1953-54
This second volume of Hank Ketcham's Complete Dennis the Menace publishes every single panel strip from 1953 and 1954 in one handsome and thick little hardcover volume resembling a Big Little Book on steroids. Dennis is relatively unusual among long-lived strips in that after its first couple of years, it achieved its definitive look (Peanuts for instance was still morphing toward the end of its first decade). And although Ketcham had not yet added any of Dennis's friends (such as Margaret and Joey), an elderly neighboring couple (him cranky, her sweet) begins to appear now and again... poor George and Martha Wilson, little do they realize what's in store for them! Introductory essay by R.C. Harvey.
"I've learned more from a single panel of Dennis the Menace than a six month art course." – Jaime Hernandez
"Dennis has all the qualities of a great comic strip character: innocence, curiosity and an anarchic free spirit... And all his adventures were recorded in the most beautiful pen and brush line in the history of comics." – Patrick McDonnell, Mutts
"One of the true classics of the comic strip genre, and as American as apple (and mud) pies." – Brian Walker, from his introduction
"Ketcham's beautiful artwork defines cartooning elegance. The design, the composition, and the line: it's all too, too beautiful. Matching his skills as an artist, Ketcham was also a brilliant gag writer and creator of comic scenarios... Fantagraphics' spectacular effort will make Ketcham/Dennis appreciators of us all." – Comic Book Bin