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Hi and Lois
Author(s)	Mort Walker and drawn by Dik Browne Brian and Greg Walker and drawn by Robert "Chance" Browne
Current status / schedule	Running
Launch date	October 18, 1954
Syndicate(s)	King Features Syndicate
Genre(s)	Humor

Hi and Lois is a comic strip about a suburban family created by Mort Walker and drawn by Dik Browne. It debuted on October 18, 1954 and is distributed by King Features Syndicate.

Characters

• Hi and Lois Flagston: Hi (short for Hiram) & Lois are typical middle-class American suburbanites. They have four children.
• Chip: A stereotypically slovenly teenaged boy, (8 years-old at the time the strip started).
• Dot and Ditto: Rambunctious fraternal twins Dot [sister] & Ditto [brother] were 4 years old when the strip began, now grade school-aged.
• Trixie: The Flagstons' freckled, blonde baby girl, who loves "talking" (through thought balloons) to "Sunbeam", a ray of sunlight.
• Dawg: The Flagstons' large, shaggy sheepdog.
• Thirsty Thurston: The Flagstons' fat, lazy and eternally tipsy next-door neighbor.
• Irma Thurston: Thirsty's thin, weary and long-suffering wife.
• Abercrombie and Fitch: The neighborhood garbage collectors.

First Appearance

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. Chip resembles his Uncle Beetle in appearance (especially the eyes) and attitude.

Changing times

Best of Hi and Lois cover

The strip made efforts to keep up with the times, such as housewife Lois Flagston taking 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.

Current creative team

Now produced by the sons of the original creative team, the script written by Brian and Greg Walker and drawn by Robert "Chance" Browne.

The strip is apparently a favorite of the character known as Comic Book Guy on The Simpsons. He has referred to it on a few occasions, once sarcastically asking Bart Simpson, "Are you the creator of Hi and Lois? Because you are making me laugh." He also once intended to host a signing with the strip's creators at his store, but it was moved to the Springfield Coliseum, presumably due to overwhelming demand.

In 2005 the title characters made a cameo appearance in Blondie, for that strip's 75th anniversary. Hi and Lois appeared at a party thrown by Blondie and Dagwood, as did Lois's brother Beetle.

External links

• Hi and Lois at King Features
• Toonopedia entry