Blondie, which has appeared in newspapers since 1930, is one of the most widely read comic strips in history. Created by Murat "Chic" Young (1901–1973), the strip centers on the domestic antics of the Bumstead family. Young developed a simple formula for his strip and seldom varied from four basic themes: raising a family, eating, sleeping, and making a living. At the turn of the twenty-first century, the bumbling husband Dagwood and beautiful wife Blondie appear in more than 2,300 newspapers and boast more than 280 million daily readers reading the strip in 55 countries and in 35 different languages.

Initially, Blondie was far removed from its familiar suburban setting. It debuted as a "girlie" strip and told the story of Blondie Boopadoop, a flighty flapper (an unconventional young woman of the 1920s; see entry under 1920s—Fashion in volume 2). Blondie is being courted by a wealthy young heir, Dagwood, whose parents disapproved of...