Hot Stuff the Little Devil gives the reader another heaping of delightful Hot Stuff stories. The artist I most associate with Hot Stuff is Howie Post who brought a real flair to the standard Warren Kremer template for the broader Harveyverse. Hot Stuff never had the avalanche of titles that Casper and Richie Rich had, but he was without doubt a successful character for many years.

(This series not included -- just wanted to share an image.)

It should be noted that Stumbo the Giant is featured somewhat in this compendium also since he spent most of time as a co-feature in the Hot Stuff miniverse which was somewhat isolated from the larger Harveyverse.  

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