Behind the Scenes
In 1957, Mort Walker and Dik Browne produced a special promotional Sunday page for King Features that told the story about how Hi and Lois had been created. This artwork was provided to papers that subscribed to the feature and included a brief biography of Dik and a basic lesson on how he drew expressions on Ditto’s face. Here’s a look back at this unique “behind the scenes” page.
In 1994, to celebrate of the 50th anniversary of Hi and Lois, Chance Browne illustrated a special Sunday page that used some of the same artwork from the 1957 promotional piece and then added an updated history in a similar format. He recreated a panel from the first daily strip, tipped his pen to Mort and Dik, the original odd couple of cartooning, showcased Trixie, the thinking baby, gave an example of how the strip had changed over the years, drew a scene of the next generation at work and thanked our loyal readers. It was a lot of ground to cover in seven panels! After five decades we felt it was time to step back for one day and honor this great family legacy.
The 60th anniversary of Hi and Lois will be celebrated in October 2014. Hopefully we can come up with another creative way to mark this major milestone.
– Brian Walker