December 22nd, 2014

Holiday Classics 1

by Brian Walker, Greg Walker and Chance Browne

This can be a difficult time of the year for many people. The pressures of shopping, decorating, cooking and traveling often take the joy out of the season. A comic strip helps to relieve this stress by finding the humor in everyday life. More so than any other holiday, Christmas presents a wide variety of situations and possibilities for interactions between the characters.

This Hi and Lois Sunday page from 1999 was inspired by my own inability to remember the lyrics to familiar Christmas carols.

Hi and Lois Sunday page, December 19, 1999.

The competition between the twins is a fertile source for gag ideas. Dot is smart and precious and Ditto is mischievous and rebellious. They are opposite personalities in so many ways but sometimes they work together.

The winter scene in the drop panel at the top of the page is a particularly outstanding example of Chance Browne’s artistry. The snow covered Flagston family home looks cozy and warm inside and the church steeple and bare tree limbs in the background help to establish the cold nighttime setting. Chance can work magic with pencil, pen and ink.

We will be sharing more holiday themed strips in future posts so stay tooned.

– Brian Walker