In a story about coincidences in real life, it was told that the US comic strip Dennis the Menace began the same week that a UK strip with the same name started.

Yes, both in March 1951. On the same day! Weird, huh? See Cracked.com (#3).

Having read a few of the US comics online, I'd say that he should be renamed Dennis the Mildly Irrating - he can't hold a candle to his UK namesake in terms of menace. The UK version has been softened rather over the years to become more PC but he used to be truly vicious.

I hadn't known about the UK version, arnie. It's interesting to note the difference in the two pictures; the UK Dennis does look much more diabolical!

I never did like our Dennis the Menace.

It's been a shame to witness the decline over the years of the once proudly baleful Dennis (UK version). For instance, the last frame of almost every comic would show Dennis getting whacked (usually by his father or teacher) for whatever his misdeeds had been that time. There was a nice symmetry. The audience of kids was left under no illusion that they could get away with anything like his actions, much as they'd like to. I suppose his getting grounded or having his phone privileges taken away is not so easy to show visually.

Then there was his rather epicene antagonist, Walter Softee, whom Dennis would bully unmercifully. To avoid accusations of homophobia Walter was given a girlfriend. He was also portrayed as a much nastier piece of work than hitherto, sly and calculating, capable of initiating nasty pranks on Dennis. That provided more of an excuse for Dennis beating him up than the earlier comics, where it was obviously just because he was soft.

Also Dennis's dog, Gnasher, hardly mentioned in the early comics, has come to play a much larger part. Instead of Dennis beating someone up, Gnasher now bites them. That way a lot of the innate violence is removed from the character of Dennis.