Dennis the Menace: Household Hurricane (INSCRIBED)

KETCHAM, Hank.

Dennis the Menace: Household Hurricane.

SKU TO-2026-129

FIRST EDITION. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1957.

Inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper "To Dot & Bill," with an original ink drawing in Ketcham's hand — Dennis with a sailboat, asking "Okay, I'm ready — where's that ol' yacht club?" — captioned "...and his poor ol' pooped pop" and signed "Hank."

Ketcham (1920–2001) conceived Dennis the Menace in October 1950, drawing on his own four-year-old son; the strip launched in March 1951 and quickly spread from its syndicated newspaper panels into a run of cartoon books for Henry Holt — Dennis the Menace Rides Again (1955), Wanted: Dennis the Menace (1956), and Household Hurricane (1957), the newest at the time of this inscription. Most surviving Ketcham-signed copies carry a signature only; a copy inscribed and finished with an original Dennis drawing — here a sailboat scene complete with speech balloon and caption — is uncommon, and a genuine piece of original cartoon art on the page.

Octavo. Unpaginated. Black-and-white cartoons throughout. Pictorial glossy illustrated boards. Very good copy.