Hank Ketcham

He also created the character Mr. After graduating from Queen Anne High School in 1937 he attended the University of Washington but dropped out after his first year and hitchhiked to Los Angeles hoping to work for Walt Disney. Ketcham was in his studio in October 1950 when his first wife Alice Mahar burst into the studio and complained that their four-year-old Dennis had wrecked his bedroom instead of napping.

Henry King Ketcham (March 14 1920 – June 1 2001) better known as Hank Ketcham was an American cartoonist who created the Dennis the Menace comic strip writing and drawing it from 1951 to 1994 when he retired from drawing the daily cartoon and took up painting full time in his home studio. In 1953 he received the Reuben Award for the strip which continues today in the hands of other artists.