Dennis' adieu to Sutherland

Free Thinker *

" This is my Mom, my father's wife and he is my Dad, my mother's husband ", says Dennis the Menace. David Sutherland, one of the renowned illustrators of 'Dennis the Menace', passed away at the age of 89, a few days back (19 Jan 2023).

'Dennis the Menace' is now a syndicated newspaper comic strip originally created by Hank Ketcham and first brushed by David Law. David Sutherland also drew him for nearly 30 years (Bash Street Kids). Dennis is perhaps the most widely circulated comic strip published in many popular publications around the world. This is also an overwhelmingly popular cartoon comic jest.

Nigel Parkinson the present Dennis illustrator expresses on the passing away of David Sutherland, "...children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren have all loved David Sutherland's joyous, happy, teeming-with-life, hilarious drawings nearly every single week in Beano for 60 years; he has touched the heart, tickled the funny bone and amused the eyes of millions ".

Sutherland worked for DC Thompson since 1959. He was actually in a competition organized by the Company itself; he was not among the winners in the competition; but he made a great impact on the jury that he won a job in the Company, that is DC Thompson. For many years he had drawn nearly 1000 pictures of Dennis the Menace. Some of the images were still in circulation. What a great artist!

David Sutherland was born in 1933 in Inver Gordon, UK; moved to Sterling with his father and other two siblings after the passing away of his mother. He was just 2 when his mother died.

Finally, the family shifted to Glasgow, where he studied Art. He was fond of paintings and drawings. One of his teachers encouraged him to go for Art. Then he joined the Glasgow School of Art; he attended classes in the evening; he studied commercial Art.

My second half, sorry, my better half loves Dennis the Menace so much. Almost every day she looks for Dennis either in the Newspaper or the net; she will try to locate him and enjoy what he says.

When caught red-handed for spilling things Dennis said to his Mom "I don't think I did that Mom and if I did, I will never do it again." Forget about children and teens, even adults and grandparents love to have a glance of funny Dennis and his unforgettable cute expressions, imbedded with innocence and humor.

A few days back a friend of mine posted a picture of Dennis the Menace paying his last tribute to one of his creators David Sutherland (1939 -2023 ). Then I thought of putting a few words in the honor of this great artist.

In fact, this write-up is a small kind tribute to the man who had made the world laugh or smile. We must pay our homage and respect to such people more than those who kill and torture people for power and money.

On the sad demise of Sutherland, John Anderson the editor of Beano says, " the single most important illustrator in Beano History, David Sutherland who has died aged 89, was the artist behind some of Beano town's topmost tearaways, his was brush responsible for 30 years of Dennis the Menace and more than 60 years of Bash Street Kids ".

He also remembers Sutherland as, "the single most important illustrator in Beano history". He was credited for creating Bash Street Pups, (later he started his own comic strip Pup Parade), Cuthbert Cringeworthy, and Oliver the School Cook.

David Sutherland was with the Beano for many years. He was associated with many of its creations and projects. Over the years Beano has had many different strips, ranging from comic strips to adventure strips to prose stories.

Prose stories were the first to go, being phased out in 1955. Adventure strips were phased out in 1975. There have been unsuccessful attempts to reintroduce adventure strips with new series of Billy the Cat and Katie.

The longest-running strip in The Beanos is Dennis the Menace which has been running for seventy years. The Beano has been home to 371 different strips with a further seventeen strips appearing in Comic Idol competitions and not later appearing in the comic (Courtesy Wikipedia).

We all love the characters and personalities connected with humor and jokes. Life without comedy and gags will be so dry and cruel.

The world loves Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, Henry, Dennis, Jaspal Bhati, Khushwant Singh, GB Shaw, Mark Twain, Raju Srivastava, Kapil Sharma, GC Tongbra, Dolansana, Chaoba & Tombi, Oja Tolhan, Manglem, Nokphade party and many others who have created our world a funny place.

We have lost a great cartoonist "David Sutherland "who had drawn 'Dennis' for many years. We simply can't imagine a punless society. I believe all the people around the world love Dennis the Menace but they don't want to see their boys grow up like Dennis; is it a paradox or dichotomy?

Please don't forget, Valentine's Day order, 'guy' hug day, has been withdrawn. The inconvenience caused is deeply regretted.