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Dik Browne: Hot Golfer

Here’s another anecdote from our own Randy Enos

Dik Browne: Hot Golfer

Anyone who went into Dik Browne’s “studio,” back in the 1960’s, went into the laundry room downstairs in his house where, slumped into his rump-sprung chair, Dik sat at a slanted drawing board, wedged-in next to the washing machine, creating adventures for Hi and Lois and Hagar the Horrible, the two comic strips he worked on (Hi and Lois in partnership Mort Walker and Hagar on his own).

Above Dik’s head, laundry hung on lines traversing the cement walled room. To his left, high against the wall was a shelf which bore a papier-mache Hagar helmet (made by his son Chance), a large box of Tide and two Ruebens (the Cartoonists Society’s version of the Oscar).

One day while I was there, Dik was busy mailing out original strips to fans who had written requesting them. He had big flat files filled to the brim with original strips and gave them out freely to all who asked for one.

When Dik had finished roughing out a bunch of strips, his habit was to accost anyone who happened by… family members, repairmen, the postman etc. and get them to look the strips over and grade each one with an A, B, or C.. The C’s he would discard and finish up only the A’s –and maybe some B’s.

So many of the cartoonists in Fairfield county played golf that they had their own golf tournaments. Stan Drake (The Heart of Juliet Jones and later Blondie) told me of one day golfing with Dik. The portly Dik, evidently was having a great day, playing very well and as he briskly walked the fairway.

An ember from Dik’s cigarette fell into the gaped pocket of a blousy light jacket he was wearing. As he trudged doggedly toward the next green, billows of smoke started issuing from his pocket and trailed behind him. Another golfer on an adjoining fairway caught sight of this and yelled out, “HEY… HEY
YOU’RE ON FIRE!” Hearing this, Dik waved back at him and said, “YEAH, I KNOW, I’M REALLY HITTIN’ ‘EM TODAY!”

As funny as Dik was in the funny papers, I always found him twice as funny in real life.

Randy Enos

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By Daryl Cagle

Daryl Cagle is the publisher of Cagle.com and owner of Cagle Cartoons, Inc, which which is a major distributor of editorial cartoons and columns to newspapers and digital publishers. See Daryl's blog at: www.darylcagle.com, see his site at: Cagle.com get permission to reprint his cartoons at: PoliticalCartoons.com.