Charlotte Magazine – August 2019

32 CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // JULY 2019

THE GOOD LIFE

ART

Directing a “Menace”

For 25 years, Marcus Hamilton’s comic strips

have told the story of an ageless troublemaker

BY CHERYL SPAINHOUR

ILLUSTRATOR MARCUS HAMILTON spends hours every day in

his Mint Hill art studio with “Dennis the Menace,” the blond,

freckle-faced, ageless boy who’s always chasing trouble, to the

amusement of comic strip readers.

The 76-year-old North Carolina native has drawn the daily

syndicated comic strip (except on Sundays) since 1994. His ‘rst

job a“er earning a commercial art degree from Atlantic Christian

College (now Barton College) was with WBTV’s art department

in 1965. He thrived for several decades as a freelance illustrator

for national magazines, including The Saturday Evening Post, Golf

Digest, and Cosmopolitan. (He illustrated a cover for Charlotte

magazine in 1969.)

When digital art began to replace hand-drawn illustrations in

the early 1990s, he went from earning $80,000 a year to working

at a Walmart photo center making minimum wage. He was 50

years old, wondering how he was going to support his family.

Then he caught a television interview with “Dennis” creator

Hank Ketcham, who was retiring and looking for someone to

carry on his comic strip. Hamilton applied, and Ketcham žew

him and his wife out to California for a tryout, and hired him.

In February, Charlotte sat down with the so“-spoken Hamilton

in his second-story studio, decorated with “Dennis” collectibles

and “Dennis” curtains around the window. He sat beside his

worn, wooden light table—a gi“ from Ketcham, who died in

2001. Kaye, Hamilton’s wife of 55 years, was downstairs, knitting.
      Their dog, Mini, a frisky shih tzu, slept at his feet. (This interview
      has been edited for clarity and length.)

CHARLOTTE MAGAZINE: You were eight years old when ‘Dennis

the Menace’ debuted. Did comic books and comic strips inspire

your drawings as a child?

MARCUS HAMILTON: Yes. I found I could trace Mickey Mouse

on paper, holding it against the window with the sunlight com-

ing through. I drew a lot of Disney cartoons and made up my

own little characters. My parents always encouraged me. I liked

the drawing style of ‘Dennis the Menace.’ Being a single panel

appealed to me, because it was all right there in one picture. And

I always wanted to be a cartoonist or illustrator. I loved Norman

Rockwell’s work in The Saturday Evening Post.

CM: When you were in rst grade, you lost your depth perception

in your right eye from an accident. How did you contend with that

kind of challenge as a visual artist?

MH: I wonder myself. You compensate for it. You don’t let that

hold you back from being able to focus on the drawing. I never

really knew what depth perception was growing up. It hap- CHRIS EDWARDS