Hi and Lois
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hi and Lois is a comic strip about a suburban family. It debuted on October 18, 1954 and is distributed by King Features.
Hiram ("Hi") and Lois Flagston are typical American suburbanites. They have four children: a stereotypically slovenly teen named Chip, rambunctious twins named Dot and Ditto, and a baby named Trixie, who hates anything other than a mess. They also have a large shaggy dog named Dawg. Their neighbors are the Thurstons, the fat and lazy "Thirsty" and his skinny wife Irma.
The Flagstons first appeared in Mort Walker's strip Beetle Bailey. They spun off into their own strip, written by Walker and drawn by Dik Browne. Lois Flagston (née Bailey) is Beetle Bailey's sister, and the two strips make occasional crossovers. One of these occurred on the strip's 40th anniversary in 1994, when Beetle visited his sister Lois and her family.
Today many consider Hi and Lois to be rather dated. The strip made efforts to keep up with the times, such as housewife Lois Flagston taking up a career in real estate in 1980. In previous decades the strip was acclaimed; in 1962 it earned Dik Browne a Reuben Award from the National Cartoonists Society.
The strip faced some controversy given the changes in morals since its debut in the 1950s. Once, editors insisted that belly buttons could not appear; in protest, Browne included a box of dimpled navel oranges.
The strip is now written by Brian and Greg Walker and drawn by Robert "Chance" Browne, the sons of the original creative team.
