ComicBookGuy

Nice books, Flying Donut! It's great to see someone else's copies. That cover to the Fun Book is one of the best ever drawn in my opinion. Great expression! Thanks for posting.

Here is Dennis the Menace Giant #3, from Winter 1956, which we know is actually the fourth giant. The discoloration on the cover really bothers me, but it's on all the ones I've ever seen...

Tim, I agree that some of mine are high grade; I just refrain from saying factual until they are in a slab graded...if that ever happens. I've received my fair share of surprises from cgc in the past -- both good and bad!

When you say, "On the other hand, perhaps nothing would still emerge because they truly are rare to non-existent in high grade," I think that

is the most logical conclusion to draw based on my decades of Dennis collecting. But it could change: an old Standard warehouse could be discovered tomorrow. (Let's only hope!!! )

Joe

Very cool thread! Please keep going, I've never seen any of these comics, but I grew up reading the DTM digests and now my son reads them too! Extra bonus that a lot of these covers are by the creator. Dennis just wouldn't look the same without a little puff of smoke (or two or three) trailing along behind him!

I'm glad you and others are enjoying this thread! The trail of smoke behind Dennis is a classic, and I've always loved that. You will see some digests posted later on once I finish posting giants and giveaways. As you will discover, the digests you read as a kid were in many cases reprints of these early books. By the way, I'm really glad your son is reading these; as I said earlier, the students in my classroom read and love Dennis, and the same can't be said for all comics. In all, I would say they enjoy classic superhero (Marvel Masterworks) and Dennis the Menace more than any other comics I have for them to read.

Joe

I think the answer is actually a combination of all of the above. I think there are very few post-GA comics that are truly rare, as long as you don't care about grade. Anyone ever look for early Turoks before Valiant reignited interest in the character in the early 90s? Talk about tough tasks. Then Valiant came out, and suddenly you'd go to a con and find all sorts of Dell and GK Turoks available, although most were relatively low grade. The same thing has happened with Harveys in recent years. I'm convinced that copies of most books exist and can be found, it just takes an economic catalyst.

 

So start with the fact that DTMs are relatively hard to find and are not heavily sought after (currently), so they don't trade very often which makes it hard to determine whether a market exists for them, particularly low grade copies. Then combine that with relatively low prices in the Guide, add the fact that most copies that do surface are relatively low grade, and factor in CGC's slabbing costs and wait time. Looking at it in that context, it's not surprising to me at all that very few get slabbed, because there seems to be little economic incentive to do so.

 

Now, if you were to slab your books, and suppose they came out on average 7.5 or higher , and you sold them and realized prices well above Guide, sufficiently high to compensate for slabbing costs and turn a fair profit, then that might pull some books out of the woodwork as potential sellers realized it was worth it to slab and sell. I guess what I'm saying, Joe, is that in the interest of scientific research, it's your duty to slab and sell these babies!

 

In all seriousness, unless there are a few other pedigree-quality collections out there with Dennises, or there is a treasure trove of file copies (like for Dells and Harveys), there very well may be no or virtually no HG copies...

Excellent analysis, as always, Tim! The key words here are "as long as you don't care about grade." I stated how many times I've seen those early issues, total, since the 1970s. They do exist in low grade in numbers that are small but not numbers that make them rare. #4 may be an exception. But as for high grade, there is no factual evidence at all of ANY high grade early Dennis the Menace copies existing (first 25, regular series). 7.0 is more mid than high grade, as is 6.0 and 5.5, I would think. As for me slabbing my copies, maybe. I do have reading copies of some of them. As for selling them, no way! If someone offered me $50 grand or something insane, maybe, but to me they're are priceless and cannot be replaced. Anyway, what I'm saying is basically just speculation based on my experience. The big questions remain:

1) Are there other pedigrees besides Bethlehem that included Dennis? (There are Dennis file copies, and I will address what I know about that later.)

2) Are there any other high grade Dennis books out there?

3) How many people collect Dennis books?

4) What is their true market value if they do hit the market?

All of these questions remain as elusive as the day I began this thread. I'd love to find answers to these questions.

Joe

Scrooge, thanks for making an excellent point. I agree that Casper is probably a better comparison than Richie Rich. No question. Perhaps I was thinking in terms of kids' silver age comic starring little blonde boy who starred in multiple series for decades, etc. Looking just at the numbers, we see five of the first ten Caspers are slabbed with four #1's, and it started in 1949, whereas Dennis started 4 years later, has only 2 of the first 10 slabbed and only two number 1's, which are less than the Casper. While Casper is super tough, Dennis is clearly even a tougher comic to find IF we rely on the census data.

My conclusion was and is: these comics for the most part seem not to exist in high grade -- based on my experience. I wish it were not true as I have some upgrading to do!!!

Joe

Here is the third Dennis giant, even though the cover says #2. This is from Summer 1956 and also scanned in a Bill Cole Showcase Sealer. I also collect DC giants and 100 Page Super Spectaculars, and, tough as they are, these are a hundred times tougher!

Here is the second ever Dennis the Menace giant. It, too, is not numbered and is from Winter 1955. This was scanned in a Bill Cole Showcase Sealer, so ignore the shadow at the top and on the bottom two corners. I absolutely love this cover. The expression on that Santa is a classic...

I was reviewing the census just now and saw that of the first 25 issues of Dennis the Menace I just posted, only a total of THREE comics had been slabbed:

2 copies of #1: a 5.5 and a 7.0.

1 copy of #4: a 6.0.

Considering this comic began in 1953 and ran into the 1980s, sometimes with as many as five different titles running at the same time, I am wondering if there are other comic series with such extensive runs over several decades yet with such low numbers of slabbed copies. Treasure Chest comes to mind. Is this because the comics are not worth a lot, or because high grade collectors don't seek them, or because they are scarce or even non-existent in high grade? I suspect it is the latter after following Dennis the Menace auctions for over five years on ebay, attending hundreds of conventions over the course of decades, and perusing catalogs from all the world's top comic dealers for decades as well. I am becoming convinced they don't exist. Further evidence is that nobody on these forums has had high grade copies of Dennis to share. If anybody has any, PLEASE DO SHARE!

That being said, I will now start posting the giant-size series. This first giant is from Summer 1955 and has no number. Collecting giant Dennis books is a challenge for many reasons, but there do seem to be copies of these early giants in more abundance than especially the first ten Dennis regular series. The giants had lots of puzzles, cut-outs, a propensity for tanning around the edges, and spines that were more often torn / split than not. If you can find copies that pass all these hurdles, then you may be on your way to assembling a tough, yet beautiful, set that seems more appealing than even the flagship series.

Tim, I'm following your lead on the Dells. As Shakespeare said... Variety is the spice of life! Here's my copy of the first Three Stooges:

I think Superman's bride is hotter:

 

 

Wow, Silver!! That's a great looking book! Looks like Superman's marrying "Super Barbie"!!!

But which is hotter? The book or the bride?

And here is Dennis the Menace #25, yet another ebay bargain:

This will be it for the regular Dennis series postings. I will start posting the giant-size issues next. None are pedigrees or anything, but they are some awesome comics to behold.

Joe

I'm glad you're enjoying them, and I think it's great that your son enjoys them too! I have a lot of Dennis reader copies in my classroom (seventh grade), and my students really seem to enjoy them. They are every bit as fascinated by the whole comic book / kid culture of the past -- the ads, the fan club stuff, the letter pages, and Jay North in general (he appears on the inside covers of many issues).

Here is a copy of Dennis the Menace #24, another ebay acquisition that I'm trying to upgrade due to the crease in the upper right corner:

This copy, like #21 and #22, I bought off ebay. My collection before the advent of ebay was a JOKE. Ebay has made it possible for me to complete my runs. No matter what anybody ever says about ebay, I think it is the greatest thing to ever happen to comic books since the invention of the convention. Here is Dennis the Menace #23:

And this is Dennis #22, one I would like to upgrade:

Thanks for the appreciative words about the thread so far. I'm having a great time doing this and will probably start a website at some point to which I can download these images and text.

To anyone reading this: Please feel free to contribute anything Dennis-related to this thread. Any info about Dennis stuff will be appreciated.

Harvey Dude, in answer to your question of how many issues I need to complete the Dennis collection, the answer is zero. I have everything. There are some issues I would like to UPGRADE, and they are...

Dennis the Menace 1, 3, 4, 22, 24, 67, 122, 123

Dennis the Menace Giant / Bonus Magazine Series 23, 115, 121

Dennis and the Bible Kids In the Beginning 10

And now, I will present the next five issues in the regular series. All the rest are non-Bethlehem issues. For the record, Phillip Weiss DID offer the Dennis the Menace Bethlehems 21-30 on eBay, but I did not bid on them. A friend of mine did, and maybe he will share info about those. (Hi, Mark! )

In the meantime, here is #21:

That JLA #1 is... -able!!!!! An amazing copy of a TOUGH book, Steve!!!!

Here's another one from me, one of my favorite all-time Batman covers, and it was a grail of mine for the longest time:

Dennis the Menace #20, Bethlehem copy:

Well, that's it for the Dennis Bethlehems!

I will post a few more from the regular series to give an idea of what "non-Bethlehems" look like, then move on to talking about the contents of the first issues. I will do that by way of going back to the pictures of the issues and posting info about them so all the info about each issue is posted with the picture of the issue. For example, my comments about the art & story for #1 will be edited into the post that has the picture of the #1. That way all the info is together and not scattered around the thread.

From there, I will post the first 20 giants, then the giveaways, then the book collections, then the digests and some original art.

If this thread dies, so be it. I'm very encouraged and gladdened by the posters who have been interested so far, so I will keep going. If the number of views or posts from others besides me slacks off, then I will get the message that enough is enough.

I hope you have enjoyed this thread so far.

Joe

Dennis the Menace #19, Bethlehem copy:

One of my grail comics!

It took a lifetime to find a nice copy.

CGC says there's color touch.

I don't doubt it, but to this day I have

yet to be able to see or locate it

even with jeweler's glasses.

I'm glad it has the color touch ---

that's why I got it so cheap!!!

Here's one more tough one to find in HG...

 

 

Nice book!

 

 

Year 2000?,......so the story took place five years ago and we STILL don't have "Flying Cars"!!!

But I've got a little green hat that I wear!!!

I am thrilled with the thread. My last Dennis joke -- I promise!

 

Dennis -- as an adult

 

Good one!

I would think the one holding the shotgun would be Mr. Wilson, but that doesn't exactly look like Mr. Wilson's arm...

Hey, CBG, that's an awesome Superboy!! There sure are alot of nice books in this thread. Tons of stuff I've never seen before. Love those old Batman's and Mystery In Space also. I'm personally working on the complete Adam Strange run in MIS in HG (a daunting task, let me tell you). Somewhere along the way, I started picking up high grade copies of Superboy, but don't have any 10 cent-ers I don't think. Saw some REALLY nice high grade Detectives (early 300's from the "Cleveland" collection — I'm not too familiar with this "pedigree", but the covers were super glossy and the pages were snow white) this weekend, but had to past on them to pick up some more great Superman titles. These are "Ohio" copies. I posted them in the General section (2005 pickups), but I'm posting a few here also, just to be apart of this great thread. I love these old 10 cent DC's. Finding them in HG is tough, but very rewarding when you come across a few. By the way, I also saw a Sgt. Bilko #1 in nice grade (probably a 9.0!!) this weekend. Never seen that book before. Does anyone have one? I'm still debating that one also. Anyway, here you go...

 

Thanks!

On another note, if you found Clevelands, my recommendation is BUY THEM!!!!

THOSE COMICS ARE AWESOME!!!!!!!! I have several and they are some of the nicest Silver Age comics I have ever seen in terms of page quality, cover color & gloss -- very important qualities for me if I am buying a book.

And as for your Superman....

Wow!

Nevertheless, I'll do my best to show off some great books. Although I mentioned this acquisition in another post, this book arrived today and I can't resist showing it off!

 

Wow!!!

Congratulations, Mark!!!!

Dennis the Menace #18, one of two Bethlehem copies (I sold the other #18 to a fellow Dennis collector):

Dennis the Menace #17, Bethlehem copy: