Dennis #42- Meet Al, Fred & Hank!

A little while ago, we took a look at a story from Dennis the Menace #30 (September, 1958). In that harrowing tale, we saw our hero, Al Wiseman, meet some pesky blonde-haired kid named Dennis who invaded his studio and cruelly started chopping up his precious artwork! The nerve of that kid. (Never mind that Al himself actually took the scissors to his own originals at times- perhaps Dennis inspired him!)

Today we peek inside Dennis the Menace #42 (May, 1960) and find some honest-to-goodness photos of Al & Fred! (Oh, then there's a photo of some guy named Hank. Apparently he also had something to do with Dennis the Menace.)

Below: Cartoonist Al Wiseman at the drawing board. Hey, there's no concentric circles in his eyeglasses! I guess that means the way Al drew himself in the Dennis story was somewhat less than photorealistic...
Below: Fred Toole attempting to write another classic Dennis the Menace story. (And he could finish it, too, if only that photographer would get out of his face.)

Below: Be the first kid on your block to become a talented cartoonist and work for Hank Ketcham's funnybook studio! (After plenty of practice, that is...)

Below: Keen stuff about Al & Fred!

Well, some of the facts seem a bit off in this article. Even though the Dennis comic book started in 1953, Al had already been working in Hank's studio (drawing the Dennis Sunday strip) for about a year by then. Maybe the writer felt the need to simplify things for this feature? Or maybe Hank just didn't want the children of America to know that he wasn't actually drawing the Sunday comic?

Sadly, we shall never know....

As far as the studio assistants mentioned, I've heard of Bruce Ariss. But "girl Friday" Tuesday Smith? Who was she and why don't we know more about her? What a swell name!



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 are ©Hank Ketcham Enterprises, Inc.