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COMIC BOOK DIGEST REVIEW! THE VERY BEST OF DENNIS THE MENACE (Marvel Digest Group, 1982)

You can betcher booties that I was front and center when comic book digests began hitting the newsstands (talkin' the USA ones since these books were crawling all over Europe long before!) way back during my just pre-pubesprout Obsessive Comics Disorder days. Didn't go anywhere near the Gold Key Disney ones (tho I wanted to get this anniversary Mickey Mouse edition which contained ancient reprints but wasn't lent the money necessary to latch it up because...well, you already know why!), but when ARCHIE COMICS DIGEST #1 popped up at a local drugstore I snapped it up like potrzebie. This kinda pub was something just custom made for a diehard fan of comics both old and new (I rightfully feared the future) with then-(somewhat) current sagas intermingled with fifties-vintage Archie in bow tie and sweater efforts that harkened back to an older, more interesting time as far as the "quaint" art and typically teenage stories went.

So this early-eighties DENNIS THE MENACE book is something that I must say really caught my eye and dragged it at least twenty feet as Emo Phillips woulda said. Dennis' tenure at Marvel Comics has been discussed on this blog o'er the years, but I never knew that they also published a digest containing those old Pines and Fawcett-era stories re-packaged for a new generation of comic book kiddos. Of course by that time I was too immersed in the under-the-underground music that was sneaking about so this 'un went right past me, but all these years later (and with a renewed interest in such suburban slob time-wasting) I must say that I was more'n just "somewhat" curious about this 'un.

Judging from the artwork these stories were taken from across the Dennis comic book span of malicious funnies. There are a lot of early 'un's here which have that quite fancy upper-and lower-case lettering (the earlier the story the wilder) as well as more contemporary efforts like one from the mid-seventies where Dennis pisses off a load of truck drivers via. Mr. Wilson's C.B. and just guess who's in for a beating! Now, although there's nothing in this 'un that comes close to Dennis walking into the house with Mr. Wilson's skull at least you get a fairly good share of senseless mayhem for one to enjoy. Stuff like Dennis smashing a parking meter for cash and out-fishing his father and Mr. Wilson, turning a square-dancing class into a brawl, things like that. Fun enough reading that'll remind you of a time when there were actually things like kids and not just small adults waiting to enlarge. 

There are a few li'l surprises here/there. Gina makes an early appearance back when she wore a sailor suit dress and talk-a like this. And believe it or leave it, but Dennis even does right such as when he thwarts some cattle rustlers while vacationing at an actual cowboy ranch, and exposes a variety of carnival scams resulting in a few armfulls of free food given in order to hush things up (all of it was eventually handed over as a bribe to an angry cop which is something I'm actually amazed passed the Comics Code! Frankly I doubt they even scrutinized these 'un's. Fawcett didn't adhere to the Comics Code anyway and besides, if Casper, Wendy and Hot Stuff could make it why not Dennis?)

One bad thing 'bout this digest...print can get too tiny for mine eyes causing some definite headaches. Tried a magnifying glass which helped some but otherwise you might want to buy one of those large-sized monstrosities they sell on tee-vee to the old fanabla types watching ADAM 12. You'll feel like Mr. Wilson with one of these hanging around your abode, but then again have you realized that by now you're just as OLD as Mr. Wilson?