Dennis the Menace #3 STANDARD CGC Rarest Dennis Comic?

Pricing & History

Sold for
Start Free Trial or Sign In to see what it's worth.
Sold Date
Source eBay

If you're a collector of Dennis the Menace comics, this is the one you've been waiting for: Dennis the Menace #3 Standard Comics 1954Therarest Dennis the Menace comic of all. Created by Hank Ketcham, and featuring artwork by legendary Dennis the Menace artist Al Wiseman. If you've been following my recent series of rare comic book auctions, you're probably aware that in the past few weeks, I've offered CGC certified copies of Dennis the Menace #1 and #2, both of which lasted less than two days and sold for closing prices that were many multiples of the notoriously undervalued Overstreet Guide Price. That's not unusual, as the earliest issues of Dennis the Menace published by Standard Comics in the waning days of comics' Golden Age routinely trade for prices far in excess of the published estimates. But, while the rarity of the first two issues of Dennis the Menace have kept prices on those two issues in the stratosp, you ain't seen nothing yet. And, in my experience as a longtime Dennis collector, the comic offered today is even rarer than either of them!Which brings us today's auction for the ONLY CGC CERTIFIED copy of DENNIS THE MENACE #3, published by Standard Comics in March, 1954. The reasons for this comic book's scarcity are many. Issued by a publisher in the waning years of the GoldenAge, very few copies of this comic were ever printed in the first place. Although Dennis would eventually become a marketing powerhouse, in 1954 the character was still a relatively young syndicated comic strip property. Very few picked this comic up when it was published, and, needless to say, most of the copies that were purchased were given to children, who promptly read them, reread them, and continued to reread them until they were so trashed they wound up in the garbage pail before 1955 ever arrived. Perhaps the best description of the challenges facing the serious Dennis collector were best summed by ComicBookGuy, a leading Dennis collector and the founder of The Ultimate Dennis the Menace Thread at the Collector's Society site (just google "Ultimate Dennis the Menace Thread" to learn more about Dennis collecting from that invaluable discussion board), w this posting first appeared: "One of the biggest obstacles to collecting early Dennis books is the concomitant tanning that occurs around the edges of these comics. That is always a huge factor as well as the structural quality. Finding them with nice structure AND nice page and cover quality is a virtually impossible goal, and one I have been working on...for several decades..." Interestingly, ComicBookGuy identifies Dennis #3 as the second hardest early Dennis issue to track down, after the scarce #4 (which I'm also currently offering in a separate eBay listing.) In my experience, I'd put it the other way around, but the point is well taken that both of these early Dennis comics are mighty hard to come by. So, my advice: if you're a serious Dennis collector and you run across a copy of #3 or #4 for a price that doesn't break your bank, grab them and don't look back. Neither book comes around very often, and it might well be years before you see another copy of either one offered for sale.All of which explains why the appearance of the only copy of Dennis #3 that's ever passed through the hands of the certification experts at CGC, the Comics Guaranty Company, is indeed cause for celebration among serious Dennis folk. This copy of Dennis #3 has been painstakingly examined by the expert graders at the Comics Guaranty Company and certified a .5, with Cream to Off-White pages. A further notation on the CGC label reads, "Cover detached and completely split." This is the one and only copy of this book that exists in the CGC census, making it the only CERTIFIED and inspected copy of this book in existence. The experts at CGC have also archivally enclosed the book in a thick Mylar casing to preserve it in this condition and protect it from the elements for as long as you choose to leave it sealed. (The comic may, of course, be... read more

Items in the Price Guide are obtained exclusively from licensors and partners solely for our members’ research needs.

Flag item for content or copyright

If this item contains incorrect or inappropriate information please contact us here to flag it for review.

If you are the originator/copyright holder of this photo/item and would prefer it be excluded from our community, contact us here for removal.