SAN FRANCISCO Hank Ketcham, originator of the Dennis the Menace comic strip in 1951, has died at his home in Pebble Beach, California, at age 81.

Ketcham drew the weekday comic strip until 1994, when a team of artists took over. Dennis the Menace, originally inspired by Ketcham's own 4-year-old son, Portrays a mischievous little boy who innocently but relentlessly pesters his cranky, old neighbor, Mister Wilson.

The comic strip celebrated its 50th anniversary in March. It inspired a show on United States television from 1959 to 1963 and a 1993 movie starring Walter Matthau as Mister Wilson.

Ketcham began his career as an animator for Walter Lantz's Woody Woodpecker cartoons, and worked for Walt Disney on "Fantasia", "Pinocchio", "Bambi" and Donald Duck cartoons. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Navy as an illustrator for training literature, enlistment posters, war bond advertising.

For Dennis the Menace, he used comedy writers to help generate fresh ideas. The strip runs in about 1,000 newspapers in 48 countries and is translated into 19 languages, DPA reported.