November 17th, 2015

Football Fans

by Brian Walker, Greg Walker and Chance Browne

Hi and Lois Sunday page, November 5, 1978.

The Sunday page above is another superlative example of Dik Browne’s pen-and-ink technique and compositional skills. He added depth to his panels by providing background details like clouds and church steeples and his use of blacks throughout the page give a balanced look to the overall layout. The incidental characters are humorously drawn and distinctive. The evocative silhouetting in the second-to-last panel helps to set up the final punch line.

When I was Ditto’s age, I had a reputation as a cookie thief. I remember searching for bags of cookies that my father would hide from me in the kitchen cupboards. I like to think that Ditto’s love of cookies was inspired by my own childhood obsession.

Stay tooned for more classic Hi and Lois episodes from our archives accompanied by background stories on how they were made.

– Brian Walker