September 23rd, 2013

Theory of the Month – Part Two

by Brian Walker, Greg Walker and Chance Browne

Parents are always trying to maintain some semblance of order in a household with children.  They often make rules to control the chaos but these inevitably backfire.  Kids have a way of subverting ideas their parents have about the proper way to raise them.

This dynamic of family life inspired Mort Walker and Dik Browne to do a special series in the late 1960s.  “The Theory of the Month” strips ran about once a month during 1966 and continued off and on until the end of the decade.

We featured some classic “Theory of the Month” strips in a blog post on March 20, 2013.  You can view these by going back in our archives.

Here are four more episodes from 1966.

Hi and Lois daily strip, September 17, 1966

Hi and Lois daily strip, October 8, 1966.

Hi and Lois daily strip, November 4, 1966.

Hi and Lois daily strip, December 30, 1966.

When these strips ran in the newspaper, I was fourteen years old, about the same age as Chip.  I can identify with Chip’s career choice in the first strip.  I also wanted to be a surfer at that time.  I listened to the surf music of the Beach Boys and had surfing posters on the walls of my room.  I still love to body surf but I have never been on a surfboard in my life.

You can tell by looking at these strips that Dik Browne had a lot of fun with this series.  He experimented with different styles of calligraphy in the title panels and came up with hilarious visuals to show how the kids responded to the well-intentioned theories that Hi and Lois kept coming up with.

There are many more these strips like these that we have to share, so stay tooned.

– Brian Walker