Murat Bernard "Chic" Young (January 9, 1901March 14, 1973) was an American

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the litera ...

who created the

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...

'' Blondie''. His 1919 ''William McKinley High School Yearbook'' cites his nickname as Chicken, source of his familiar pen name and signature. According to

King Features Syndicate King Features Syndicate, Inc. is an American content distribution and animation studio, consumer product License, licensing and print syndication company owned by Hearst Communications that distributes about 150 comic strips, columnist, newspape ...

, Young had a daily readership of 52 million. Stan Drake, who drew ''Blondie'' in the 1980s and 1990s, stated that Young "has to go down in history as one of the geniuses of the industry."''Famous Artists and Writers''. King Features Syndicate, 1949.

Comic strips

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Young began drawing with the encouragement of his mother, who was an artist. Although his father James was a shoe salesman who didn't think much of artists, all of the children in the family were creative: Walter was a painter, daughter Jamar entered the commercial art field and Lyman, Chic's older brother, drew the '' Tim Tyler's Luck'' comic strip for King Features. It was Lyman who spurred Chic to constantly draw. Chic Young grew up in a German-Lutheran neighborhood on the south side of

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

. After graduating from high school in St. Louis, he returned to Chicago where he worked as a stenographer while taking night classes at the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park. Its collection, stewa ...

. In 1921, he learned that the

Newspaper Enterprise Association The Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA) is an editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States and established in 1902. The oldest syndicate still in operation, the NEA was originally a secondary new ...

was seeking an artist to do a comic strip about an attractive young woman. He headed for Cleveland and earned a weekly salary of $22 () while drawing ''The Affairs of Jane'' about a struggling film actress who dreamed of graduating from low-budget pictures to stardom. The short-lived strip, which began in 1921 on Halloween, came to a conclusion five months later on March 18, 1922. In the NEA art department, Young worked near cartoonist Gene Ahern, and the two often played pranks on each other. When a call came from King Features' J. Gortatowski offering an annual salary of $10,000 (), Young thought it was a prank and turned down the job. Looking for work later, he applied to Gortatowski and learned the call was legitimate.Reynolds, Moira Davidson. ''Comic Strip Artists in American Newspapers, 1945–1980''. McFarland, 2003.
/ref> After six months in Cleveland, Young left for New York where he created another female flapper strip, ''Beautiful Bab'', which the Bell Syndicate began distributing on July 15, 1922. It ran for only four months but landed him a job in the art department of

, mainly as an assistant to cartoonist Jack Callahan, adopting his drawing and storytelling styles. In 1924, he began ''

Dumb Dora ''Dumb Dora'' is a comic strip published from 1924 to 1936 distributed by King Features Syndicate. The term "dumb Dora" was a 1920s American slang term for a foolish woman; the strip helped popularize the term. Publication history ''Dumb Dora'' ...

'', about brunette Dora who "wasn't as dumb as she looked." In 1927, Young married professional harpist Athel Lindorff (d. 1979). In the spring of 1930, after six years of ''Dumb Doras increasing popularity, Young requested more money and strip ownership. This action led to changes, and

Paul Fung Paul Fung (1897–1944) was an American cartoonist best known for the comic strip ''Dumb Dora''. Early life Fung's father was a Baptist minister, the Reverend Fung Chak, a graduate of Stanford University. Paul was born in Seattle,

''Blondie''

In the summer of 1930, working in his studio in Great Neck, Long Island, Young created ''Blondie''. When it debuted September 8, 1930, it quickly became the most popular comic strip in America, gaining even more readers when Blondie and Dagwood married in 1933, followed by the 1934 birth of Baby Dumpling (later known as Alexander). When his first son, Wayne, died of

diphtheria Diphtheria is an infection caused by the bacteria, bacterium ''Corynebacterium diphtheriae''. Most infections are asymptomatic or have a mild Course (medicine), clinical course, but in some outbreaks, the mortality rate approaches 10%. Signs a ...

in 1937, Young took a year's hiatus; the experience made it difficult for him to draw Baby Dumpling. After Young and his wife spent a year traveling in Europe, he began ''Blondie'' once again, quelling rumors that he might not return to the strip.''Blondie Gets Married''
/ref> With films, radio, television and products, the strip became a licensing and media bonanza that made Young a wealthy man. During his lifetime, he produced more than 15,000 ''Blondie'' strips. Described by former King Features president Joseph Connelly as "the greatest story teller of his kind since the immortal

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...

," Young at his peak received more fan mail than any other cartoonist. His other works include the strip ''Colonel Potterby and the Duchess'', which ran as a topper strip on the ''Blondie'' page from 1935 through 1963. Young worked with several assistants, including Alex Raymond and Ray McGill. Alex Raymond's younger brother, Jim Raymond, who began as Young's assistant in 1935, took over all the art in 1950 when Young's eyesight began to fail. , ''Blondie'' is written by Chic Young's son, Dean Young, and illustrated by

John Marshall John Marshall (September 24, 1755July 6, 1835) was an American statesman, jurist, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the fourth chief justice of the United States from 1801 until his death in 1835. He remai ...

Personal life

Living in suburban

New Rochelle, New York New Rochelle ( ; in ) is a Political subdivisions of New York State#City, city in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County, New York (state), New York, United States. It is a suburb of New York City, located approximately from Midtow ...

, Chic and Athel had two other children, Dean Young and Jeanne. In 1939, Young relocated his family to California to be more closely involved with the popular '' Blondie'' film series for

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Columbia Pictures, is an American film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group ...

. In the early 1950s, the entire family vacationed in Paris, and a few years later, they moved to Florida, prompting his comment, "We reside on a little island off the west coast of Florida, where the porpoises and pelicans entertain me while I work on the strip. Hobbies? Oh, fishing, golf, very amateurish Oriental cooking and such nonsense." Young died of a pulmonary embolism on March 14, 1973, at the Apollo Medical Center in

St. Petersburg, Florida St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 258,308, making it the List of municipalities in Florida, fifth-most populous city in Florida and the most populous city in the sta ...

, at the age of 72. He had been in ill health for some time, remaining near his home in Clearwater Beach, Florida.

Awards

Chic Young received the

National Cartoonists Society The National Cartoonists Society (NCS) is an organization of professional cartoonists in the United States. It presents the National Cartoonists Society Awards. The Society was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the ...

's Reuben Award for ''Blondie'' in 1948, only one of many awards.

References

External links