lansdown-migration

Hello Everybody, As Joe mentioned in an earlier post, I wrote a Dennis the Menace collectibles article for Toy Shop magazine several years ago. In the article, I described some of the more common Dennis toys and merchandise, as well as some price ranges that collectors could expect to pay. At the end of the article, I decided to include my e-mail address with the intent that interested collectors could contact me. I did receive several e-mails, but one letter in particular stands out. A guy wrote me with an offer to sell some original Dennis artwork! You can imagine my surprise when he offered to sell me several hundred original comic book panels, all from the 1950s. It was certainly the fastest check I ever wrote. In the years since that purchase, I have been fortunate to buy many more of these comic book panels. So, why is the early comic book artwork usually found in panels? Based on information I have gleaned from other collectors, Ketcham decided to cut up many of the original comic pages. I always guessed that he wanted to use the artwork as stock images for advertising campaigns and quick projects. This guess was confirmed last year when I bought another large lot of 1950s Dennis comic book panels that came in a folder labeled "Cheaters"...in the same handwriting style as the Dennis artwork! My main goal with the accumulation of these Dennis comic panels is to rebuild the original pages. Adjacent panels often fit together cleanly, and I have many partial pages that only need one or two panels to complete. I do have some full Dennis pages that were never cut apart, but the vast majority of 1950s Dennis comic artwork I've seen was scissored. Attached to this post are two larger Dennis panels in my collection. I apologize in advance for the size of the pictures, but I wanted to show just how clean the inking was in these panels. Bonus points if you can identify the original comic book where these panels appeared! I'll be happy to post more scans of artwork and Dennis collectibles in the future. Also, if anybody out there has Dennis artwork available for sale, please keep me in mind... Regards, Mark

Joe, you have started an amazing thread! I saw the initial images you posted several weeks ago, but I was shocked when I just logged in and saw EIGHTEEN PAGES of messages related to Dennis the Menace comic books! I'm a long-time lurker of these CGC boards, but this is my first ever post. Nothing like a good Dennis the Menace discussion to draw me out of my shell... Like Joe, I have been working on a Dennis comic collection for years. I finished my set (courtesy of ebay for the final handful of books) about two years ago. I've also spent the last fifteen years compiling a collection of Dennis the Menace toys, games, advertising pieces, original artwork, and merchandise. If there is any interest in these collectibles (I don't want to stray off-topic), I would be happy to post pictures of some of my collection. As most readers of this thread have already figured out, Joe is a tremendous asset to the collecting community. He helped me upgrade numerous books in my collection, and his knowledge of Dennis books is second to none. Interestingly enough, Joe and I met while competing for Dennis books on ebay. I am currently working on a website that documents old comic pinbacks from the 1890s to the 1950s (http://www.marklansdown.com/pinbacks). When that site is further along, I would love to build a similar site that documents Dennis the Menace merchandise (there are LOTS of Dennis items to document). Another interesting idea would be to document the early Dennis Sundays. Both Ketcham and Wiseman worked on the Sundays in the 1950s and there are many examples of sensational artwork that have rarely been reprinted. The image that I have included is one of my Dennis collection cabinets. Again, if there is any interest, I would be happy to include additional scans of early Dennis artwork and collectibles. Regards, Mark