Hank Ketcham
Henry King "Hank" Ketcham (
March 14 1920 –
June 1 2001) 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 page and took up painting full time in his studio at his home. He received the
Reuben Award for the strip in 1953. The strip continues today in the hands of other artists.
Hank Ketcham was born in
Seattle,
Washington in 1920. He graduated from
Queen Anne High School in 1937. When Hank was around 6 or 7 years old, his father had a guest over for dinner who was an illustrator. After dinner, he showed Hank his "magic pencil" and drew some illustrations. Hank was immediately hooked and soon his father set up a small desk in the closet of his bedroom for him to draw at. After high school, Hank entered university at the University of Washington and dropped out after his first year, and hitchhiked to Los Angeles hoping to work for Walt Disney.
Hank Ketcham started in the business as an animator for
Walter Lantz and
Walt Disney. During
World War II, Ketcham worked as a photographic specialist with the
US Navy Reserve. In 1951 he started
Dennis The Menace (known as
Dennis in the
UK), based on his own 4-year-old son. Ketcham died of
cancer in 2001.
Although Dennis lived in an all-American family, Ketcham himself lived in
Switzerland from 1960 to 1977.
