ComicBookGuy

Bonds25, thanks for the kind words! I have noticed you have great taste in comics, and I always enjoy reading your posts. It's always great to find other Dennis fans, and I'm glad you are enjoying this. I've had a busy week at work and am happy to get back to posting here. To continue the fun, here's Dennis Giant #18, which reprints #6. It says 6th printing but is actually the 5th printing. An interesting point about this issue is what a tough time I had finding this. The fact that it's a reprint may have something to do with it, being what I would call the X-Men 67-93 Syndrome: low print runs, less collectibility, etc. For what it's worth, here's the best copy I've been able to find thus far. At some point I want to compare all the printings of this and find out if there are any significant differences among them. I initially bought these to read, then I purchased this for the "completionist" in me, and now I'm actually interested all the details of these books, such as getting all the printings and seeing what differences - if any - exist...

Dennis the Menace Giant #17:

Dennis the Menace Giant #16, a reprint of #9:

Dennis the Menace Giant #15:

Dennis the Menace Giant #14:

Adam, thanks for sharing. I always find it interesting to discover how other collectors go about amassing their collections: some buy as kids, some buy their whole life, some buy back issues as adults, etc. I saved very few of the comics I initially owned as a kid and basically began assembling and re-assembling and upgrading sets as a young adult so that now I have this killer collection. Collectors like Burntboy who bought the stuff as a kid and kept it immaculate seem to be the rarest. In my experience, any comic a kid touches turns to an instant good minus! Joe

Adam, I know I'm not the first to say it, but...YOUR COMICS ARE AWESOME! If you're willing to share, I'd love to hear how you acquired these comics. They seem to be all of about the same quality and very high grade. Are they from the same collection? I can understand if you don't want to share your sources, especially if they are secret and still providing you great books. I've picked up bits and pieces of your story here and there, such as getting some from Overstreet, the White Mountain collection, etc., but it would be nice to get the whole story, your collecting history, habits, the titles and years your collection encompasses, your favorites, the toughest ones to find, what you are currently looking for, etc. I for one would love to hear it! Joe

Dennis the Menace Giant #13:

Dennis the Menace Giant #12:

This comic is one of several giveaways Ketcham did: one on safety (not listed in Overstreet), one on poison, one on coping with family stress, etc, which were given out free to kids for educational purposes. (Funny, but I don't remember getting any free comics when I was a kid! ) Thanks for posting it! It looks in great shape!!! It's great to come back to the thread and find answers to questions and some other pictures besides my own! Here's continuing with my sequence of the giants, Dennis the Menace Giant #11:

Thanks for looking for that! Lulu's creators, then, like Disney and Dennis's creators, are all experimenting with these long stories well before the superhero genre is. I find it kind of paradoxical that the very young kids' comics were the precursors to today's mature-sounding "graphic novel," rather than the comics written for older audiences, such as the EC's. The St. John's book pointed out by Adam is an exception, obviously, as it's not intended for kids -- from what I could see! This info all pretty much answers the question as to what Dennis the Menace's place in the history of the graphic novel goes, but if someone wants to weigh in on which Disney comic may qualify for first graphic novel, I'd certainly be curious. Or, is there an even earlier example -- pre-Disney??? Joe

One of my horror grails for Marvel Bronze Age:

I agree! I love that cover. Took QUITE A WHILE for me to find a near mint copy. Here's another great Marvel Bronze horror cover -- this one by Steranko:

Dennis the Menace Giant #10, from Winter 1961:

Tim, thanks for spotting the absence of dates on the giants. I went back and edited the posts to include the dates. Here is Dennis Giant #9, from Summer 1961, with an absolutely hilarious cover:

Adam, I'm not familiar with this publication. Is this an early example of a "graphic novel"? Joe Yup. Matt Baker art. CBM had an article on this a few years ago. Here's a link if you want to buy one: http://pages.metropoliscomics.com/365/PictPage/1922381223.html Adam, thanks for the info! I checked this out. Very interesting! It is digest-sized and labeled a "picture novel." Clearly this is an earlier predecessor to the modern "graphic novel," much earlier than the Summer 1958 date of Dennis in Hawaii. Since the book was in a slab and not in my hands, obviously, I couldn't determine page count or if it was in color, but it is clearly an early version of the graphic novel as we know it today. What's interesting, also, in this discussion of "What might be the first graphic novel?" is Tim's reference to Carl Barks' books. I went back and checked my copy of "Donald Duck Finds Pirate's Gold!" from 1942 and saw that it is a 64-page, full color (4 color?) story, so perhaps this is the first. Is there one earlier than 1942? In the end, then, Dennis creators may not be credited with inventing the earliest form of the graphic novel -- it seems the guys at Disney and St. John's (It Rhymes with Lust publisher) deserve that credit -- but Dennis creators were certainly some of the earliest ones to begin using it successfully on a regular basis. Joe

Here you go, Tim -- Dennis the Menace Giant #8, from Winter 1960:

I'm glad you like these, Tim. The early giants are the best Dennis books in my opinion. I'm not sure about your answer to the art question and have assumed that anything that says "Ketcham" IS Ketcham. Yet...the cartoon that appears in the newspaper daily still says "Dennis the Menace by Hank Ketcham" even though he's been dead since 2001. So maybe I need to look into this. Here is Dennis the Menace Giant #7, from Winter 1959:

Adam, I'm not familiar with this publication. Is this an early example of a "graphic novel"? Joe

Interesting to know! Do you know what year these came out? Joe

I'm having flashbacks of my days doing differential equations!!! Adam, that Strange Adventures is AMAZING!!!!! It's one of the best covers I've seen on this thread yet -- and that's saying a lot. I have never even seen this before. Isn't this what they call a "King-Kong" cover??? Keep posting! I'm loving it! Joe

And here is Dennis the Menace Giant #6 -- again! These guys could make great comics, but they sure couldn't count. So there are TWO number 6's and TWO number 1's, so this is really Dennis Giant #8...I think... Publication date is Winter 1956.

This may be the greatest Dennis the Menace comic of all! One of these days I'll go through my collection and see which issue has been reprinted the most. I believe it is this. I also think and suspect this may be the first graphic novel ever. It is a 100 page story told in chapters. I may be right or I may be wrong. I don't know. Can anybody tell me an earlier comic - earlier than the publication date of Summer 1958 - that tells a 100 page comic story? For your consideration is a 5th printing copy only for the reason that it is in the best condition of the several printings I have. First printing is from Summer 1958. This fifth printing is from Summer 1962. All printings of Dennis Giant #6 have the same cover. Interesting to note that the first printing does not state "first printing" on the cover. The second printing, in Summer 1959, says "third printing" on the cover. The third printing from Summer 1960 says "fourth printing" on the cover. There was no reprinting during Summer of 1961, so this scan of "5th printing" is actually a fourth printing! If anybody sees a comic with "2nd printing" on the cover, let me know, since Overstreet and I don't think it exists. Perhaps the first printing sold so well that it went through two printings without any changes occurring between the two printings. Who knows, and, to be honest, who cares? I would much rather focus on the art and story.

Dennis Giant #5, a classic Christmas issue, from Winter 1957. It's interesting to note that these 100 pagers feature all-new stories. Very impressive!

Dennis Giant #4, from Summer 1957: