The Ultimate Dennis the Menace Thread 4 4

[ComicBookGuy]

Page 3:

 

[ComicBookGuy]

Page 4:

 

Top two panels are small and hard to read as Henry is speaking quietly:

 

1st panel: Henry: Shh! Quiet! Come with me! Quick!

 

2nd panel: Henry: Get in with your mother and lock the door!

 

[ComicBookGuy]

Page 5:

 

[ComicBookGuy]

Page 6, the last page:

 

 

This story has two of my favorite classic running gags in the strip, the dark "anger" cloud over Henry's head and the "flame" when he gets REALLY ticked off! The slamming door is a classic also, and we saw an example of that when Bill C. reprinted the story from #30.

[ComicBookGuy]

Just found this list on the King Features site, and it seems to address some of the topics Bill C. enlightened us about during his research on first appearances in the newspaper strip. The site says the first Dennis panel appeared March 12, 1951, but in Ketcham's biography on page 103 he specifically states March 14, 1951 as the debut date. That date is also his birthday, which he points out, so it would be odd for him not to remember the day specifically. I wonder who's right... Maybe that Fantagraphics book that comes out in the fall will have some answers...

 

Dennis the Menace "Firsts"

 

First panel - March 12, 1951

Dennis' first hair cut - April 5, 1951

First panel at church - May 8, 1951

Gina character first appears - May 15, 1951

Mitchell family dog Ruff first appears - July 16, 1951

First Christmas panel - December 25, 1951

Mrs. Wilson first appears - March 12, 1952

Dennis' grandfather first appears - March 26, 1952

Mr. Wilson first appears, July 3 - 1952

Margaret Wade first appears - January 23, 1956

Joey first appears, January 7 - 1957

Hot Dog the cat first appears - July 21, 1975

 

Very interesting to note how Gina appears before Ruff and Mr. Wilson, and that Mrs. Wilson appears months before Mr. Wilson, who does not appear until the strip is well over a year old!

 

There are links to each cartoon at the site, but I couldn't get them to open. If anyone else wants to try, here's the link:

 

King Features Index

[ttw-migration]

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.

[tth2]

This story has two of my favorite classic running gags in the strip, the dark "anger" cloud over Henry's head and the "flame" when he gets REALLY ticked off! The slamming door is a classic also, and we saw an example of that when Bill C. reprinted the story from #30.

Thanks Joe, I love that story too. I always liked Alice`s suggestion at the end that Dennis go play hide and seek until his dad left the house.

[BillyBatson4360]

Well, it will now be very interesting to see the Fantagraphics collection of Dennis strips. The first collection of Dennis cartoons (the hardback edition titled simply "Dennis the Menace") does contain one cartoon featuring Mrs. WIlson and no cartoons featuring Mr. Wilson.

 

However, I am somewhat skeptical about Gina arriving in the strip four years before Margaret. After all Margaret shows up in the comic book ahead of Gina. It could be that Ketchum included a little girl character in a panel from 1952 that looks like Gina. I've also noticed in the early days that the character who became known as Tommy was sometimes referred to as "Billy," even though it's obviously the same character.

 

I'll try to post a few scans of these panels later on today.

[ComicBookGuy]

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.

 

Teresa, WELCOME TO THE BOARDS!

It's great to welcome yet another Dennis fan onboard.

 

Thanks for the tips. I had downloaded the files to try to convert them, but they just won't open without the stuffit program. I am not willing to put that program on my computer, so......

 

If anyone has this program, PLEASE open these files for us to see! I can't believe King Features would make these files so inaccessible to fans.

 

Joe

[ComicBookGuy]

Well, it will now be very interesting to see the Fantagraphics collection of Dennis strips. The first collection of Dennis cartoons (the hardback edition titled simply "Dennis the Menace") does contain one cartoon featuring Mrs. WIlson and no cartoons featuring Mr. Wilson.

 

However, I am somewhat skeptical about Gina arriving in the strip four years before Margaret. After all Margaret shows up in the comic book ahead of Gina. It could be that Ketchum included a little girl character in a panel from 1952 that looks like Gina. I've also noticed in the early days that the character who became known as Tommy was sometimes referred to as "Billy," even though it's obviously the same character.

 

I'll try to post a few scans of these panels later on today.

 

Good points, Bill. I agree with you on this one, and I am skeptical about the date of the first strip being on March 12, 1951, as well. I am willing to bet the King Features stuff is a slapped-together job with little attention to detail based on what we do know. Still, it gives us a starting point for establishing some concrete facts about the strip. (Now, if someone will just open those files for us! )

Joe

[balger-migration]

I can't wait to read what information you have learned. Will it be in the form of a website only or are you planning a book? Whatever form it takes, I am looking forward to it.

 

For now, just the website. I had spoken with John Morrow from TwoMorrows publishing a couple of years ago about putting the project in book form. He didn’t think there would be enough interest in a Wiseman book but wondered if there would be a way to have it be a book on Dennis collectable with sections featuring Wiseman and Ketcham histories. I didn’t (and still don’t) know that much about Dennis collectables, so I didn’t take it any further...

 

Bill

[balger-migration]

As far as any information about Wiseman Dennis comics, Bill C. was correct when he said we could help you out with regard to any stories or issues you need info about.

 

Thanks Joe!

 

Some information I am very interested in is exactly who drew which issues. There are clearly many different artists drawing the Dennis books, and some of the names you mentioned were artists. For example, on the inside cover of Dennis Bonus Magazine #88, Frank Hill is credited with drawing Dennis the Menace in London and Fred Toole with writing it. But little information is available elsewhere as to who drew which issues.

 

I guess the confusing thing for me is that there were so many assistant artists working in the Ketcham studio. And Wiseman had his own assistants after he left Ketcham's studio and set up his studio (while still working on Dennis). George Crenshaw told me that he pencilled for Al and that Al loved inking George's work and making it look like his own. And Vince Lockman has said that he worked in Ketcham's studio inking in Al's pencils. So even when it's obviously Al's artwork, how do you know what exactly he did on the page?

 

Cartoonist Bill Wray (who's also a big Wiseman fan) told me that fellow cartoonist Shane Glines had identified the artist who pencilled many of the really early Dennis comic books. I had thought that Al pencilled the first issues in a more "primative" Dennis style. But Shane knows his artists and history, so I'd tend to believe him. Now to find out from Shane who that artist was (unless people on this board already know)...

 

Bill

[balger-migration]

Gina character first appears - May 15, 1951

 

Very interesting to note how Gina appears before Ruff and Mr. Wilson, and that Mrs. Wilson appears months before Mr. Wilson, who does not appear until the strip is well over a year old!

 

The comic they link to is actually from 1958. I think they screwed up and that Gina's first appearance was in 1958.

 

Bill A.

[balger-migration]

I am skeptical about the date of the first strip being on March 12, 1951, as well

 

There's no exact date on the image, just "1951".

 

One day I'll figure out how to post these attachments so they will actually show up. But that would take reading the directions...

 

Bill A.

[balger-migration]

Mr. Wilson first appears, July 3 - 1952

 

I'm a little creeped out that in his first appearance, Mr. Wilson is oogling Dennis' mom in her two-piece bathing suit.

 

If the neighbor pictured is, in fact, Mr. Wilson. He's not called by name...

 

Bill A.

[ComicBookGuy]

Gina character first appears - May 15, 1951

Very interesting to note how Gina appears before Ruff and Mr. Wilson, and that Mrs. Wilson appears months before Mr. Wilson, who does not appear until the strip is well over a year old!

The comic they link to is actually from 1958. I think they screwed up and that Gina's first appearance was in 1958.

Bill A.

 

Thanks for unlocking these files, Bill A! I will post them as you make the attachments.

Yes, you are right -- the comic says copyright 1958 at the top clear as day. Too bad they didn't take the time to double-check their work. It would make our jobs so much easier!

And kudos to Bill C. who correctly guessed her first newspaper strip appearance was around mid-1958.

Joe

 

[ComicBookGuy]

I am skeptical about the date of the first strip being on March 12, 1951, as well

There's no exact date on the image, just "1951".

One day I'll figure out how to post these attachments so they will actually show up. But that would take reading the directions...

Bill A.

 

Again, more slipshod research by King Features. This is NOT the first Dennis newspaper strip. Ketcham clearly shows the first one to appear in his bio. I will repost that in the next post.

Joe

 

[balger-migration]

Dennis' first hair cut - April 5, 1951

[ComicBookGuy]

I find the following cartoon interesting in that it was the very first Dennis comic ever to appear in syndication. When Ketcham got the green light for Dennis, he completed this cartoon in October 1950, and it would be the first Dennis the Menace comic the public would ever see when the strip debuted in American newspapers on March 14, 1951. This comic is not part of the reprint series since it is a primitive Dennis and not the one we are used to seeing, nor is Henry Mitchell even remotely similar to the one Ketcham would eventually develop. But it IS a funny cartoon nonetheless and definitely of historical significance...

 

 

I posted this earlier and is right from the horse's mouth: Hank Ketcham. If anyone knows what the first strip is, it is he, not some researcher or archivist at King Features. It is clearly an earlier strip as Dennis's dad looks nothing like Henry. Case closed!

Joe

[balger-migration]

First panel at church - May 8, 1951