David Law 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. 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
The Unexpected was "Johnny Peril" which ran from issues #106–117. For issues #111–on, the titular protagonist was billed as an "adventurer of the weird". Johnny Peril would again appear in issues #200 and 205–213. Johnny Peril's roots, prior to his first appearance, came in the one-off story "Just a Story" in All-American Comics' "Comic Cavalcade" #15 (July 1946), by writer–artist Howard Purcell. With issue #22 (Sept. 1947), the anthological "Just a Story" series gained newspaper-reporter character Johnny Peril, who often acted as witness or narrator rather than as an integral part of the narrative. With this issue, the series title became "Johnny