# Dennis Mitchell and Charlie Brown, together again **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 1, 2001, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-mitchell-and-charlie-brown-together-again/67247 "2001-06-01T19:49:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2001, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-mitchell-and-charlie-brown-together-again/67247/1 "2001-06-01T19:49:09Z")
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Hank Ketcham, whose lovable scamp “Dennis the Menace” tormented cranky Mr. Wilson and amused readers of comics for five decades, has died at age 81. Ketcham, who died at his home in Pebble Beach, had suffered from heart disease and cancer, said his publicist, Linda Dozoretz. Ketcham stopped drawing the weekday strip at the end of 1994 but let it continue under a team of artists and writers. Inspired by the antics of his 4-year-old son, Ketcham began the strip in 1951. Despite its longevity, the strip changed little since the 1950s. Dennis was always a freckle-faced “five-ana-half” – an appealing if aggravating mixture of impishness and innocence. “Mischief just seems to follow wherever Dennis appears, but it is the product of good intentions, misdirected helpfulness, good-hearted generosity, and, possibly, an overactive thyroid,” Ketcham wrote in his 1990 autobiography, “The Merchant of Dennis The Menace.” Henry King Ketcham was born March 14, 1920, in Seattle and grew up there. He recalled he was no more than 6 when he knew he wanted to be a cartoonist. One day he watched a family friend sketch Barney Google and other then-popular cartoon figures. In 1938, he dropped out of the University of Washington after his freshman year and went to Southern California to work as an animator, first for Walter Lantz, creator of “Woody Woodpecker,” and then for Walt Disney. Ketcham worked on “Pinocchio,” “Bambi,” “Fantasia” and Donald Duck shorts. A free-lance cartoonist after the war, Ketcham was living in Carmel when he got the idea for “Dennis the Menace” in October 1950. His wife, Alice, burst into his home studio, exasperated that their 4-year-old son, Dennis, had dismantled his room instead of taking a nap. “Your son is a menace!” she said. ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2001, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-mitchell-and-charlie-brown-together-again/67247/2 "2001-06-01T20:01:22Z")
“Goodbyyeeee, Mr. Wilsooooonnnn.” ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2001, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-mitchell-and-charlie-brown-together-again/67247/3 "2001-06-01T20:05:08Z")
I’d just spotted that and went to email you so you could start the thread. But you’re not listed. ☹ I’d had the same thought this am when I heard about AF, “I’ll be **Eve’s** started the thread already”. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2001, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-mitchell-and-charlie-brown-together-again/67247/4 "2001-06-01T20:13:22Z")
Hey, they don’t call me Queen of the Dead for nuthin’. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2001, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-mitchell-and-charlie-brown-together-again/67247/5 "2001-06-01T20:23:31Z")
Thank friggin’ GOD _that’s_ over. Oh, no…you don’t think they’ll start syndicating “Classic Dennis the Menace” now, do you? Dennis unplugs Mister Wilson’s iron lung! Dennis lodges his coonskin cap in the bathtub drain! Dennis misplaces Mrs. Mitchell’s Thalydomide! Dennis assassinates President Kennedy! ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2001, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-mitchell-and-charlie-brown-together-again/67247/6 "2001-06-01T20:45:06Z")
Bad news, Ike . . . [AP] — " . . . Ketcham stopped drawing Sunday panels in the mid-1980s and retired from weekday sketches in 1994. Ketcham’s assistants handled the bulk of the work after that, with Ketcham overseeing the feature daily by fax. The team Marcus Hamilton and Ronald Ferdinand, WILL CONTINUE THE PANELS." ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2001, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-mitchell-and-charlie-brown-together-again/67247/7 "2001-06-01T20:50:08Z")
In the immortal words of Cathy Guisewaite: “ACCCKKKKKK!” ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2001, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-mitchell-and-charlie-brown-together-again/67247/8 "2001-06-02T01:48:34Z")
Now if we can only find a way to end The Family Circus. I’m dying to see Mom and Dad from that piece of crap strip at a swinger’s convention. Throw in the kids on crack (can’t you just see one of them wandering around whatever passes for the slums in their town looking for a fix, with the little dashes showing all the places they’ve been - in the sewer, in the shooting gallery, in the nip joint, in the XXX movie theater)and Grandpa finally revealing that he isn’t an angel at all but instead is burning in Hell for molesting all the kids and I think we’ve go the makings for a first rate panel cartoon. ---
**Author:** ![Torgo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@Torgo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torgo)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2001, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-mitchell-and-charlie-brown-together-again/67247/9 "2001-06-02T02:00:47Z")
\ > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by plnnr \* > \*\*Now if we can only find a way to end The Family Circus. \*\* I’ve always wanted to bang the mother in that strip. \ Even though he had given up the duties of the strip years ago, I’ll give props to ol’ Hank. He was one of the last of a dying breed; a cartoonist who could draw. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2001, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-mitchell-and-charlie-brown-together-again/67247/10 "2001-06-02T04:03:12Z")
Well, according to Reuters as reported on [http://www.bayarea.com/rc/life/docs/08889791.htm](http://www.bayarea.com/rc/life/docs/08889791.htm), ol’ Hank’s home was in Carmel and not in Pebble Beach. For those who don’t know, Carmel by the Sea (the official name of Carmel) is a city and Pebble Beach is in the unincorporated area of Monterey County between the cities of Carmel, Pacific Grove, and Monterey. Hank Ketcham also donated the land for Momterey’s “Dennis the Menace” Park on the shore of Lake El Estero. I’ll report tomorrow on what, if anything, Monterey does at that park to commemorate his passing. ---
**Author:** ![Dijon\_Warlock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9a28c/32.png) [@Dijon\_Warlock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dijon_Warlock)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2001, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-mitchell-and-charlie-brown-together-again/67247/11 "2001-06-02T04:27:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by plnnr \* > \*\*Now if we can only find a way to end The Family Circus. I’m dying to see Mom and Dad from that piece of crap strip at a swinger’s convention. Throw in the kids on crack (can’t you just see one of them wandering around whatever passes for the slums in their town looking for a fix, with the little dashes showing all the places they’ve been - in the sewer, in the shooting gallery, in the nip joint, in the XXX movie theater)and Grandpa finally revealing that he isn’t an angel at all but instead is burning in Hell for molesting all the kids and I think we’ve go the makings for a first rate panel cartoon. \*\* [Your wish is (sorta) my command.](http://www.zompist.com/dfcindex.html) ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2001, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-mitchell-and-charlie-brown-together-again/67247/12 "2001-06-02T12:39:44Z")
Heard on the radio this morning that Bil Keane considered Hank Ketcham to be his inspiration. Discuss. ---
**Author:** ![SterlingNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@SterlingNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SterlingNorth)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2001, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-mitchell-and-charlie-brown-together-again/67247/13 "2001-06-02T16:11:16Z")
I guess you can argue that something was lost in the ‘reinterpretation,’ if you want. But all kidding aside, Hank was a [very talented artist](http://www.hankketcham.com/jazz-room1.html), and the medium is so much poorer without him. [Hank Ketcham.com](http://www.hankketcham.com) ---
**Author:** ![Spider\_Woman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@Spider\_Woman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spider_Woman)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2001, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-mitchell-and-charlie-brown-together-again/67247/14 "2001-06-02T16:24:57Z")
and will continue, by the way it sounds. I remember liking to read “Dennis the Menace” when I was still in grade school. After that I lost interest. But the jazz pictures from the site provided by **Sterling North** are gorgeous, while still looking like the artistry from the strip, in a way. ---
**Author:** ![poohpah\_chalupa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/91b2a8/32.png) [@poohpah\_chalupa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/poohpah_chalupa)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2001, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-mitchell-and-charlie-brown-together-again/67247/15 "2001-06-03T14:12:31Z")
Thanks for the link, **Dijon**!! This is too hilarious!! ---
**Author:** ![Dijon\_Warlock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9a28c/32.png) [@Dijon\_Warlock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dijon_Warlock)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2001, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-mitchell-and-charlie-brown-together-again/67247/16 "2001-06-04T23:12:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by poohpah chalupa \* > \*\*Thanks for the link, **Dijon**!! This is too hilarious!! \*\* 😃 😃 😃 Jes’ spreadin’ th’ gospel…