Blondie Page 5

  From her early years as a flapper to her recent incarnation as a business owner, Blondie has maintained a consistent style and tone that has charmed the country, and Chic Young soon was one of the most celebrated cartoonists in the business. He hired assistants—including an artist, Jim Raymond, who became a guiding force in the strip, even taking it over for a year when the Youngs took a sabbatical after their first son, Wayne, died from jaundice at age six.

  Soon enough, his father offered him the opportunity to work on the strip with him, and Dean jumped at the chance.

  Raymond, the brother of fellow cartoonist Alex Raymond, who also started on Blondie before working on strips such as Flash Gordon, worked with Chic Young and his successor Dean, until his death in 1989, helping cement the look and feel of the strip as a valued and trusted contributor. He was followed by artists including Stan Drake, Mike Gersher, Denis LeBrun, and most recently, John Marshall and his assistant Frank Cummings, all of whom have remained true to the sense of realism that Chic Young envisioned for the strip. From their full-body depiction to their changing clothing, the characters in Blondie resemble anatomically correct people—with just a few features punched up for comic effect.

  Jim Raymond

  Stan Drake

  An early rendering of Blondie as a beautiful flapper

  “My mom was a guiding force in the comic strip. There was never anything done or sent out from the studio before my mother proofread it.”

  – Dean Young

  Athel, Chic’s wife, reviewed every Blondie strip before it was sent to King Features Syndicate.

  By the 1940s, Blondie’s popularity had surpassed the pages of the newspaper; the characters were reborn in radio plays and in twenty-eight Columbia feature films. The Youngs, along with their one-year-old son Dean, moved to California to be closer to those Hollywood productions.

  A daughter, Jeanne, was born soon after. (Though Chic remained a shy man who shunned publicity, the family did occasionally get touches of the celebrity life, visiting the set to meet the 3-D version of Blondie and Dagwood, Penny Singleton and Arthur Lake, who also played Dagwood on the radio shows.) After more than fifteen years in California, though, Chic found he preferred Florida, where his brother Lyman lived. When Dean was a senior in high school, the family moved to Clearwater Beach, Florida, where Dean still resides.

  Although he was a shy man, Chic enjoyed this photo-op with Bette Davis in the 1930s.

  Though Dean had displayed some interest in cartooning in his youth, he chose to pursue another career at first. After graduating from college with a business degree, he worked in an advertising agency in Miami, and then as a sales executive for a grocery chain. (The beginnings, no doubt, of a very long love affair with food.) Soon enough, his father offered him the opportunity to work on the strip with him, and Dean jumped at the chance. The ten years they worked together before Chic’s death in 1973 proved instrumental in shaping Dean’s understanding of Blondie.

  Jim Raymond (right) was Blondie’s artist and a guiding force in the strip, working first with Chic and later with Dean (left), until Jim died in 1989.

  “My dad was a genius,” Dean said. “He put these people, these characters, together, just brilliantly. I mean, how’d he do that?”

  Soon enough, Dean figured out how. Though his father crumpled and threw out Dean’s first attempt at a Sunday page, the two eventually grew into a rhythm.

  Chic Young, who created Blondie

  Dean Young, who increased Blondie’s popularity

  Dean remembers what his father said: do what’s funny to you, don’t offend anyone, and “make friends, not enemies.”

  “It was great,” Dean says of being mentored by his dad. “Thankfully, I have a lot of his DNA, so we think alike.”

  But in the year after Chic’s death, hundreds of newspapers dropped the strip, fearful that without its creator at the helm it would founder. Dean was devastated, but he was also wary about not living up to his father’s legacy. “In the beginning, I thought about all the millions of fans—I would try to picture them when I was in a football stadium—and it scared me. I thought: I need to conquer this fear. ”

  He did it by remembering some of the lessons his father had taught him: do what’s funny to you, don’t offend anyone, and “make friends, not enemies.”

  “I think of the comics as a refuge, where you can see something that’s pleasurable and funny, and not mean-spirited and insulting,” he said. “That’s my formula, and it seems to be working.”

  Dean with his three daughters: Lisa, Dianne, and Dana

  In his spare time, Dean is an award-winning spearfisherman.

  It certainly does. In the thirty-plus years that Dean has written Blondie, the strip has replaced the dropped newspapers and added more than seven hundred to its publication roster. It consistently ranks among the top five most popular comics in newspaper polls around the nation. Part of its success, Dean believes, is because of his continuing efforts to keep it fresh.

  Blondie consistently ranks among the top five most popular comics in newspaper polls around the nation.

  “I try to read two newspapers and magazines every day,” he said. “There needs to be this osmosis thing that goes into me, where I’ve got what’s going on in the world, but I translate that into the comedic thing that happens in the Bumsteads’ world.”

  Of course, inspiration can hit closer to home. When his mother Athel was alive, Dean ran the strips by her for approval; now his wife, Charlotte, fulfills that role of sounding board. His three daughters—Lisa Rogers, Dianne Erwin, and Dana Coston, a lawyer, graphic designer, and cartoonist-in-training, respectively, now all grown up with families of their own—provided plenty of fodder in their teenage years.

  “I think they recognize their situations,” their dad chuckled.

  With retirement still years away, Dean adheres to a regular five-day-a-week schedule in a studio near his home, using two days for creative work and the rest for administrative duties; in his off time he’s an avid boater and award-winning spearfisherman. John Marshall, Blondie’s artist, lives and works in Binghamton, New York, but the two stay in constant communication, and the relationship runs smoothly.

  “More than any other way, I see the strip happening graphically,” Dean said. “I see where the characters are, I see exactly where the balloons are. I know which character’s going to speak first—that character’s going to be on the left side. I see that right away. I don’t even have to think about it.”

  And as to the question he does have to think about, because he gets asked about it most often—whether there are any similarities between Dagwood and him—the answer, of course, is yes.

  “We both like naps,” Dean laughed. “And I love a good sandwich!”

  The “Kings of the Comics World” Mort Walker, creator of Beetle Bailey, Bill Keane, creator of Family Circus, Dean Young, and Hank Ketcham, creator of Dennis the Menace, were together for a King Features promotion at the World Financial Center in New York City.

  Dean’s wife, Charlotte, follows in Athel’s footsteps and reviews every strip. Their two dogs are named, appropriately, Blondie and Dagwood.

  Just as Dean inherited Blondie from his father, he plans to pass the strip on to his daughter, Dana Young Coston, who will undoubtedly put her on spin on it.

  Dean with John Marshall, Blondie’s artist (on right), and Frank Cummings, his assistant (on left). John and Frank have remained true to the sense of realism that Chic envisioned for Blondie.