When Dennis Menaced

This week marks the 75th anniversary of one of comics history's greatest coincidences-- two characters, one American and one British, both named "Dennis The Menace" debuted independently of one another on the same date in 1951 (March 12th).

The respective Dennises (Denni?) don't hold the same cultural relevance they did in their 1950s heydays, so I've noticed fairly limited discussion online about this Demisesquicentennial (no, I didn't have to look that term up, why do you ask?), most of it centring on the fact that the UK Dennis seems to do a better job of living up to his "Menace" moniker than his US counterpart. It's true; Brit Dennis' domain is destruction and chaos, whereas Yank Dennis seems content to rest at "Dennis The Unintentional Annoyance to His Elderly Neighbor Sometimes" status. Or so the conventional wisdom goes.

Was this always true, though? No! Believe it or not, in the earlier years Yankee Doodle Dennis was raising a hell of a lot of hell. I would argue early-US Dennis not only gave UK Dennis a run for his money, but surpassed him on this front. In the 1960s or so, however, US Dennis' rough edges were noticeably sanded down, presumably due to a combination of wanting to increase the character's marketability, while also trying to pre-emptively tone down any complaints from parents who might have felt their kids were been trying to emulate his rowdy behavior (he was also a TV star by that point).

Let's dive into my trusty digital comics archive and look at some of Dennis' earlier, more unhinged feats from the first two years of the strip's run-- for whatever reason, these refuse to upload in chronological order right now, but I guess that's not really a priority when it comes to, uh, Dennis The Menace. 

And as per usual, click on each image for a higher-resolution look at it...

Dennis The Vengeance.

Dennis The Exhibitionist.

Dennis defies God.

You just don't see this level of premeditated psychological torment in the funny pages these days.

This one is probably my all-time favorite.

Dennis establishes dominance.

We here at Noah Pasternak HQ do not condone Dennis' behavior and would like to think he is listening and learning these days.

Kick his ass Dennis!!

What is the UK Dennis' confirmed kill count? From strips featured in this post alone, US Dennis' is two (see a couple strips below).

Grand Theft Dennis.

I love his facial expression here.

Menacipus Rex?

A recurring theme in these early strips is Dennis' efforts to emasculate his father.

Weaponized Menace.

RIP Larry.

Dennis The Menace is dead, long live Dennis The Menace...