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
Comic Cavalcade "Just a Story" series gained Peril as, generally, a witness or narrator rather than as an integral part of the narrative. With this issue, the series title became "Johnny Peril Tells Just a Story", eventually changed to "Johnny Peril's Surprise Story" as Johnny became the series' two-fisted hero until the series ended with issue #29 (Nov. 1948). The character went on to appear in his own feature in "All-Star Comics", "Danger Trail" and "Sensation Comics" through 1953. He returned in the Silver Age of Comic Books in 1958, in "The Unexpected". Initially published quarterly, the title went bi-monthly beginning with