Hank Ketcham: COMWOLFPAC Staff

Before he created the comic panel and strip Dennis the Menace, cartoonist Hank Ketcham served in the US Navy during the Second World War. His work in support of the war effort apparently included creating a color print poking fun at the lascivious staff of the Navy Pacific Command, here jokingly referred to as "COMWOLFPAC." The widely-accepted sexism of the wartime era may make us uncomfortable today, but it should not distract us from what else is going on. The other, and perhaps bigger, story here is Ketcham's freedom to mock the military leadership. Can you imagine a Japanese cartoonist depicting his own top brass as leering wolves? Of course not, it would have been perceived as unpatriotic. And that, my friends, is why we won the war: we had the more daring cartoonists.

Hank Ketcham
AbeBooks Listing Accessed May 26, 2020

https://www.abebooks.com/COMWOLFPAC-STAFF-original-color-print-cartoonist/30644915266/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&cm_ite=viewbook

Note:  Sorry, this print is no longer available from the seller. 

I'm unfamiliar with much of Hank Ketcham's pre-Dennis work. Submissions of rare examples would be welcome.

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