David Law - Dennis the Menace: A Load of Air Comic Strip from The Beano (DC Thomson, 10-18-1952)

Dennis the Menace turned 75 last month!

The British children's comic The Beano has been published by DC Thomson in Dundee, Scotland since July 1938. The British "Dennis the Menace" character debuted in issue 452 of The Beano, cover-dated March 17, 1951 and on sale from March 12, 1951, coincidentally and incredibly the same day the unrelated American Dennis the Menace comic strip debuted in 16 newspapers in the U.S.!

Created by Scottish artist David (Davey) Law from an idea by editor George Moonie and a design by sub-editor Ian Chisholm, Dennis the Menace is the longest-running strip in The Beano, featuring the perpetually badly-behaved schoolboy Dennis and, since 1968, his dog Gnasher. The introduction of Dennis revitalized flagging sales of The Beano and ushered in a new wave of "naughty kids" characters into post-war British comics.

Law drew Dennis the Menace from its inception in 1951 until 1970 when he took ill and retired from the strip. He returned briefly to The Beano in 1971 but passed away on April 30 of that year, aged just 63.

Here's a fabulous example from October 1952, just the second year of the strip, as Dennis gets up to no good with a cannister of compressed air!