Al Wiseman Blog

Gas Buggy Gamblers Poster (Part 2)

bill@billalger.com (Bill Alger) — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 00:16:00 +0000

Bah. I've got a cold and haven't the strength to babble on and on incoherently about this swell Al Wiseman artwork.

Which is good news for you!

Enjoy the silence while you can...

"Dear Mr. Disney"

bill@billalger.com (Bill Alger) — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 18:14:00 +0000

Previously, we've posted artwork that lil' Al Wiseman drew as a boy showing how he was influenced by a certain Walter Elias Disney, founder of the "Walt Disney Studios" (a little known animation company which flourished for a time during Al's childhood).

Here we present a letter twelve-year-old Al (then using his step-father's last name) sent to Mr. Disney requesting a job. So what happened next? History is somewhat unclear on this matter.

What I'd like to believe is that Walter Disney immediately jumped at the chance to have talented young Al employed at his studio. But quick-thinking Al had a change of heart. Why would he want to become just another faceless cog-in-the-machine and take on projects to which he could never sign his name? No, that would never do.

So Alvin went back to his schoolwork and continued plotting ways to make a name for himself in the cartooning world.

Well, at least that's what I'd like to believe...

A special thanks to Teresa Tersol-Wiseman for the scan of Al's letter!

Al's Childhood Drawings:
Part 1/Part 2/Part 3

Dennis the Menace On Safety (Part 4)

bill@billalger.com (Bill Alger) — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 02:10:00 +0000

"Dennis" and "Safety". Do those two words really belong together in the same sentence? And just what does Dennis know about safety anyway?

Well, as today's two cartoon panels show us, Dennis knows plenty. Or more to the point, Dennis knows how to laugh in the face of un-safety. Why, that boy can lighten up any situation, no matter how grisly or horrific, by using only his cutely inappropriate comic asides!

What a happier world we'd live in, if only we could all be little more like Dennis!

(Oh, and some of the "in-pain" characters strike me as having been penciled by someone other than Wiseman. They just look a bit odd...)

Dennis the Menace On Safety Posts:
Part 1/Part 2/Part 3

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.

We Learn to Play (Part 3)

bill@billalger.com (Bill Alger) — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 02:42:00 +0000

Gather around everyone! Let's see more images from the greatest unheralded childrens' book of all time! We Learn to Play was lovingly drawn by Al Wiseman while he was under the incorrect assumption that his name was "Hank Ketcham."

This was a true tour de force of cataclysmic Wiseman-esqe proportions!

Imagine being a child in the 1950's and owning a copy of this precious book. How lucky you would be! Why, you would carry it around with you everywhere until it fell apart in your hands and your parents had to dispose of it. But you'd never forget!

And now you, dear blog reader, can carry your computer with you everywhere and have these images forever (well, at least until the internet dissolves in your hands).

Above: Notice that the writer of this book, Jean Kelleher Porter, describes herself as a "Specialist in Industrial Recreations and Employee Activities". Why, I bet she made all that stuff up!

Frankly, I think being the "Creator of 'Dennis the Menace'" is a much more impressive job description.

Confessions of a Little Old Lady in Tennis Shoes (Part 8)

bill@billalger.com (Bill Alger) — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 15:14:00 +0000

Well, here we are once again, gazing at a wonderful Al Wiseman drawing from the 1974 book Confessions of a Little Old Lady in Tennis Shoes.

You know, we could spend plenty of quality Al Wiseman Blog time trying to figure out what the heck is going on in this fanciful image. And you might think that we'd gain valuable insight by reading the poem that accompanied it. Unfortunately, the poem is even more inscrutable than the artwork. (Plus, poems from this book tend to give me awful migraine headaches, anyway.)

So let's skip the poem altogether and use our fertile imaginations to conjure up a much better scenario.

Hmmm... Must think...

Well, if your imagination fails you, feel free to just sit back and admire the skillful drawing ability of the omni-talented Mr. Wiseman.

After all, we are not here to judge you, but to help guide you through a richer and more meaningful Al Wiseman viewing experience.

Confessions of a Little Old Lady in Tennis Shoes Posts:
Part 1/Part 2/Part 3/Part 4/Part 5/Part 6/Part 7

The Hearing Book (Part 4)

bill@billalger.com (Bill Alger) — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 01:50:00 +0000

We at the Al Wiseman Blog don't condone nudity in any way, shape, or form. To further elaborate, we consider any nakedness to be an affront to everything pure and morally benign in this world.

But gosh, when Al Wiseman draws nude ladies we just can't help ourselves! So let's cast aside our strict moral values and wallow in the forbidden sights (at least until the shame of our actions catch up with us and leads us to our eventual repentance). Oh, it's an endless cycle...

But will someone please explain to me what an early '60s Kurt Schaffenberger-drawn Lois Lane is doing wandering around all naked in a 1980 Al Wiseman-created nudist colony? Is she there on an undercover assignment for the Daily Planet? If so, shouldn't she actually be under some covers or something?

Well, I feel ashamed for looking already...

The Hearing Book:
Part 1/Part 2/Part 3

Dennis the Menace Coloring Books (Part 3) by Joe B.

bill@billalger.com (Bill Alger) — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 01:11:00 +0000

(Note: We're lucky today to be graced with the presence of yet another excellent post by distinguished Dennis the Menace collectables expert Joe B.

Joe's gonna tell us about a swell coloring book that's so full of great black & white Al Wiseman images that you'll be tempted to take out your crayons and start coloring your computer screen! But don't- you'll get everything all waxy.

Thanks Joe!)

(Above: The 29 cent edition of this book)

Dennis the Menace 1962 Coloring Book
by Joe B.

Coloring books, since Bill brought them up, will be the topic today. Like the game and toy of my previous posts, the coloring book I'll be discussing has a beautiful Al Wiseman cover. That alone is worth this write-up. I could just stop here, but I won't.

Not only is the cover by Al, but the entire coloring book is drawn by him. The drawings appear to be made especially for this book, and, to my knowledge, have never been reprinted. Unlike many of the coloring books that contain large versions of daily cartoon reprints for kids to color, this coloring book tells a continuous story in large, full-page panels. Not only that, but there are two versions of this rare coloring book.

There are tons of Dennis coloring books out there, and just when I think I have them all, I discover another one. For the record, I have indexed 24 coloring books that exist so far. The one that Bill has posted pictures from I have never seen, so that would be #25.

Let's start with the more expensive version of the coloring book. Published by Watkins-Strathmore Company, it was a whopping 29 cents back in 1962. This coloring book contains 83 different full-page panels, each drawn by Wiseman. The story all takes place on a single Saturday: Dennis wakes his parents up early, eats, "helps" his dad wash the family car (with the car windows open), annoys the Wilsons, goes to town with his dad, goes on a boat ride with his dad & gets him soaked, then visits a pet store with Joey and buys a pet skunk for the Wilsons. In all, it is not a very memorable story but is a clever idea.

(Above: The 10 cent edition of this book)

What is the difference between the two books? If you look at the upper-right-hand corner of the coloring books, you can see the prices with the catalog numbers above them. The only differences between the book covers are those. The big book is squarebound with 83 panels and is #1838 for 29 cents, and the smaller book with 23 panels is #1800-7 for 10 cents. The story makes sense in the 83 panel version, and it seems no thought was given to the story in the smaller version as there is no flow to the story. Unless you are a completist, the smaller version only has a portion of the larger book, so if you want only one, you should seek out the larger edition.

How hard are these to get? I see them appear maybe once a year on eBay, and they can go for up to $15, depending on who's bidding and the condition.

So, I hope I have been able to show through these past several posts that the Dennis merchandise Al worked on represents some of his finest artwork during his peak years.

-Joe B.
Ultimate Dennis the Menace Thread
Joe B. posts:
Real Action Toy
Pressman Paint Set

Dennis the Menace Coloring Book Posts:
Part 1/Part 2

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.

Syva

bill@billalger.com (Bill Alger) — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 16:19:00 +0000

Well, I don't know what "Syva" is, or what it does. But after seeing this Al Wiseman artwork, I know I'd never use anything else:

I mean, just check out the competition- Syva reveals them to be nothing more than sad, pitiful losers! After one look at their rickety boats and whatnot, you realize that the competition will soon be drowning in their own incompetence (while Syva continues sailing on into a brighter future). You know, Syva even makes Du Pont look like the sorry-ass amateurs that we always suspected they were!

Like I said, I don't know what products or services Syva provide, or even if they're still in business. But from this day forward, my kitchen cabinets will only be stocked with the fine items bearing the trusted Syva logo.

We Learn to Play (Part 2)

bill@billalger.com (Bill Alger) — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 04:10:00 +0000

Since images from the 1954 book We Learn to Play made us all so deliriously giddy yesterday, why wait for more giddyness?

Well, there ain't no good reason whynot. So here's more!

Above: (Page 40) Please look at this drawing and tell me why Al Wiseman is not universally worshipped for his cartooning genius. Will everyone please get with the program already!

Oh, the horse's hide is branded "H/K" for "Hank Ketcham"! (And you just know Al really wanted to write "A/W".)

Hey, what's this:
Above: The cover for a 1965 reprint of We Learn to Play. This version was part of an eight-book series of (unrelated) kids' books published under the umbrella title of "Compton's Beginner's Bookshelf". The only copyright appearing in this book is the original date of 1954. But since a few other books in this series have a 1965 copyright, I'm going with that date...

And, no, the drawing on this version of the cover is not by Al Wiseman. I suppose the editors decided that the Wiseman art was way too dynamic for the youngsters and had to be dulled down by at least 75%.

We Learn to Play (Part 1)

bill@billalger.com (Bill Alger) — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 23:51:00 +0000

Published in 1954 by Encyclopedia Britannica, the stunningly exuberant We Learn to Play was perhaps the best gosh-darn book Hank Ketcham never drew.

Sure, the inside credits read "Illustrations by Hank Ketcham." But the inside credits lie! As you and I can plainly see, the visuals bear the unmistakable stamp of a certain ubiquitous workaholic ghost we know as Mr. Al Wiseman.

The book was pretty much an instruction manual for stumped parents seeking constructive new ways to keep their kids entertained. I'd imagine the tots would be suitably entertained just peering at the exceptional images filling the pages of this volume. It's obvious that Al was having a great time coming up with inventive ways to illustrate the various games and activities described in the text. And by keeping with a limited color-scheme and often letting those colors define the borders of objects, Al was able to tap into his masterful sense of design (which was often overshadowed by his skill with detail).

In fact, of all the non-Dennis projects Al worked on in his long career, this is one of my favorites. Check out the cover! Why, it's wonderfully simple and infectiously joyful:

Now here's the back cover:
Above: Yay! Silhouettes!

Above: Sure, some blogs show you covers. And others may show you back-covers. But how many show you spines?

Charley Jones' Laugh Book Magazine- March 1953 (Part 2)

bill@billalger.com (Bill Alger) — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 17:24:00 +0000

So here's the inside Wiseman art from the March, 1953 issue of Charley Jones' Laugh Book Magazine. If you remember, the cover was way cartoonier than earlier issues. And this also turns out to be true for the spot illustration!

See?

Above: Shouldn't the ice guy's shirt read "Union" instead of "Onion"? (Or is that the joke?)

Mmmm... an Al Wiseman silhouette!

Have I mentioned that Al Wiseman sometimes drew silhouettes?

Above: Whew! That Mrs. O'Day sure was an undiscriminating little tart, no? Why, she had all the loose morals of a wanton-floozy-she-harlot!

For fun, re-read the above verse, but substitute the names Henry and Alice Mitchell when appropriate...

Wiseman digest mags:

Charley Jones' Laugh Book Magazine:
August 1950: Part 1
March 1951: Part 1/Part 2
April 1951: Part 1/Part 2/Part 3/Part 4
June 1952: Part 1/Part 2
March 1953: Part 1/Part 2
"Pin-Up Stationery" ad: Part 1/Part 2
"The Latrine Gazette" column: Part 1

Smiles:
#45 (January, 1951): Part 1/Part 2

Smiles:
#45 (January, 1951): Part 1/Part 2

Dennis the Menace "Real Action Toy" by Joe B.

bill@billalger.com (Bill Alger) — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 12:20:00 +0000

(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.

Dennis the Menace "Pressman Paint Set" by Joe B.

bill@billalger.com (Bill Alger) — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 17:44:00 +0000

(Note: Two "Yays" today! Yay #1: My site seems to be working now (more or less- the images are still screwing up somewhat). And Yay #2: It's the second in a series of posts by esteemed Dennis the Menace merchandising expert Joe B.!

(I'd like to thank Joe once again for writing so informatively on an aspect of Al Wiseman's career that most of us would never otherwise have the chance to know about- the early rare Dennis collectibles. Plus he sent along some mighty keen images, too!

(Oh, and even more thanks for the kind words Joe has written about me. I didn't put him up to this- Honest!)

Dennis the Menace "Pressman Paint Set"
by Joe B.

For my second post to this amazing and scholarly blog, I want to expound on two points. The first has to do with you, the reader, and the second has to do with Al Wiseman.

If you are reading this blog, you are lucky. It is a labor of love from the world's premier - and only? - Al Wiseman scholar, Bill Alger. I love this site and have read every entry. The only thing that is lacking is how few people respond to the posts. I would love to see more comments from the many readers, and I'm sure Bill would too. Bill does not get paid for this; he does it because he is passionate about comic art, as we all are. I can't speak for him, but personally if I spent hours every day writing a blog for free and there were only a few responses to it, I would stop. That's me. Clearly, Bill is a better man than I am because he hasn't stopped. All I'm saying is, it would be cool if more of you many Wiseman fans joined the party. It would make it a lot more fun, and we would all learn a lot more about Al because everyone, I'm sure, has something to bring to the table.

That being said, what I have here is a rare 1954 Pressman Dennis the Menace Paint Set. I say rare, but of all the Pressman Dennis merchandise that was made in 1954, this is by far the most common. Some of it I have never even seen.

When this came out, Pressman executive Fred Kroll wrote Hank Ketcham and said, "[T]he smashing good artwork you supplied for the boxes [is] the talk of the trade." And today the artwork is still being discussed, fifty-two years later right here. First, try finding one of these sets in nice shape. Can't be done. Yet, as I said in my previous entry, some of the nicest renderings of Dennis ever created were these paintings Al made for the merchandise. It's a shame not many of these are around for more people to enjoy.

What's interesting about the art is that Dennis looks like the old, evil version of the kid, and he is making a huge mess with the paints. It's a wonder any parent would encourage their kids to act like that 'cause we all know who would have to clean up the mess! Yet, somehow the set was a hit, and that is clearly testimony to the popularity of Dennis and the great art on the box.

Opening up the box we can see some interior art and three small paint bottles with little Dennis the Menace heads on them. Again, the art is as good as I have seen on Dennis the Menace. It is Al Wiseman in his prime doing highly polished art for the purpose of breaking Dennis the Menace into the big dollar world of toy merchandising. What's interesting is that there are crayons inside the paint set. Why, I can't say. Even though this set was used, it is rare to find so much of the paint remaining in one of these. Only one of the daily panels was actually painted by the kid who originally owned this.

Pressman would create three versions of this paint set, in addition to two versions of a chalk & slate set, a dentist kit, and two sets of finger paints. Pressman got out of the Dennis business for a while and returned in the 1970s with a set of painting kits, then in 1993 with the board game version of the 1993 Warner Brothers movie. Despite all the modern advances in toys, though, the post-Al Wiseman Pressman items are common and have little-or-no demand among collectors. The ones Al designed, though, are rare, precious, and highly-sought-after collectibles primarily because of the dazzling art that graces the boxes.

-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.

Dennis the Menace Coloring Books (Part 2)

bill@billalger.com (Bill Alger) — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 00:18:00 +0000

Look! It's another image of that pesky Mitchell kid! It's funny how he keeps sneaking into the Al Wiseman Blog, no?

We try to keep him away, but he just won't stop showing up. Maybe he thinks this is the Wilson residence or something...

Oh well, let's use his little visit as an excuse to remind you (yet again) to buy massive amounts of Fantagraphics Dennis books every chance you get. In fact, purchase yourself a nice spacious warehouse or two so you'll have someplace to stack up all your volumes of Dennis daily panel reprints.

Only that, and that alone, will convince Fantagraphics' publisher Gary Groth to saturate the market with Wiseman Dennis reprints. Well, that and your letters and emails.

Here's your daily dose of Wiseman:

Above: From an unknown Dennis the Menace coloring book- it's Dennis and some cute lil' gal-child.

Above: "This is where I live!" claims Dennis. I see no reason to doubt him.

Dennis the Menace Coloring Book Posts:
Part 1/Part 2

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.

The Imported Ticky-Two (Part 1)

bill@billalger.com (Bill Alger) — Tue, 16 May 2006 13:50:00 +0000

Al's oddly titled book, The Imported Ticky-Two, was self-published in 1971 through his Bottoms Up Publishing Company ("It's called Bottoms Up, because we've got no place to go but up"). The publication is chock-full of Al's nicely-drawn gag cartoons ridiculing tiny import cars of the era. But why exactly it's called The Imported Ticky-Two, I can't quite figure out. Is it a play on words? Was there an import car at the time with a name similar to "Ticky-Two"? Is it really incredibly obvious and I'm just brain dead? Perhaps...

Another odd thing is that only one side of each inside page has printing on it (leaving every even-numbered page blank). I guess it was somehow cheaper to print that way?

So many questions...

Below: Page 15

Below: Page 17

The Imported Ticky-Two:
Part 1/Part 2/Part 3/Part 4/Part 5/Part 6/Part 7