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. He received the Reuben Award for the strip in 1953. The strip continues today in the hands of other artists.
Ketcham was born in Seattle, Washington in 1920. He graduated from Queen Anne High School in 1937. 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.
