From the Dick Buchanan Files: Hank Ketcham Roughs

I have been lucky to have been in the studios of some great cartoonists, but not Hank Ketcham's. Today's blog entry is as close as we can come today to seeing the inner workings of the Dennis the Menace creator's drawing board from 1949 to 1951. My friend Dick Buchanan has generously put these Ketcham roughs together. Thanks, Dick!

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HANK KETCHAM ROUGHS

1949-1951

Here are some marvelous roughs by Hank Ketcham, which were published in 1000 Jokes Magazine. 

When young Mort Walker became the magazine’s editor in 1949 he was able to acquire a few Hank Ketcham roughs that, naturally, he happily published. By the end of 1950 cartoonist Bill Yates replaced Walker as 1000 Jokes Magazine’s editor.  Whether Yates acquired these roughs or Walker left them is open to question. Yates would remain editor until 1960. 

Thanks to Walker and Yates, we are offered a rare glimpse  of Ketcham’s work--some of Ketcham’s great free-style drawings from 1000 Jokes Magazine. 

1.  1000 Jokes Magazine Summer, 1949.

2.  1000 Jokes Magazine Summer, 1949.

3.  1000 Jokes Magazine Fall, 1949.

4.  1000 Jokes Magazine Fall, 1949.

5.  1000 Jokes Magazine Spring, 1950.

6.  1000 Jokes Magazine Spring, 1950.

7.  1000 Jokes Magazine Summer, 1950.

8.  1000 Jokes Magazine Winter, 1950.

9.  1000 Jokes Magazine Winter, 1950.

10. 1000 Jokes Magazine Winter, 1951.

 

-- This has been an edited version of a blog entry originally published December 15, 2017.