SARASOTA, Fla. -- Dik Browne, the creator of the comic strip 'Hagar the Horrible,' died Sunday at Sarasota Memorial Hospital after a long bout with cancer. He was71.
Browne, who won numerous awards for his cartoons, also collaborated on 'Hi and Lois,' a comic strip he created in 1954 with 'Beetle Bailey' cartoonist Mort Walker.
'Dik Browne and I enjoyed one of those rarities, a partnership that endured for over 35 years that was also a great friendship,' Walker said.
'He was a great humorist. His popularity and fame were universal,' Walker said. 'Everyone who knew Dik had his or her favorite Dik Browne stories and quotes. Dik was a man of great charm and he was one of the dearest friends I had.'
In 1971, working in the basement of his Connecticut home, Browne created a comic strip about a loveable Viking hero beleaguered by family demands. At the time, Browne himself was worried by personal health problems and financial insecurities, said a statement from King Features, which synidicated his work.
Browne had never traveled to Scandinavia, but like 'Hi and Lois,' the strip was quickly popular. The intrepid Viking today appears in more than 100 newspapers in Norway, Sweden, Finland Denmark and Iceland, as well as major American dailies, King Features said.
Born Richard Arthur Allan Browne on Aug. 11, 1917, in Manhattan, Browne went to work at age 16 as a copyboy for the New York Journal, where a city editor assigned him to the art department.
His news instincts payed off when he managed to slip into the Lucky Luciano trial, where photographers and artists were banned, and managed to make sketches that gave the now-defunct Journal a scoop on the story.
He also illustrated writings for Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, and after moving to Florida when his wife Joan developed emphysema, helped organize the Joan Browne Cartoon Classic, a winter charity event benefitting the Critical Care Unit of Sarasota Memorial Hospital.
Browne is survived by a daughter, Sally, and two sons, Robert and Christopher, who have continued his 'Hagar' series.
In lieu of flowers, the family requested donations be made to the Joan Browne Fund of the Sarasoata Mermorial Hospital Foundation.
