Wheres Dennis? The Magazine Cartoon Art of Hank Ketcham

by Hank Ketcham, Shane Glines (Editor), Alex Chun (Editor)

Although best known as one of the greatest syndicated cartoonists of the twentieth 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.


Like many young cartoonists of his era, Ketcham spent much of WWII drawing. As a Navy man, he created food conservation and "Jap-bashing" posters during the day, and at night, he moonlighted as a magazine gag cartoonist producing primarily war-themed gag cartoons, including the regular feature "Half Hitch" for the Saturday Evening Post. At the end of his tour, he turned down a chance to return to a guaranteed job at Disney. As it turned out, the siren song of magazine cartooning, which at the time was considered one of the pinnacles of the applied arts, proved just too strong. For the next five years, he was a regular contributor to True, Colliers, and the Saturday Evening Post. On the rare occasion, he even made it into The New Yorker, whose ranks at the time included Peter Arno, James Thurber, and Charles Addams.


Collected for the first time are hundreds of Ketcham's long forgotten magazine cartoons. Together they provide a rare glimpse into what would later become one the most beloved comics to grace the comics pages.

Genres: Comics

200 pages, Paperback

First published October 22, 2007

About the author

Henry King "Hank" Ketcham was an American cartoonist who created the Dennis the Menace comic strip, writing and drawing it from 1951 to 1994, when he retired from drawing the daily page and took up painting full time in his studio at his home. He received the Reuben Award for the strip in 1953. The strip continues today in the hands of other artists.

Reviews

[Jon Nakapalau]

It is always interesting to look at the evolution of an iconic character. This book gives you an in depth look at the creator of Dennis the Menace - Hank Ketcham - and how he came up with his most famous creation. The sad backstory is the relationship Ketcham had with his real son - the inspiration for Dennis the Menace.

[Paul]

A short but enjoyable package, and it was interesting to see Ketcham's work before he began his Dennis the Menace strip. Ketcham is one of those artists that I undersold for years. True, I felt fondly for him, but only because the Dennis strips were such a part of my childhood, getting the Sunday paper, devouring the comic strips, and in the Des Moines Register the Dennis strips were always first...the top of page one, so they're lodged in my memory.

It wasn't until a couple years back when Fantagraphics began releasing the complete Dennis the Menace strips that I discovered what a fabulous artist Ketcham was, and also what a looker his mom was originally.

Over the years, though, and certainly by the time I began reading the strip, Ketcham tamed down the strip and opened up the artwork to appeal to a wider audience. Can't blame him for that, but I still like the early stuff the best, and the material in this book is as early as it gets.

[John]

Hilarious, but (and this is just me speaking) suffers from a lack of organization or historical context. I would have liked to have known where and when each cartoon originally appeared. Reproduction quality also varies widely.

[Brad Campbell]

A great collection of pre-Dennis the Menace cartoons by Hank Ketcham.

[Monique]

As a child, I used to read over and over again, two small paperback collections of the cartoon "Dennis the Menace". They were ones that my Dad had in his collection from his University days - maybe a gift or he picked them to help practice his English (he was a Dutch immigrant). They never failed to make me laugh and I was always intrigued how such a little boy could cause such a huge amount of trouble. "LOL" So when I came across this title, I was interested in learning more about Hank Ketcham and his career, and this small book does a great job showcasing his earlier cartoons, as well as how he used some of them for his Dennis comic strip.