The Flagstons first appeared in Walker's Beetle Bailey. They spun off into their own strip, written by Walker and drawn by Browne. Lois Flagston is Beetle Bailey's sister and the two strips make occasional crossovers. One of these occurred on the strip's 40th anniversary in 1994, when Beetle visited his sister Lois and her family. Chip resembles his Uncle Beetle in attitude and appearance, especially the eyes. The strip made efforts to keep up with the times, such as housewife Lois Flagston taking a career in real estate in 1980. In previous decades the strip was acclaimed; in 1962 it earned Browne a Reuben Award from the National Cartoonists Society. The strip faced some controversy given the changes in content restrictions since its debut in the 1950s. Once, editors insisted that belly buttons could not appear; in protest, Browne included a box of dimpled navel oranges. Now produced by the sons of the original creative team, the strip is written by Brian and Greg Walker and drawn by Robert "Chance" Browne and Eric Reaves. As of 2016, Hi and Lois appears in 1,000 newspapers around the world.
Comic books
The Flagston family was also featured in a series of Charltoncomic books. Eleven issues were produced from November 1969 to July 1971. The cover price was fifteen cents.
TV animation
Hi and Lois were featured prominently in the cartoon movie "Popeye Meets the Man Who Hated Laughter", which debuted on October 7, 1972, as part of The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie series.
Characters
Hi and Lois Flagston: Hi and Lois are typical middle-class American suburbanites. Their names are a pun on the "opposite" terms of "high and low". Hi is a sales manager, Lois is a realtor. They have four children.
*Chip: a slovenly, indolent, teenaged high school boy; a running gag has Chip dating new girlfriends. Eight years old at the time the strip started, Chip grew into his teenage years by sometime in the 1960s, where he has stayed.
*Dot and Ditto: rambunctious Dot and Ditto,12 year olds-olds when the strip began, now grade school-aged; Dot is the better student of the two.
*Trixie: the Flagstons' freckled, blonde infant daughter, who loves "talking" to Sunbeam, a ray of sunlight. While the other children have aged, Trixie has not.
Dawg: the Flagstons' large, lazy, shaggy sheepdog.
Thirsty Thurston: the Flagstons' fat, lazy, and frequently tipsy next-door neighbor; Hi's co-worker and golf buddy.
Irma Thurston: Thirsty's thin, weary, and long-suffering wife.
Abercrombie and Fitch: the friendly neighborhood garbage collectors. Their names are taken from the elite outfitter of sporting and excursion goods of that era, the name later acquired by a popular clothing manufacturer. Fitch's employee hat has the "s" in "trash" reversed, like the "Toys 'R' Us" logo.
Mr. Foofram: Owner and president of Foofram Industries, where Hi and Thirsty work. Diminutive and at times short-tempered, but not a tyrant.
Mr. Wavering: An elderly neighbor of Hi and Lois; he served as a corporal in the United States Marine Corps.
Reception
praised Dik Browne's artwork for the strip, stating "Browne made Hi and Lois one of the most visually interesting strips on the comics page." In an article for Entertainment Weekly reviewing then-current comic strips, Ken Tucker gave Hi and Lois a B+ rating, and added that it had the "gentlest humor" of all the Mort Walker comic strips.
