Wikipedia - aargh!

[Jonny Whizz]

You're right, and I completely missed that part of the article! That makes it even worse!

I know Walter sometimes wears tutus etc. when he's doing ballet, but as a soft as he is, as far as I'm aware he's never pretended to be a girl and I don't think he's into the sort of thing the article suggests. At least I hope not! I'm sure it isn't what any of the Beano's editors over the years have intended, at least...

[felneymike]

People just sometimes slip odd words into articles as a joke, though. I once wandered onto an article about buses in Hong Kong and somebody had made all the references to "double decker" look like they were talking about the chcolate bar.

[Digifiend]

Does anyone know how you can revert an article to an earlier version?

Digi's your man, Jonny. He'll have it sorted in two shakes of a lamb's tail.

Looks like I got beaten to it by Eopsid (known here as Tin Can Tommy) and an unregistered editor. The Walter transvestite thing, added by a different unregistered user, was vandalism. Not sure what you mean about Jimmy Hansen, Jonny, he's mentioned several times and that info wasn't added recently.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_the ... mic_Strip)

[Jonny Whizz]

Sorry, I meant this article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_the ... Character)

The article about the comic strip has the correct artist information, the one concerning Dennis as a character is wrong in this respect. I'm not sure why it's deemed necessary to give another article over to Dennis as a character when the one about the comic strip does largely the same job.

Also, the article I linked to describes Dennis as a villain at some points! That's a bizarre description in my opinion. Dennis is very much the anti-hero - he is badly behaved but I've always felt the readers are on his side, rather than with Walter, his parents and the other authority figures like Sergeant Slipper.

[AndyB]

Definite candidate for merger. There's far too little can be said about Dennis on his own that wouldn't be better in the Dennis and Gnasher article.

Follow the merger through, give decent time for discussion (say an hour? Oh, ok, a week)

[felneymike]

And be sure to precede the discussion with "Great news, chums!"

[Tin Can Tommy]

The Dennis the Menace character article was only created in April 2011. I too think it should be merged with the Dennis the menace and gansher comic strip article. i have put a merger proposal on the Wikipedia. So if you think it should be merged discussing on the Wikipedia is a good idea.

[Jonny Whizz]

I've finally joined Wikipedia, properly. I'm using the same name on there as on here to avoid any confusion (I'll mainly be editing pages about comics).

EDIT: I've just created a page about David Parkins, here's the link. Hope it's not too bad for my first go at creating a page!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Parkins

[swirlythingy]

I know Walter sometimes wears tutus etc. when he's doing ballet, but as a soft as he is, as far as I'm aware he's never pretended to be a girl and I don't think he's into the sort of thing the article suggests. At least I hope not! I'm sure it isn't what any of the Beano's editors over the years have intended, at least...

Not intended, maybe, but Euan Kerr apparently shared the same opinion. In the 90s, in the midst of the general national political correctness panic, he gave Walter a girlfriend (called Matilda) specifically to discourage the character being used as an inspiration for, and I quote, "gay-bashing".

[Phoenix]

I quote, "gay-bashing".

It would be interesting to see the rest of Euan's comment. Could you quote it all for us please, Swirly.

[Digifiend]

I know Walter sometimes wears tutus etc. when he's doing ballet, but as a soft as he is, as far as I'm aware he's never pretended to be a girl and I don't think he's into the sort of thing the article suggests. At least I hope not! I'm sure it isn't what any of the Beano's editors over the years have intended, at least...

Not intended, maybe, but Euan Kerr apparently shared the same opinion. In the 90s, in the midst of the general national political correctness panic, he gave Walter a girlfriend (called Matilda) specifically to discourage the character being used as an inspiration for, and I quote, "gay-bashing".

Wrong. Matilda was created for the 1996 TV series and only had a couple of Beano appearances.

The two Dennis the Menace articles have been merged. I didn't know he had a character article, and it was immediately recognised as a duplicate and merged this morning.

[Tin Can Tommy]

The dennis the menace and Gnasher wikipedia article says Walter's girlfriend Matilda was called Winnifred in the comics. Anyone know if there is any truth to this?

[Digifiend]

Different character I think. I'll remove that.

[AndyB]

Matilda appeared in the Superstars comics. I'd be fairly sure from memory that that included the ones not adapted from the 1996 TV Series.

I can't remember Walter having a girlfriend in the comic. It's worth pointing out that in the whole gay debate, Dennis had as few valentines cards as Walter did - both kids are of an age where it's normal not to be interested in girls that way.

[Jonny Whizz]

Euan Kerr said in an interview in The History of the Beano:

'The relationship between Dennis and Walter was always one that worried me, though. We decided the best way to approach it was to make sure that even though he and Dennis didn't get along, Walter was completely happy about who he was and a confident, likeable character in his own right. Walter might be a wimp and a show-off - but he loves who he is!'

He doesn't openly say he was concerned that Dennis could be seen as being homophobic, but the implication was read into his comments. He may have made other comments elsewhere which made the issue clearer.

In Beano issue 3030 dated 12th August, Matilda does make an appearance where she dances with Walter at the school disco. That's the only time I remember her appearing in the weekly comic, but she was seen more often in canon material like Beano Superstars.