BillyBatson4360

Man that stuffed doll looks familiar. I'm not really sure if my mom ever made me one of those, but it rang a bell somewhere in the dim, dark recesses of my mind. Thanks, Joe! When you were talking to Bob Beerbohm, did you happen to discuss the Overstreet pricing on the early issues of Dennis? As we have noted (and as we have actually experienced as buyers and sellers), these early issues are trading at much higher values than the Guide currently lists. I'd also like to know how the Guide sets a value for those issues that trade so rarely - like Dennis the Menace # 1. Personal aside for Wiseguy - do you have or do you know anyone who has any samples of the work your father did on the Yogi Bear strip?

You're right! BTW no one bid on this scam. It restores just a small fraction of my faith in humanity.

"So let's make it happen...while I blithely pocket 2/3 of the money (or actually all of the money because how are you going to know if I ever write a check to the Red Cross)! You contribute to charity while I make a fat profit." And the "artwork"! This guy is obviously the Al Wiseman of the knife-on-a-piece-of-toast art scene.

Loved the toys. Brought back quite a few memories as well. I forgot that I owned the Colorforms set until I saw your photos. The locomotive whistle looks like a bootleg. It's manufactured in Hong Kong and caries no mention of Dennis, nor does it appear to have a copyright notice for the character, which any quthorized material would have carried. Just curious if there's any copyright notice on the xylophone either. While the actual toy looks "on model" the box art doesn't look like anything the Ketchum Studio would have created or approved as it's so "off model."

The gum is the part of the Mischief Kit I remember the best! The label gives you a clear clue. The pack did not contain any edible gum at all. (I'm sure the perishability of the item would have presented packaging problems back in the 50's. The gum pack instead contained a phony stick with a mouse-trap-style spring-loaded snapper. The gag idea was that you filled up the rest of the pack with real Wriggley's Spearmint gum sticks. The top piece was the phony one, which you left sticking out part of the way. You offered gum to your family or friends. They pulled the top stick and - SNAP! - they got stung on their finger. Oh, it was a laff riot! (Actually, it didn't sting very much. The idea was more to startle that to hurt.) That's why the pack says it's "snappy gum." The other gag I remember well was an ink bottle with a fake ink blot that made it look like you had spilled the ink all over something nice (like Mom's dining room tablecloth).

Joe - As always, enjoyed the show I owned that Dennis teaspoon as a kid. It WAS a quality item. Mine never wore out or tarnished. (Whatever happened to it, I'll never know). I believe it was one of those famous cereal box top promotions. I ate the cereal and sent off the box tops (with a dime or a quarter as I remember) and we got the spoon back in the mail. As I've mentioned previously, I also owned the Dennis hand puppet and the Mischief Kit. I can also remember a Golden Records 45 and album. The single predated the Jay North TV series and featured a song that began: "Dennis the Menace... He's a bundle of dynamite!" I can't remember the rest of the lyrics or what was on the flip side, but the picture sleeve carried reproductions of the Dennis daily panels. The album featured Jay North in character singing a vocal version of the TV theme as well as other Dennis-themed material. The Dennis cocktail napkins shouldn't be so surprising. In the very early days, the appeal of the strip was mainly to parents. The baby boom was underway and there were a lot of new parents in the country. Also alcohol was not as stigmatized as it is now (hey, cigarettes were still advertising on TV in those days). I think as the strip matured, Dennis became less "menacing" - kind of like what happened to Mickey Mouse and Popeye once they became "role models" for kids.

Loved the artwork on Al's envelope! It's been fairly well established that Al worked on the early Sundays. I am convinced that he also did an occasional daily (or helped Ketchum complete some dailies) for a number of reasons: 1.) He appears to have been the first assistant that Ketchum hired. Without anybody else to help, it's natural to assume that Al wound up pitching in on some daily panels (whether he inked Hank's pencils or whatever) - as the dailies would have been the center of the Dennis universe. 2.) The drawing style in the Dennis dailies of that era very closely matches Al's style (as we see in the non-Dennis Wiseman illustrations). 3.) Robin Synder's feature on Wiseman included at least one reproduction of a Dennis daily from very early in that strip's run - leading me to believe it had been identified as Wiseman's work. 4.) Wiseman felt he did not receive a fair share of the gusher of money Dennis generated - especially in the 1950's. This attitude would be very understandable if Al had make consistent contributions to the daily strip - as I said, the cornerstone of the industry that became Dennis the Menace. BTW, we only wish Al had stuck around with Dennis for 20 or more years.

Congratulations on the Dennis in Mexico, Joe! BTW, if anyone is looking for a fairly decent copy of "Dennis in Hawaai," I've got one on eBay currently that will probably go for a song. If you're interested, you can take a look here: Dennis the Meance in Hawaii # 6 (4th Printing)

Finally, a political cartoon that looks like it came from a paper in Carmel, California. Hard to get a handle on the political issues the cartoon is tackling, but I do like the drawing! All of this, of course, make me impatient to see Bill A's Wiseman website once he gets it built!

Next up is an illustration for a pirate story. It looks like it might be "Treasure Island" but the kid looks more like a female. Can Jim W. or Bill A. shed any light on what this was supposed to illustrate?

Well, did a little cleaning up of what we refer to as "the comic book room" today and unearthed my copy of "Robin Snyder's The Comics" a nifty little fanzine that in August of 1998 carried some Al Wiseman art as well as a timeline of Al's life that Bill A. put together (I'm thinking most of the art must have come from Bill A's colection as well. Most of the key elements of the timeline have been discussed by Bill & JIm earlier in the thread, but one of the illo's is a daily panel of DTM - which I'm assuming has been authenticated as Wiseman's. This would mean that my suspicions are correct and that Wiseman also made periodic contributions to the daily strip in the early days. I'd also thought I'd post some of the non-Dennis Wiseman art. The first are a series of sports-themed cartoons Wiseman did under the title "It's All in the Game":

First, a big thank you for posting some of the current strips. It's always nice to see Dennis returning to his roots. Let's hope this trend continues. Second, I agree with Jon that the 3-pack looks like a store (or chain of stores) taking it upon themselves to pack comics into 3-packs. The backing board is generic, the price stickers would have been printed separately and then applied to the board, and the whole magilla shrink-wrapped. Even if all 3 comics were 35-centers, it's not much of a discount - just a way to move some books without them getting dinged up and pawed over by kids. Lastly, I think the reasons for most of the goofy numbering on the Giant/Bonus series is explainable (not making it correct, just explaining it). The first # 2 was probably meant as the second Vacation Special. But when it came time for the second Christmas Special, somebody decided they would just have one series of Giants rather than separate series of Vacation & Christmas Specials. So, Christmas Special #2 became Dennis Giant # 3 (even tho' it was really # 4!). The two #6's occured with the publishing changed hands from Ned Pines company (Standard/Pines) to the Fawcett-produced Halden (a similar arrangement to Western Publishing producing comics that were sold under the Dell brand). Somebody goofed and gave the first Halden Christmas Special a # 6. The two 95's was probably just a screw-up that they "corrected" by publishing no 96 and then continuing with 97. Why the last two go to #10 & 11 - I can only think that somewhere they changed the title from Bonus to Big Bonus without changing the numbering. Then, they decided to change the numbering, went back and counted how many issues had been published under that title and adjusted the numbering for what turned out to be the last two releases.

Okay, I may have solved the page count mystery. I think the board recently changed the default setting for number of posts per page to 10. Anyone who had "default" selected in their personal preferences (and that would include all of us who never bothered to check our personal preferences since signing up) saw the page count on this thread jump to 75. If you reset your number of posts per page to 15, the thread should return to the number of pages it had before. (And here I thought Joe had been busy with his scanner and indexing!)

Hmmm. The page count on this thread jumped on my computer, too. Very strange. Just a quick note to say that I am swamped with free lance work in addition to my day job, so my posts will be few and far between for awhile. Keep the torch burning! Joe, great work on the index. I'm most anxious to see your index of the regular title, especially if you're noting which stories were reprinted in later "Best of Giants" or re-used in the Dennis & Friends series. Those reprints would make an excellent and inexpensive way for people not curently familair with Wiseman & Toole's work to sample a few issues to see if they like it.

I would say that this book in the one "essential" to any Dennis comics library! Aftrer you snag a great condition "3rd Printing," you can go looking for the original printing.

Just wanted to let y'all know that I've heard from Bill Alger. As we thought. He has been snowed under with work assignments. He said he hopes to catch up on the posts he missed and share more of his invaluable insights into Dennis & Al Wiseman soon. Bill, we've missed you. Hope you're back soon!

That's definitely not a Wiseman cover. The story must be a reprint - so come the weekend, I'll be digging thru the collection to see if I can find where it was originally published.

Mica - Thanks for the scans. Your reference to Dennis & Ruff # 2 has got me thinking. According to Overstreet, that book came out in 1969 - a good two years after Wiseman parted company with Ketcham. Is this story a reprint from an earlier issue of either Dennis or a "Dennis & Ruff" Giant? I do remember reading this story as a kid. If not, could Joe thumb through some of those early issues of the Dennis the Menace and Friends series and see if there are any more Wiseman stories? By the way, loved the story - and another example of how Toole and Wiseman could spin great comedy out of everyday stuff.

Joe - As someone who's been involved in journalism - both as a reporter and as the subject of interview articles, I don't place all that much faith in "facts" as they appear in newsprint. As you correctly surmise, the figures probably came from Fred & Al - who have a vested interest in making the comic book look very successful. I also thought when I read the articles that the reporter (who probably knew little to nothing about comics) did not understand that there was a regular comic and that the 100-page issues were twice-a-year specials. I'd be willing to bet that the 1.25 million figure was the circulation of the regular comic at that time. I've seen a circulation statement in Dennis comics from just a tad later that stated the average circulation was 900,000. My presumption is that the vacation specials sold better than Christmas specials simply because comic sales in those days were always higher in the summer. I guess what I'm saying is I wouldn't be surpised to find that the Giants were selling 1.25 million or more - I just think the reporter got their facts a little tangled. And Jim, as always, your personal insights into the stories and the sly little in-jokes you dad drew into them are always appreciated.

Yeah, you can't make it out, but the "Complicator" is in the little orange box at Dennis' feet. Finally, here's another ad for vintage Dennis merchandise. This is from way before the era when character t-shirts were popular. Note the prices and the use of the old postal zones instead of a ZIP code.

Here's a full-page spread from the second Christmas Giant (Dennis Giant # 3). Notice a couple of things. The initials on the building blocks: H-K = obviously Hank Ketcham A-W = Al Wiseman But who is J-M? Jim, your middle initial wouldn't be "M," would it? Also, I don't know if you can read it on the scan, but at the bottom you'll see that Dennis got that "Genuine Fred Toole Complicator" that was advertised on a department store sign earlier in the issue (see my other full-page scan a few pages back on this thread):

Couple of quick points and then a scan: Joe - I'm frankly skeptical of Marvel's sales claims for X-Men # 1. Even with a number of variants there would have to have been massive multiple purchases to push the numbers to 7 million. When the average book is doing 100,000 these days, it's hard to imagine that many comics fans buying 70 comics each. (I mean I never bought a single issue of that book). The circulation figures for Spider-Man # 1 may be a bit more realistic, but Marvel's claim to the "best-selling" title of all-time was viewed with skepticism even back then. The article I read on comic book circulation pegged Disney's Comics & Stories as peaking at an AVERAGE of 2.8 million copies. Obviously, the issues in the peak summer months had to have performed better than that. As to the identity of the Sunday strip ghost, I thought I read on this thread not too far back that Bill A. had a Wiseman letter where Wiseman said he was ghosting the Sundays early on. Maybe he simply continued until Lee Holley arrived. Now, on to the first scan of the weekend for me. Awhile back someone mentioned a great double page spread of the havoc Dennis caused in a department store at Christmas time. Here it is. From the very first Dennis Christmas Giant (no number). I apologize for the distortion in the scan, but I wasn't about to squish the book flat on my scanner and risk damaging the spine. Notice the Hank Ketchum joke near the bottom. Actually, the guys responsible for all of this are Mssrs. Toole & Wiseman. You'll also notice that Dennis does not appear anywhere in the drawing.

The sales figures on the MacFarlane Spider-Man and Lee X-Men were artificially inflated due to Marvel flooding the market with variant covers. How many comic fans made multiple purchases of those issues? (And you are quite correct. At the present time, you can't GIVE AWAY copies of those books.) Back "in the day," comics had a "pass-along" circulation. I know that as kids we would always read another kid's comics when we were playing at their house (and vice versa) so the readership was higher than the circulation. Today's comics, the exact opposite is true. Thanks to collectors purchasing variants and "reading copies," the circulation is higher than the readership. And in any event, I don't believe either MacFarlane's Spider-Man or Lee's X-Men ever got much past 2 million copies - which means they still would trail Disney's Comics & Stories and probably Mad Magazine as well. Neither could come close to "Dennis in Hawaii."

This site continues to amaze! Thanks, Jim, for sharing the story about Ruff. (A quick aside - it's not just childhood pets we get very attached to. We currently have two dachshunds at our home - Oscar & Mayer. Like your mom with Ruff, I was very opposed to adding Mayer to this household. He's a miniature long-hair with a piebald (black and white spotted) coat. He was also very sick when we adopted him. Of course you know, I am now strongly bonded with this little guy. He frequently is sitting comfortably by my feet as I type these posts. He has become my all-time favorite pet. End of aside.) We have been discussing comic book circulation here off and on, especially as it relates to Dennis. On the DC Archives Message Board, I found a link to another comic book site called "The Nostalgia Zone." There is an absolutely fascinating article by Mike Carlson about comic book circulation - comparing sales figures from the 1940's through to the 60's. While Mr. Carlson doesn't tell us his source, the figures look very credible - based on other information I've read. You can find the comic book circulation article here. As we thought, Dennis was one of the very best sellers of his era. Here is the list posted on that site for the early 1960's: Mad Magazine: 1,048,550 Uncle Scrooge: 1,040,543 Walt Disney Comics and Stories: 1,004,901 Donald Duck: 930,613 Superman: 810,000 Dennis the Menace: 800,000 Bugs Bunny: 615,552 Mickey Mouse: 568,803 Woody Woodpecker: 537,773 Batman: 502,000 Lone Ranger: 408,711 Casper the Friendly Ghost: 399,985 Blackhawk: 316,000 As you can see, Dennis outstrips all but 5 titles - doing far better than some now "hot" books like Richie Rich, Archie & Little Lulu and outstripping all super-heroes save Superman. The regular circulation figure of 800,000 also bolsters my argument that "Dennis in Hawaii" is the all-time best-selling comic. If you calculate 6 or 7 printings at 600,000 each (and I think that's waaaay conservative), that pushes "Hawaii" past 3 million. Acording to Carlson's research, Walt Disney's Comics & Stories peaked at 2.8 million in the 50's. No other regular title from the 40's to the 60's even cracked 2 million. By the end of the 60's, comic circulation had fallen off dramatically. So, once again, you have to wonder why there is so little collector interest or attention paid to what is one of the best-selling and longest running titles in comic book history!

How great to see some Wiseman art from other sources! I'd love to see more examples of his comic strip samples. Thanks so much for sharing! It also looks like Al drew himself into the lower right hand corner of the boating cartoon.