October 6th, 2013

Fall Foliage

by Brian Walker, Greg Walker and Chance Browne

Dik Browne remembered seeing the autumn scenes that Frank King did in Gasoline Alley when he was growing up in the 1920s and 30s.  Here is an example from 1928.

Gasoline Alley Sunday Page by Frank King, November 4, 1928.

Dik’s fond memories of these evocative episodes inspired him to do similar seasonal Sunday pages in Hi and Lois.  “Mort knows that I am a sucker for them,” Dik once said.  “We’ve all lived in Connecticut and know how beautiful it can get.  I think Kipling described fall as the ‘last revolt of the tree people against the dying of the year.’”

Here is one of Dik’s classic fall foliage pages from 1969.

Hi and Lois Sunday Page color proof, October 26, 1969.

Since the Sunday page has to be done six to eight weeks before the publication date, autumn scenes like this were usually drawn during the dog days of August.  If Dik did not have a gag with a fall theme, he would just add some falling leaves or colorful trees to a non-seasonal idea.

We have continued this tradition and try to do at least one page a year with some fall scenery.  A selection of these will be posted here throughout the month of October so stay tooned.

– Brian Walker