Dagwood Bumstead is a main character in cartoonist

Chic Young Murat Bernard "Chic" Young (January 9, 1901March 14, 1973) was an American cartoonist who created the comic strip ''Blondie (comic strip), Blondie''. His 1919 ''William McKinley High School Yearbook'' cites his nickname as Chicken, source of hi ...

's long-running

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''. He debuted in the first strip on September 8, 1930. He was originally heir to the Bumstead Locomotive fortune, but was disowned when he married the title character Blondie

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Boopadoop, a

flapper Flappers were a subculture of young Western women prominent after the First World War and through the 1920s who wore short skirts (knee length was considered short during that period), bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their ...

whom his family saw as below his

class Class, Classes, or The Class may refer to: Common uses not otherwise categorized * Class (biology), a taxonomic rank * Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects * Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used d ...

. He has since worked hard at J. C. Dithers Construction Company as

office manager Office management is a profession involving the design, implementation, evaluation, and maintenance of the process of work within an office or other organization, in order to sustain and improve efficiency and productivity. Office management is ...

to support his family. The Bumsteads' first baby, Alexander, was originally named Baby Dumpling. The name of his daughter, Cookie, was chosen by readers in a national contest. The family circle is rounded out by Daisy the dog. The origin of both Dagwood's last name and Daisy's name came from Chic Young's long-time friend Arthur Bumstead and his dog, Daisy.

Characteristics

His favorite things in life include his wife Blondie, his kids, naps on the sofa, long baths, and food. Dagwood is famous for concocting tall, multilayered sandwiches topped with an olive on a toothpick, and the term "

Dagwood sandwich A Dagwood sandwich is a tall, multilayered sandwich made with a variety of meats, cheeses, and condiments. It is named after Dagwood Bumstead, a central character in the comic strip ''Blondie (comic strip), Blondie'', who is frequently illustrate ...

" has entered American English. Dagwood often made these sandwiches late at night. Dagwood frequently has problems with door-to-door salesmen, rude telemarketers and store salespeople, crashing into the mailman (Mr. Beasley) as he rushes from home, getting ready before the

carpool Carpooling is the sharing of Automobile, car journeys so that more than one person travels in a car, and prevents the need for others to have to drive to a location themselves. Carpooling is considered a Demand-Responsive Transport (DRT) serv ...

leaves without him, getting to work on time, his boss J.C. Dithers, and Cookie's many dates. He is often suspicious of her dates and keeps a close watch on them when they come to the house. Other characters in his universe include Elmo Tuttle, a pesky little neighborhood kid who wanders in and out of the Bumstead house; next-door neighbors Herb and Tootsie Woodley; Lou, the sarcastic cook in a local diner; and Mr. Dithers' domineering wife, Cora. Dagwood's birthday is July 20, or April 21, or February 15.

Appearances in other media

Over the years, Dagwood has appeared not only in daily newspapers, but also in

comic book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...

s, Big Little Books, Whitman novels for children and other print materials, as well as radio, film, and television. Arthur Lake played Dagwood in the ''Blondie'' film series (1938–50), radio series and the short-lived 1957 TV series. Hal Le Roy portrayed Dagwood in the pilot for the 1957 series. Will Hutchins played him in the 1968 TV series. He made several

cameo appearance A cameo appearance, also called a cameo role and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief guest appearance of a well-known person or character in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking on ...

s in '' Garfield Gets Real'', alongside Grimmy from ''

Mother Goose and Grimm ''Mother Goose and Grimm'' (a.k.a. ''Mother Goose & Grimm'') is an internationally syndicated comic strip by cartoonist Mike Peters of the '' Dayton Daily News''. It was first syndicated starting October 1, 1984, and is distributed by King Fea ...

''. Dagwood and his wife also made a cameo appearance in a ''Garfield'' strip originally published April 1, 1997. In a

fourth wall The fourth wall is a performance dramatic convention, convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this "wall", the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. ...

break, Garfield refers to this as "moving to a different comic strip". Dagwood made another appearance in ''Garfield ''comic strips on August 20, 2005, to invite Jon and Garfield for Blondie and his anniversary party. Dagwood also made a cameo appearance in the 1946 cartoon '' Hollywood Canine Canteen'', where his wife Blondie and he (named Dogwood in this short) are portrayed as anthropomorphic dogs working in a snack bar. Penny Singleton and Arthur Lake voiced these characters, respectively. In the song "Homemade Mummy", alternative rapper Aesop Rock briefly refers to Dagwood.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bumstead, Dagwood American comics characters Blondie (comic strip) Comics characters introduced in 1930 Fictional managers Male characters in comics