Blondie (comic strip)

Blondie
Blondie logo, featuring Dagwood, Blondie, Daisy, son Alexander, and daughter Cookie.
Author(s)	Chic Young Dean Young and John Marshall
Current status / schedule	Current
Launch date	September 8, 1930
Syndicate(s)	King Features Syndicate
Genre(s)	Humor, Gag-a-day

Blondie is an American comic strip created by cartoonist Chic Young. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, the strip has been published in newspapers since September 8, 1930. The success of the strip, which features the eponymous blonde and her sandwich-loving husband, led to the long-running Blondie film series (1938–1950) and the popular Blondie radio program (1939–1950).

Chic Young drew Blondie until his death in 1973, when creative control passed to his son Dean Young, who continues to write the strip. Young has collaborated with a number of artists on Blondie, including Jim Raymond, Mike Gersher, Stan Drake, Denis Lebrun, and John Marshall. Through these changes, Blondie has remained popular, appearing in more than 2,000 newspapers in 47 countries and has been translated into 35 languages. Since 2006, Blondie has also been available via email through King Features' DailyINK service.

Originally designed to follow in the footsteps of Young's earlier "pretty girl" creations Beautiful Bab and Dumb Dora, Blondie focused on the adventures of Blondie Boopadoop—a carefree flapper girl who spent her days in dance halls along with her boyfriend Dagwood Bumstead, heir to a railroad fortune. The name "Boopadoop" derives from the scat singing lyric that was popularized by Helen Kane's 1928 song "I Wanna Be Loved by You."

On February 17, 1933, after much fanfare and build-up, Blondie and Dagwood were married after a month-and-a-half-long hunger strike by Dagwood to get his parents' blessing, but they strongly disapprove of his marrying beneath his class, and disinherit him. Left only with a check to pay their honeymoon, the Bumsteads are forced to become a middle-class suburban family. The marriage was a significant media event, given the comic strip's popularity. The catalog for the University of Florida's 2005 exhibition, "75 Years of Blondie, 1930–2005", notes: