OPEN POST: Sunday Comics With Dennis The Menace!

I'm always surprised when I revisit the original "Dennis the Menace" comic strip, since it's wittier, livelier and more sophisticated than the somewhat bland, late-1950s TV series. Created by artist Hank Ketcham - who began his career in the 1930s as an animator on Disney's "Pinocchio" - the strip was inspired by the exploits of his rambunctious six-year-old, Dennis. "Your son is a menace!" exclaimed Hank's wife, Alice, and that's all it took: "Dennis" was born. After Alice died of a drug overdose when Dennis was only 12, Hank moved himself and his son to Geneva, Switzerland, where Hank remained for nearly 20 years, continuing to draw the strip.

Sadly, after serving in Vietnam, Dennis suffered for decades with debilitating PTSD, which was little understood at the time. He and Hank mostly led separate lives, a poignant, even tragic, contrast to the fictional fun of "Dennis." ''He's living in the East somewhere doing his own thing,'' Hank told The New York Times in the late-1970s, having moved from Switzerland to California. ''Unfortunately, this happens in some families.''

Art Credits: Hank Ketcham, Post-Hall and King Features Syndicates