Herman's Miscoloring

[Thad Komorowski]

Does anyone else besides me wonder why Herman the mouse was often colored as a grey mouse instead of a brown one? This appears frequently in the old Harvey comics, and even today (check out Harvey's website)! Was this done so people wouldn't confuse Herman with a very similar looking mouse at MGM studios?



-Thad

[Pietro]

Probably. It could be just the way the artists (who drew the comics) and the cel painters wanted to paint him, after his first few films. Herman's color probably caught on and soon that ended up as his current color. Or they wanted to match Herman's color with his cousins. It also could be, like you said, concern that they would get sued by MGM.

-Pietro:D

[Thad Komorowski]

But the odd thing is, is that by the time his color was gray, he still appeared brown in the new, recent Harveytoon Show opening....



-Thad

[Howard]

Comic book versions of cartoon characters have often had their own peculiarities when compared to the animated versions. For example: for years, Sylvester used to have a thick white outline around his eyes in the Dell/Gold Key/Whitman comic books, Tom and Jerry, the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote all talked in the comics, Porky Pig had a nephew named Ciscero, Goofy had his own superhero book, Super Goof , and perhaps most famously, Donald Duck picked up a whole new cast of family members and townsfolk (Scrooge, Gyro Gearloose, the Beagle Boys, etc.) who didn't appear in animated form until much later.