  hi and lois is a comic strip about a suburban family. created by mort walker and illustrated by dik browne, it debuted on october 18, 1954, distributed by king features syndicate. ==publication history== 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 (nÃ©e bailey) 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. thumb|right|280|the best of hi and lois (1986) was reprinted in 2005. 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. ===comic books=== the flagston family was also featured in a series of charlton comic books. eleven issues were produced from november 1969 to july 1971. cover price was fifteen cents. ==characters== *hi and lois flagston: hi (short for hiram) and lois are typical middle-class american suburbanites. hi is a sales manager. lois is a realtor. they have four children. *chip: a slovenly teenaged boy (eight years old at the time the strip started). *dot and ditto: rambunctious twins dot (girl) & ditto (boy), four-year-olds when the strip began, now grade school-aged; dot is the better student. *trixie: the flagstons' freckled, blonde baby girl, who loves "talking" (through thought balloons) to sunbeam, a ray of sunlight. *dawg: the flagstons' large, shaggy sheepdog. *thirsty thurston: the flagstons' fat, lazy and allegedly tipsy next-door neighbor; hi's co-worker and golf buddy. *''
American_comic_strips Comic_strips_started_in_the_1950s