10 Facts About Dik Browne

Richard Arthur Allan Browne was an American cartoonist, best known for writing and drawing Hagar the Horrible and Hi and Lois.

Dik Browne was born on August 11,1917, in Manhattan.

Dik Browne attended Cooper Union for a year, then started work at the New York Journal-American as a copy boy.

Dik Browne later worked in the art department, drawing maps and charts.

Dik Browne slipped in undetected, and his courtroom sketches gave the New York Journal-American a news exclusive on the story.

In 1954, cartoonist Mort Walker, seeing the Mounds candy bar ad, enlisted Dik Browne to co-create the comic strip Hi and Lois, a spin-off of Walker's popular Beetle Bailey strip, featuring Beetle's sister, brother-in-law and their family.

Walker wrote the strip, which Dik Browne illustrated until his death.

In 1973, Dik Browne created Hagar the Horrible about an ill-mannered red-bearded medieval viking.

Dik Browne got the National Cartoonists Society's Best Humor Strip plaque in 1959,1960, and 1972, and its Reuben Award as Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year in 1962, for Hi and Lois.

Dik Browne died of cancer on June 4,1989, at the age of 71, in Sarasota, Florida.