Casper the Friendly Ghost is the protagonist of the Famous Studios theatrical animated cartoon series of the same name. He is a pleasant, personable and translucent ghost,[4] but often criticized by his three wicked uncles, the Ghostly Trio. The character was featured in 55 theatrical cartoons made between 1945 and 1959.[5] The character has been featured in comic books published by Harvey Comics since 1952,[6] and Harvey purchased the character outright in 1959. Casper became one of Harvey's most popular characters, headlining dozens of comic book titles. Following Harvey's purchase of the character, he appeared in five television series: Matty's Funday Funnies (1959–1961), The New Casper Cartoon Show (1963–1970), Casper and the Angels (1979–1980), The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper (1996–1998) and Casper's Scare School (2009–2012).[7] The character has also made his theatrical appearance in the live-action film adaptation released by Universal Pictures, Casper (1995), becoming the first ever computer generated character to lead a film,[8] and would later appear in four direct-to-video and made-for-TV follow-up films.