Dennis the Menace vs. Dennis the Menace

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http://www.spartanburgartmuseum.org/Exhibitions/Past_Exhibits/05-03-Barnhardt/Dennis_The_Menace.jpg v. http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/305000/images/_309624_dennis150.jpg

Time to settle this conundrum.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 1 October 2005 11:22 (twenty years ago)

UK wins hands down! That mischievous grin and the classic red and black striped jumper.
The US DTM is lame - just look at him! Does he look menacing?

― Stew (stew s), Saturday, 1 October 2005 11:25 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, the American one is shit. Does he even have a posse? Plus, Mr Wilson vs Walter the Softy sees the dukes go to the UK as well: Softy is a more hateworthy enemy, thus we empathise more with our protagonist.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Saturday, 1 October 2005 11:29 (twenty years ago)

Does he even have a posse?

I admit I'd be surprised. Still, Fantagraphics is rolling out a complete US Dennis the Menace series over here, so somebody's buying.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 1 October 2005 11:32 (twenty years ago)

Good discussion here:

TS: Dennis vs. Dennis

Lookit the American one above. So lame. Whereas Dennis UK is so hard he has a mouth in his EYES!

― Raw Patrick (Raw Patrick), Saturday, 1 October 2005 11:37 (twenty years ago)

The American brat versus the British Bully. I dunno, both Dennis's (especially the UK one) seemed to be encouraging the worst kind of behaviour in kids (bullying, vandalism, general terrorism) but I suppose that was half the fun. I had a weird theory that the Beano was actually an anarchist manifesto. I can't remember why I thought that, but I'll get back to you.

― dog latin (dog latin), Saturday, 1 October 2005 11:38 (twenty years ago)

Worth noting that they first appeared, completely independently, in the same week, over 50 years ago. Creator Davey Law was one of the greats of British cartooning, and Dennis one of the great characters of UK comics, so it's really no contest.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Saturday, 1 October 2005 11:40 (twenty years ago)

Crazy, that ILC thread is rather recent too -- must be something in the air!

And Martin, thanks for that -- my follow-up question was going to be 'who ripped off who anyway?' Totally independently, the same week -- that's amazing!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 1 October 2005 11:41 (twenty years ago)

Remember a few years ago when the Beano got really worried that lesbians were taking Minnie the Minx as a kind of unofficial mascot, so they gave her a boyfriend? Robble.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Saturday, 1 October 2005 11:52 (twenty years ago)

― RJG (RJG), Saturday, 1 October 2005 12:22 (twenty years ago)

I recall when Beryl the Peril and Roger the Dodger "got it on" for a few issues.

― JTS, Saturday, 1 October 2005 14:53 (twenty years ago)

martin have you ever seen the oldest US dennis cartoons - like the first ten years or so? because i think ketcham is one of the great american cartoonists of the last 50 years - i'd rank him right behind schulz as far as sheer drawing skills go (though don't get me wrong, peanuts obv is light-years better than DtM in every way) - and at the beginning it was a pretty funny, innovative strip. i'm not that familiar with the UK dennis since it's never really been reprinted here, but the outright dismissal of ketcham on both of these threads is kind of startling.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Saturday, 1 October 2005 23:24 (twenty years ago)

"I've learned more from a single panel of Dennis the Menace than a six month art course." — Jaime Hernandez

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Saturday, 1 October 2005 23:26 (twenty years ago)

I'd be interested in seeing the original US DTM. My judgement of it is based on the TV cartoon, which is I'm sure, a pretty distorted view.
Hey, if Jaime Hernandez is a fan...

― Stew (stew s), Sunday, 2 October 2005 00:48 (twenty years ago)

Well but isn't the appeal of the American Dennis that he's sort of every-boy? Not especially bratty or wicked or mean, just heedless and over-curious etc etc.

― Laurel, Sunday, 2 October 2005 00:56 (twenty years ago)

But the whole beauty of Dennis the Menace (at least in America, evidently) was that he was a cute joyful innocent little boy, so innocent and boys-will-be-boys that he could handily destroy everything in sight and ruin Mr. Wilson's life and then just beam happily around at everyone. I mean, which is scarier, a horrible little kid who's, like, visually horrible, or a horrible little kid who wrecks everything but is so darn cute and innocent that everyone accuses you of being a meanspirited old prick when you complain?

― nabiscothingy, Sunday, 2 October 2005 00:58 (twenty years ago)

xpost, obviously. Possibly the American version was a litmus test for how you feel about children:

- View the whole thing as adorable tale of lovable scamp who gets into adorable scrapes = like children.

- Viewed the whole thing as the Kafkaesque tale of a simple man whose life is continually disrupted by the secretly evil neighbor child who is too cute to ever be effectively disciplined = don't like children.

― nabiscothingy, Sunday, 2 October 2005 01:01 (twenty years ago)

I'm not familiar with UK Dennis. Is he still living in the 1950s time warp too?

― jim wentworth (wench), Sunday, 2 October 2005 01:51 (twenty years ago)

there's a discussion of this very issue over at the comics journal board, with lots of old dennis panels for the skeptics: http://www.tcj.com/messboard/ubb/Forum1/HTML/010459.html

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Sunday, 2 October 2005 06:45 (twenty years ago)

And from the same Beano mag, who remembers the Bash St Kids? And who was that cowboy who was always eating 'cow pie'?

― moley, Sunday, 2 October 2005 07:02 (twenty years ago)

http://thrdgll.tripod.com/dennis4.gif

― faith popcorn (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 2 October 2005 07:04 (twenty years ago)

Ah - an Old school " dennis the menace. In my paper dennis the menace and fanily circle are right next to each other and I find it amusing to read the dennis the menace caption while looking at family circle.

― Mike Hanle y 3000 (hanle y 3000), Sunday, 2 October 2005 08:07 (twenty years ago)

Only the US one made it to Norway. That was where I first heard (ie read) about pizza!

In a former workplace I saw "motivational" posters ("Slacking off at work is STEALING!", though somewhat less directly worded) featuring Dennis & friends. That was a sad juxtaposition, I thought.

― OleM (OleM), Sunday, 2 October 2005 08:17 (twenty years ago)

my childhood memories of dennis actually don't involve the comic strip (or even the show) so much as the fact that he was always on dairy queen cups! mmmm.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Sunday, 2 October 2005 08:36 (twenty years ago)

JD, yes I have looked at it, and Ketcham is a very fine cartoonist, but I much prefer the vigour and energy and nastiness of Law.

Moley, are you serious? The Bash Street Kids and Desperate Dan are still remembered by about 90% of the British population. Leo Baxendale, creator of the former, is one of my all-time comic heroes, and one of two people I've become a starstruck gibbering fanboy in front of (the other was Jack Kirby). Then we nearly ended up working together, a couple of years later!

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 2 October 2005 09:51 (twenty years ago)

The British Dennis the Menace looks like a rapist.

― K thronely, Sunday, 2 October 2005 09:53 (twenty years ago)

Oh good grief, this is going to be like the paedophile thread, with people who think they know what rapists look like. How can a, what, 8 year old look like that anyway? He looks like a violent thug, clearly.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 2 October 2005 09:56 (twenty years ago)

I am a member of the Dennis The Menace & Gnasher Fang Club. I've got a membership booklet with secret passwords and badge with swivelly eyes and everything.

― C J (C J), Monday, 3 October 2005 07:16 (twenty years ago)

the early U.S. DTM strips (yes, I have the book) are great. the TV show based on it had him at "everykid"; in the strip he was basically a terror, especially early on.

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Monday, 3 October 2005 07:45 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

http://wondermark.com/tcsd/dennis2.gif http://wondermark.com/tcsd/dennis3.gif http://wondermark.com/tcsd/dennis4.gif

― Curt1s Stephens, Saturday, 8 September 2007 23:53 (eighteen years ago)

The REALLY bad seed.

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 8 September 2007 23:57 (eighteen years ago)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/305000/images/_309624_dennis150.jpg
ukguido

― Kerm, Sunday, 9 September 2007 00:03 (eighteen years ago)

Woowoo, I sure had a crush on Dennis the American Menace's dad growing up.

Josh of The Comics Curmudgeon always has v. hilarious and OTM commentary on the modern post-Ketcham Menace.

― Abbott, Sunday, 9 September 2007 02:05 (eighteen years ago)

http://joshreads.com/images/07/05/i070527dtm.jpg

Good lord, just when I think Dennis can’t get any less menacing, he swings into action with his actively anti-menacing “stop smoking!” message. I suppose it’s possible that our young menace is being transformed into such a goody-goody that he becomes a menace through his cloying, annoying crusading, a symbol of the intrusive nanny state, though that doesn’t really match up with his traditional oeuvre of more straightforward menacing, like property destruction and nap disruption. It’s also possible that he wants to keep Mr. Wilson alive as long as possible so as to harass him further. “I’m not going to let the sweet embrace of cancer take you away from my persecution, old man!”

― Abbott, Sunday, 9 September 2007 02:08 (eighteen years ago)

http://joshreads.com/images/07/03/i070313dtm.jpg

Dennis’ menacing hits yet another new low as he fobs off the task of antagonizing his baby-sitter — previously a core menacing competency — onto some random person on the phone.

― Abbott, Sunday, 9 September 2007 02:10 (eighteen years ago)

[joshreads.com]

― Casuistry, Sunday, 9 September 2007 04:46 (eighteen years ago)

worse it's actually an anti-telemarketers thing

― Heave Ho, Sunday, 9 September 2007 07:04 (eighteen years ago)

http://www2.prestel.co.uk/grayling/beano/prodm2.gif

― acrobat, Sunday, 9 September 2007 12:24 (eighteen years ago)

one year passes...

http://edgeofthewest.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/dennis.jpg

^^^This was from a strip in 1970.

― Peter "One Dart" Manley (The stickman from the hilarious 'xkcd' comics), Monday, 1 December 2008 10:48 (seventeen years ago)

But maybe he DOES run faster. Look at those little legs Dennis has got.

Also OMG 1970.

― Holden McGroin (Ned Trifle II), Monday, 1 December 2008 10:52 (seventeen years ago)

"he's white, btw"

― Mark G, Monday, 1 December 2008 12:04 (seventeen years ago)

1970?!

― My lawyers will have a field day with you. THEY are the REAL shark (latebloomer), Monday, 1 December 2008 14:21 (seventeen years ago)

Is that for real? 1970 is a bit late for that.

I went through a Dennis the Menace phase when I was a kid. I still find it readable, like the Archie series and Peanuts.

Still his image makes me want to go to Dairy Queen.

― u s steel, Monday, 1 December 2008 14:24 (seventeen years ago)

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