Comic strips

Sally Browne Talks Hägar the Horrible

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D. D. Degg February 15, 2023 1 minute 1 comment

From the start, [Hägar the Horrible] was a family project. Browne remembers the entire family sitting around the table as her father presented jokes and ideas, grading them. At this point, he also began asking one of his sons, Chris, to write gags.

As Hägar picked up steam, Dik began focusing more attention on the project, asking his son Bob to take over some of the drawing for Hi and Lois. “He needed more time to do Hägar,” Browne explained.

Keloland in South Dakota talks with Tsuiwen Boeras-Browne (aka Sally) in Florida about her family, parents Dik and Joan Browne and the kids, and the family business – the comic strips Hägar the Horrible and Hi and Lois.

UPDATE: Watch the Keloland interview on YouTube.

Dik Brown died in 1989. However, his death did not spell the end for Hägar …

“Chris, because he was sort of like my dad — he’d been writing and drawing it, so it made sense that he’d sort of take over,” Browne said. “We also have — like a lot of strips — ghost writers and people behind the scenes.”

Chris Browne, who visited Sioux Falls in 2005 and a short time later decided to settle down here with his wife, ran the strip for nearly 30 years, retiring in 2017.

_{Feature photo of Dik, Bob, and Chris from 1980 Sarasota Herald-Tribune via Allan Holtz}