Now for something interesting for the Cartoon Vault, two characters with the exact same name and title but couldn't be more different, I present to you Dennis the Menace & Dennis the Menace.
In 1951 Hank Ketcham drew the American version of Dennis the Menace, around the same time a Scottish comic publisher here in the UK also made Dennis the Menace; to make things more confusing the pre-release of the UK is older but the publish date for the US came first, so it's a little confusing to say which one came first and which idea was stolen, but in this case I'd definitely pin it down to coincidence. As I said before there are unique differences in the characters.
American Dennis
Depicted as a much younger boy with blonde hair & freckles and a natural curiosity, Dennis seems to make trouble by accident often causing neighbors such as Mr Wilson to groan in despair at the amount of times he manages to cause problems. The actual cartoon was released in 1986 with a remake in the 90s and shows a very normal looking show of a group of kids having fun at the expense of the adults. The comics still run today despite the author's death.
British Dennis
In a very different twist the British Dennis is an older boy of about ten with black spiky hair and a red & black striped jersey causing mischief out of boredom alongside his pet dog Gnasher. This version is much closer to Bart Simpson than the American Dennis and many of his antics come dangerously close to straight up bullying especially when his foil is Walter the Softie, an effeminate good boy who comes close to being depicted as homosexual. UK Dennis got his cartoon in 1996 with a remake in 2009 that stripped him of his personality due to political correctness but his comic persona remains intact and still continues today.
Conclusion
Both comic strips are iconic but show two very different takes on youth culture. The American Dennis is very close to typical boys of the same age and invented the catchphrase "boys will be boys"
The British Dennis pushes the trouble making to much larger levels to the point where he could be considered a villain, and considering most comic strips depict his antics as being foiled, that would be the correct assumption to make. Bart Simpson has largely made these two redundant and the British version has another rival in Children's book character Horrid Henry who also has a cartoon series.
Both characters still remain a staple of youth culture and have made their mark in their own unique ways long after their original creators had passed on.
