THE DENNIS THE MENACE STORYBOOK Illustrated by Lee Holley

Here's THE DENNIS THE MENACE STORYBOOK, which showcases some wonderful work by longtime Hank Ketcham assistant Lee Holley. Here's just one of the endpapers:

The name of the book is THE DENNIS THE MENACE STORYBOOK, Based on the character created by Hank Ketcham and adapted by Carl Memling from the television scripts written by William Cowley, Peggy Chantler, George Tibbles, and Phil Leslie. It was published by Random House in 1960 and is copyright that year by the Hall Syndicate, Inc.

Jay North was the child actor who portrayed the mischievous Dennis. CBS had let its LEAVE IT TO BEAVER show go from its network to ABC. They wanted a new "kid show" and DENNIS was greenlit in 1959. It was scheduled in between LASSIE and ED SULLIVAN on Sunday nights. The half-hour comedy show would run until 1963, airing 146 episodes.

I found this book at a second-hand store in Portsmouth, NH. The spine was gone, but it was otherwise in good shape. A lovely bookplate here. Looks like it was illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen.

Lee Holley began working as an assistant to Hank Ketcham in 1957, drawing the Sunday strips.  By 1960, he had sold his own comic strip PONYTAIL and focused on that primarily. PONYTAIL would run until 1989.

Holley's hand-colored art is still vibrant after all these years, with two-tone and full color illustrations alternating throughout the book. Here are a few of his illustrations.

-- Edited from a previous blog entry.