Christopher Kelly Browne 1952-2023

Adding to the TDC notice of Chris Browne‘s passing with his home papers’ obituaries for the cartoonist.

From the Sioux Falls Argus Leader is what seems to be the funeral home announcement:

Chris Browne, illustrator of the internationally-syndicated comic strip Hagar the Horrible, died here on February 4, 2023, after a long illness. He was 70 years old. Christopher Kelly Browne was born in South Orange, NJ, on May 16, 1952. He was the second child of Joan Kelly Browne and Richard A. Browne.

He briefly attended Philadelphia College of Art, but he mainly studied with his father, the iconic cartoonist Dik Browne, working in the family business. Aside from assisting on illustrating the comics Hi and Lois and Hagar the Horrible, Chris worked for the National Lampoon magazine and was for years a featured cartoonist at Playboy magazine. He published two children’s books, Santa Confidential in 2010 and The Monster who Ate the State, about South Dakota, in 2014.

The Sarasota Herald-Leader, newspaper for the city where Chris lived for 30 years before moving to Sioux Falls, reminisced with Chris’s sister Tsuiwen “Sally” Browne-Boreas and brother Robert “Chance” Browne. The tribute concentrated on the comic strip that was his labor of love, Raising Duncan:

Chris Browne was instantly recognizable at charity and community events during his many years living in Sarasota. He was often wearing a Viking helmet, a reminder of his role drawing the popular “Hagar the Horrible” comic strip started by his father.

The cartoonist who joined the family business started by his father, Dik Browne, died Feb. 4 at age 70, just as Hagar marked its 50th anniversary. Chris Browne had lived in Sioux Falls, South Dakota since 2007

For about five years, Chris Browne also produced his own strip “Raising Duncan,” about a sweet-tempered black Scotty dog and the couple who loves him. It appeared in dozens of newspapers before it ended in 2005.

“Frankly, they could have canceled it two years ago, but they were willing to give it more time,” he told the Herald-Tribune in 2005. “It never quite managed to break through.” He said he was “sad for a few days. But these things happen for a reason and now I’m looking ahead.”

“He was a gentle genius, just the most charming person you could ever meet,” Chance Brown said in a statement. “By the time he was 10, he could draw as well as any of our family’s many professional artist friends. He really was a prodigy and a born cartoonist. He could make me laugh harder than anyone else ever could.”