Owen Fitzgerald Dennis Christmas trees

Level 1: Overall Tree Shape- Green bent triangleLevel 2: Tree trunk and branches structure, inside green shapeLevel 3: Sub branches coming off horizontal branchesLevel 4: Needles coming off sub-branchesEach of the levels is following the shape and direction - and line of action of the level above. Every detail fits within the overall schemeVery artistically cleverThese trees, as stylized as they

Ron Ferdinand Interview 2

b) Who were all his ghosts?The names I recall are Fitzgerald, Al Wiseman, Lee Holley, Bob Bugg and later Frank Hill….there were a few more that escape me at the moment. (Marcus Hamilton - jk)http://www.dennisthemenace.com/marcushamilton.htmlWhen did Ketcham start using assistants?I think he did the whole enchilada for the first year or two.Who did the Sunday pages in the 50s and sixties?Y’know ,

Owen Fitzgerald Dennis Inks

Ron Ferdinand sent me these nice high rez scans of original Dennis pages, so I thought I'd share 'em.

Ron Ferdinand Interview 1

http://www.dennisthemenace.com/ronferdinand.htmlRon Ferdinand has been drawing Hank Ketcham's Dennis sunday pages for years and I asked him he would be willing to share some memories and their working process.001 I had taken the family to Disneyland and this was on my drawing table when I returned to work.a) Working with KetchamWhen did you first start working for Ketcham and what were the

Puppet Interlude

I wonder how it's possible to take something cute and do this to it:

Design Quirks: Contrasting Leg Theories

Many Harvey kids have "stubbies" like Canadian beer bottles.Ketcham's kids tend to have bell-bottom legs.The basic forms that make up both Harvey and Ketcham kids are very similar. They have the same stock cartoon kid head construction.The 2 styles have some minor -but recognizable general differences - like the legs.Then each individual character has some specific accessory design element and

Next

Comparing and contrasting 2 appealing cartoon approaches.These are 2 of my favorite cartoonists. They are both working in someone else's "house style" but are each bringing their own touch to the comics.Howie Post's style is made up almost entirely of 40s animated cartoon shapes and supplemented with his own abstract design quirks.Owen Fitzgerald's style looks on the surface also to be a 40s

Owen Fitzgerald Camera Angles

Owen Fitzgerald can stage scenes from any angle and make it look easy.In this Dennis story about the family playing pool, every shot is a new angle.Drawing poses of someone playing pool would be tricky enough even left to right, but Owen does it from every possible perspective, seemingly without effort.And he still manages to make the posing look natural and balanced.I wonder if the reason Owen

Cow Eyes

Ketcham/Fitzgerald Houses

This house is a basically simple design. But it's the dynamic angles they are drawn in that impress.There is a misleading looseness to these drawings that might make you think they are hastily thought out.But underneath the sketchy lines are some really difficult angles, killer posing and clever staging. The line style is just Fitzgerald's way of imposing some of Ketcham's style on top of his own

Cows, Cars, Houses or Milfs

I think Ketcham and his crew have a perfect balance of skill, style, cartooniness and observation.I have a Dennis comic that has some wonderful drawings of cows, cars, housesand of course, milfs.I want to do a post on one of these things they excel at.You decide which I should do first.This is my attempt at a bit of market research.YOU CAN LEARN A LOT FROM HANK KETCHAMOWEN FITZGERALD MENACES

Later

I'm not a expert on Hank Ketcham's ghost artists, but he seems to have a great staff of them. Here's one that's amazing.This might be another. (if you recognize the artist(s) let us know!)The Dennis the Menace comics have some of what I think are the most balanced, stylish and skilled cartoon art ever. Ketcham must have also schooled his assistants in the finer points of Milf art.more later