In 1930, Chic Young released the first ever “Blondie” comic strip in the newspaper, changing the industry forever. “Blondie” is one of the longest running comic strips today, turning 84 years old this year. The success of the strip cannot be disputed as everyone knows of it through one way or another. The comic strip is used as a comedic relief of whatever political or social strife that is in the news as of this moment in history. The comic strip “Blondie” is a long running cartoon because it reflects the American middle class family in such a way that everyday problems become adventures and it’s a comedic relief of the struggles of everyday life.
In the 30’s, when the strip first came out, there was a beautiful flapper girl names Blondie Boopadoop. Some of her first adventures were titled “Shes Not So Dumb As She Looks.” Being a girl of many boyfriends, Dagwood Bumstead being one of them, Blondie had a great life. Dagwood was from a rich family, his father was a billionaire railroad owner named J Bolling Bumstead. Dagwood was not the best of playboys, once having to ask for directions in his own mansion.
The strip was doing well until the hit of the depression three years after its release. People were losing everything they had and did not want to read about a carefree bimbo and her boyfriend’s billions. Blondie was almost done for after many newspapers dropped the strip so soon after it had come out.
To make the comic more relatable to the masses, the creator and writer Chic Young, wrote a plot twist. Unlike other comic cartoons before, Blondie and Dagwood fell deeply and madly in love. Making plans to get married was a big deal in the comic world as it progressed forward. Love conquers all as they had a hunger strike that ...
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... which is why it is so widely spread. It is a comic that will last through the ages.
Works Cited
Hartman, Carl. "Long-Lived 'Blondie' Comic Strip Honored at Library of Congress." Associated Press: 1. 2000. Print.
Sargent, Ben. “Genius in Four Frames” Mirror on America Essays and Images From Popular Culture. Eds. Joan T. Mims. Elizabeth M. Nollen. Boston: Bedford/St.Martin’s, 2012. Print.
Stacy, Mitch. "Dagwood and Blondie Celebrate 75 Years of Laughs." The Ledger 2005. Print.
Young, Chic, and University of Central Missouri. James C. Kirkpatrick Library.Philip A. Sadler Research Collection of Literature for Children and Young Adults.Henry P. Garwick Collection. Blondie and Dagwood's Marvelous Invention: An Original Story about the Bumstead Family of the Famous Blondie Newspaper Comics, Radio Series, and Motion Pictures. Racine, Wis: Whitman Pub. Co, 1947. Print.
Alison Bechdel's graphic memoir, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, documents the author's discovery of her own and her father's homosexuality. The book touches upon many themes, including, but not limited to, the following: sexual orientation, family relationships, and suicide. Unlike most autobiographical works, Bechdel uses the comics graphic medium to tell her story. By close-reading or carefully analyzing pages fourteen through seventeen in Fun Home one can get a better understanding of how a Bechdel employs words and graphic devices to render specific events. One can also see how the specific content of the pages thematically connects to the book as a whole. As we will see, this portion of the book echoes the strained relationship between Bruce Bechdel and his family and his attempts to disguise his homosexuality by creating the image of an ideal family, themes which are prevalent throughout the rest of the nook.
Identity is something every human quests for. Individuals tend to manipulate views, ideas, and prerogative. Janie's identity became clay in her family and friends hands. Most noteworthy was Janie's grandmother, Nanny. Janie blossomed into a young woman with an open mind and embryonic perspective on life. Being a young, willing, and full of life, Janie made the "fatal mistake" of becoming involved in the follies of an infatuation with the opposite sex. With this phase in Janie's life Nanny's first strong hold on Janie's neck flexed its grip. Preoccupation with romantic love took the backseat to Nanny's stern view on settling down with someone with financial stability. Hence, Janie's identity went through its first of many transformations. She fought within her self, torn between her adolescent sanction and Nanny's harsh limitations, but final gave way and became a cast of Nanny's reformation.
At age sixteen, Janie is a beautiful young girl who is about to enter womanhood and experience the real world. Being joyous and unconcerned, she is thrown into an arranged marriage with Logan Killicks. He is apparently unromantic and unattractive. Logan is a widower and a successful farmer who desires a wife who would not have her own opinions. He is set on his own ways and is troubled by Janie, who forms her own opinions and refuses to work. He is unable to sexually appeal or satisfy Janie and therefore does not truly connect with her as husband and wife should. Janie's wild and young spirit is trapped within her and she plays the role of a silent and obeying wife. But her true identity cannot withhold itself for she has ambitions and she wills to see the world and find love. There was a lack of trust and communication between Logan and Janie. Because of the negative feelings Janie has towards Logan, she deems that this marriage is not what she desires it to be. The pear tree and the bees had a natural att...
Jacobs, Lewis. “Refinements in Technique.” The Rise of the American Film. New York: Teachers College Press, 1974. 433-452. Print.
In the essay “Kids’ Stuff” Michael Chabon argues that comic books have become too centered around adults and need to be more focused on youth readers like they were during his childhood. Chabon claims that the authors goal audience has changed over the years.Comics that were once written for children are now written to appeal to adults. Throughout the essay, Chabon disagrees with the authors choice to aim comics toward adults instead of children. He feels that authors should write children stories for children.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "The Yellow Wallpaper." 1892. The New England Magazine. Reprinted in "Lives & Moments - An Introduction to Short Fiction" by Hans Ostrom. Hold,
Golden, Catherine, ed. The Captive Imagination: A Casebook on "The Yellow Wallpaper." New York: Feminist Press, 1992
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "The Yellow Wallpaper." Images of Woman in American Popular Culture. Ed. Angela G. Dorenkamp, et al. Port Worth: Harcourt Brace, 1995. 78-89.
Rena Korb An overview of The Yellow Wallpaper, in Exploring Short Stories, Gale Research, 1998.
Epstein, Dan. 20th Century Pop Culture: The Early Years to 1949. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 2001. Print.
Janie’s first attempt at love does not turn out quite like she hopes. Her grandmother forces her into marrying Logan Killicks. As the year passes, Janie grows unhappy and miserable. By pure fate, Janie meets Joe Starks and immediately lusts after him. With the knowledge of being wrong and expecting to be ridiculed, she leaves Logan and runs off with Joe to start a new marriage. This is the first time that Janie does what she wants in her search of happiness: “Even if Joe was not waiting for her, the change was bound to do her good…From now on until death she was going to have flower dust and springtime sprinkled over everything” (32). Janie’s new outlook on life, although somewhat shadowed by blind love, will keep her satisfied momentarily, but soon she will return to the loneliness she is running from.
Prager, Emily. "Our Barbies, Ourselves." Signs of Life in the U.S.A.: Readings on Popular Culture For Writers. 3rd Ed. Maasik, Sonia and Jack Solomon. Boston: Bedford, 2000. 706-709.
Stanley, Robert H. The Movie Idiom: Film as a Popular Art Form. Illinois: Waveland Press, Inc. 2011. Print
“The Yellow Wallpaper.” Short Stories for Students. Ed. Kathleen Wilson. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 1997. 277-293. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 26 Nov. 2015.
Gail had never heard of Babe. Gail writes movie reviews and articles in the Arts section. Gail is a chain smoker. She used to cut gym everyday to smoke under the bleachers with her friends. She hasn't owned a pair of sneakers since the third grade. In high school she used to think there were three kinds of kids: the nerds, the jocks, and the freaks. She was some combination of the first and last group. She still held that opinion and liked to sneer at joggers in the park. She was, thus, unhappy about this assignment.