Blondie (comic strip)

Overview

Marriage

Setting

Cast of characters

• Blondie Bumstead : The eponymous leading lady of the comic strip. Blondie is a smart, sweet, and responsible woman. She can be stressed at times due to her young family and Dagwood's antics, and despite being usually laid-back and patient, Blondie does get upset sometimes. She is also extremely beautiful, with gold hair, gentle curls, and a shapely figure. A friend once told Dagwood that Blondie looked like a 'million bucks'. In 1991, she began a catering business with her neighbor, Tootsie.
• Dagwood Bumstead: Blondie's husband. A kind and loving yet clumsy, naïve and lazy man whose cartoonish antics are the basis for the strip. He is a big fan of sports and has a large, insatiable appetite for food. Dagwood is especially fond of making and eating the mile-high Dagwood sandwich. He celebrates even the most insignificant holidays, and approaches Thanksgiving with the same reverence most people reserve for Christmas. His continuous antagonistic and comical confrontations with his boss Mr. Dithers, for numerous reasons including Dagwood's laziness and silly mistakes, is a subplot that gets considerable attention in the strip. His klutziness is also a fundamental part of his encounters with Mr. Beasley the mailman. Another subplot deals with Dagwood and his neighbor Herb. Dagwood can also often be seen napping on his own couch. He's employed at J. C. Dithers Construction Company, as office manager.
• Alexander Bumstead: the elder child of Blondie and Dagwood who is in his late teens, formerly referred to by his pet name "Baby Dumpling." As a child, he was very mischievous and precocious. As a teenager, he is athletic, levelheaded and intelligent. Despite resembling his father, he is more down-to-earth like his mother. His full name, revealed in the November 7, 1934 strip, is Alexander Hamilton Bumstead.
• Cookie Bumstead: the younger child of Blondie and Dagwood who is in her early teens. Cookie is portrayed as a sweet, bubbly teenage girl whose interests include dating, hanging out with friends, and clothes. Her appearance has changed the most compared to the other characters. As a child she originally had long curly hair with a black bow holding a long curl on the top of her head. As a young teen she wore her hair in a ponytail with curly bangs. As an older teen she wore her hair long with a black headband. Later she dropped the hair band and wore her hair with bangs, barretes and flipped to the sides. Her current hairstyle is long with bangs and flipped at sides.
• Daisy: The Bumsteads' family dog whose best friend is Dagwood and who frequently changes her expression in response to Dagwood's comments or other activities. She gave birth to puppies in the later years of the comic.
• Mr. Beasley the Postman: The Bumsteads' mailman with whom Dagwood seems to always collide with and knock down as Dagwood hurriedly leaves the house. Beasley's birthday is August 26.
• Mr. Julius Caesar Dithers: Founder of the J.C. Dithers Construction Company and Dagwood's boss. He dictates orders to his employees and believes the best thing in life is money. Although it usually does not seem like it at the workplace, Mr. Dithers is a good-hearted man. Julius' birthday is June 2.
• Mrs. Cora Dithers: Mr. Dithers' wife. She usually gets into fights with him as she exerts control over her husband. She is great friends with Blondie.
• Herb Woodley: Dagwood's best friend and next-door neighbor. Herb, though, can be extremely selfish and mean at times when he doesn't return the expensive power tools and favors that he usually borrows from Dagwood. Herb constantly finds means to annoy and infuriate him.
• Tootsie Woodley: Herb's wife and Blondie's best friend. Tootsie and Blondie can empathize with one another as women, mothers, and particularly as spouses of eccentric husbands. In 1991, she joined Blondie in starting a catering business.
• Elmo Tuttle: A kid in the neighborhood who has a friendship with Dagwood, but sometimes annoys him. His last name was originally "Fiffenhauser."
• Lou: The owner and counterman at Lou's Diner, where Dagwood goes on lunch hours. Dagwood sometimes suggests new specials for the diner. Lou is covered with tattoos and always has a toothpick in his mouth. Lou is a very bad cook and all his meals are of extremely bad quality, horrible, terrible, tasteless, and way too expensive. Lou does little to improve the quality of his food or to gain the satisfaction of his customers.
• Claudia and Dwitzell: The carpoolers with Dagwood and Herb. Claudia is a lawyer. No occupation has been identified for Dwitzell, sometimes called "Dwitz".
• Mike Morelli the Barber: Dagwood's barber. He likes to make fun of Dagwood's hairstyle and can usually be seen with his nameplate, "M. Morelli" displayed by his barber's chair. Mike loves to lure and drag Dagwood into political debates at points where it usually leaves Dagwood frustrated.

  Running gags

• Dagwood often collides with Mr. Beasley the mailman while running out the front door—late for work.
• Other variations of the late-for-work gag: Dagwood keeping his car pool waiting, running after their car or stuck in traffic. In earlier decades, he had been late for the bus or, even earlier in the strip's run, late for the streetcar.
• Dagwood's impossible appetite for food:
• * The famous, impossibly tall sandwiches Dagwood fixes for himself, which came to be known colloquially as the "Dagwood sandwich."
• * Dagwood in his pajamas, having a midnight snack—with most of the refrigerator contents spread out on the kitchen table, or balanced precariously on his extended arms on the way to the table.
• Dagwood's propensity to nap on the couch during the day, often interrupted by Elmo, who wants to ask him a question; or Blondie, who has a chore she wants him to do.
• Dagwood singing in the bathtub, or interrupted while he's trying to relax in the tub.
• Dagwood contends with brazen or obnoxious salesmen at his door, selling undesirable or impossible-looking items. It usually ends with Dagwood and the salesman getting into a physical confrontation.
• A variation of the above has the salesmen calling on the telephone.
• Dagwood and Herb Woodley spending some weekend time together, which usually escalates into a brawl.
• Dagwood demanding a raise from Dithers and failing to get it every time.
• Dagwood caught goofing off or sleeping at his desk in the office.
• Mr. Dithers firing Dagwood for being incompetent or physically booting him out of his office-usually for messing up an important contract
• Dagwood getting a menu suggestion from Lou, the wry, blunt, and/or sarcastic diner counterman.
• The Christmas shopping gag, where Dagwood is shown carrying Christmas packages that completely cover up his face and upper body.
• Herb borrowing small items—tools, small appliances, books, and videos—from Dagwood, then never returning them. Occasionally, Herb will lend a borrowed item to a third party, which is then usually passed on to a fourth or fifth party, etc.
• Dagwood's hobby is household carpentry, but unfortunately his projects don't turn out well. Once, he built a small cabinet for Blondie, actually accomplishing all construction steps perfectly; but the result still fails because it doesn't fit in the space Blondie intended for it. Mostly, he is producing sawdust.
• Dagwood watching TV from his armchair while Daisy sleeps behind the chair; Blondie sits in her own chair facing away from Dagwood

  Sunday strips