Dik Browne was a cartoonist who drew "Hi and Lois" and created the lovable Viking "Hagar the Horrible. "

He was born in Manhattan and spent a year at the Cooper Union Art School before taking his first job with a newspaper in 1936. As a copy boy with the New York Journal-American, he tried to become a reporter but discovered, as he recalls, that he "had no talent for it" and accepted a transfer to the art department. It seems that his office doodles impressed his employers more than his news reporting.

In the art department, he drew maps and charts, and went on to do the same for more money with Newsweek magazine. In 1942, he joined the army where he rose to staff sergeant, drawing more maps and charts for an engineering uni...