The Ultimate Dennis the Menace Thread 3 3

[ComicBookGuy]

Dennis in the corner

 

My favorite "in the corner" pose has Dennis, Ruff, and Henry all in the corner, and Dennis saying to his dad, "Mad, isn't she?" Will have to find that one...

 

[ComicBookGuy]

Bill C., thanks for starting this whole thread of research! And Bill A., thanks for all your work with those files. Now everyone can enjoy them.

 

And, by the way, the following applies to all of the above Dennis artwork:

 

Dennis the Menace

© 2001 North America Syndicate, Inc.

Reprinted by special permission.

 

 

[balger-migration]

"Ketcham with a drawn image of Dennis (black & white JPEG)"

 

Hey, where's the drawn image of Dennis we were promised?!?

I feel cheated...

[ComicBookGuy]

"Ketcham with a drawn image of Dennis (black & white JPEG)"

 

Hey, where's the drawn image of Dennis we were promised?!?

I feel cheated...

 

Looks like he's in the midst of drawing. I see the tip of his pencil pointing up as if he were drawing and looked up at the camera.

 

[escape-migration]

Haven't had a great deal of time to post or contribute here lately, but have been reading the posts as time permits. Holy smokes! This great group continues to get EVEN GREATER! Belated howdys and welcomes to Jim Wiseman (love the tattoo) and Bill Alger. My wife has now gotten used to my yelps of happiness everytime I read a new series of postings from you guys. What a fantastic wealth of info continues to be shared. Its mind boggling, I tell you.

 

Here's the second half (pages 19-36) of Dennis the Menace #1, that I started a couple of weeks ago. Apologies for the delay.

 

[ComicBookGuy]

Very cool, Lee! Very VERY cool!

Your posting of the entire contents of Dennis the Menace #1 - that holy grail of all Dennis books ( ) - may be the greatest accomplishment of this entire thread! Thanks for all that work.

Joe

[Jon-migration]

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

 

Well March 12, 1951 was a Monday. Ketcham's date of March 14 was therefore a Wednesday. Daily strips almost invariably start on Mondays so that does lend credence to the 12th date.

[ComicBookGuy]

Joey first appears, January 7 - 1957

 

 

If you look

at this cartoon, you will see a small inverted "notch" in the

upper-right-hand corner of the border of the panel. I have heard

that Hank Ketcham made this notch on the panels that he himself

actually drew and that it was a notation to himself and to others

that he had drawn the actual comic once many

ghosts began helping out on the strips. Has anybody

else heard this? It does not start to appear until around the time

ghosts start working with him.

Joe

[ComicBookGuy]

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

 

Well March 12, 1951 was a Monday. Ketcham's date of March 14 was therefore a Wednesday. Daily strips almost invariably start on Mondays so that does lend credence to the 12th date.

 

I was basing my statement directly from Ketcham's biography, The Merchant of

Dennis, in which he states the first strip was March 14th. As I said, that was also

his birthday, a day pretty hard to forget. This puts us in the position of choosing

between two sources: The King Features researcher, or Hank Ketcham, the

creator of the strip. My money goes on HK. You bring up an interesting piece of

evidence from the other camp. If it turns out you are correct, I will be glad that the

truth was discovered. That's what this thread is about.

 

That being said, WELCOME TO THE BOARDS! Tell us about yourself, and are

you a Dennis fan?

 

Joe

[Jon-migration]

 

I was basing my statement directly from Ketcham's biography, The Merchant of

Dennis, in which he states the first strip was March 14th. As I said, that was also

his birthday, a day pretty hard to forget. This puts us in the position of choosing

between two sources: The King Features researcher, or Hank Ketcham, the

creator of the strip. My money goes on HK. You bring up an interesting piece of

evidence from the other camp. If it turns out you are correct, I will be glad that the

truth was discovered. That's what this thread is about.

 

That being said, WELCOME TO THE BOARDS! Tell us about yourself, and are

you a Dennis fan?

 

Joe

 

I read a bit of Dennis growing up. I was born in 1949 so am a bit older than the boy, but I've aged much more rapidly. Unfortunately, the palce I got my comics stocked only DCs and a few Dells. I saw Dennis in the papers, but really didn't catch the comic until after it's heyday. I'm nly discovering the early ones now.

 

Does anyone know what newspaper(s) Dennis first appeared in? It would be straightforward to check newspaper microfilms to verify the original date.

 

What I'd really like to do is organize a scanning project of the early Dennis comics (I'm very involved in the ABPC including the Four Color, T-Man, All American, and Uncle Scrooge projects.

[ComicBookGuy]

I only saw Dennis K. one more time in the late 50's. We never had a chance to compare notes. I would like to talk to him at least one more time, just to see what he remembers.

Jim

 

Jim, I have done a lot of searching for stuff on Dennis Lloyd Ketcham and have just come up with the usual four or five facts. One problem is that Christopher Lloyd starred in the 1993 movie, so the names all mix up the searches. Maybe just having his name in this text may place him in searches and he may come to us! It would certainly be interesting to hear from him...

Joe

[escape-migration]

What I'd really like to do is organize a scanning project of the early Dennis comics (I'm very involved in the ABPC including the Four Color, T-Man, All American, and Uncle Scrooge projects.

 

Hey Jon

 

If you recognize my nickname at all, you know me from ABPC. I've been calling out for contributors to help scan Dennis comics now for quite awhile. Aside from a few early issues being done, no one seems to have any they are willing to scan. Would be VERY interested in what you can share with us, through any of your contacts. Darn glad to have a fellow ABPC'er on the board!!

 

(Aside note for anyone interested: Out of the Al Wiseman issues of the regular Dennis series, these have been scanned by myself and others -- #'s 1, 8, 15, 16, 19-23, 30, 32, 35, 36, 38, 41, 42)

[escape-migration]

Your posting of the entire contents of Dennis the Menace #1 - that holy grail of all Dennis books - may be the greatest accomplishment of this entire thread! Thanks for all that work.

Joe

 

Thanks for the thanks, Joe. I'm just happy to be a part of this fine forum. I feel like I'm surrounded by Scholars and Experts of "that Mitchell kid" and am thrilled to have a seat in the classroom

[ComicBookGuy]

I read a bit of Dennis growing up. I was born in 1949 so am a bit older than the boy, but I've aged much more rapidly. Unfortunately, the palce I got my comics stocked only DCs and a few Dells. I saw Dennis in the papers, but really didn't catch the comic until after it's heyday. I'm nly discovering the early ones now.

 

Does anyone know what newspaper(s) Dennis first appeared in? It would be straightforward to check newspaper microfilms to verify the original date.

 

What I'd really like to do is organize a scanning project of the early Dennis comics (I'm very involved in the ABPC including the Four Color, T-Man, All American, and Uncle Scrooge projects.

 

Jon, I think we're ALL aging a bit more rapidly than Dennis!

 

In his bio, Ketcham states that Dennis began in only 16 papers. The only paper he mentions by name is the Chicago Tribune, so if anybody can access the microfilm for March 12 or 14, 1951, go for it.

 

I think you will find that many of us already are involved in scanning the comics. What would be the aim of the project, just to share on the net, or is it for profit? Not that it matters; I'm just curious.

 

Joe

[tth2]

Margaret Wade first appears - January 23, 1956

 

Wow, I'll tell you, I cannot tell the difference between HK's and AW's art during this period. If someone showed me this panel as having come from a comic, I would've had no problem believing it was AW.

[tth2]

Here's the second half (pages 19-36) of Dennis the Menace #1, that I started a couple of weeks ago. Apologies for the delay.

Escape, many many thanks for posting the interior pages. But do you think you could break it up into several rows rather than one long row, as it's causing the web pages to extend really far to the right, which means we have to scroll right on every post that contains more than a few words of text.

[tth2]

If you look

at this cartoon, you will see a small inverted "notch" in the

upper-right-hand corner of the border of the panel. I have heard

that Hank Ketcham made this notch on the panels that he himself

actually drew and that it was a notation to himself and to others

that he had drawn the actual comic once many

ghosts began helping out on the strips. Has anybody

else heard this? It does not start to appear until around the time

ghosts start working with him.

Joe

Very interesting info. I had never heard this, but it would be great if it were true. As with the earlier Margaret panel, I'm finding HK's work really indistinguishable from AW's work.

[BillyBatson4360]

Wow! A lot of great stuff posted here today. I don't know about Mr. Wilson, but I would've been oogling Alice Mitchell in that two-piece myself!

 

I had scanned that first Mrs. Wilson panel - and now it looks like I won't need it.

 

Bill Alger had reminisced about the Wiseman story where Dennis dreams he's a cowboy. Here's a page from that story (from Dennis # 32 - January, 1959):

 

 

By the way, "Hotfoot Henry" is, of course Dennis' dad who turns out to be an undercover marshall working with Dennis' mom (that's her in a black wig). Love the drawing of Dennis riding Ruff like a horse. Also this is a good time to mention that Al Wiseman's lettering had two things you normally don't see in a comic book - 1) lower case letters 2) periods instead of exclamation points.

 

As far as the great debate about Dennis' first strip - I would go with the Monday date. My guess is that HK took a little dramatic license and moved the date so it co-incided with his birthday.

 

Finding out that Wiseman may NOT have drawn all the issues he is credited with is another incredible revelation. I hope Mr. Alger can shed some more light on this as we proceed!

[BillyBatson4360]

Many of us remember the Christmas Annuals that were so much a part of the early Dennis tradition. I've also mentioned that Al Wiseman was using full-page panels nearly a decade before Jack Kirby "discovered" them at Marvel. This one is from Dennis Giant # 3. I don't know if you'll be able to read it in the scan, but Wiseman slipped in an "in-joke" in the panel. The sign on top of the shelves reads: Genuine Fred Toole Complicators $1.95 (perhaps a subtle dig at all the detail Fred may have asked for in this scene):

 

[ComicBookGuy]

Awesome stuff, Bill -- as always!

 

I can really see the influence Dennis had on the Simpsons in tales like this -- where the entire cast in transported into a different setting to tell a tale in another literary milieu. I wonder if we would ever have the famous Simpsons' Hamlet or Tom Sawyer episodes without these kinds of Dennis stories serving as literary antecedents.

 

Your comment about Al Wiseman's lettering is interesting. It's so neat I thought it was typed then cut & pasted in!

 

Joe