Dennis in Hawaii

[deckerd@agcs.com]

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> From: rivers at seismo.CSS.GOV (Wilmer Rivers)
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> To: deckerd at agcs.com
> Subject: Dennis in Hawaii
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> Yeah, I'm pretty sure that the Dennis the Menace comic books
> disappeared when the TV show went away.  You're right about
> there being a factual-based book set in Hawaii - I remember
> Dennis's visit to Pearl Harbor vividly.  (Hank Ketchum often
> made references to his own days in the Navy, via Henry.)
> Another comic that took its cast to far-away settings was
> Little Lulu.  I remember her trips to Alaska and Australia,
> at least.
> 
> Wilmer Rivers

I also seem to remember a Dennis comic that took the Mitchell
family to Los Angeles, with some gee-whiz facts about LA and
Hollywood. What made those vacation comics great was that they
came out about the time my family was going somewhere (like to a
family reunion at my grandparents' house far far away), and they
seemed to just be a part of the whole vacation/traveling/summertime
experience. Ah, the childhood memories just thinking about them
conjures up!
The themed Dell Disney giants kind of worked the same way. There
would be Christmas specials around Christmas time, vacation specials
around the time school let out -- they got kind of wrapped up into 
the whole experience of that particular season. Even
the pain of having to go back to school was eased (well, a little) by
getting a copy of HUEY, DEWEY & LOUIE BACK TO SCHOOL. Still, I
remember the Disney comics were somewhat in a world apart. Dennis
the Menace going to Hawaii was more "real" than, say, Huey, Dewey,
and Louie going to Hawaii. The Disney talking animal comics were
a bit more obviously fantasy than Dennis the Menace or Little Archie.
Maybe my memories are a little skewed by the fact that while I always
bought Disney comics of my own as a kid, it always seemed to be my
cousins who had Dennis the Menace or the neighborhood kids who had
Little Archie comics, so they had an element of exotic glamor for me
that the more familiar Disneys didn't. 
But what the heck -- I liked them all and I still do! I just wish
kids today had 'em all around, too! (Well, kids in other countries
still do. On my last trip to Europe, I brought back several seasonal
themed Disney story collections from Holland and Denmark. Lucky
Eurokids!)

--Dwight Decker