Al Meets Dennis the Menace! (Part 4)
About a month ago, I posted the above panel (from Dennis the Menace #30) showing Al Wiseman's "studio". Jim Wiseman (Al's son) commented, "I would like to see a perfect edition of that story, magnified so I could read the book titles in the studio room scene."Well Jim, it's nowhere-near perfect, but here's a magnified view of Al's bookshelf:
Then magnified even further (and turned sideways) so we can attempt to make out the book titles:
Above:1. "Tracing"
2. "Pencil"
3. "Inking"
4. "Erasing"
5. "Mail Away" (?) (Anybody have a less splotchy copy of this panel?)
Above:1. "Drawing"
2. "Drawing Easy"
Above:1. "Draw"
2. "Draw Well"
3. "Cartooning"
4. "Funnies"
Above:1. "Funsies"
2. "How To Draw"
So anyway, that's a closer look at the imaginary books in Al's imaginary 1950's studio. One can only imagine where those books are today...
"Al Meets Dennis the Menace!" posts:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Please order Dennis the Menace books from Fantagraphics (and ask them to reprint the Wiseman Dennis comic books and Sunday strips).
"Dennis the Menace" & related characters (but not Al Wiseman or Fred Toole) are ©Hank Ketcham Enterprises, Inc.
5 Comments:
Thanks for enlarging the page Bill.
Sometimes my dad would sneak in various names and such but this one appears to be straight ahead.
JRW
I know that AW was kind of bitter about toiling away in "anonymity."
But let's give Ketcham his due. Wiseman & Toole were credited on several occasions (this story being only one of them) as being the real creative talent behind the comic book Dennis at a time when Carl Barks work was being passed off as Walt Disney's and John Stanley & Irving Tripp were ghosting for Marge.
Even as a kid I could tell Wiseman's work from the non-Wiseman work in Dennis comics.
Funsies?!
Jim- Please let me know where I can find some of the "sneaked in" names. That would make a cool post.
Billy- You're right. Ketcham didn't try to hide the "ghosts" working for him as did so many other creators/companies. Ketcham seemed fairly generous in comparison. In fact, I recently found an article on Ketcham in a 1956 women's magazine that mentions Wiseman.
Mike- You mean you don't own the legendary Funsies book? As a cartoonist, you really should add it to your library.
Bill, a lot of the "sneaked in" names were usually locally inspired.
The inclusion of a name for public notice, cost a few Rotarians some money in fines!
I would have to see each individual issue to point out the names, but maybe we can explore them bit by bit.
Also, the dipiction of the studio is spot on. The chair, the desk, the file cabinets,the lamp, the pencil sharpener. That's what it looked like.
JRW
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