Blondie (comic strip)
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Blondie is a popular comic strip created by Murat Bernard "Chic" Young and syndicated by King Features Syndicate. It has been published in newspapers since September 8, 1930. Chic Young drew Blondie until his death in 1973, when the control of the strip passed to his son Dean Young. Dean Young has collaborated with a number of artists on the strip, including Jim Raymond, Mike Gersher, Stan Drake, Denis Lebrun, and most recently John Marshall. Through these changes, Blondie has remained popular, appearing in more than 2300 newspapers in 55 countries and translated into 35 languages, as of 2005.
In 2005, Blondie celebrated its 75th anniversary with a three-month-long story line, featuring various surprises including cameo appearances of characters from other comic strips such as B.C., Beetle Bailey, The Family Circus, For Better or For Worse, Garfield, Hägar the Horrible, Shoe and The Wizard of Id, among others. In addition, Blondie and/or Dagwood were featured in Dennis the Menace, Hi and Lois, B.C., Family Circus, Baby Blues, Hägar the Horrible, and Curtis.
Characters
Originally, Blondie focused on the adventures of Blondie Boopadoop, a carefree flapper girl who spent her days in dance halls. On February 17, 1933, after much fanfare and buildup, Miss Boopadoop married her boyfriend Dagwood Bumstead, the son of a wealthy industrialist. Unfortunately for the Bumsteads, Dagwood was disowned by his upper-crust family for marrying beneath his class. Ever since, he has been slaving away at the office of the J. C. Dithers Construction Company under the direction of tyrannical boss Julius Caesar Dithers, who frequently attempts to fire Dagwood from his workplace. Dagwood either botches or does not finish his work, sleeps on the job, comes into work late, or pesters Dithers for a raise or promotion.Blondie and Dagwood live in suburbia, next door to Herb and Tootsie Woodley. The Bumstead family has grown, with the addition of a son named Alexander (originally "Baby Dumpling"), a daughter named Cookie (born in the late 1930s/early 1940s, but permanently frozen in their late teen years as of 2006), and a dog named Daisy. Alexander and Cookie have grown up into teenagers who uncannily resemble their parents. Other regular characters include Mr. Beasley (the mailman), Elmo Tuttle (a pesky neighborhood kid), Cora Dithers (domineering wife of Julius Dithers), and Lou (owner of the diner where Dagwood frequently eats on his lunch break from working at the J.C. Dithers Company).
A running gag in the strip is the impossibly tall sandwich Dagwood often fixes for a snack, which came to be known as a Dagwood sandwich. Others feature Dagwood's propensity to fall asleep on the couch during the day, to collide comically with Mr. Beasley on his way out the front door, or to be interrupted by other characters while he is relaxing in the bathtub.
Changing times
While the look of Blondie has been carefully preserved, a number of details have been altered to keep up with changing times. The Bumstead kitchen, which remained essentially unchanged from the 1930s through the 1960s has slowly acquired a more modern look (no more legs on the gas range). Clothing has slowly kept pace with times, and today, neither Blondie nor Dagwood wears a hat when leaving the house. The telephone in the hall now has push buttons instead of a dial, the water cooler and time clock at the office have given way to computers on the desks, and even Mr. Beasley wears walking shorts on his mail route during the warm weather months. Blondie herself is no longer a housewife. She and Tootsie Woodley started a catering business in 1991. Dagwood still knocks heads with his boss, Mr. Dithers, but now he does it in more modern office at J. C. Dithers Construction Company, and he now begins each morning racing to meet his carpool rather than chasing after a just-missed streetcar or city bus. Also, for a time in the late 1990's and around 2000/2001, Blondie and Dagwood's teenage son Alexander worked part-time outside of high school at the order counter of a fast food restaurant called "Burger Barn". There are still occasional references to Cookie and her "baby-sitting". Daisy, who once had a litter of puppies that lived with the family is now the only dog seen in the Bumstead household.Awards and recognition
Chic Young was awarded a Reuben in 1948 for his work on the strip, whilst in 1995, the strip was one of 20 included in the Comic Strip Classics series of commemorative postage stamps. [link]Trivia
Cartoonist Alison Bechdel once remarked that if Dagwood were as attractively built as Blondie, he would look like a macho body-builder.Other media
Blondie has occasionally graduated from the comics page to other media. A series of comic books starring characters from Blondie were published from 1937 to 1976. From 1939 to 1950, Blondie had her own weekly radio show. In 1938, the film Blondie was made, with Penny Singleton and Arthur Lake as Blondie and Dagwood, who in 1939 reprised their roles in a radio series. Following the success of this film, a whole series of over twenty Blondie movies were made, and then a television series in 1957 and later in 1968, each which lasted one season. Two Blondie and Dagwood TV specials were produced in 1987, with Loni Anderson and Frank Welker in the title roles. Blondie also made a brief appearance in a Muppet Babies episode.Sandwich shop
May 11, 2006 Dean Young announced the opening of the first of his Dagwood's Sandwich Shoppes over the coming summer in Clearwater, Florida. Recently in the comics, the characters have all been either jokingly or seriously talking about Dagwood opening his own sandwich shop. It should be noted that within Universal Orlando's Islands of Adventure theme park there is a counter service restaurant called Blondies. The restaurant opened in May 1999 and serves a traditional Dagwood-style sandwich. In fact, Blondies bills itself as "Home of the Dagwood Sandwich".External links
- [Blondie and Dagwood - The Official Website]
- [King Features Blondie website]
- [Article on Blondie] from Toonopedia
- [Comic Book Awards Almanac]
- [Article on Blondie] from [Virtue Magazine]
- [Blondie: The Movie Series]
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