The Ultimate Dennis the Menace Thread 4 4

[ComicBookGuy]

Actually, here's another one before I quit for the night.

[tth2]

Just for the sake of curiosity, I created this poll. It will be fun to create some other Dennis related ones, such as rating the stories, issues, covers, episodes of the tv show, etc.

 

For this poll, if I did it correctly , you can vote for only one choice, and you can't see the poll results till you vote.

 

Joe

I think Fred Toole is getting some real short shrift amongst all the Al Wiseman adulation here. Much as I love Wiseman's art, if the stories sucked or were even just nondescript I don't think most of us would still think so highly of the book or recall so many of the stories so vividly. So my true response to the poll would have been comics that featured both Wiseman and Toole, because in my opinion what made the comic so great was the efforts of the combined team.

[BillyBatson4360]

Point well taken, tth2.

 

Fred Toole was a master at taking the most mundane domestic situations and spinning them into genuinely hilarious escalating slapstick gags.

 

The problem lies with the medium of comics in general. Good art will always carry bad scripting much farther than a good -script will carry bad art.

 

Keep in mind, I write for a living, so my natural rooting instincts are with the writer. But comics are a visual medium. The picture comes first.

 

Even though Fred Toole continued scripting Dennis, I never enjoyed the post-Wiseman issues at all. The art looked so sloppy, the strip lost all its charm for me.

 

Similarly, the looser the drawing style became in the daily and Sunday strips, the less interested I became in following them. (Although one of the other problems with the newspaper strip involved turning Dennis from a cutting edge humor strip into a warm & fuzzy greeting card character.)

[Wiseguy-migration]

 

I think Fred Toole is getting some real short shrift amongst all the Al Wiseman adulation here. Much as I love Wiseman's art, if the stories sucked or were even just nondescript I don't think most of us would still think so highly of the book or recall so many of the stories so vividly. So my true response to the poll would have been comics that featured both Wiseman and Toole, because in my opinion what made the comic so great was the efforts of the combined team.

 

**************************************************************

 

Agreed, as far as the DTM work.

Teamwork was important.

Fred wrote some great scripts, but for the kids who couldn't read yet, the pictures

told the story.

Perhaps the Writers Guild will honor Fred Toole someday for his efforts.

 

 

I don't know where to go to vote on the above poles?

Am I too late?

 

JRW

[ComicBookGuy]

Tim and Bill C., I agree with you about Fred Toole not getting enough credit. I think another aspect of this is that it's impossible to know who wrote what. I know Ketcham wrote the dailies at first and then received a lot of help from Bob Harmon, who was a teenager at the time and who was confined to a wheelchair. He is also credited on the cover of the Babysitter's Guide. Toole did a lot of the comic books, but who knows which ones and how many? I love the writing in the Dennis comics and would love to praise the writers by name, but unless these writers come out and tell us who they are, OR if people who know about them tell us who they are, we will never know who they are. I would like to think that is one of the more valuable aspects to our thread here -- to establish credits for the creators of this vast Dennis mythology. It's not too difficult to spot Wiseman's art, but is there really anybody who can differentiate among the different writers? Therein lies our problem of crediting writers to the extent we do the artists.

 

Bill C., I for one would love to hear about your writing if you feel like sharing. Have you written novels, movies, comics, advertising? Please share if you wish. I've written four movies, two novels, lots of short stories, poetry, etc., but have not tried to publish as of yet. This summer I am going to try some marketing and see where it leads me. I write strictly for fun, and myself, so if I'm unsuccessful, I'm happy just to write and teach...and hang out here with you guys.

 

JRW, to vote, just click in the circle next to your desired choice on the polls, then click on "submit vote" and you should then see the results of the poll so far. PM me if you're still having problems. And, no, you are not too late. I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say we'd all love to see your votes in this poll. This poll has no time limit. Good luck!

 

Joe

[jedijim-migration]

I was looking over some early Wiseman giants and it struck me how cool the way (presumably Wiseman's idea) he draws Dennis's feet as round. He even makes the footprints in the snow round as shown in the airvent drawing earlier posted. Just an observantion on how his art is distinctive. Along with the previously mentioned "little dust cloud" behind Dennis running, I find this also a clever convention.

[ComicBookGuy]

Similarly, the looser the drawing style became in the daily and Sunday strips, the less interested I became in following them. (Although one of the other problems with the newspaper strip involved turning Dennis from a cutting edge humor strip into a warm & fuzzy greeting card character.)

 

Bill C., to a certain extent, I agree that you are right about the greeting card image. Dennis was definitely more of a menace in the old days, but there are some pretty cool strips published in the last couple years in which he is clearly more of a menace than than the warm & fuzzy version that clearly brought about the demise of the comics in the 1980s. It also brought about the demise of the old Jay North tv show (that, coupled with Jay North getting too old to be Dennis). I believe that was also the thesis of the Steve Sibra article that buttock was kind enough to share with us. Dennis has gone through a lot of phases, and I think the popularity of Bart Simpson has certainly brought about a shift back towards the menace phase to some extent, but not nearly to the extent that some of us would clearly like to see. I think Bart Simpson has fulfilled that role though. I will try to post some recent cartoons I have cut out to support this. Give me some time to locate them. ( I think I mentioned I moved a few months ago, and finding stuff is still not easy.)

 

Hey, this sounds like a good topic for another poll!

[BillyBatson4360]

Bill C., I for one would love to hear about your writing if you feel like sharing. Have you written novels, movies, comics, advertising? Please share if you wish.

 

Well, I've written just about everything you could imagine (except novels). In my younger days, I wrote an original stage adaptation of Mary Shelly's Frankenstein which I also directed and occasionally starred in (I was the official understudy for the actor who played Dr. Frankenstein). It was produced professionally by a small theater in Orlando. It became that theater's second highest grosiing production (behind only "Fiddler on the Roof") and was revived at the theater twice (I did not direct the second revival).

 

I founded a professional comedy troupe in Orlando and spent a couple of years writing and directing sketch comedy (like what you see on Saturday Nite Live). Then I went into morning radio which also required lots of comedy writing (filling 4.5 hours a day chews up a lot of material).

 

I was a ghostwriter on the Dell book Clark's First 25 Years of Rock n' Roll.

 

I have collaborated an an unproduced screenplay (which wasn't very good). And I written more advertising copy (which is my current "day job") than I could ever estimate. I've been doing that since I was in high school.

 

I haven't written for the comics - although I'd love to. I was college roomates with Stephen Grant and friends with Mike Baron - both guys who've had success in the comics field.

 

Well, enough about me, let's get back to Dennis...

[Allen Ross-migration]

I ran across this forum a few weeks ago, and have been enjoying it since. Time to go ahead and introduce myself.

 

I'm a Dennis collector from way back (since about 1968), collecting the strips, books, and the comic books. I have a near-complete Dennis comic book collection (for instance, of the main title, I'm just missing #2, 4, 70, 72, 78, 100, 142, and 143), but I still haven't gotten around to using eBay to finish it off. While I definitely prefer the Wiseman stuff, I still like it all. I also don't believe in slabbing comics; only reading them. I don't have many old strips; just one small collection of 50s stuff I bought; otherwise, just stuff I've saved since 1969 or so. I'm looking forward to the new Complete Dennis book series.

 

As my contribution, I'm adding an attachment that I found on some auction (probably Yahoo) about a year ago: a Dennis the Menace ad for A&W Root Beer, from 1966. I used to go to a similar A&W in Owego, New York about that time when I was a kid. I recently went to a similar one in Modesto, California (apparently it was used for the drive in restaurant in the American Graffiti movie).

[Jon-migration]

Here's Superbrat. Apparently Siegel's original idea for Superboy might have been something like this.

[Jon-migration]

Little Ike from St Johns. It only ran for 4 issues in 1953

[Jon-migration]

A girl kid from St Johns. Eva started befor eadn lasted after Ike running from 1952 -56.

[Jon-migration]

An interesting one -- Li'l Willie ran for two issues only 20-21 from Atlas in 1949. Before and after that it was simply Willie which was a teen comic I'm pretty sure. I'm not sure if Li'l Willie was supposed to be Willie as a child like Little Archie was much later.

[Jon-migration]

Another Marvel kid this time from after they were no longer callign themselves Atals, but were Marvel. This one by Stan Lee and Joe Maneely. Melvin the Monster ran for 6 issues then became Dexter the Demon

[Jon-migration]

Pat the Brat from Archie Comics. Issues 1-4 and 15-33 (with no dates missed so I'm not sure what's up with hte #ing. It turned into Advs of Pipsqueek.

[Jon-migration]

Angel from Dell ran for 16 issues from 54 - 59.

[Jon-migration]

And Little Angel who didn't seem to be any smaller. It was published by Pines like Dennis was for a time.

[Jon-migration]

Finally Charlton's Li'l Genius who loots a lot like SuperBrat bringing us full circle.

[ComicBookGuy]

I ran across this forum a few weeks ago, and have been enjoying it since. Time to go ahead and introduce myself.

 

I'm a Dennis collector from way back (since about 1968), collecting the strips, books, and the comic books. I have a near-complete Dennis comic book collection (for instance, of the main title, I'm just missing #2, 4, 70, 72, 78, 100, 142, and 143), but I still haven't gotten around to using eBay to finish it off. While I definitely prefer the Wiseman stuff, I still like it all. I also don't believe in slabbing comics; only reading them. I don't have many old strips; just one small collection of 50s stuff I bought; otherwise, just stuff I've saved since 1969 or so. I'm looking forward to the new Complete Dennis book series.

 

As my contribution, I'm adding an attachment that I found on some auction (probably Yahoo) about a year ago: a Dennis the Menace ad for A&W Root Beer, from 1966. I used to go to a similar A&W in Owego, New York about that time when I was a kid. I recently went to a similar one in Modesto, California (apparently it was used for the drive in restaurant in the American Graffiti movie).

 

Allen, welcome to the boards!

It's always great to check out the board after a long day of work and find a new Dennis fan. There are lots more of us than I ever thought.

 

Your collection sounds a lot like mine in that you're trying to get all the Dennis comics and not just the Wiseman issues. I believe I have some extras of comics that are on your want list, maybe more. I will check and get back to you if you are interested.

 

Thanks for sharing the ad. I will post it below.

 

Again, WELCOME!

 

Joe

 

[ComicBookGuy]

Well, I've written just about everything you could imagine (except novels). In my younger days, I wrote an original stage adaptation of Mary Shelly's Frankenstein which I also directed and occasionally starred in (I was the official understudy for the actor who played Dr. Frankenstein). It was produced professionally by a small theater in Orlando. It became that theater's second highest grosiing production (behind only "Fiddler on the Roof") and was revived at the theater twice (I did not direct the second revival).

 

I founded a professional comedy troupe in Orlando and spent a couple of years writing and directing sketch comedy (like what you see on Saturday Nite Live). Then I went into morning radio which also required lots of comedy writing (filling 4.5 hours a day chews up a lot of material).

 

I was a ghostwriter on the Dell book Clark's First 25 Years of Rock n' Roll.

 

I have collaborated an an unproduced screenplay (which wasn't very good). And I written more advertising copy (which is my current "day job") than I could ever estimate. I've been doing that since I was in high school.

 

 

Thanks for sharing! It's always good to know whom we are talking to. I have a lot of old rock and roll books and will have to see if I have your Dell book. The comedy writing you did sounds like a lot of fun.

Joe