David Law (15 June 1908 - April 1971; Edinburgh, Scotland)
David Law was a Scottish cartoonist best known for creating Dennis the Menace and Beryl the Peril for Dundee publishers D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd .

Law was born and raised in Edinburgh and educated at Edinburgh College of Art. He first worked for Odhams Press as an illustrator, before moving to D. C. Thomson in the early 1930s. He drew cartoons for Thomsons newspapers like the Evening Telegraph, including a strip called The Wee Fella.

His most famous creation, Dennis the Menace, first appeared in The Beano issue 452, dated 17 March 1951. Due to British comics being printed several days before distribution to newsagents (bearing the date of the following week to give them a longer shelf life), it seems beyond dispute that the UK Dennis saw print before Hank Ketcham's identically named Dennis the Menace, which began syndication in the USA on 12 March 1951. It is possible that - at the very latest - the British version could have made his public debut on the same day as his Stateside counterpart, although it seems likely that he preceded him even in that. However, it is still unknown which character was actually created first.

Law's Dennis was a juvenile anti-hero, uncontrollable and destructive, drawn in spontaneous, edgy lines, and was an immediate hit; the strip eventually displaced Biffo the Bear on the comic's full colour front cover in 1974.

As his name implies, Dennis the Menace is a wild and uncontrollable bad boy. The malicious brat plays pranks on other children, but parents, policemen and teachers aren't safe either. Everywhere he goes, mayhem ensues. Gag comics about naughty children have always been popular, dating all the way back to Wilhelm Busch's 'Max und Moritz' (1866) and Rudolph Dirks' 'The Katzenjammer Kids' (1897-2006). In England, where corporal punishment in schools was legal up until 1986, many novelists and cartoonists vented their juvenile frustrations with stories about sadistic teachers caning misbehaving children. Frank Richards's 'Billy Bunter' (first adapted in comic strip form by C.H. Chapman in 1939) and Ronald Searle's 'St. Trinians' (1946-1952) are the most iconic predecessors in British comics.

However, Law's comic strip had a vitality and anarchy previous British comics lacked. The artist was a master in conveying speed and movement. His characters often rush from one panel to the other, adding tremendous energy to each gag. Portrayed as an anti-hero, Dennis is an uncompromising hoodlum who enjoys shaking up his environment. He defies manners, rules and regulations. The rascal stands up against adults and other figures of authority. And even though he gets punished or humiliated for his actions, he never learns his lesson: the brat is back at creating havoc in the very next episode. In many ways, the character captured the spirit of the 1950s. Dennis was a prototypical teddyboy long before these rebellious teens became a subculture.

Law went on to create Beryl the Peril, a similarly anarchic female character, for the Topper in 1953, and the accident-prone soldier Corporal Clott for The Dandy in 1960.

He was taken ill in 1970, and his strips were taken over by other artists, including David Sutherland on Dennis the Menace and John Dallas on Beryl the Peril. Law returned briefly to The Beano in 1971, but died in April that year, aged 63.