| Dennis the Menace | |
|---|---|
 ' | |
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Real Name |
Dennis Roger Mitchell |
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First Appearance |
Dennis the Menace (March 12, 1951) |
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Original Publisher |
Post-Hall Syndicate. |
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Created by |
Hank Ketcham |
Origin[]
Dennis Roger Mitchell is a freckle-faced five-year-old boy with a troublesome but soft-hearted and helpful personality. His long-suffering parents, Henry and Alice Mitchell, can only shake their heads and try to explain their son's antics to others, yet they very much love and care for him. The comic efficacy of Dennis's personality lies within how his genuine attempts to help those in need, combined with his youthful energy and enthusiasm, frequently lead to trouble wherever he goes (usually at Mr. Wilson's expense)
He wears a black T-shirt with blue stripes, red overalls, and white sneakers. He hates carrots and baths, loves root beer (especially with cookies or brownies), ketchup, sandwiches, water pistols, playing with other boys his age, mud puddles, camping, and Westerns (especially those starring Cowboy Bob, the comic's take on the Lone Ranger), and has occasionally been depicted wearing a cowboy costume.
Dennis has a Cowboy Bob Deputy Badge, poster, and an autographed picture of Cowboy Bob, as well. Among the running gags: Dennis has a soft spot for animals such as kittens and puppies, which he is always taking home to feed; he loves loud instruments, such as horns and drums, and he ruins Christmas songs with shouts of cowboy songs or annoys adults by shouting out loud. When Dennis is in the local department store trying out toys, such as tricycles, he often ends up breaking them and making his parents buy them. In fact, Dennis nearly causes portrait photographers, hairdressers, bank presidents, grocery-store personnel, kindergarten teachers, restaurant waiters, librarians, museum security guards, police officers, bus drivers, house heating equipment repairmen, the town mayor, department-store Christmas Santa Clauses and saleswomen, drug store salesmen, hardware store salesmen, shoe salesmen, barbers, and the local post office workers to have nervous breakdowns when he comes around.
A running gag is that Dennis causes chaos wherever he visits, such as the city park, a Marineland Aquarium, the US Army, and even on vacation trips to Mexico and Hollywood. Despite all this, he is a "popular kid" with his peers, having countless friends both at his school and around the neighborhood, who are taken with his very fun-loving demeanor. Dennis also believes in the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus. Another running gag is Dennis dreaming that he meets Santa Claus on Christmas Eve and causing chaos for everyone else.
Public Domain Comic Strip Appearances[]
- Dennis the Menace Comic Strip (March 1951- December 1963)
Public Domain Comic Book Appearances[]
- Dennis The Menace #22 (1957) - #27 (March 1958)
Notes[]
- It was discovered that the copyright to Dennis's first appearance in the March 12, 1951 comic strip was not renewed 28 years later in 1979 nor where renewals found for any other strips published in the 1950s and early 1960s. Strips from January 1, 1964 on had their copyright automatically renewed. Strangely enough, the strip was never registered for copyright at all.
- Coincidentally, a UK comic strip of the same name debuted on the same day. The two are not related and change their names subtly in each other's respective countries of origin to avoid confusion.