The Library of Spanking Fiction: Wellred Weekly


Wellred Weekly
Volume 1, Number 5 : February 7, 2012
 
Articles
Items of interest regarding all things spanking

Dennis The Menace - We Salute You!
by flopsybunny


Dennis the Menace is one of Britain's favourite cartoon characters. Dennis, a naughty schoolboy who had his 60th birthday this year (2011), was brought to life by his creator, Beano sub editor Ian Chisholm. In the pub with cartoonist Davey Law, Chisholm sketched his idea on the back of a cigarette packet as a spiky-haired youth with knobbly knees, a black and red striped jumper, and a menacing scowl.

In a distinguished 60-year career largely devoted to terrorising neighbours and tormenting a well behaved boy called Walter the Softie, Dennis has brought smiles to generations of children and adults alike in the days when the comic was King. Although most of Dennis's escapades were doomed to end in retribution, he always returned undaunted the next week, raring to go with more menacing and villainy.

Note that this article focuses on the UK comic strip, not to be confused with the original Dennis the Menace who made his debut in the United States on 12 March 1951, three days earlier than the first UK Dennis the Menace strip which was published on 15 March 1951.

The Artists
The early strips were drawn by Davey Law, and after he died in 1970, the artwork was taken over by David Sutherland. Following Sutherland's semi-retirement in 1998, artist David Parsons was given responsibility for drawing Dennis the Menace. Later on Nigel Parkinson and Jimmy Hansen drew most of the strips.


The Beano
The Beano first appeared in July 1938, published by DC Thomson & Co, Scotland. The larger than life characters portrayed in the comic were designed to allow readers to relate to and sympathise with them, chuckling at the ridiculous scrapes they got in to. When Dennis the Menace made his first appearance in issue 452 in March 1951, he was an instant hit with the readers. By 1953 his popularity was reflected by the fact that he had graduated to a two-page coloured strip in red and black, and by 1962 he had moved on to the prestigious back page in full glorious colour. He was joined in 1968 by his side-kick, an Abyssinian wire-haired tripe hound dog called Gnasher. In 1974 Dennis managed to grab the front over of The Beano and has been there ever since.

There are thousands of middle-aged folks who grew up with a weekly dose of The Beano, waiting with excitement for that welcoming thud as it landed on their doormats every Thursday.

Slipperings
Many will remember that the mischievous Dennis the Menace is associated with slipperings - LOTS of slipperings. Most of the stories are ageless farces in which characters seldom laugh but often chortle. Parental and school authority was regularly challenged in the cartoon strips, but the establishment always won in the end.

The story lines were moralistic - if Dennis was naughty (and he always was) then he got punished (and he usually did). The famous slipperings usually appeared at the end of the cartoon strip when Dennis got his comeuppance in the form of a damn good slippering diligently administered "severely and often" by his moustached and pinstripe-suited father (whose hair loss is attributed to Dennis's menacing). In fact, Dennis got slippered so often that the scriptwriters used to leave the final panel blank, giving the illustrators the most marvellous opportunity to indulge their creative talents.

This resulted in a terrific legacy of seasonal variations - for example, Dennis would be bashed with a broomstick at Halloween and cracked with a cricket bat in the summer. When his octogenarian Granny Gertrude delivered the punishment, she used a stingy slipper made from elephant hide called 'The Demon Whacker'. This implement of terror was the only thing to motivate Dennis to wash his face and brush his hair.

Sadly for slipper aficionados, the humble carpet slipper was last wielded within the pages of The Beano in the early 1980s. Maurice Heggie, a historian of The Beano said:
"When I worked on The Beano in the 1970s every second adventure ended with corporal punishment, but that was what it was like in the schools. One of the great things about Dennis and how we operate is that the scripts are written in-house and week to week so whatever is affecting kids in the UK always influences the scriptwriters and, as corporal punishment was phased out in the school, so it was phased out in the comic."

In the good old days many episodes of Dennis the Menace ended with a spanking (though he sometimes demonstrated great initiative by shoving a thick book down the back of his short trousers - and his dad never seemed to notice), but in these over sensitive times the rascally schoolboy has been de-menaced! He can't be slippered any more. Nor is he allowed to use his catapult and water pistol in a destructive way, and can no longer beat up Walter the Softy. His dog Gnasher has been forbidden to sink his teeth into people or engage in his trademark wanton destruction. From the late 1980's, even Granny Gertrude was transformed into an active, motorbike-loving old lady, and the once proudly brandished slipper has been relegated to being worn on feet.



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