12/10/2007

As mentioned before, I’ve been on a quest to watch all 28 Blondie movies. I’ve made a page to put all my reviews so they’re all in one place. Also, I can include images. Currently I just have 15 more movies to go.

Blondie Watch

Something I came across when looking through early Blondie strips that I found kind of amusing is this short-lived feature called the Husbands’ Back Fence Club where readers were invited to send in their complaints about their spouses. Just a few months after Blondie and Dagwood’s big wedding and already the comic has pivoted to Battle of the Sexes, ball-and-chain type stuff. Here’s the first two strips in full:

06/24/1933

07/01/1933

And the rest of them, cropped:

07/08/1933

07/15/1933

07/22/1933

08/05/1933

Blondie Watch

Before she married Dagwood Bumstead, Blondie’s name was Blondie Boopadoop. That’s what Wikipedia says, that’s what King Features Syndicate says, that’s what the Library of Congress says. But… was it? Out of curiosity, I looked into it, and while “Boopadoop” had been used in official promotional material dating back to 1930, I have yet to find it used in an actual comic strip. A few caveats: my search was by no means exhaustive (it would be nice to have the collection IDW put out) the OCR might have missed something, or maybe there are some gaps in the archive. I would assume “Boopadoop” came from creator Chic Young, or at least had his approval, but it’s odd that he apparently never put it into the strip, so while it’s offical enough, it’s not 100% Comic Strip Canon. Not that the strip was necessarily super-strict about continuity, mind you, just ask the Woodleys’ missing children.

Below are some of my findings; it’s interesting that some of the comic strip’s storylines would also play out in the letters section.

Belleville Daily News Democrat, August 18, 1930

Santa Fe New Mexican, August 23, 1930

Lebanon Daily News, October 8, 1930

The Windsor Star, March 12, 1932

Tampa Bay Times, December 20, 1942

02/16/2023

Some surprising continuity in today’s Blondie… they did indeed wed on February 17:

02/17/1933

Another important date in Blondie lore…Baby Dumpling’s birthday is April 15th, fitting for a kid named after Alexander Hamilton:

11/07/1934

I didn’t intend to become a Blondie blogger, but I’ve accumulated too much knowledge from doing research and I need to share my findings. Fair warning, expect more in the future.