Tuesday, November 17, 2020

Calvin & Hobbes and Dennis the Menace

 


This is a cover that I have been meaning to get to for a while.  Dennis I am sure was part of the inspiration for Calvin after all.  I wonder how much more mischief he would have gotten into in his dog, Ruff, spoke to Dennis while nobody was looking (or at least in his imagination).

23 comments:

kevin from new orleans said...

Did you know that there is a British Dennis that was created at the same time as the U.S. Dennis? And the British Dennis lives up to his name by beating up classmates, breaking stuff, & creating all kinds of trouble on purpose because it's fun.

Carycomic said...

The only prior appearance of Calvin and Hobbes that surpasses this cover-sim is that of STF #1717.

Way to go, Ross. :-)

Anonymous said...

@Kevin: in which case, I shamelessly prefer the American Dennis.

@Ross: what a great way for the American Dennis to debut here. :-)

Davejonz said...

"Two countries divided by a common language." In this case we are divided by Dennises the Menaces. I have to say your US version looks rather un-menacing next to the British one.

Bob Greenwade said...

@Cary: #1717 was indeed a great bit of work, but my personal favorite C&H cover is #2522. Even so, I fully agree that this is a long-overdue pairing. I think it'd be interesting to see these guys as classmates to Charlie Brown.

(In fact, there are a good number of comic-strip kids who could fill out a classroom: Danae Pyle from Non Sequitur, Agnes and Trout from the former's eponymous strip, Jason Fox from FoxTrot, and probably several others. It's too bad Ross isn't so much a fan of those strips, though the curious can check out those and many others at GoComics.)

@Dave: Ah, that's part of his charm. Dennis Mitchell is all innocent-looking, and even good natured, but he has ways of generating trouble that can put more malicious kids to shame.

Daviticus said...

@kevin: I don't know about Ross, but I knew it. There was a plagiarism lawsuit, but the judge concluded that it was just coincidence. It's not as farfetched as it might seem: A mischievous, trouble-making young "menace" is a fairly obvious premise for a comic strip, and "Dennis" would be a good name for such a character, the rhyming scheme would make it easy to remember. So yeah, I'm with the judge on this.

Daviticus said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Daviticus said...

Oh...and my favorite C&H cover is #2644. They're pretty much all good, though!

Anonymous said...

Bob Greenwade's right. The American DTM is not so much a bad seed as a well-meaning-but-accident-prone good seed.

Anonymous said...

@Daviticus: You ain't lying. ;-)

Davejonz said...

Ross, I know UK comics are outside your usual orbit, but what the Double Dennises facing off?

Bradley Walker said...

Actually, Dave, American Dennis was much more malicious in his first appearances. Check out the Complete Dennis collections they were putting out for awhile. One example: Dennis and a friend are sailing toy boats on a lake, in the background. Up front we see a pair of swans, one of which has a knot in his neck. He tells his friend, "Stay away from the kid in the overalls!"

Anonymous said...

Considering how hyper-territorial swans can be in real-life, I'm sure it was just self-defense.

Anonymous said...

Wouldn't it be a gas if one of those puddles turned out to be a portal in Sea Monkey-land (in STF #797)?

Carycomic said...

On a digressive note: how about if Megaton Man banded together with Dr. Solar, Man of the Atom; the Golden Age Comet (from Archie Comics); and Cyclops of the X-men?

The could call themselves..."The Super Visors!"

Bob Greenwade said...

@Cary: What, no Geordi LaForge?

Bob Buethe said...

The American Dennis used to be a well-intentioned kid with no filters and way too much energy. Over the past decade or two, he's changed to a stereotypical sarcastic brat. The old Dennis was more fun.

Bob Buethe said...

#Bob G.: A good thought, but there's a difference. When Solar, Comet, or Cyclops loft their visors, things blow up. When Geordi lifts his visor, he can't see.

Anonymous said...

mayube Dennis and Calvin could, with similarly dressed c kids (like bart Simpson), stage an intervention against Elroy Jetson and the comic book version of Richie Rich, dressing them similarly, instead of like "wieners".

Anonymous said...

@Anon 10:03 PM: That's #792!

Anonymous said...

Thanks, namesake. :-)

Bob Greenwade said...

@Other Bob: Aha! Good point.

Anonymous said...

On a slightly more serious note; how about Batman vs. Princess Python?

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