A Crowded Life in Comics –

Ketcham If You Can

by Rick Marschall

This week is the birthday of Hank Ketcham (March 14, 1920, in Seattle), and we will light a few candles here for the creator of Dennis the Menace.

He was attracted to cartooning early, as goes the story of many greats. He was an animator, first for Walter Lantz, then on famous features with Walt Disney. In the Navy during World War II he created a pint-sized sailor in cartoons and they made their way from service publications to the Saturday Evening Post. Half Hitch was a hit, and Hank’s entry to post-war success as a magazine cartoonist.

In 1951, as the legend goes, his exasperated wife staggered into his studio and said “Our son, Dennis, is a menace.” Serendipity. A character was born… and did not grow up to be a monstrous success for a generation in the funnies, comic books, merchandising, licensing, a TV series. He didn’t grow up, but he did become all those things.

I had a lot of contact with Hank through the years, from fan letters to serving as his editor at Publishers Newspaper Syndicate. He was blessed with a large number of incredibly talented assistants on and off on his projects, panels, and pages. It was one of my tasks as syndicate editor to scout for new talent on his behalf. He was a tough taskmaster, even through his genial writer / assistant Fred Toole, back in Carmel CA.

At the time Hank lived in Geneva. When I was a kid I would hear cartoonists wonder if Hank was high-hatting everyone by living in Switzerland. But I could tell there was a lot of jealousy there. He tightly controlled and directed Dennis the Menace and, believe me, was exacting before, during, and after taking on assistants. He bought gags, too, for as little as $10 per; but he inspired the best writing and artwork, and he self-edited superbly.

My friend Dick Hodgins Jr ghosted the revival of Half Hitch as a strip for King Features, and he attested to Hank as a taskmaster. So did Bob Bugg, whom I knew in Connecticut, when he did the Dennis Sundays – ironically “closing the circle,” because in the 1940s it was Bugg’s style that inspired Hank’s own. The stateside right-hand man Fred Toole was a Christian, and so was Hank, and simply a great guy at every level of contact.

Hank died in Carmel in 2001. His last two assistants are friends who have carried on Dennis the Menace – friends with each other, friends of mine, Christians too… and (after close scrutiny and coaching by the master) terrific legatees of the Ketcham look: Marcus Hamilton on the daily panels; Ron Ferdinand on the Sunday pages.

In my mid-teens I used to hang around John Severin’s studio, and the reserved but earnest cartoonist enjoyed delivering virtual courses, one-on-one, impromptu. He would take down Heinrich Kley books from his shelves, and discuss the drawings; he would give me pointers on anatomy, faces, hands. More than once he pulled out a thick folder of clips of Hank Ketcham’s work. He repeatedly enthused about Ketcham’s lines, yes; but mostly about his eye. What I mean is this – “Ketcham knows what to leave out! He can suggest elements, like kitchen faucets, or things hanging in a garage, and draw the bare minimum… but when you see the drawings you are there!” And he shared clip after clip, some with his own copies in the margins.

Hank, Marcus, and Ron have done sketches for me, too; and I share them here. The Ketcham drawing was an inscription that John Province secured for me; Marcus’s was done during a visit to his studio in Charlotte; and Ron’s is one those terrific annual specialty drawings he produces.

Then… one last keepsake: a photo of two great cartoonists before their names were boldly on our maps of Crowded Lives. Visiting my home in Weston CT around 1982 or so, and in my office, I photographed Jim Scancarelli (before he joined Gasoline Alley, which he has shepherded lovingly and superbly), and Marcus Hamilton before Dennis. How Marcus got the gig is a story in itself: during his illustrator days around 1993 he was watching The 700 Club and Hank Ketcham was a guest. Ketcham mentioned that he was (still!) looking for assistants… and the interview continued.

Marcus knew that his friend Scancarelli had Ketcham’s phone number; he called to Carmel; and soon was flown out for a unique audition. Days in the studio with Hank, sketching, copying, drawing, inking… receiving pointers and “how-to” lessons… and  sketching, copying, drawing, inking, until Hank was happy. Marcus has been drawing the daily Dennis panel ever since.

Captured by the camera down at my desk, we can also see originals on the wall, including the first Pogo; the first and third Blondies; a Harold Gray specialty piece; a Raymond X-9, and such things. (Jim in the first photo; smiling Marcus on the phone.)

Hank, Bugg, Toole, Hodgins, Hamilton, Ferdinand… not a menace among ‘em.

NOTE: In the premier issue of the revived, expanded, full-color NEMO Magazine there will be a feature by Ron Ferdinand and Marcus Hamilton about Hank Ketcham’s style, his instructions and tips to them, and side-by-side examples of Hank’s roughs and finishes.

Also: A Short Conversation with Cartoonist Ron Ferdinand (Dennis the Menace) HERE

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A Short Conversation with Cartoonist Ron Ferdinand (Dennis the Menace)

     

     

“Any smart person who is making humor his profession is out of his mind if he doesn’t depend on good assistants. I can sleep at night without torturing myself.” — Hank Ketcham, May 24, 1999       

     

by John Adcock

HANK KETCHAM saw his first Dennis comic strip appear in newspapers on March 12, 1951, a series still extant 65 years on. Today Marcus Hamilton draws the dailies and Ron Ferdinand the Sundays. What follows is a short conversation I recently had with affable cartoonist Ron Ferdinand, born in Manhattan in 1951, about his background.
         

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Q. First, could you tell me a little about your background before Dennis? Did you have an education in visual arts or any previous employment in the cartooning field?

I attended the School of Visual Arts in the early 70s. Before that, I went to Catholic elementary school and High School where there were ZERO art classes. After SVA, I did a year at The Art Students League studying anatomy with Gustav Rehberger.

Q. Tell me how and when you became an assistant to Hank Ketcham and — if you recall the name — who was the assistant you were replacing? Was Marcus Hamilton already employed in the writing of Dennis the Menace? Did you assist on dailies and Sundays? Who writes the daily and Sunday these days, Marcus Hamilton still?

In 1980, I read an interview with Hank in CARTOONIST PROfiles where he mentioned that he was looking for a couple of assistants to help produce DENNIS. I sent him a few sketches of the characters, which he liked enough to start a correspondence for a few months where he sent me a few gags to rough out and ink. He then flew me out to Monterey (I lived in Queens) for two weeks after which he offered me a job. I worked on the MARVEL comic for a year with two other folks (Karen Matchette and Brian Lum). Bob Bugg was doing the Sundays in Connecticut. Hank had invested in a studio and asked Bob to relocate. Bob was well established in Connecticut with grandchildren nearby and didn’t want to move to California. Hank then put Karen Matchette and myself on the Sundays after he decided to discontinue the comic. Marcus didn’t come on board until ’94 as an artist. You may be thinking of Fred Toole, who was Hank’s writer on the comic books.

Q. When Hank Ketcham (1920-2001) retired in 1994 he gave an interview to a newspaper saying that, although he drew the strip, he hired comedy writers for ideas, ‘otherwise, you settle for mediocrity — or you burn yourself out…’ This may have been in part a reference to Fred Toole. Did all of Ketcham’s assistants submit gags for approval or were they solicited from outside sources?

Hank’s writers were outside sources. He did want the artists to be good editors and sometimes had us pick some gags and defend our choices.

Q. You started employment with Hank in 1980. How long did it take before you began to see your inks in print?

Actually, I started in September ’81. I came in on Marvel comic #5 or #6. There were 12 in all. I started on the Sundays in ’82. This was when, as I said, Bob Bugg had decided not to relocate to California. My first Sundays probably appeared in early ’83. I’m not too sure, but Bob had been several months ahead. Hank would give me a daily to do every now and then but he had designated me as a Sunday artist. There was also a bit of merchandising work going on which we helped on.

Q. When I was a kid, all of the Canadian newspapers carried a colored comic section on Saturdays — today there are none that I’m aware of. Sunday comics these days appear to have more of a presence on the web. Do you find yourself spending much more time promoting Dennis through social media and personal appearances?

Well, where I live, in upstate New York, the Sunday Dennis is available in three local papers. I recently did a presentation to a 3rd grade class, most of whom probably weren’t familiar with Dennis. The week before I spoke, the teacher prepped the class with YouTube vids of the Dennis cartoons, comic books and newspaper clippings of the Sundays. By the time I got there, the kids were so pumped for Dennis they were jumping out of their seats. I surmise from this that, given even a minimum amount of exposure, he could hold his own against most of today’s competition. There’s such a wealth of Dennis history in all mediums that, when it comes down to it, Dennis the Menace really has few equals.

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Dennis the Menace daily and Sunday strips HERE.