1. Henry King Ketcham 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 cartoon and took up painting full-time in his home studio.
17 Facts About Hank Ketcham
1. 2.
When Hank Ketcham was six years old, his father had an illustrator over for dinner.
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Hank Ketcham was immediately hooked, and soon his father set up a small desk in the closet of his bedroom at which he could draw.
4.
Hank Ketcham started in the business as an assistant animator for Walter Lantz and, starting in 1939, for Walt Disney, where he worked on Pinocchio, Fantasia, Bambi, and several Donald Duck shorts.
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Hank Ketcham built a two-bedroom redwood house and studio in Carmel Woods.
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Hank Ketcham was in his studio in October 1950 when his first wife, Alice, burst into the studio and complained that their four-year-old, Dennis, had wrecked his bedroom instead of napping.
7.
Hank Ketcham did not inform his son of his mother's death, or visit his son, until she was buried, and Dennis was not present at the funeral.
8.
Three weeks later, Hank Ketcham married Jo Anne Stevens, who he met on a blind date.
9.
The family moved to Geneva, Switzerland, where they lived from 1960 to 1977, where Hank Ketcham continued to produce Dennis the Menace.
10.
In 1977, Hank Ketcham moved back to the United States and settled in Monterey, California, with his third wife, the former Rolande Praepost, whom he had married in 1969, and with whom he had two children, Scott and Dania.
11.
Dennis Hank Ketcham served in Vietnam, suffered post-traumatic stress disorder, and had little contact with his father.
12.
When his Dennis the Menace cartoon added a Sunday strip, Hank Ketcham hired artist Al Wiseman and writer Fred Toole to produce the Sunday strips and the many Dennis the Menace comic books that were published.
13.
In 1990, Hank Ketcham published a memoir titled The Merchant of Dennis the Menace chronicling his career.
14.
Hank Ketcham retired from drawing the daily panel in 1994, when his former assistants, Marcus Hamilton and Ron Ferdinand, took over.
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Hank Ketcham spent his last years in retirement at his home in Carmel, California, painting in oil and watercolor.
16.
Hank Ketcham died in Carmel on June 1,2001, at the age of 81.
17.
Hank Ketcham was survived by his oldest son, Dennis; his third wife, Rolande; and their two children, Dania and Scott.