The "Something Else I Learned That I Never Knew!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Trying to find out if one of my favorite TV shows from the 1950s, as well as my favorite comic strip from the same era, Dennis the Menace, is on our local "Oldies" TV station, MeTV.  

Mr. Hank Ketcham

Dennis the Menace was the creation of Hank Ketcham who was a former Walt Disney animator.  While doing a "Google" search, I came across something I never knew until the moment I hit the "enter" button on my MacBook Air.  Seems that there were two Dennis the Menances and both were created in March of 1951.  Along with the Dennis created by Mr. Ketcham, there was a Dennis created by a British cartoonist by the name of David "Davey" Law.  As I read the article it told that neither had any knowledge of the other's Dennis until both debuted in the same week.  Ketcham's character appeared in the funny pages of 16 U.S. newspapers at the same time that Law's character appeared in the venerable and anarchic British weekly "The Beano." (As I sit here typing this I wonder if another English favorite, Mr. Bean, had any ties to Mr. Law's character).  

Mr. David Law

Each "Dennis" carried on for decades, both leading to TV shows as well as theme-park attractions.  Both Dennis characters were mischievous and rowdy who turned the adult world on its head.  The American version of "Dennis the Menace" was a bundle of energetic trouble, but an adorable little tyke who pestered his neighbor Mr. Wilson to death.  He said and did the darndest things which endeared just about everyone except Mr. Wilson.  As far as his British version, Dennis was much further along the mischief spectrum, being a disturbed maverick, a bully, a nemesis and a persecutor of "softies" such as Walter, his very own Mr. Wilson.  He was more a vandal whom the authorities had to tame from time to time.  

USA's Dennis the Menace (click to enlarge)

U.S.A.'s Dennis was blond with a cowlick,  round face and short, hand-like forearms of a "Peanuts" character while the British Dennis had a canine buddy and was a knobby-kneed and low-browed, gleefully scowling under a head of black, unkept hair.  He carried a peashooter, water pistol and catapult that almost always led to some type of punishment.  Along with his dog he had a disgusting pig named Rasher.  The American Dennis radiated the irrepressible energy of a young boy while the British Dennis was a form of transgression that didn't even exist in the United States.  To British children he was a punk-rock hooligan who was the tough guy on the block with the iron muscles and tiger stripes.  

Britian's Dennis the Menace

U.S.A.'s Dennis was a daily syndicated newspaper comic strip which debuted on March 12, 1951, in 16 newspapers and was distributed by Post-Hall Syndicate.  It is now written and drawn by Ketcham's former assistants, March Hamilton, Ron Ferdinand and son Scott Ketcham.  It is distributed to at least 1,000 newspapers in 48 countries and in 19 languages by King Features Syndicate.  The comic strip was so successful that it became a TV show, both in real-life as well as animated and several feature films.  Mr. Ketchan died on June 1, 2001 at the age of 81.   Mr. Law's character first appeared in "The Beano" issue 452 on March 17, 1951.  It is suspected that his Dennis hit the news stands the same day as the American Dennis.  Mr. Law was taken ill in 1970 and his comic strip was taken over by artist David Sutherland.  He died in 1971 at the age of 63.  I never had the chance to see the British version of Dennis the Menace, but the American version of Dennis was one of my favorite comic strips and the TV show is still a hit with me.  He comes in a close second to "Leave It To Beaver."  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

USA's Dennis the Menace Television cast with George Wilson
and his wife Martha in the back row, Dennis in the middle and his
parents Alice and Henry Mitchell.