David Law (15 June 1908 – 30 April 1971) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

cartoonist best known for creating '' Dennis the Menace'' and ''

Beryl the Peril Beryl the Peril (or simply Beryl) is a fictional character created by David Law, the creator of Dennis the Menace, for issue 1 of '' The Topper'' comic (dated 7 February 1953) published by DC Thomson & Co. Limited. Like Dennis, she had black ...

'' for

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

publishers D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd .

Life

Law was born and raised in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

and educated at

Edinburgh College of Art Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) is one of eleven schools in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. Tracing its history back to 1760, it provides higher education in art and design, architecture, histor ...

. He first worked for

Odhams Press Odhams Press was a British publishing company, operating from 1920 to 1968. Originally a magazine publisher, Odhams later expanded into book publishing and then children's comics. The company was acquired by Fleetway Publications in 1961 and th ...

as an illustrator, before moving to D. C. Thomson in the early 1930s. He drew cartoons for Thomsons newspapers like the ''

Evening Telegraph ''Evening Telegraph'' is a common newspaper name, and may refer to: * ''Evening Telegraph'' (Dundee), Scotland * ''Evening Telegraph'' (Dublin), Ireland, published 1871–1924. * ''Coventry Evening Telegraph'', England, now the ''Coventry Telegr ...

'', including a strip called ''The Wee Fella''. His most famous creation, ''Dennis the Menace'', first appeared in ''

The Beano ''The Beano'' (formerly ''The Beano Comic'') is a British anthology comic magazine created by Scottish publishing company DC Thomson. Its first issue was published on 30 July 1938, and it published its 4000th issue in August 2019. Popular and ...

'' issue 452, dated 17 March 1951. Due to British comics being printed several days before distribution to newsagents (bearing the date of the following week to give them a longer shelf life), it seems beyond dispute that the UK Dennis saw print before

Hank Ketcham Henry King 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, when he retired from drawing the daily cartoon and took up painting ...

's identically named '' Dennis the Menace'', which began syndication in the USA on 12 March 1951. It is possible that - at the very latest - the British version could have made his public debut on the same day as his Stateside counterpart, although it seems likely that he preceded him even in that. However, it is still unknown which character was actually created first. Law's ''Dennis'' was a juvenile

anti-hero An antihero (sometimes spelled as anti-hero or two words anti hero) or anti-heroine is a character in a narrative (in literature, film, TV, etc.) who may lack some conventional heroic qualities and attributes, such as idealism and morality. Al ...

, uncontrollable and destructive, drawn in spontaneous, edgy lines, and was an immediate hit; the strip eventually displaced ''

Biffo the Bear Biffo the Bear is a fictional character from the British comic magazine ''The Beano'' who stars in the comic strip of the same name, created in 1948 by Dudley D. Watkins. He was the mascot of ''The Beano'' for several decades. Background Biffo ...

'' on the comic's full colour front cover in 1974. Law went on to create ''Beryl the Peril'', a similarly anarchic female character, for the '' Topper'' in 1953, and the accident-prone soldier ''

Corporal Clott ''Corporal Clott'' was a strip in the British comic ''The Dandy''. It started in the issued dated 12 November 1960 (issue 990) and was drawn by Dennis the Menace artist David Law. The strip was drawn by David Law until issue 1496 dated 25 Jul ...

'' for ''

The Dandy ''The Dandy'' was a Scottish children's comic magazine published by the Dundee based publisher DC Thomson. The first issue was printed in December 1937, making it the world's third-longest running comic, after '' Il Giornalino'' (cover dated 1 Oc ...

'' in 1960. He was taken ill in 1970, and his strips were taken over by other artists, including David Sutherland on ''Dennis the Menace'' and John Dallas on ''Beryl the Peril''. Law returned briefly to ''The Beano'' in 1971, but died in April 30th of that year, aged 63.

References

David Law
a
Paul Morris' ''Beano'' website
a

External links

A ''Dennis the Menace'' strip drawn by David Law
a
BBC.co.uk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Law, David 1908 births 1971 deaths Alumni of the Edinburgh College of Art Artists from Edinburgh The Beano people British comic strip cartoonists British illustrators British humorists The Dandy people People associated with Dundee Scottish humorists Scottish comics artists Scottish illustrators Dennis the Menace and Gnasher