Timeline
March 1951 Drawn by David Law, Dennis the Menace appeared for the first time, as well as his dad.
May 1951 Dennis got his (in)famous red-and-black striped jersey, knitted for him by his granny (aka Whentball). He also teamed up with fellow menace, "Curly." The strip appeared in two colours (red and black).
1952 Walter appeared for the first time (Unnamed).
Early 1953 Walter was named.
Mid 1953 Dennis got expanded to a full page, while earlier strips were only half a page long.
1954 David Law's style of drawing Dennis changed dramatically, making the characters tall and thin. Dennis appeared on the back page in full colour for the first time.
1955 The first Dennis Annual was published, using reprinted stories from previous years.
1958 After four years of being drawn this way, characters become more or less back the way they were. Dennis returned inside the comic.
1962 Dennis returned to the back of the comic.
31 August 1968 Dennis found a dog on the street, Gnasher, on his way to the dog show at the local town hall. Gnasher became a regular from this point onwards.
1970 Walter's Dog, Foo-Foo, debuted.
22 July 1970 David Law retired, and one comic was drawn by Pup Parade artist Gordon Bell.
29 July 1970 Bash Street Kids artist Dave Sutherland started drawing Dennis, although drawing the strip almost identical to David Law. The strip was renamed "Dennis the Menace & Gnasher" when originally it was just called "Dennis the Menace" as Gnasher had been appearing every week on the strips.
14 September 1974 Dennis took the front cover of The Beano replacing Biffo the Bear.
1975 Walter joined "the softies", Bertie Blenkinsop and Algernon "Spotty" Perkins.
21 May 1977 Gnasher got his own strip in the comic, called "Gnasher's Tale", also drawn by David Sutherland.
May 1979 Dennis' pet pig, "Rasher" debuted.
Early 1980s Use of the slipper became increasingly rare in this time, having been very common in earlier strips.
22 September 1984 Rasher got his own strip in the comic, called simply "Rasher". Again, David Sutherland is the strip's artist.
March 1986 Gnasher "went missing". Foo Foo's Fairy Story temporarily replaced Gnasher's Tale.
May 1986 Gnasher returned, introducing his pups; Gnatasha, Gnannete, Gnancy, Gnaomi, Gnorah and Gnipper. "Gnasher and Gnipper" replaced "Gnasher's Tale".
1987 Dennis' spider, Dasher, appeared.
1988 Rasher's strip ended, replaced by Ill Will and the Germs.
1990 Granny's personality also changed drastically. Now, rather than a mean old woman, she became an elderly menace. The slipper was no longer used, partly due to changing attitudes towards child discipline at the time.
1992 The Menace car was seen for the first time.
February 1993 David Sutherland, Realising how stocky and bulky he became in recent years, started changing Dennis, making him look young and cute for a few years. The "Gnasher and Gnipper" strip was taken over by Barry Glennard in order to ease Sutherland's workload, though the style remains similar.
Early 1996 Dennis The Menace was looking like he did again, and for the first time ever, the story was drawn in the same style as the Bash Street Kids.
April 1996 The Dennis the Menace TV series appeared for the first time on BBC and TCC.
1996 This year marked the first appearances of The Colonel, Dennis' neighbour, and Sergeant Slipper, the local constable, who had both previously appeared in the Television Series. From this point onwards the front cover page usually consists of just one frame of the strip rather than several.
1998 Dasher re-appeared with a red mask as the mascot of the Beano site.
August–September 1998 For the 60th anniversary for the Beano, David Parkins started drawing Dennis the Menace, creating Bea some issues later.
October 1998 Bea got her own strip called Beaginnings drawn by Nigel Parkinson. She said her first word (Mud) in this strip.
1999 Nigel Parkinson became Dennis artist for the first time.
February 2001 The Gnasher and Gnipper strip was revamped, now being drawn in Barry Glennard's own style.
March 2001 Dennis celebrated his 50th Birthday. A special episode drawn by David Parkins (In the style of David Law) was released in the issue, telling the readers how he got his striped Jersey.
December 2001 Beaginnings got renamed Dennis' little sister Bea - the Mini Menace.
2002 Buster artist Jimmy Hansen drew his first Dennis strip. By this time, Nigel Parkinson was drawing Dennis as often as David Parkins, and effectively became main artist the following year.
2004 David Parkins stopped drawing Dennis altogether, and Jimmy Hansen joined Nigel Parkinson as main artist. Over the next 5 years they each drew about half of the strips. Walter got revamped when drawn by Jimmy Hansen, and he now bears the appearance of an Elvis impersonator with much bigger glasses.
2004 Dennis the Menace became the longest running strip in the Beano ever, beating Lord Snooty.
2007 Tom Paterson started drawing Dennis occasionally.
2008 Dennis got a comic strip at the back of the Beano as well as the front. The second strip was usually drawn by Tom Paterson. It is now clear that Walter has a new personality. Instead of being a gentle, well behaved boy, he's become camp, considerably meaner, and possibly evil.
2009 A brand new series was released, again on the BBC. For the new series, Dennis and Gnasher were revamped, not just for TV but also in the comic. The second Dennis strip was replaced by Sixty Second Dennis, which takes up just one page as opposed to two. The main Dennis strip is now mainly drawn by Hansen, with Sixty Second Dennis usually by Nigel Parkinson.
2011 Barrie Appleby took over as full-time Dennis artist. The strip isn't as influenced by the 2009 series now, with Dennis behaving more menacingly, the series-style backgrounds being dropped, Dennis being referred to more often as 'the menace' and the return of several characters who disappeared around the time of the new series, such as Foo-Foo. Also around the same time, Sixty Second Dennis gets replaced by a new Gnasher strip, titled Gnasher's Bit(e), drawn by Jimmy Hansen.
March 2011 Dennis celebrated his 60th birthday.
August 2012 Changes made by previous relaunch were reverted. Nigel Parkinson begins regular weekly strips.
Read more about this topic: Dennis The Menace (UK Comics)