Richard Arthur Allan Browne (August 11, 1917 – June 4, 1989) was an American

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...

, best known for writing and drawing ''

Hägar the Horrible ''Hägar the Horrible'' is the title and main character of an American comic strip created by cartoonist Dik Browne and syndicated by King Features Syndicate. It first appeared in February 1973 and was an immediate success. Since Browne's retirem ...

'' and ''

Hi and Lois ''Hi and Lois'' is an American comic strip about a suburban family. Created by Mort Walker and illustrated by Dik Browne, both of whose offspring currently work on the strip, it debuted on October 18, 1954, distributed by King Features Syndicate.Ro ...

''.

Biography

Browne attended Cooper Union and got his start at the ''

New York Journal-American :''Includes coverage of New York Journal-American and its predecessors New York Journal, The Journal, New York American and New York Evening Journal'' The ''New York Journal-American'' was a daily newspaper published in New York City from 1937 t ...

'' as a copy boy and later worked in the art department. He also worked as a

courtroom sketch A courtroom sketch is an artistic depiction of the proceedings in a court of law. In many jurisdictions, cameras are not allowed in courtrooms in order to prevent distractions and preserve privacy. This requires news media to rely on sketch a ...

artist for the paper, covering the

Lucky Luciano Charles "Lucky" Luciano (, ; born Salvatore Lucania ; November 24, 1897 – January 26, 1962) was an Italian-born gangster who operated mainly in the United States. Luciano started his criminal career in the Five Points gang and was instrumenta ...

trial. He joined the army, producing work for the engineering unit and created ''Ginny Jeep'', a comic strip about the

Women's Army Corps The Women's Army Corps (WAC) was the women's branch of the United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designate ...

. During World War II, he was assigned to draw maps and charts for an Army engineering unit, eventually rising to staff sergeant. In his spare time, he created the comic "Ginny Jeep", appearing in Army and Air Force newspapers. In the 1940s, he worked as an illustrator for ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...

'' as well as for an advertising company, where he created the

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others ...

logo for Chiquita. In 1954, Browne and cartoonist

Mort Walker Addison Morton Walker (September 3, 1923 – January 27, 2018) was an American comic strip writer, best known for creating the newspaper comic strips '' Beetle Bailey'' in 1950 and '' Hi and Lois'' in 1954. He signed Addison to some of his strip ...

co-created the

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

'', a spin-off of Walker's popular ''

Beetle Bailey ''Beetle Bailey'' is an American comic strip created by cartoonist Mort Walker, published since September 4, 1950. It is set on a fictional United States Army post. In the years just before Walker's death in 2018 (at age 94), it was among the old ...

'' strip, featuring Beetle's sister, brother-in-law and their family. Walker wrote the strip, which Browne illustrated until his death. The series is now drawn by his son Chance and written by Walker's sons. In 1973, Browne created ''

'' about an ill-mannered red-bearded medieval

viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

. The comic is now produced by his son Chris. Both strips have been successful, appearing in hundreds of newspapers for decades. Browne died of cancer on June 4, 1989, at the age of 71, in Sarasota, Florida.

Awards

Browne was recognized for his work by the

National Cartoonists Society The National Cartoonists Society (NCS) is an organization of professional cartoonists in the United States. It presents the National Cartoonists Society Awards. The Society was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the ...

with their Humor Comics Strip Award in 1959, 1960, 1972 and 1977 for ''Hi and Lois'', and again in 1984 and 1986 for ''Hägar the Horrible''. He received their Reuben Award for ''

'' in 1962 and for ''

'' in 1973. That same year the NCS honored him with their Elzie Segar Award.

References

Sources

* Strickler, Dave. ''Syndicated Comic Strips and Artists, 1924-1995: The Complete Index.'' Cambria, California: Comics Access, 1995.
Social Security Death Index

External links

a
Lambiek.net

NCS Awards
*
Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum Art Database
{{DEFAULTSORT:Browne, Dik 1917 births 1989 deaths American people of Norwegian descent American comic strip cartoonists American comics artists Courtroom sketch artists Reuben Award winners Artists from New York City Cooper Union alumni United States Army personnel of World War II United States Army soldiers