BLONDIE AMBITION

 Getting to something other than the heart of the matter...

This sequence from 1955 doesn't involve Blondie doing anything to Dagwood, though the ladies' club thrashing him thinks they're acting on her behalf.

TOWER OF BLONDE POWER

 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.

THE BLONDIE FILES

 As the previous post covered only the content of the 15 issues of McKay Comics, this one covers the five available issues from Harvey Comics, starting circa 1961.

Here's a rare scene of Blondie having clouted Dagwood with a rolling pin, which in the 20th century became a "feminine equalizer" in the midst of male-female quarrels.

On the rare occasions that Dagwood was mauled by a woman using hand-to-hand combat, it was usually a battleaxe like the one above. Incidentally, a 19790s comic book by Charlton recycled this double-mangling and had Dagwood say something like, "at least she doesn't know kung fu."

The most frequently seen battleaxe in BLONDIE's history was Cora Dithers, wife of Dagwood's boss Julius Dithers. One of Chic Young's favorite jokes was to have Dithers hide from his wife in the Bumstead house. Then Cora would intrude and beat up Dithers, and sometimes Dagwood if he got in the way. Perhaps the Dithers were a forecast of what would happen to Dagwood once Blondie got older, heavier, and meaner.

More innocent sadism from Blondie.

And then, some not-so-innocent punishment. More proof that Blondie would become a real termagant, if it were possible for her to age.

Here's a rare moment when Dagwood gets to watch some other poor schmuck being beat up by his wife. Note his obvious admiration of the wife: "it's remarkable how these little women can punch" and "She must have taken boxing lessons when she was young." For Blondie's part, she's just as enthralled with watching the carnage as Dagwood, but she refuses to admit it as Dagwood does.

Occasionally Dagwood was also entertained when his neighbor Herb would apparently get thrashed by his angry wife Tootsie, though of the jokes I've seen, the fights are usually off-panel. This time Blondie doesn't take pleasure in scoping out a fighting couple. Note the rolling pin reference.

THE BLONDIE FILES

I probably had not checked any of the pirate sites for BLONDIE or DAGWOOD comics for a couple of years. But I happened to find a really good scene after purchasing an old 1950s comic book, and I checked around, and mirable dictu, READ ALL COMICS ONLINE has a bunch of them now. So I figured, I better copy off what I can for my site, even though BLONDIE's significance in comics-history has nearly devolved to nothingness. I'd need a separate essay to explain that significance, so later for that.

I will say that I've read almost none of the comic strips since BLONDIE became a domestic-comedy strip in 1933. I know that the pre-1933 Dagwood was a rich doofus devoted to marrying the lower-class Blondie, but he wasn't as much of a Doormat to the Whole World in those strips. So it follows that during the domestic years, author Chic Young made, at some time, the decision that Dagwood would become the perennial goat, either because of others or because of his own maladroit nature. An example of typical Dagwood clumsiness appears below, from the first issue of fifteen issues of a mostly new BLONDIE comic book from 1947.

Blondie's attitude in this one-pager is key. Usually, she assumed the role of a passive observer to Dagwood's self-flagellating antics, which would make her seem to be the opposite of a violent, bullying wife like the one from the earlier BRINGING UP FATHER strip.

She was, however, the voice of authority at home, constantly telling Dagwood to do chores around the house, and to my knowledge Dagwood's only response was to try to run away and hide. Where his wife was concerned, Dagwood had no balls-- which probably made it seem like he deserved to be punished by diverse factors.

Here's the first scene from the 1947 series (issue #7) in which the usually pacific housewife gets a little violent when she thinks Dagwood's been cheating on her.

 

The above scenes from #8 and #10 are more typical of Blondie's exploits, with her playing the "innocent sadist" who "accidentally" brings about her husband's injuries. I saw both jokes recycled in the comic books. Young's signature suggests that these might be reworked art from the strip.

AN INNOCENTLY SADISTIC BROAD

I've seen this gag a couple of times before on live-action TV-- "female not-so-innocently plugs something in and electrocutes male working on the electrical system"-- particularly on MARRIED WITH CHILDREN. But another "dumb blonde" got there first.