Dennis the Menace is astonished by his luck and says: He said yes!
This is a rare screenprint from my archives which I will be selling at my show in central London next week.
I printed it about 12 years ago (I neglected to date it) and it’s part of a tiny edition – there are only three in existence.
The pop-up shop will be at The Showcase, 33-35 St John’s Square, London EC1M 4DS from Monday June 13-Sunday June 19.
Our opening times will be 9-7pm from Monday to Friday and 11-4pm on Saturday and Sunday.
Dennis the Menace, the star of The Beano comic, first appeared in 1951. He has since become a kind of national mascot – what Asterix is to France, or Oor Wullie is to Scotland.
One glimpse of his red-and-white jersey – actually a football top – or his unruly hair immediately brings the lovable scamp to mind.
Dennis the Menace has gone through various phases since then, from the pocket-sized Satan of the 1950s, to the pugnatious youth of the 1960s and 1970s to the incorrigible imp of the 1990s.
In the early 1960s, he was joined by his Abyssinian wire-haired tripe house, Gnasher. Gnasher seems to be made of the same kind of thing as Dennis the Menace’s hair – the untamed explosion of black hair symbolic of the chaos they embody.
He is a gift to the screenprinter, from a graphic point of view, with his red-and-white sriped jersey and explosion of black hair.
I am the first screenprinter in Europe to have permission to use the archive of French publisher Editions Albert Rene to make screenprints of its characters Asterix, Getafix, Obelix and Dogmatix. I have a similar relationship with Britain’s top comics publisher, DC Thomson, to make screenprints of its icons from The Beano, The Dandy, The Victor, Commando and The Sunday Post. These include Dennis the Menace, Minnie the Minx, Desperate Dan, The Bash Street Kids, Rodger The Dodger, Lord Snooty, Beryl The Peril, Alf Tupper, Oor Wullie and The Broons. Olive Oyl and Popeye are also in by stable of world comic icons.
Medium size: 48cms x 38cms.
Handmade, limited edition screen print on mould-made, cotton paper.
Signed and numbered out of 200 in pencil by the printer, John Patrick Reynolds
© D.C. Thomson & Co., Ltd.
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