The Ultimate Dennis the Menace Thread 3 3

[Wiseguy-migration]

Thanks for the post Mica.

I always laughed when we gave Ruff a bath.

She always looked like she lost 20 pounds!

 

 

Ok, here is another "Ruff" story.

We were living up in California Hot Springs, around 1957..

Ruff went everywhere I went.

One time a couple of friends and I decided to spend the night on a nearby

mountain ridge. We grabbed our sleeping bags and enough provisions (sugar)

and hiked up to a nice location maybe a half hour away from home.

The weather was changing fast, and getting cold. It started to sprinkle a little.

We found a semi-dry spot under some tree branches. It was on a bit of a slope.

We zipped together two sleeping bags, and piled in to get warm.

Ruff was cold also and decided the sleeping bag looked large enough for one more.

Ruff crawled down to the bottom of the bag, and kept our feet toasty warm all night.

In the morning we discovered we had slid 15 feet down the hill, and was stopped from sliding many more feet by several large bushs.

We all smelled like wet dogs for the rest of the day.

 

I always felt braver exploring the hills with Ruff. I knew she would protect me.

 

But she sure did look funny when she was wet!

 

 

JRW

Edited May 17, 2005 by Wiseguy

[ttw-migration]

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.

 

 

 

Edited May 17, 2005 by ttw

[BillyBatson4360]

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.

[Jon-migration]

I just posted Dennis the Menace #11 to ABPC and requested a general repost of all Dennis issues originally posted up to a couple of months ago. I'll keep you informed.

 

Jon

[ComicBookGuy]

I'm sure some other forum member can come up with a good cover scan of Dennis and Ruff # 2

(I got so carried away I forgot to scan the cover, but I'm sure Joe or someone has a crisp clean copy)

in case someone wants to be on the lookout for this awesome issue.

 

Mica, thanks for taking the time to scan that awesome story! It's a classic. And thanks also for having enough faith in me to turn up a sweet copy of this issue. I aim to please!

 

[mica]

Yep that's it. Am I right about that not being a Wiseman cover?

Also Billy mentioned that it's a reprint. Wish we knew for sure the Original printing issue number. Will your index cross refrence that sort of information in the future?

Mica

[BillyBatson4360]

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.

[gaute]

hi all - new here

 

i've read through this thread, and boy, i must say.. you guys have turned me into a dtm fan thanks all of you for all the great info and cover scans.

comicbookguy - i like to help out at comics.org, and i've used some of your cover scans to fill in some holes. your copies of dtm 2, 3, 4 and 13 is now online at comics.org - thanks!

[gaute]

btw- stating the obvious here - but those are some sweet books you have there!!

[mica]

Welcome gaute. I ran over and looked at Comics.org and did a search for Dennis.

Can you enter the Dennis and the Bible Kids series to the database? As you may have noticed when you read the thread that Joe and I (who both own one) feel that issue number 10 is very rare and I know many comic readers consult Comics.org and it might help us locate another owner. Flying Donut remembers seeing a third copy, but I imagine that many reading this thread have never even seen or knew it existed.

[gaute]

i'm not a member of the GCD team (i just submit the odd scan), but i'll shoot them an e-mail. (i see dennis & ruff is also missing)

[ComicBookGuy]

Yep that's it. Am I right about that not being a Wiseman cover?

Also Billy mentioned that it's a reprint. Wish we knew for sure the Original printing issue number. Will your index cross refrence that sort of information in the future?

Mica

 

It's a Frank Hill cover on the Dennis & Ruff #2. The original story is from Dennis the Menace #38, September 1959, it clearly has Wiseman art, and it was reprinted in Dennis Giant #21 before it was reprinted in the Dennis & Friends series. That series is ALL reprints and lots is Wiseman stuff.

 

My indexing so far is tracking all the stories in the giant series. I'm up to #152. When I do the regular series, next, I will notate which issues reprint which as I have been doing with the giants. I don't know who has looked closely at those lists yet, but I've been careful to take notes of what differences exist among the many printings, and often they are subtle. It takes a while to do, but my pace of work will increase on the project once school is out for the summer.

 

By the way, there is another good Ruff-gets-a-bath sequence in Dennis & Ruff #1. I will see if I can post it at some point. If someone wants to beat me to it, I won't be upset.

 

Joe

[ComicBookGuy]

hi all - new here

 

i've read through this thread, and boy, i must say.. you guys have turned me into a dtm fan thanks all of you for all the great info and cover scans.

comicbookguy - i like to help out at comics.org, and i've used some of your cover scans to fill in some holes. your copies of dtm 2, 3, 4 and 13 is now online at comics.org - thanks!

 

Gaute, welcome to the boards!!!

It's always to a thrill to find another Dennis fan. I'm glad you found a way to share these awesome covers with even more Dennis fans. That's what it's all about!

Do you have a link to share for the site???

Joe

[gaute]

Thanx Joe! one thing is to find another DTM fan.. another is to MAKE one!

 

Here's the search results at comics.org for Dennis. Take a look and see if any series (other than Dennis & Ruff and Dennis & the bible kids) are missing.

 

Dennis search @ comics.org

 

Here's the cover gallery for Standard's DTM 1-14 (they've split the series by publisher):

 

DTM 1-14 cover gallery @ comics.org

[gaute]

(P.S. Here's the list of DTM covers still missing from the database - If anyone wants to help out, you can upload images here - or just post the covers in this thread (If they haven't been posted already; I'll go through the thread again and check), and I'll take care of it. Some of the other Dennis series are also woefully incomplete, like Dennis and his friends, with only one cover online.. seems the GCD team are mostly Marvel/DC zombies )

 

88

89

91

94

95

97

101

103-113

116

117

120

121

123-125

127-133

135

138-140

142-144

146

147

149-153

155

157-166

 

[Scrooge]

Saw this in Tony Isabella's column today and immediately thought of this thread.

 

[Wiseguy-migration]

Great Scrooge, thanks for posting the above.

Funny stuff

 

 

JRW

[ComicBookGuy]

I agree with JRW -- great stuff, Scrooge! We've slowly but surely been gathering Dennis homages and things here over time. That is an awesome contribution! It reminds me of that movie, DICKIE ROBERTS: FORMER CHILD STAR, with David Spade that came out a couple years ago. It featured lots of former child stars, including some of the Brady kids, Leif Garrett, Danny "Partridge" Bonaduce, and even had Jay North in it.

 

By the way, Scrooge, your thread in the golden age forum called A MONTH IN THE LIFE OF THE COMICS is about the best thing on these forums. I read every new entry.

 

For anyone who hasn't seen it yet, here's the link to his thread:

 

A Month in the Life

 

If you haven't checked it out, click on the link! Scrooge is one of the true scholars of these forums.

 

Joe

[ComicBookGuy]

Now, for those of you wondering what an early high-grade copy - CGC certified - of Dennis the Menace would go for, here's some new info.

 

I won this CGC 9.4 Dennis the Menace #77 for $43.01. Needless to say I was very pleased and would buy more of the same all day long. Here's a scan of this comic, which looks like a real beauty to me:

 

 

 

While this is not a Wiseman issue or anything, it is still an old comic (1965), and I have to say I'm very happy to have found one that survived in near mint condition with beautiful page quality for the last forty years. I hope to see more of the same and wish it had actually closed for more to inspire others to submit their high-grade copies. At the end of the day, the seller didn't do well since it cost $29 to slab this. That, coupled with his ebay fees, had him let it go for less than $10.

 

Joe

[tth2]

I figured you were going to go after it, so I held back. Nice pick-up!