The Lockhorns
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| The Lockhorns | |
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 The Lockhorns |
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| Author(s) | Bunny Hoest and John Reiner |
| Website | The Lockhorns |
| Current status / schedule | Running |
| Launch date | 1968 |
| Syndicate(s) | King Features Syndicate |
The Lockhorns is a United States one-panel syndicated daily comic strip about a married couple, Leroy and Loretta Lockhorn, who bitterly hate each other and yet do not divorce (see below). It was created in 1968 by William Carrell.
The characters in the strip demonstrate their mutual affection by unwaveringly making humorously sarcastic comments on one another's failings as spouses, including their unattractiveness. (The strip's basic premise and dynamics are reminiscent of The Bickersons of 1940s radio.)
This strip was first entitled The Lockhorns of Levittown, and was written and drawn by Carrell through 1971. That year Bill Hoest and his wife Bunny Hoest started their run on the strip, and they shortened the strip's name to The Lockhorns. Bill Hoest died in 1988, but Bunny continued the strip with the help of her good friend John Reiner.
Bill Hoest received the National Cartoonist Society Newspaper Panel Cartoon Award for the strip for 1975 and 1980.
Contents |
[edit] The Lockhorns
- Leroy Lockhorn - The man of the house who drinks a lot, plays golf too much, and chases everything good- looking in a skirt.
- Loretta Lockhorn - The woman of the house who is a shop-a-holic, who drives terribly, and does most of the handiwork around the house because either Leroy is too lazy to do it, or because he feels she should earn all the money she spends.
- Loretta's Mother - Never named and rarely seen (usually only during the Christmas season when she comes to stay), but hated mercilessly by Leroy.
- Marriage Counselor - Whom Leroy and Loretta routinely see, but to no avail.
- Arthur the Bartender - local saloonkeeper to whom Leroy often bemoans his circumstances.
[edit] Divorce
Outside of the obvious reason for not getting a divorce (because the strip would thus end), the main reason the Lockhorns don't is because Leroy figured out it would be cheaper for him to stay married. This has been noted in a few strips over the years:
- Leroy told Loretta in one that they might manage to swing a divorce if they took out a home improvement loan on their house.
- Leroy once noted to a friend that 50% of all marriages end in divorce, and figured the other 50% couldn't afford it.
- In one skit where Loretta buys a fur coat, she tells Leroy that the payments on it are cheaper than alimony.
- Another mention of divorce is when Leroy is flirting with another woman. Loretta, looking on, remarks to another woman, "I haven't once thought of divorce. I've thought of it a hundred times."
[edit] Location
Many of the business and institutions pictured in the comic are real, and are located in or near Huntington, NY, on the North Shore of Long Island.
[edit] Parodies
- "Marital Mirth", part of the "Super-Fun-Pak Comics" in Tom the Dancing Bug, is a parody of The Lockhorns.
- The comic strip The Better Half is often seen as a tamer version of The Lockhorns.
- MAD Magazine used the Lockhorns in one sketch where a portrait of Sigmund Freud is used in the context of marriage counseling. The Lockhorns are shown in the "before" part of seeing Freud, with a real life man and woman embracing in passionate kissing as the "after".
- The comic strip Liō once had the title character call the cops on Leroy and Loretta for disturbing the peace
[edit] References
- Strickler, Dave. Syndicated Comic Strips and Artists, 1924-1995: The Complete Index. Cambria, CA: Comics Access, 1995. ISBN 0-9700077-0-1.
[edit] External links
- NCS Awards
- The Lockhorns at Don Markstein's Toonopedia
- Lockhorns Aloud read daily by comedian Jill Bernard
