Number 1576: The Wiseman and the little wise guy

Alvin “Al” Wiseman was a great cartoonist who spent years submerged in Hank Ketchum’s Dennis the Menace newspaper panels and comic books. For comics fans, and especially fans of great cartooning, Wiseman’s work is held in high regard.

In 1953 Standard began publishing a Dennis comic book, written by Fred Toole and drawn by Wiseman.  Grand Comics Database doesn’t have information on this issue, or whether any of the stories in it were reprinted. Many of Toole and Wiseman’s later stories were reprinted fairly often during the run of the comic book and its myriad specials and digest editions. The artwork on this strip, from Dennis the Menace #2 (1953), is typical of the early comic . Wiseman drew the comic book until the '60s, but his work lived on for years in reprints.

The comic book Dennis had a complicated publishing history, beginning under he Standard imprint, which begat Pines, which begat Hallden/Fawcett, which begat Hallden...even Marvel Comics got into the act in the ‘80s.

The Dennis the Menace I like the best came from the Toole’s typewriter and Wiseman’s pen. Wiseman, born in 1918, died in 1988.