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Posted on March 13, 2005 Hey, Mr. Haaaaamil-tuuuuun! By Linda
Conley | Staff Writer Artist Marcus Hamilton never thought he would someday tell his family and friends to look for his work in the funny papers. But for the past 12 years that's what he has been doing. Hamilton
is the illustrator for "Dennis the Menace." Since 1993, he has
created hundreds of sketches for the mischievous 5 1/2 Scott Cunningham, exhibits coordinator for the art museum, said he wanted to display Hamilton's work because he likes to show the talent of area artists. "You don't have to go to New York or California to see the work of talented artists," Cunningham said. "We have some incredible artists right here." Hamilton said he couldn't imagine what his life would be like without "Dennis the Menace." It was a comic strip he remembered from his childhood, but never imagined becoming the illustrator for Dennis the Menace. "'Dennis the Menace' is translated in 19 languages now," he said. "I really love this work." Amazing
what one might happen across on TV Times were good for him because his illustration of comedian Bob Hope appeared on the Saturday Evening Post in 1978 and an illustration of baseball star Reggie Jackson appeared on a Children's Digest that same year. "We experienced ups and downs because there were times when clients would pay for the work, but there were other times when they didn't pay," said Kaye Hamilton about her husband's work. "We would save, save, save during the good times because we had two small children at the time Marcus started his own business." Illustrations began changing in the early 1990s with the advent of computer graphics. Hamilton didn't know anything about computer graphics at that time. That's when business started declining because clients started using illustrators experienced with computer graphics. In 1993,
Hamilton was working at Wal-Mart when he came home and saw an interview
with cartoonist Hank Ketcham, the creator and illustrator of "Dennis
the Menace." Ketcham said he wanted to retire and do other . kinds
of art, but would have to find someone to take over the comic strip. Ketcham asked for a portfolio from Hamilton, and the two men talked and corresponded for about two weeks. Ketcham sent Hamilton four captions and asked him to draw the ink illustrations for "Dennis the Menace." "I bought every 'Dennis the Menace' book in town' " Hamilton said. "I drew the illustrations and sent them back to Mr. Ketcham." Working
with the creator Hamilton learned about a of the characters in the comic strip. He studied the personalities of Dennis and his friends, Joey, Margaret and Mr. Wilson. He learned about such things as the comic strip first appeared on March 12,1951. Dennis will always remain 5 1/2 because Ketcham believed it was an innocent age. There are sketches where Dennis celebrates a birthday, but he remains the same age. Margaret, a friend of Dennis, is two years older. Hamilton's first panel of "Dennis the Menace" appeared in January 1994. He replaced all of his art tools with ink and a pen. He likes the simple clean lines used in the comic strip. Ketcham, continued to critique the drawings, providing comments daily up until his death in 2001. Ketcham's name continued appearing on the comic strips until January 2002 when it was decided Hamilton should start using his name. "I enjoyed working with Mr. Ketcham because he rejuvenated my love for art," Hamilton said. "I had gotten out of it while working with graphics. I started looking closely at details and paying more attention to them in my drawings like I should h~ve done in the beginning." Delighted
with 'Dennis' His goal is to continue drawing "Dennis" as long as he can. His only problem now is that he believes when people learn about his job they will think he looks like Mr. Wilson since he is in his 60s and has two grandchildren. "I want to keep drawing the comic strip until I can't draw anymore," Hamilton said. Linda Conley
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