February 20th, 2017

Timeline – 1961 Part 1

by Brian Walker, Greg Walker and Chance Browne

Hi and Lois Sunday page color proof, January 8, 1961.

In previous posts, we have chronicled how Mort Walker came up with the idea of sharing Trixie’s thoughts with readers in the late 1950s. In this delightful Sunday page, she speaks her first word.

We have never specified Trixie’s exact age in the strip. It is typical for babies to utter simple, one-syllable sounds, like “mama” and “dada” when they are about six months old. From that point on, they continue to add words and phrases, until they being to form two-to-four word sentences at around eighteen to twenty-four months. So, Trixie is somewhere in that range.

Dik Browne had some fun with calligraphy in this episode. Trixie is so proud of herself that she progressively exaggerates the magnitude of her accomplishment. The imaginative visuals help set up her disappointment when Hi comes home from work and she tries to show him what she has learned. Proud parents everywhere can identify with this cute gag.

We will continue to dive into our archives of color Sunday page proofs from the 1960s, so stay tooned.

– Brian Walker