Description: 6x4 Card with a hand drawn sketch of Dennis the Menace and Donald Duck signed "For Toni Hank Ketcham" in black ink. Excellent condition. (1920-2001) 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 cartoon and took up painting full-time in his home studio. In 1953, he received the Reuben Award for the strip, which continues today in the hands of other cartoonists. Ketcham started in the business as an assistant animator for Walter Lantz and, starting in 1939, for Walt Disney, where he worked on Pinocchio, Fantasia, Bambi, and several Donald Duck shorts. During World War II, Ketcham was a photographic specialist with the U.S. Navy Reserve. He also created the character Mr. Hook for the Navy during World War II, and four cartoons were made (one by Walter Lantz Productions, in color, and three by Warner Bros. Cartoons, in black and white). Also while in the Navy, he began a camp newspaper strip, Half Hitch, which ran in The Saturday Evening Post beginning in 1943. By 1944, his freelance cartoons were running in Collier's and Liberty magazines. After World War II, Ketcham settled in Carmel, California, and began work as a freelance cartoonist. He built a two-bedroom redwood house and studio in Carmel Woods. In 1951, he started Dennis the Menace, based on his own four-year-old son Dennis. Ketcham was in his studio in October 1950, when his first wife, Alice, burst into the studio and complained that their four-year-old, Dennis, had wrecked his bedroom instead of napping. "Your son is a menace," she shouted. Within five months, 16 newspapers began carrying the adventures of the impish but innocent "Dennis the Menace". By May 1953, 193 newspapers in the United States and 52 in other countries were carrying the strip to 30 million readers. By 1955, Ketcham moved from his Carmel cottage to upper Carmel Valley, where he purchased the former 61.2 acres (24.8 ha) Fred Wolferman ranch, only 40 minutes from the Monterey Peninsula. The Spanish adobe home on the Carmel Valley property was designed by architect Hugh W. Comstock with bitudobe brick. On the edge of the orchard was a Victorian ranch house for the foreman and his family, designed by architect Wilson Mizner. In 1958, Dennis Play Products, Inc., was created by Ketcham to distribute toys, which included the Dennis the Menace Doll, Ruff Dog, and Banshee Ball. Between 1959 and 1964 Dennis the Menace was broadcast on CBS television, based on the Ketcham comic strip. The show was a great success. In 1970 King Features Syndicate revived Ketcham's wartime strip Half Hitch as a newspaper comic. The strip was published under Ketcham's name, although it was drawn and written by others. The new version of Half Hitch ran until 1975. Comes with a full Letter of Authenticity from Todd Mueller Authentics.
Price: 80 USD
Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado
End Time: 2024-11-04T16:39:11.000Z
Shipping Cost: 12 USD
Product Images
Item Specifics
Restocking Fee: No
Return shipping will be paid by: Buyer
All returns accepted: Returns Accepted
Item must be returned within: 14 Days
Refund will be given as: Money Back
Signed by: Hank Ketcham
Signed: Yes
Autograph Authentication: Yes
Original/Reproduction: Original
Country/Region of Manufacture: United States
