Dennis Ketcham was born Dennis Lloyd Ketcham in 1941 to famous cartoonist Hank and Alice Ketcham in Carmel, California.
He is the inspiration for the comic strip Dennis Ketcham, created by his father Hank Ketcham [1], Dennis was only 4 years old when he refused to take a nap and somehow messed up his whole room. Hank tried many possible kid names for the character he was drawing in his desktop in his home at Carmel, and translated them into some his rough pencil sketches, but they seem unsuitable for a character of such immense depiction, until his studio door flew open and his then-wife Alice, in utter exasperation, exclaimed, "Your son is a menace!" Thus the "Dennis the Menace" name was used, the "menace" epithet and the image of the tornado stuck. The character of Henry Mitchell even bore a striking resemblance to Ketcham himself, who also became a fixture in the strip [2]. The comic strip that was inspired by him, was carried by 16 newspapers within five months. By May 1953, 193 newspapers in the United States and 52 abroad were carrying the strip to 30 million readers [3]. It is now written and drawn by Ketcham's former assistants, Marcus Hamilton and Ron Ferdinand, and distributed to more than at least 10,000 newspapers in 48 countries and 19 languages by King Features Syndicate [4].
Unlike is cartoon alter ego Dennis did not lead a storybook life. He had learning disabilities as a boy. An alcoholic mother, and a father with a busy work schedule meant there was little time left for him [5].
He was sent to a boarding school in 1959, soon after his mother had filed for divorce. Soon after his mother died of an accidental drug overdose when she was only 41. His father remarried and moved to Geneva, Switzerland with Dennis. He had such a difficult time in Swiss boarding school that his father sent him to boarding school in America while he and his new wife remained in Europe [6].
After graduating, Dennis joined the Marines and went to Vietnam. Upon his return, he was treated for post-traumatic stress disorder and drifted from one low-paying job to another. Meanwhile, Hank Ketcham, now a multi-millionaire, was divorced and married a third wife, with whom he had two more children. Dennis was also divorced and had remarried. He was, himself, estranged from his daughter. "I hear from Dennis about once a year, mostly when he needs money," Hank Ketcham told People magazine in 1993 [7].