Dennis Through the Ages THE Beano’s most popular character turns 70 today. Dennis the Menace first appeared in the comic in issue 452, dated March 17, 1951. Always dressed in his distinctive red and black striped jumper (except for his earliest apperaances) and accompanied by his faithful canine sidekick Gnasher, spiky-haired Dennis – “the world’s wildest boy” – was the first of the naughty kids strips that revitalised British comics in the 1950s. After Dennis came The Bash Street Kids, Minnie the Minx, Beryl the Peril and Roger the Dodger. But Dennis remains the longest-running strip in the Beano and one of the most popular British comic book characters, with his own TV show. He even had a fan club that numbered more than a million members at one point (including Mark Hammill of Star Wars fame).