Hank Ketcham

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Henry King "Hank" Ketcham (1920 – 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 on March 14, 1920. When he 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 at which he could draw.

After graduating from Queen Anne High School in 1937, Hank attended the University of Washington but 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, where he worked on films such as Fantasia, Bambi, and Pinocchio. During World War II, Ketcham worked as a photographic specialist with the US Navy Reserve. After World War II, he settled in Carmel, California, and began work as a freelance cartoonist.

In 1951 he started Dennis The Menace, based on his own 4-year-old son Dennis.

Ketcham's first wife died in 1959, and he and his son Dennis drifted apart. Ketcham and his son were estranged for much of Dennis's adult life.

Ketcham married two more times and had two more children. He lived in Geneva, Switzerland, from 1960 to 1977, while still producing Dennis the Menace. In 1977, he moved back to the United States and settled in Monterey, California.

Ketcham had always surrounded himself with a team of artists and writers who contributed to Dennis the Menace, and when he retired from drawing the strip, he let this team take over. Dennis is still being produced today.

Ketcham died of prostate cancer on June 1, 2001, at the age of 81.