A correspondent on a forum kindly supplied a scan of this BLONDIE Sunday comic, circa 1952, which supports my earlier statement that on rare occasions the mild-mannered housewife could cut loose and demolish Dagwood.
The subject came up because I'd seen the same joke recycled, with a few alterations, in Harvey Comics' BLONDIE #73, under an odd title, "Tower of Power." I can only copy here the cover of that comic, which once again shows Blondie rather blandly observing Dagwood suffering another violent fate.
Before I encountered either of these fifties strips, I'd also stumbled across a reworking from June 1964 on a microfilm of a local newspaper. This one redrew the same postures of Blondie beating Dagwood, but in that one, Blondie and Dagwood are discussing how terrible it is that Dagwood's boss constantly brawls in public with his wife. In that strip, it's Dagwood's idea to fake a fight, and once again he tells Blondie not to hold back, as if he supposes she can't really hurt him. I prefer the 1964 version because it references one of Chic Young's favorite routines: the frequent scenes where Cora Dithers would beat the crap out of Julius. I suppose Young meant to imply that the older duo was so used to fighting that Cora didn't mind openly thrashing her husband, whereas by comparison Blondie most often confined her quarrels to verbal nagging. At the same time, Young probably liked to please readers-- particularly the female ones-- by suggesting that Blondie could bully the hell out of her hapless hubby whenever she pleased.
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