Sunday Morning Dennis

I mentioned this one in the comments section of my recent post on Hank Ketcham's HALF-HITCH. The DENNIS THE MENACE Sunday strip, like Fred Hembeck's beloved DENNIS comics, was not drawn by Ketcham and, in fact, rarely if ever had been. I'm not certain which assistants were doing it in 1978 but for some reason, this particular one became my favorite DENNIS strip. Perhaps it's because every male child of the television generation probably did get their first crush on little curly Shirley. Perhaps it's because of the rare juxtaposition of reality and four color fantasy and the Freudian overtones that might be ascribed to...Uh, well...no. THAT ain't it! I really don't know but the Sunday strip quite often had something that the daily panel never really tried for, let alone achieved: heart. Maybe Hank Ketcham didn't really do HALF-HITCH or the DENNIS THE MENACE comics or even the @#@#!!Sunday strips but then again...maybe that's not a bad thing.