Dik Browne

When he had completed one year at the New York art school, Dik Browne quit school to start working at The New York American newspaper, where he made various technical illustrations. He joined the art staff of Newsweek, and then was inducted into the Army, where he spent three years in the Corps of Engineers.

Simultaneously he published his first comic, 'Ginny Jeep', which was distributed among American soldiers. Afterwards, he did advertising art, including the design of 'Chiquita Banana' and the redesign of the 'Campbell Soup Kids'. For Boy's Life, he did a strip called 'The Tracy Twins' from 1950 to 1960. But it would take him until 1954 before he got his lucky break: a publisher, who noticed his work in Boy's Life magazine, introduced him to Mort Walker.

Together, Walker (scripts) and Browne (art) created the family newspaper comic 'Hi and Lois' in October 1954, which met with great success. After two years, a Sunday page was added to the daily. The characters originated as side-characters in Walker's other series, 'Beetle Bailey'. Over the years, Browne has been assisted by Jerry Dumas, Bob and Greg Gustafson, as well as his sons Greg (script) and Chance (art), who finally took over completely after their father's death in 1989.

In 1973, Browne came up with the viking family comic 'Hagar the Horrible', also for King Features. Both 'Hi and Lois' and 'Hagar' have earned Dik Browne a place among the greatest comic artists of the U.S. 'Hagar' was continued by Browne's other son, Chris Browne.