# Does anybody remember Dondi? I don't. And other strips I barely remember.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-remember-dondi-i-dont-and-other-strips-i-barely-remember/268310
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [October 9, 2004, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-remember-dondi-i-dont-and-other-strips-i-barely-remember/268310 "2004-10-09T01:43:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2004, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-remember-dondi-i-dont-and-other-strips-i-barely-remember/268310/1 "2004-10-09T01:43:58Z")
The only thing I remember about Dondi was that those kids didn’t have pupils. Can anybody give me a synopsis? Hubby tells me it was like Peanuts without the humor-- Which sounds like Peanuts at the end, if you ask me.
What about the The Girls in Apartment 3G (or something similar)? Melrose Place without the sex?
Hi and Lois? I remember that they were funny. Were they the typical married couple fighting comic strip?
That’s a lot of questions. Thanks in advance to any comic expert who gives them a try.
---
### Author:  [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2004, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-remember-dondi-i-dont-and-other-strips-i-barely-remember/268310/2 "2004-10-09T01:52:28Z")
Smokey Stoffer. Very odd-looking firemen (not “firefighters”, not in those days!) riding around in one-axled, two-wheeled cars, and the words NOTARY SOJACK in every strip.
---
### Author:  [@Gamaliel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gamaliel)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2004, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-remember-dondi-i-dont-and-other-strips-i-barely-remember/268310/3 "2004-10-09T01:56:00Z")
[http://www.toonopedia.com/dondi.htm](http://www.toonopedia.com/dondi.htm)
[http://www.toonopedia.com/hilois.htm](http://www.toonopedia.com/hilois.htm)
[http://www.toonopedia.com/apt\_3g.htm](http://www.toonopedia.com/apt_3g.htm)
I keep reading that Hi and Lois was once funny, but I’m not sure I believe it.
Apartment 3-G is still around for some reason. I guess someone must still be reading it.
---
### Author:  [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2004, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-remember-dondi-i-dont-and-other-strips-i-barely-remember/268310/4 "2004-10-09T01:56:38Z")
Smokey was another strip my husband mentioned! Where you listening in on our conversation? I do not remember it at all.
---
### Author:  [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2004, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-remember-dondi-i-dont-and-other-strips-i-barely-remember/268310/5 "2004-10-09T01:57:44Z")
Dondi – his actual name was supposed to be Dante, but that wasn’t brought out until about ten years after the comic started – was a little dark-haired Italian orphan rescued by a couple of G.I.'s during World War II, one of whom ended up adopting him. The strip was basically centered on his family’s life in post-WWII America, with a focus at first on his adjusting to life in America – by the time I was old enough to read it, it’d become a “continuity” strip about the life of a little boy and his family, with no real reference to his war-orphan status.
---
### Author:  [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2004, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-remember-dondi-i-dont-and-other-strips-i-barely-remember/268310/6 "2004-10-09T01:58:11Z")
**Dondi** was an Italian war orphan brought back to the United States. More like **Little Orphan Annie** than **Peanuts** , never a joke strip. By the time the '70s rolled around he had lost all relevance. I remember a story arc where kids were suing to divorse their parents. I finally lost interest during the Clone Saga (that would have been around 1978, when David Rorvik’s book about the cloning of a man was published).
**Hi and Lois** is still published. It is almost as funny as **Family Circus**.
---
### Author:  [@Odinoneeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odinoneeye)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2004, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-remember-dondi-i-dont-and-other-strips-i-barely-remember/268310/7 "2004-10-09T02:05:11Z")
Isn’t Lois supposidly related to Beatle Bailey somehow?
Another old strip that I was reminded of recently was Lolly, about a secretary.
Actually, I havn’t read comic strips in several years.
---
### Author:  [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2004, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-remember-dondi-i-dont-and-other-strips-i-barely-remember/268310/8 "2004-10-09T02:05:50Z")
That’s a cool site **Gamaliel**. Thanks.
---
### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2004, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-remember-dondi-i-dont-and-other-strips-i-barely-remember/268310/9 "2004-10-09T02:13:08Z")
> [@Odinoneeye](#):
>
> Isn’t Lois supposidly related to Beatle Bailey somehow?
Lois and Beetle are siblings.
---
### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2004, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-remember-dondi-i-dont-and-other-strips-i-barely-remember/268310/10 "2004-10-09T02:14:26Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#):
>
> **Hi and Lois** is still published. It is almost as funny as **Family Circus**.
High praise indeed!
😃
---
### Author:  [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2004, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-remember-dondi-i-dont-and-other-strips-i-barely-remember/268310/11 "2004-10-09T02:28:13Z")
Dondi was a totally unfunny toon-as much a knee-slapper as Nancy. Mary Worth, Terry and the Pirates, Steve Canyon, Rex Morgan, M.D. were all about as amusing as watching paint dry. At least Prince Valiant and Mark Trail had some limited educational value, and PV was lavishly illustrated.
Hi and Lois weren’t fighters-Beetle and Lois were cousins. Domestic strife would be the Lockhorns, and occasionally the Better Half.
Smokey Stover was a hoot! The outrageous puns were something to look forward to. (Picture of a fellow placing a row of fish in front of him. Caption: Laying his cods on the table.) That strip gave birth to a spinoff: Spooky-a strip about the firehouse cat.
---
### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2004, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-remember-dondi-i-dont-and-other-strips-i-barely-remember/268310/12 "2004-10-09T02:31:46Z")
> [@danceswithcats](#):
>
> Hi and Lois weren’t fighters-Beetle and Lois were cousins.
From the above-mentioned site:
> [@](#):
>
> The Hi & Lois strip is an example of something familiar to American TV viewers, but seldom seen in newspaper comics — the spin-off. The pair debuted in Mort Walker’s Beetle Bailey as Beetle’s sister and brother-in-law, in 1954.
---
### Author:  [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2004, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-remember-dondi-i-dont-and-other-strips-i-barely-remember/268310/13 "2004-10-09T02:36:11Z")
I sit corrected.
---
### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2004, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-remember-dondi-i-dont-and-other-strips-i-barely-remember/268310/14 "2004-10-09T02:38:31Z")
> [@danceswithcats](#):
>
> I sit corrected.
I thought they were cousins, too!
I think Beetle visited Hi & Lois a couple of times.
---
### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2004, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-remember-dondi-i-dont-and-other-strips-i-barely-remember/268310/15 "2004-10-09T02:47:17Z")
Dondi. Nancy.
Strips I had successfully purged from my memory until tonight.
Is Gasoline Alley still around?
The one GIANT advantage Hi and Lois has over the Family Circus is that Hi and Lois never let the kids draw the strip.
---
### Author:  [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2004, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-remember-dondi-i-dont-and-other-strips-i-barely-remember/268310/16 "2004-10-09T02:57:06Z")
Hey I liked Dondi!
The Dondi I remember was he and his dog Queenie solved mysteries like the Hardy Boys.
I read that strip every day in the early 70s and that is about all I remember.
---
### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2004, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-remember-dondi-i-dont-and-other-strips-i-barely-remember/268310/17 "2004-10-09T03:05:16Z")
> [@Gamaliel](#):
>
> I keep reading that Hi and Lois was once funny, but I’m not sure I believe it.
It was better when Trixie talked. I don’t remember if it was funny or not, this was in a paperback reprint of a collection of early strips that I read several years ago.
---
### Author:  [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2004, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-remember-dondi-i-dont-and-other-strips-i-barely-remember/268310/18 "2004-10-09T03:19:33Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#):
>
> I thought they were cousins, too!
They might be…what do we know about their parents really?
---
### Author:  [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2004, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-remember-dondi-i-dont-and-other-strips-i-barely-remember/268310/19 "2004-10-09T03:26:27Z")
To turn to something much more positive, who remembers **Li’l Abner** and **Pogo**? Two of the greatest strips going – Li’l Abner was a caricatured hillbilly, Pogo an opossum from the Okeefenokee Swamp – but both did brilliant satire on American culture, including the politics of the day.
---
### Author:  [@Kaspar\_Hauser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaspar_Hauser)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2004, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-remember-dondi-i-dont-and-other-strips-i-barely-remember/268310/20 "2004-10-09T04:04:22Z")
> [@danceswithcats](#):
>
> Dondi was a totally unfunny toon-as much a knee-slapper as Nancy.
Don’t you dare dis Nancy! Ernie Bushmiller worked on a whole other level than we mere humans.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-remember-dondi-i-dont-and-other-strips-i-barely-remember/268310.md?page=2)