DENNIS THE MENACE 147
DC: Th e New Frontier comes at the end of a long line of superhero narratives
questioning the place of the superhero in modern society, such as Squadron Supreme,
Th e Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, Th e Golden Age, and Kingdom Come. It owes
much of its atmosphere to Th e Golden Age, which also depicted superheroes pros-
ecuted by the government for their vigilantism. Th e presence of nuclear threats and
the covert missions that the superheroes undertake for their government in Th e New
Frontier are akin to those in both Th e Dark Knight Returns and Wa t c h m e n, and its
themes of the need for superheroes and what harm they could pose for society are
familiar from Kingdom Come, yet, DC: Th e New Frontier is deliberately set before all
of these other works, and solves its problems not to take a step forward in comics,
but as a retrospective of what has already been accomplished by the medium.
Among its historical references, DC: Th e New Frontier includes depictions of
Walter Cronkite, Edwards Air Force Base, Edward R. Murrow, and even an extended
narrative involving the early civil rights movement. Th e work itself is rich as both a
comic book narrative, and that of a period piece about the 1950s. Cooke himself,
whose previous work included animation on the Batman and Superman animated
series of the late 1990s, drew the characters of DC: Th e New Frontier in a style remi-
niscent of Jack Kirby, one of the greatest illustrators and creators during the Silver
Age of comics, even dedicating the last issue to him. Th e series itself won the Eisner
Awa rd for best fi nite/limited series in 2005, and the 2006 collected edition Abso-
lute DC: Th e New Frontier won for best reprint graphic album and best publication
design in 2007. An animated fi lm, Justice League: Th e New Frontier, produced by
Bruce Timm (creator of the aforementioned Batman and Superman animated series)
based off of DC: Th e New Frontier was also released in 2008.
Jackson Jennings
DENNIS THE MENACE. A long-running U.S. comic, not to be confused with the
equally long-lived (but very diff erent) British comic of the same title. While working
at home in October 1950, cartoonist Hank Ketcham was interrupted by his wife
Alice, who burst into his studio to declare, “You’re son is a menace!” Th eir four-year-
old son, Dennis Lloyd Ketcham, had “demolished” his room when he was supposed
to be napping. Ketcham was inspired by his wife’s exasperation to create Dennis the
Menace, one of the most popular newspaper comics to emerge during the postwar
era. Th e single-panel feature captured the attention of readers during the baby boom
years, who could relate to Dennis’s mischief and his harried parents’ attempts to
contain his antics. Dennis the Menace debuted in only 16 newspapers on March 12,
1951, but currently appears in more than 1,000 newspapers in 48 countries, and has
been translated into 19 languages. In 1952 Ketcham was named the “Outstanding
Cartoonist of the Year” by the National Cartoonists Society.
Henry King Ketcham was born in Seattle, Washington in 1920 and dreamed of
being a cartoonist from childhood. In 1938, he moved to Hollywood in search of a
job in the animation industry. From 1939 to 1942 he found employment at the Walt
