Hank Ketcham’s Complete Dennis The Menace: 1951-52

September 26, 2005 | Trades

dennis.jpg

Hank Ketcham’s Complete Dennis The Menace: 1951-52
Fantagraphics Books
$24.95 US (Hardcover)
**** (out of five)

Hank Ketcham’s most famous creation spawned from his experiences as a father of an average little boy named Dennis.
Little could he know that 54 years and thousands of comic panels later, the misadventures of Dennis The Menace would endure so well.
The strips in this first chronological compilation of Dennis The Menace show both what a great illustrator and humourist Ketcham was (he died in 2001) and how timeless the scampish behaviour of children is.
Amid the nearly 600 strips in this volume, we see Dennis making messes, cracking wise, playing pranks, getting himself (and particularly his dad) in trouble and — more often than not — with a smile of blissful ignorance.
Any parent will tell you that attitude is timeless.
The Complete Dennis The Menace is perfect proof that no matter how much things change they always stay the same.

You must be logged in to post a comment.