Little Lotta

Little Lotta
Cover of Little Lotta #8 drawn by Warren Kremer
Publication information
Publisher	Harvey Comics
First appearance	Little Dot #1 September 1953
In-story information
Full name	Lotta Plump
Species	Human
Team affiliations	Little Dot, Gerald (boyfriend)
Abilities	super strength, super appetite

Little Lotta is a fictional character published by Harvey Comics from 1953 to 1972, and then sporadically until 1993. A contemporary of Little Audrey, Little Dot and Wendy the Good Little Witch, she was one of Harvey's best-known female characters during the 1960s and featured in many of the company's child-friendly comedy titles. Like many of Harvey's comic headliners, Lotta was notable for a 'quirky' defining characteristic - in this case, an insatiable appetite giving rise to superhuman strength.

Lotta stories were penned by Warren Kremer and Howard Post, and for the majority of the years that she appeared in comics, she was drawn by Sid Couchey and Dom Sileo.

Lotta Plump first appeared in 1953 as a back-page feature in Little Dot (where she debuted with Harvey's most successful property, Richie Rich). From the outset, Lotta's large appetite was a running gag employed in virtually every story and featured prominently on the covers of her two comic titles, Little Lotta (1955-1972, 1974-76; 1992-1993) and Little Lotta in Foodland (1962-1968). A typical cover scene typically displayed Lotta devouring a meal of gigantic proportions or performing some feat of tremendous strength.

Lotta began making regular crossovers with Dot and Audrey from the beginning of the 1960s, frequently combining their peculiar foibles to either cause trouble or save the day. Guest appearances with Richie Rich and Gloria took place during the 1970s, when she and the other "Harvey Girls" were featured in Richie Rich and his Girlfriends.

Little Lotta was published from 1955-1976, when Harvey's Richie Rich explosion took over. Lotta's book was canceled (along with Little Audrey, Little Dot, and Wendy), after 120 issues (issue #121 was advertised, but never issued). Lotta remained a supporting feature in the back of Richie Rich books until Harvey's demise in 1982. Upon Harvey's return in 1986, a proposed idea to have Lotta return as the drummer of a rock band with Little Audrey on guitar and Little Dot on vocals was shelved. So was an idea of having the three appear as teenagers and have adventures similar to Archie.