The Ultimate Dennis the Menace Thread 3 3

[ComicBookGuy]

Here is another of many items I spotted for the first time ever on eBay. This one cost me some bucks. It is a Dennis Baseball Game, constructed with steel and heavy plastic parts. There is no copyright anywhere on the box or game, but it looks mid-to-late 1950s to me. This is a view of the top of the box and the game with its contents.

 

[ComicBookGuy]

Here is another view of the box:

 

[Wiseguy-migration]

I noticed a difference between the DTM on the baseball game and the DTM on the box.

The one on the box looks more like an AW, and the one on the game looks like Joey with DTM's hair.

I don't remember playing that game, but then I don't remember lots of stuff.

Keep 'em coming.

Thanks.

 

JRW

Edited November 9, 2005 by Wiseguy

[ComicBookGuy]

I agree. Your dad's rendition of Mr. Wilson has always been unique, and whenever I have a doubt about whether he did a story or not, I look for Mr. Wilson. Really the only artist who is tough to differentiate from your dad is Lee Holley, who I would say is the second best Dennis artist of all time.

 

Here is an old Dennis the Menace piece of sheet music from 1952. I've seen this a couple times only, and is kind of an oddball item:

 

 

[ComicBookGuy]

A set of 8 glasses came out in the early 1950s, about 1952, around the time of the matches and cocktail napkins, when Dennis was geared towards adults more than kids. Here's a picture of 7 of them:

 

 

Here are the captions for all 8 glasses:

 

EACH GLASS HAS A DIFFERENT PICTURE AND CLASSIC DENNIS CARTOON. EACH GLASS ALSO HAS A COPYWRIGHT MARK AND KETCHAM'S SIGNATURE.

 

1. "THAT SETTLES IT! YOU'RE GOING TO BE AN ONLY CHILD!" SAYS MOM AS DENNIS BREAKS A TABLE LAMP.

 

2. "DON'T SHOUT AT ME! I'M NOT YOUR HUSBAND" DENNIS RETORTS, WITH DENNIS STANDING ON THE COUCH AND A BUNCH OF TOYS ON THE FLOOR. (This one is not pictured.)

 

3. "YOU DIDN'T SAY OPEN THE DARN DOOR. I HEARD WHAT YOU SAID!" MOM SAYS WITH DENNIS STANDING OUTSIDE THE KITCHEN DOOR WITH HIS ARMS FULL OF ALL HIS TOYS.

 

4. "WOULD YOU MIND TELLING MY LITTLE BOY I'M NOT MAD AT HIM ANYMORE AND ASK HIM TO PLEASE COME OUT?" HIS MOTHER ASKS A STRANGE MAN GOING INTO THE MEN'S ROOM.

 

5. "HELLO, POLICE? I WANT TO REPORT A NOISY BRAWL" DENNIS SAYS, AS DENNIS IS ON THE PHONE IN THE HALL WHILE HIS PARENTS ARE HAVING A PARTY IN THE OTHER ROOM.

 

6. "NOTICE HOW STEADY MY HAND IS? THAT'S BECAUSE I DON'T SMOKE OR DRINK OR KISS GIRLS," SAYS DENNIS TO HIS FRIEND WHILE DRESSED UP LIKE A COWBOY.

 

7. "THIS IS MY MOTHER, TOMMY. ISN'T SHE PRETTY?" SAYS DENNIS TO TOMMY AS THEY INTERRUPT MOM IN THE BATHTUB.

 

8. "I DON'T THINK YOU'RE FUNNY, AND NEITHER DOES YOUR GRANDPA," SAYS MOM TO DENNIS AS HE WHEELS HIS WAGON OVER TO THE LONG JOHNS HANGING ON THE CLOTHESLINE AND STICKS HIS HEAD OUT THE THE BACK FLAP.

[ComicBookGuy]

Here is more of a close-up of the "only child" glass:

 

[CArchivist-migration]

In addition, I didn't see some titles that I have listed, such as Super-Charged and Ever Ready (1983) and Five Years at the Same Location (1987) on your list. These books exist and I have them in my possession, and I will say that these two titles seem to be the ones that turn up the least. This is great to combine our lists like this to get closer to a final list. What I find interesting about viewing your list is that it shows how many printings each book had and illuminates the fact that the later books are the hardest to find since they had far fewer printings, and in many cases, only one. The Happy Halloween book you have listed is something I am not at all familiar with. Just when I thought I had them all!

 

Hello Joe,

 

I think the one's you have listed are the 5x8 inch variety paperbacks. I limit my list to the squarebound 4x7 inch pocket size books. I would love to know if Happy Halloween is a digest book that has snuck into my list.

 

Thanks!

my best

-Ray

[Allen Ross-migration]

Yeah! Complete Dennis the Menace vol 2 has been scheduled; see Fantagraphics March List

 

FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS -- MARCH 2006

NEW BOOKS AND GRAPHIC NOVELS

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

HANK KETCHAM’S COMPLETE DENNIS THE MENACE 1953-1954 by Hank Ketcham

672 pages, black-and-white, 5 1/2” x 6 1/4” • $24.95; more in Canada • ISBN 1-56097-725-6

This second volume of Hank Ketcham's Complete Dennis the Menace publishes every single panel strip from 1953 and 1954 in one handsome and thick little hardcover volume resembling a Big Little Book on steroids. Dennis is relatively unusual among love-lived strips in that after its first couple of years, it achieved its definitive look (Peanuts for instance was still morphing toward the end of its first decade). And although Ketcham had not yet added any of Dennis’s friends (such as Margaret and Joey), an elderly neighboring couple (him cranky, her sweet) begins to appear now and again … poor George and Martha Wilson, little do they realize what’s in store for them! Introductory essay by R.C. Harvey.

 

The following is the cover, although it's a tif image (we'll see if it comes up or not; you might need Quicktime plugin to see it).

[Allen Ross-migration]

Hey, Al Wiseman fans! This week's CBR Oddball Comics column has an overview of a comic book premium for Top Value stamps called "The Adventures Of Toppie The Top Value Elephant", with art by Al. It includes several images from that book. Check it out!

 

Here's the cover:

[Wiseguy-migration]

WOW!

I have never seen or heard of these drawings before.

It took me a while to get over the shock.

Very cool!

 

 

JRW

[BillyBatson4360]

Great find!

 

I found this part of the article about Toppie to be the most interesting:

 

Cartoonist Al Wiseman (and his writer/partner Fred Toole) primarily worked in the advertising industry, occasionally moonlighting in the funnybook field (on titles such as Magazine Enterprises' CLUBHOUSE RASCALS).

 

I have always loved the very limited run of Clubhouse Rascals at ME (having been exposed to the strip as a kid through the I-W reprints). I always thought the strip's style bore a resemblance to Dennis the Menace and now I know why!

 

Yet another title to collect if you are a Wiseman fan! I posted a page from one of the Clubhouse Rascals comics a while back. In case you missed it, here it is again:

 

 

Now, I will go back through my long boxes and see if I can find a better example that looks more like Wiseman.

 

What say, Jim? Do you recognize AW's hand in the above work?

[Wiseguy-migration]

Hey Billy,

a few things stand out in the page above.

Mostly the way my father drew the words.

The use of a silhouette frame, the roundness of the ears and heads.

That being said, If I did not know that was my fathers work, I would say it was someone who drew an awful lot like him.

I still don't have any copies of the Clubhouse Rascals, guess I'll have to keep an eye on Ebay.

 

 

JRW

[BillyBatson4360]

Well, according to the article, AW drew "Clubhouse Rascals' prior to joining the Ketchum studio, so his style was still evolving (look at the early Dennis comics compared to the middle and end of his run).

 

I think I have all of the Clubhouse Rascals stuff either in original issues or in reprints, so I will try to post some scans in the near future.

 

But, we are about to head out of town from Thanksgiving, so it may be a while before I can dig down in the "Vault o' Comics" and retrieve the long box in question.

[Bill Wray-migration]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:US:11&item=6583336447 Edited November 27, 2005 by Bill Wray

[Wiseguy-migration]

Hey Bill, Typical page for DTM by AW.

Damn, now I gotta go shake my piggybank.

Compare that page to the "Kelly" above and you see a lot of similarities.

Geez, at 150 a page, that's 50 dollars more than it originally cost to draw.

(but that was 1950's money).

 

 

JRW

[ComicBookGuy]

Dennis the Menace Giant #11:

 

 

It's great to see everyone posting here still. I've been meaning to get back to posting daily for a while, but things are busy lately.

 

It's great to see Bill Wray back - and everyone else. Hopefully you'll stick around, Bill.

 

I posted the Dennis Giant #11 above here to compare it to this box of Dennis greeting cards I got on eBay. This set is in the original box and contains all the original cards with their envelopes. My guess is it's from the same time as the comic.

 

 

While they're similar poses, they're not the same picture.

[ComicBookGuy]

Here are some of the cards:

 

[Timulty]

OT- You know when I saw the name of this thread, I imagined a pumped up Dennis the Menace ripping Wolvering in half!!!!

[ComicBookGuy]

OT- You know when I saw the name of this thread, I imagined a pumped up Dennis the Menace ripping Wolvering in half!!!!

 

 

Sorry to let you down. Maybe current Dennis artists Ron Ferdinand or Marcus Hamilton are reading this (my understanding is they read this thread) and can start a storyline of that. Who knows? Maybe it would pull in all the X-Men fans and make them Dennis fans. When Marvel owned the rights to the Dennis comics back in the early 1980s, they did a Dennis / Spider-man story, so it's not too far-fetched...

 

 

Then again...

[ComicBookGuy]

I didn't buy this but spotted it on eBay this past summer. Apparently Hank Ketcham illustrated this 1954 children's book by Jean Kelleher called We Learn to Play: