ttw-migration

Hi folks, JRW here, posting under my wife's name (don't ask). Bill Alger has gone way beyond anything I expected with alwiseman.com It is very exciting to see artwork done by my father that I have never seen before. I sent the site link to one of my sisters, maybe she will post comments some day. Hey BillyB, I was looking at those Sundays strips, and it is pretty hard to tell sometimes who was drawing what. I think the way to go would be to compare text fonts in the stories. certain letters are different between Hank and AW early on. When the comic books started, you could see a big difference in lettering. Ok, maybe some day I can get MY computer to respond to this site. Sheesh. JRW

From the link above: Just William "HBC could not help but notice certain similarities between Dennis and England's Just William. They both symbolize the average boy. William in the 1920s-30s and Dennis in the 1950s although he is still going strong today in new hands. Both had hard-pressed parents. Dennis had Joey as a best pal and William had the Outlaws. The gratest nemesis that both faced was of course the fairer gender--Margaret and Violet Elizabeth Bot. When the American TV sitcom was shown in Britain, it was even shown as Just Dennis. " JRW

Happy New Year All!!! I was checking for foreign DTM stuff, and ran across the page below: http://histclo.hispeed.com/lit/us/lus-dm.html If a request box comes up when the link is opened, keep hitting cancel 3 times. Meanwhile, I am on the trail of some foreign copies of the comics from a very good shop in Eindhoven. The owner was very nice and friendly. He only had a few books in stock, but said he would look in the old, old, very old boxes, for any DTM. I hope to see him on Tuesday. From what I have seen so far, the European reprints seem to lose some color and detail. It is fun comparing the original words with the translated ones. I'll try and scan the books next week when we get back in California. JRW

Hi All, JRW here, posting from the Netherlands on my wifes pc. Unfortunately, I can't remember my forum log-in info to access my JRW mail. Someone sent me a message, so whoever sent it, sorry. I sent a message to the mods, so soon as I get the info I will read my mail. I hope everyone is safe and warm. All the best JRW

I posted the letter on behalf of my husband, Jim Wiseman. It's part of a collection of drawings and other stuff of his father's that we've accumulated. ttw

In regard to Billy's comment whether Al worked on dailies and Sundays here is a copy of a letter he sent to Joseph Adams dated August 20, 1953. Text of letter postmarked August 20, 1953: Dear Joe: mailed a couple of DENNIS THE MENACE books to you right after you called me - Did you ever receive them? --still banging away on Ketchum characters - and it looks like "old al" will be doing just that for the next twenty years or so -- I do all the advertisements bearing Ketcham's signature, as well as most of the Sunday comic strips. How did you like the Jello billboards? Just wound up another complete comic book last night - whew! What a job -- but I love it! It's fun being a "ghost" and it looks like "Al" has found his slot at long last. How about dropping me a line, and telling me what gives re Adams & company? Best regards, Al

Apparently Al wanted to be a cartoonist from an early age. He was known as Jack when he was a child and we think he used his mother's name from another marriage (Beason). Here's a scan of a letter he wrote to Walt Disney offering his services.

Here's a picture of Al drawing Dennis while in Hawaii. And an article from the Honolulu paper at the time....

And, judging from pictures I've seen of Jim as a young boy, the child with the bow and arrow depicts his son... Jimmy Wiseman (Wiseguy) Mrs. Wiseguy

Here are some scans from the April 1975 Cartoonnews (Combining Cartoon and Cartoon Club Newsletter) that featured some of Al Wiseman's work on the cover. The text inside reads: "Al Wiseman has got to be one of the most prolific cartoonists in the business. Besides drawing "Dennis the Menace" for Hank Kethum and the Hall Syndicate for more than 13 years, Al has sold cartoons to all magazine markets, major and minor, art directed motion pictures for Boeing Co., drew "Belvedere" for George Crenshaw, illustrated books for Prentice Hall, Inc., Alaska Magazine, Altair Industries, Celestial Arts, and Sullivan Behavoiral Books and coloring books for Physician's Art Service. We've tried to select a variety of Al's drawings to show you the amazing versatility of this man." Mrs. Wiseguy

Hi all - Jim Wiseman's wife here - to open the links on the Kings Features site - Windows users - if you right click on each link and do a "save target" or "save link as" - save the file to your hard disk. The file is zipped in a file format that can be opened by Stuffit. A demo version is available at http://www.stuffit.com. The .sit file will be unzipped as a .tif file which can be read in most graphics programs.