Animal cruelty is an early trait that serial-killers share. A swan with its neck tied in a knot warns its mate, “Stay away from that kid with the black pants!” Armed with a slingshooter on a park bench, Dennis asks his mom, “Hey, do you know how to cook a pigeon?” -Mark Rahner (Seattle Times)

As most smart people do, Andrew and I love comic strips. Enough so that dinner table comic plot discussions were hardly unusual in our house growing up.

In this Sunday’s Seattle Times, there is a GREAT article based on the book “Hank Ketcham’s Complete Dennis the Menace (1951-1952)”. It is a collection of early Dennis the Menace comics that paint a FAR different picture of the “lil’scamp” we’ve all come to know and despise.

Like Peanuts before it, Dennis the Menace is a strip that had far more bite, humor, and depth back in it’s early years. Hell, these strips were even drawn better back in the beginning. I wonder which came first, the slide into disgusting cuteness, or Ketcham’s increasing self loathing and lack of caring about the monster he could not escape? It’s almost as if the detail lines were just too much work to lift his arm for. Especially when that same arm lift could bring bottle to lips and cloud the memory of his horrible creation.

Why are comic strip pages so clogged with horrid regurgitated drivel that is often done by the 3rd or 4th guy to draw and write it? Why do I have to read “Herman” reruns every day in the Seattle times? Jim Unger has been dead for years. Who cares that the creepily a-sexual Cathy finally got married? Why do I have to think to myself “Hey, this ‘Mutts’ comic strip is pretty good in comparison to the rest of this crap”?

Oh Hobbes, I do miss you so.