Dennis the Menace "Real Action Toy" by Joe B.
(Note: This is a special edition of The Al Wiseman Blog written by Dennis the Menace merchandising expert Joe B. Joe has a massive collection of Dennis material and a near-encyclopedic knowledge of the lil' Menace's history. Plus he started The Ultimate Dennis the Menace Thread, which brought together a large assortment of Dennis fans (and inspired me to finally get going on this site). Oh, and he's also a great guy!
As you will soon find out, Joe has been kind enough to give us some insight today on one of the coolest and earliest of the Dennis collectibles: The "Real Action Toy" squirt gun. Thanks for the swell post, Joe- hope there will be more in the future!)
The Dennis the Menace "Real Action Toy"
by Joe B.
First, I want to thank Bill Alger for starting this site and also for inviting me to post. Many of you know me as ComicBookGuy on the CGC forums and Ultimate Dennis the Menace Thread. As you may also know, I've been doing lots of research on Dennis the Menace for a while and am currently completing a book on the subject. It's great to see Bill C. and JRW still posting away as the UDTM Thread has slowed down a bit lately. At this point, this is The Place to hang out for AW info, and when I have a post related to AW, I will send them to Bill for this site and save the non-AW Dennis stuff for the UDTM Thread.
The first topic I'd like to address is Al's artwork on Dennis the Menace merchandise.
When looking at the whole body of AW's work on Dennis, I have found that some of his most spectacular art embellished the many Dennis products that hit the market in the early 1950s. Following the first wave of adult-oriented merchandise from Monogram of California, the next wave targeted children since the creators of Dennis the Menace realized that their real market was not with adults but with kids. The Real Action Toy was the first toy ever developed by Hank Ketcham Enterprises, but was not the first to appear on the market. The first to appear seems to be the evil-looking doll manufactured by Glad Toys in 1953.
Above: The "evil" Glad Toys Dennis (Not by Wiseman!)
When the Real Action Toy appeared in 1954, it had the distinction of featuring seven pictures of Dennis on the box, all drawn by Al Wiseman: six on the side and one large image on the front. See for yourself, but I have found the art on the toys to be much more carefully rendered and more polished than any single panel or comic cover done by AW.
Clearly toys sold for much more than comics did and Ketcham and company seem to have taken their entrance into the world of toys very seriously. In fact, the only Dennis paintings by AW I have seen are on the covers to toy boxes. Therefore, discovering the art AW did on the many 1950s toys opens up a whole new world of this great artist's body of work for fans to discover.
-Joe B.
Ultimate Dennis the Menace Thread
Joe B. posts:
Real Action Toy
Pressman Paint Set
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.
As you will soon find out, Joe has been kind enough to give us some insight today on one of the coolest and earliest of the Dennis collectibles: The "Real Action Toy" squirt gun. Thanks for the swell post, Joe- hope there will be more in the future!)
The Dennis the Menace "Real Action Toy"
by Joe B.
First, I want to thank Bill Alger for starting this site and also for inviting me to post. Many of you know me as ComicBookGuy on the CGC forums and Ultimate Dennis the Menace Thread. As you may also know, I've been doing lots of research on Dennis the Menace for a while and am currently completing a book on the subject. It's great to see Bill C. and JRW still posting away as the UDTM Thread has slowed down a bit lately. At this point, this is The Place to hang out for AW info, and when I have a post related to AW, I will send them to Bill for this site and save the non-AW Dennis stuff for the UDTM Thread.
The first topic I'd like to address is Al's artwork on Dennis the Menace merchandise.
When looking at the whole body of AW's work on Dennis, I have found that some of his most spectacular art embellished the many Dennis products that hit the market in the early 1950s. Following the first wave of adult-oriented merchandise from Monogram of California, the next wave targeted children since the creators of Dennis the Menace realized that their real market was not with adults but with kids. The Real Action Toy was the first toy ever developed by Hank Ketcham Enterprises, but was not the first to appear on the market. The first to appear seems to be the evil-looking doll manufactured by Glad Toys in 1953.
Above: The "evil" Glad Toys Dennis (Not by Wiseman!)When the Real Action Toy appeared in 1954, it had the distinction of featuring seven pictures of Dennis on the box, all drawn by Al Wiseman: six on the side and one large image on the front. See for yourself, but I have found the art on the toys to be much more carefully rendered and more polished than any single panel or comic cover done by AW.
Clearly toys sold for much more than comics did and Ketcham and company seem to have taken their entrance into the world of toys very seriously. In fact, the only Dennis paintings by AW I have seen are on the covers to toy boxes. Therefore, discovering the art AW did on the many 1950s toys opens up a whole new world of this great artist's body of work for fans to discover.
-Joe B.
Ultimate Dennis the Menace Thread
Joe B. posts:
Real Action Toy
Pressman Paint Set
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.
2 Comments:
Joe:
Great to see what I hope is the first of many such posts on Dennis merchandise!
Hopefully, my freelance writing assignments will taper off in the next few weeks and I can finally get to the blog entry I promised Mr. A lo, those many days ago.
Hey Bill,
Looking forward to seeing your post when you get a chance between the freelance jobs. And if you'd like to start out with a different (less time intensive) post first, that would be swell too!
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