From his very first appearance way back in February 1973, Hagar the Horrible proved to be phenomenally popular among readers and newspaper comic strip editors alike, along the way becoming the fastest growing syndicated newspaper comic strip ever. Dik Browne based the look and characters on his family and friends and after his death his son, Chris Browne took over the strip.

Dik Browne (August 11, 1917 - June 4, 1989), born Richard Arthur Allan Browne in New York City, was a popular American cartoonist, best known for writing and drawing Hägar the Horrible and Hi and Lois. Browne attended Cooper Union and got his start at the New York Journal American as a copy boy and later worked in the art department. He joined the army, producing work for the engineering unit and created Jinny Jeep, a comic strip about the Women's Army Corps[1] In the 1940s, he worked as an illustrator for Newsweek as well as for an advertising company, where he created the trademark logo for Chiquita. In 1954, Browne and cartoonist Mort Walker co-created the comic strip Hi and Lois, a spin-off of Walker's popular Beetle Bailey strip, featuring Beetle's sister, brother-in-law and their family. Walker wrote the strip, which Browne illustrated until his death. In 1973, Browne created Hägar the Horrible about an ill-mannered red-bearded medieval viking.