The Ultimate Dennis the Menace Thread 3 3

[Allen Ross-migration]

Hey, Joe! Thanks for posting these.

 

If you have a digital camera, you might be able to get the second image of the pinback using that. It was very cool seeing it in person!

 

After I talked to you, I did manage to pick up three more Dennis comics (72, 78, and Giant 49) at the con, so I'm down to needing 3 DTM, 7 Giants, 1 Friends, and 4 Pocket Full Funs to complete my non-promo comics.

 

What other products did Dennis endorse? I know Dairy Queen was the biggie, and Sears Catalog, but what else?

[ComicBookGuy]

Just off the top of my head, in this thread we've seen Dennis promoting

US Savings Bonds

Encyclopedia Britannica

Cream of Wheat

A&W Root Beer

Del Monte

Schaeffer Pen

Unicef

Red Cross

Sears

Carpet Care

Rhuli Jelly

Kellogg's Raisin Bran, Rice Krispies, and Corn Flakes

Morning Funnies Cereal

Dairy Queen (for thirty years)

I'm sure there's more.

 

Allen, post your list of comics you need here. What better place to find them than here! I'm sure someone has them.

[balger-migration]

Hey Joe,

Glad to see you've resumed posting cool Dennis items on this thread!

 

And thanks for writing today's post (about the Dennis the Menace "Real Action Toy") over at the Al Wiseman Blog. It's a great read!

[ag644-migration]

Hi, all,

I've been lurking on this fascinating and funfilled thread so long, I thought it was high time I stepped up and said hello--and thanked all the thread's contributors for sharing so many great items. I've no doubt your enthusiasm will fan the flames of the ever growing Dennis / Al Wiseman fandom.

 

Although I certainly didn't know his name then, I've been an Al Wiseman fan since I picked up my first Dennis annual as a kid in the 60s. Now that I've got a little six year old of my own, I've had a chance to revisit some of my childhood favorites through her eyes. (She's six, but I've been reading Dennis comics to her for at least three years now, so she's a something of a veteran fan herself.) She loves the comics, but is a bit amazed at the independence Dennis is allowed. I tried to explain to her that in the era in which the stories were written, it was not unheard of for a kid to wander around his or her neighborhood unsupervised. I might as well have described how kids flew through the air on their own power back in the day for all the credibility I had. When we read a story in which Dennis' folks actually LEFT him home alone while they went out to dinner--no, wait a minute, Dennis wasn't alone, he was with Joey, who he was supposed to BABYSIT! Boy, those really were different times!

 

With the holiday season upon us, I'm really looking forward to poring over the 1955-65 Christmas specials with my daughter. The stories and art in those are so outstanding. As in the vacation books, Toole and Wiseman have a way of really zeroing in on and capturing the essence of their setting, be it a Hawaiian luau, the halls of congress, or a trip to Dolman's Department store during the busy holiday shopping season.

 

Speaking of which, Here's a classic splash page that should get us all in the holiday spirit, even if it is not yet Halloween!

Edited October 20, 2006 by ag644

[ag644-migration]

Hmmm...looks like the illo didn't get posted. Let me try that again...

[ComicBookGuy]

Welcome to the forums! It's always great to see new Dennis fans dropping in. It's also great to hear about kids - any kids - reading comics.

Here's the picture you were trying to post:

 

 

Wiseman's attention to detail is amazing and always meticulously rendered. At the top we can see the "Fred Toole Complicators" an in-joke about writer Fred Toole making Al's life so miserable by scripting such complicated scenes for him to draw. (I would imagine.) Thanks for sharing!

 

By the way, if you haven't checked it out yet, be sure to see Bill Alger's great Al Wiseman blog at

www.alwiseman.com

Great stuff!!!

[Allen Ross-migration]

Time to awaken this thread again.

 

I found a reference to this in The Beat. Dennis crosses over with The Fight Club . Definitely strange. I never saw the movie, so I probably don't get most of this.

[Allen Ross-migration]

According to Diamond Comics latest shipping list, HANK KETCHAM'S COMPLETE DENNIS THE MENACE 1955-1956 HC will be out in comic shops tomorrow, November 22nd.

 

I still haven't scanned in my favorites from the last one!

[Allen Ross-migration]

There are online versions of two of the Dennis promotional comics at the Comics With Problems web site.

 

Here are both versions of Dennis the Menace Takes a Poke at Poison.

 

And here is Dennis the Menace Coping with Family Stress (which I hadn't read until now).

[COMICLINK]

I just noticed this thread, which is a coincidence because we have the earliest knownDennis the Menace Sunday page in our auction staring January 25.  I never knew itexisted until it was consigned to auction, so I thought you Dennis fans might like to seeit, if not bid on it.  http://www.comiclink.com/auctions/item.asp?back=%2Fauctions%2Fpreview%2Easp%3Fcode%3D2007jan25%26itemtype%3D1%23Item%5F661969&id=661969">Clickhere to see the image

Josh Nathanson, President

www.comiclink.com.

 

 

 

[Allen Ross-migration]

A long time ago in this thread, Morning Funnies cereal was mentioned.

 

I recently ran across my (empty) box of #3, the only one with had Dennis on the box top (I think all had an actual strip on the back), and scanned it.

 

Here is the front of the box, with the box top too (I flattened it out):

 

 

and here is the back, with the strip:

 

 

I think the strip was created especially for this.

[BIGJON-migration]

I am selling a copy of this book autographed on ebay now.

 

Item #160090037230

 

<p><b>Image #1</b><br>

<img src="http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2007-2/1246382/DSC00011.JPG">

<p><b>Image #2</b><br>

<img src="http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2007-2/1246382/DSC00014.JPG">

 

I have had this in my family for a long time and an happy to offer it to someone who can treasure it in their collection!

 

Thanks for your time,

Jonathan

[Allen Ross-migration]

I've got good news and bad news. The good news is, if you have delayed getting the Complete Dennis books, Amazon is currently having a great sale on them.

 

Hank Ketcham's Complete Dennis the Menace 1951-1954 Box Set (new) is now $7.99 (no kidding).

 

Hank Ketcham's Complete Dennis the Menace 1951-1952 (new) is now $4.99. So is Hank Ketcham's Complete Dennis the Menace 1955-1956.

 

The bad news is, if Amazon is selling these so cheaply, are they not selling well? Plus it's been so long since the last volume was released.

 

However, on that front, more good news: Amazon does list Hank Ketcham's Complete Dennis the Menace 1957-1958 (Vol. 4) as coming out on Dec 19, 2007. There is even a cover for it, so it doesn't appear to be a phantom book. Let's see if I can imbed it below:

 

 

(Boy, it's been slow here recently. And nothing new on the Al Wiseman blog this year. Any Dennis fans left?)

[Allen Ross-migration]

I was leafing through Previews this weekend, when I was surprised to find a new book listed in the Fantagraphics section: Where's Dennis?: The Magazine Cartoon Art of Hank Ketcham on page 299. 200 pages $19.95, due August 15, 2007.

 

I hadn't seen any publicity on this book. And it still isn't listed on Fantagraphics web site. But I did find more details at Amazon:

 

Although best known as one of the greatest syndicated cartoonists of the 20th Century, Dennis the Menace creator Henry "Hank" Ketcham also spent nearly a decade as a gag cartoonist for major New York magazines like Colliers and the Saturday Evening Post.

 

In these gag cartoons, which were primarily published between 1942 and 1950, one can already see the endearing troublemaker that would become the protagonist in his long-running strip. (In fact, in his Dennis the Menace cartoons, Ketcham reused some of the gags and images almost verbatim.) Influenced by Virgil Partch and other artists he met during his early days at Disney animation and as an artist banging on doors in New York, Ketcham's trademark visual humor and unerring line work are also very evident in these pre-Dennis cartoons.

 

Collected for the first time are hundreds of Ketcham's long forgotten magazine cartoons.

[ag644-migration]

After perusing this thread for at least two years, I just ran across the massive checklist to the Dennis Giants issues. What a massive amount of research--and how nice that you undertook it so that none of the rest of us ever has to!

 

The only question I had was your attribution of Al Wiseman as artist on Dennis Giant #33, "Dennis the Menace in California." While I've always liked that issue, and I agree that the artwork is first rate throughout, I simply don't think it's Wiseman. Take a close look at the page layout, the rendering of the figures, and, especially, the lettering and logos, and see if you don't agree that the elegant cohesiveness and crisp design snap that were hallmarks of Wiseman's mature style are somewhat lacking here. Look at the figures of the Mitchells, and also at any of the background characters, all of whom are drawn with a lack of detail that would be unusual for Wiseman, who was known for injecting a particularity into every face--whether a central character or "extra."

 

The background scenery is competently rendered, if somewhat pedestrian, and looks like photo reference sketches, as opposed to the distinctive brand of cartoony realism that Wiseman brought to his vistas of Hawaii, Washington, DC and Hollywood in the earlier vacation specials. Again, they aren't bad drawings--they just don't take your breath away the way Al's invariably do in those earlier books.

 

Finally, the lettering is another giveaway: the dialogue lettering is certainly not up to Wiseman's usual standard. Even more telling is the lack of zing in the chapter titles, none of which seem to posess that trademark crackle that Al always brought to his title calligraphy. Equally revealing is the pedestrian way that the various sound effects graphics are handled throughout the book. The witty integration of sound effects words with his pictures was a key design trademark of Wiseman's work from the very start of his tenure on Dennis--none of which is on display here.

 

So, lacking any definitive authority, I'd be inclined to attribute this as a non-Wiseman issue, but I'd welcome input from others. And I'd also be happy to be corrected if anyone has evidence that Wiseman did in fact work on this one.

[Wiseguy-migration]

I just reread #33.

In my opinion, I can only see my fathers work in the first 13 to 15 pages.

After that, you are correct, something is not right.

I went to Yosemite with my father in the mid 60's. I remember the firefalls.

I can't give a good explanation as to why the rest of the book is different in style.

I can try and ask around. I will let you know if I find anything.

 

Jim Wiseman

[Allen Ross-migration]

I happened across this page recently, and thought I'd share it: Humorous Quotes attributed to Dennis The Menace

 

A few of my favorites:

"Don't ever hold a grudge, ... Just belt them and forget about it."

"How come I always get blamed for everything I do ?"

"I'm shinin' all my Dad's left shoes for nothin' ! Then I'll charge him a dime each to do the right ones."

[bronzilla]

Happy to see this thread ressurected! It gave me a excuse to post two of my favorite comic digests.

I have been collecting the Pocket full of Fun digests for years off and on and I am down to missing only 4 or 5 issues if I remember correctly. There are 50 in the set.The first few issues specifically #1 are really tuff and rarely come up for sale. That has been my experience anyway.Once I finish this set, I would love to go after the Dennis travel issues!

Here are the first 2 in this set

[ag644-migration]

I was preparing a stack of old Dennis comics for CGC slabbing over the summer when I ran across a genuine anomoly that I thought I'd share with you: a variant printing of Dennis #11 that was issued without a Comics Code Authority seal on the cover!

 

I did a quick inventory of my other early Dennis issues and discovered that the CCA emblem first appeared on Dennis #9, and was carried on every issue thereafter, including all other copies of #11 I've ever seen. I have no idea how many copies of this variant #11 exist, but given how few copies of this comic you see even with the code seal, I'm guessing these are fairly scarce.

 

Does anyone else have one of these?

 

[ag644-migration]

Hi, fellow Dennis fanatics,

 

Just wanted to let you know that I just launched a slew of eBay auction listings that include plenty of nice old Wiseman era Dennis books, many of them CGC slabbed and certified, including a nice run of the early Christmas annuals with all those signature Wiseman/Toole holiday tales that make the season for many of us.

 

The easiest way to access my current slate of auctions is to search my eBay seller name, bg533, or simply go directly to this link, which should accomplish the same thing:

 

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZbg533

 

I've still got a near full run of the Wiseman era monthy books as well as a few more annuals comin up in future auctions, many of them slabbed, so keep an eye on my listings through the end of 07 and into the early months of 2008.

 

I've also got a ton of unslabbed reading copies of the first 100 or so issues of the monthly title, so if anyone's interested, let me know!

 

Happy browsing!

 

Edited November 15, 2007 by ag644