Hi and Lois was a joint effort of Mort Walker, (Beetle Baily) and Dik Browne (Hagar the Horrible). They started the comic in 1954. I read once they did everything on a handshake and never had a written contract between themselves.
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I am sure they had contracts with others.
When I was a kid, we called the Sunday comics ‘The Funnies’.
Reading them with my Daddy, while he read the ‘Important News’, is one of my treasured memories.
Lois was the sister of Beetle Bailey. They crossed over into each other’s strip on rare occasions.