Chic Young

Chic Young (born Jan. 9, 1901, Chicago—died March 14, 1973, St. Petersburg, Fla., U.S.) was a U.S. cartoonist who created the comic strip “Blondie,” which, by the 1960s, was syndicated in more than 1,500 newspapers throughout the world.

Young was born into an artistic family and worked at several jobs, including one as a stenographer in a railroad office, for a number of years. He secured his first cartooning job through his friend Edgar Martin, the creator of “Boots and Her Buddies.” Moving to New York City in the mid-1920s, he briefly drew the “Beautiful Babs” series and then for six years drew the “Dumb Dora” comic strip. In 1930 “Blondie” appeared, introducing the pretty, curlyheaded Blondie and her adoring suitor (later husband), the bumbling Dagwood Bumstead. Later were added Mr. Dithers (the tyrannical boss), Baby Dumpling (“born” 1934), Cookie (“born” 1941), and Daisy and her pups. A comedy of situations that only slightly exaggerates life, Blondie was adapted to motion pictures and to a television series and a radio series. The term Dagwood sandwich came into popular usage to describe a towering, multilayered sandwich like the ones that Dagwood made to allay nocturnal hunger.