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Dennis the Menace
(1951-present) |
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Brief History
- 1951 - First appearance, drawn by David
Law. Black and white half page strip.
- 1953 - Expanded to a full page and two colours (red and black)
- 1962 - Promoted to the back page and full colour.
- 1968 - Dennis joined by Gnasher.
- 1970 - Artwork taken over by David Sutherland
- 1974 - Promoted to front and back covers.
- 1976 - Dennis the Menace fan club launched.
- 1977 - Gnasher given his own page.
- 1979 - Dennis joined by pet pig Rasher.
- 1984 - Rasher gets own page (till 1988)
- 1990 - Dennis cartoon appears on The Children's Channel.
- 1998 - Artwork taken over by David Parkins. Dennis joined by sister Bea.
Dennis the Menace was created by D.C. Thomson staff artist David Law (17th March 1951 - issue 452).
As is noted elsewhere, one of the most interesting things
about Law's style is the extraordinary degree to which it changed over the years. The early Dennis strips were notable for
their short, squat characters and tidy artwork (see the panel from the first strip, left). Within a few months the style had
loosened up, and then over the rest of the decade the characters became gradually taller. For a while they became absurdly
tall and thin, before eventually returning to more normal proportions. (These strange vaccilations are even referred to in
Dennis's 1991 40th anniversary issue.) As the fifties wore on Law's artwork became increasingly rough, and eventually rather
scratchy. But why?
In issue 1030 Dennis swapped places with Jonah, to appear on the back cover in full colour for
the first time.
In 1968, Dennis was joined by his faithful dog, Gnasher. Their first meeting (issue 1363, 31st
August) is shown to the right. As you can see, Gnasher has also changed a bit over the years, being fairly terrifying at first;
by the early seventies he had become the cuddly figure we know today.
Law died in 1970, his last Dennis strip being the July 25th issue. After a single episode drawn
by the Pup Parade artist, David Sutherland was chosen as a permanent replacement. This may have been because he had
already made a success of The Bash Street Kids, even though the two strips could not have looked more different.
Sutherland managed to keep Law's simple style of framing and movement, but improved the draughtsmanship. In 1974, Dennis finally
replaced Biffo on the comic's cover, a move which would arguably not have been possible during Law's tenure.
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