Book Review: Blondie: The Complete Daily Strips 1930 - 1933 by Chic Young

The comic strip of Blondie has been around since before I was born. To tell the truth, I had never even found the characters to be very interesting. So the discovery of the beautiful new Blondie: The Complete Daily Comic Strips From 1930-1933 was a surprising revelation. Blondie may have always been perky, attractive, and “ditzy.“ But she actually began life as a far more complex, independent, and powerful woman that anyone has ever given her credit for.

In the beginning, Chic Young drew Blondie as the archetypal Twenties “Flapper.” She was the young, pretty woman, who did not need a man to have fun. It goes without saying that what she did off the pages of the strip was nobody’s business.

Unfortunately, The Great Depression hit just as Chic Young was trying to launch his character. Nobody knows, including Dean Young (son of Chic, who now writes the strip for his deceased father), what direction Blondie might have taken down the road. But it was very clear that the idea of the good-time floozy hooking up with a rich, slumming man would no longer fly.

The wealthy Dagwood Bumstead stood to be disinherited if he chose the "lower class” Blondie. It may sound ridiculously cliché now that we know he chose true love over money. The courtship, and eventual wedding of the characters were actually front page news back in the day.

It is an age-old story, but it always works.

Every single strip is faithfully reproduced from the years 1930-1933 in this book. Everything about Blondie: The Complete Daily Comic Strips From 1930-1930 is first class. This is a coffee-table book that has already sparked a number of conversations among my guests.

Blondie and Dagwood may not be Brangelina, but from 1930-1933 they actually were. It is an awful lot of fun to go back and look at what captivated a nation so many, many years ago. Place such a gorgeous book down, and say no more. This is art, history, nostalgia — and whatever else you wish to call it, all rolled up in one magnificent collection.



Article first published as Book Review: Blondie: The Complete Daily Strips 1930 - 1933 by Chic Young on Blogcritics.