"Bungle Island" by Ed Nofziger

Above: the unsigned cover of DENNIS THE MENACE #119 drawn by one of Ketcham's assistants.

Smack dab in the middle of DENNIS THE MENACE #119 (March 1972 issue) is a 4 page feature titled "Bungle Island" by veteran cartoonist Ed Nofziger. If you ever wanted a cartoonist to draw an animal, it would be Nofziger.



Ed Nofziger worked in animation (UPA, Disney, Hanna Barbera) and gag cartoons (The New Yorker, Saturday Evening Post, among many others) and comic strips during his long career. He wrote scripts for Disney comics, but I had never heard of Bungle Island until I had purchased this Dennis the Menace some 39 years later from a long box at Jetpack Comics.

All I can find out about "Bungle" is that it was a sometime-feature in Fawcett comics from 1969 to 1975.

You can see the easy, breezy way that Nofziger draws all of these animals. It's so fun to look at. The animals are are presided over by King Bungle, a lion, complete with red cape and gold crown, and he has a green ape-like wizard advisor.






-- Above is an edited blog entry from May 18, 2011.