Raymond, Alex, ghosting for Chic Young *

Alex Raymond drew almost all Blondie daily strips from at least May 1931 until February 1933 and almost certainly even later into 1933. He clearly was much more than an assistant drawing backgrounds for Young, as some sources have stated. He clearly drew the main characters and probably ghosted the daily strips in their entirety during this period, which featured the most beautiful images ever drawn of Blondie herself. In fact, one of the strips which Young may have decided to draw due to its importance, the wedding of Blondie and Dagwood (original donated by Young's daughter to the Library of Congress), is one of the least elegantly drawn of any of the strips from early 1933, which is a testiment to the dominant role Raymond played during the early years of the strip. A few of the Sunday strips during this time period look to be much closer to Raymond's style than Young's, but certainly not all of them. I might never have paid attention to Blondie originals if not for the Boston area comic art dealer, Don Phelps. I had meet him at the San Diego con in 1972, when I bought a copy of Mystic Comics No. 5 (Timely) from him. About a decade later, I learned that Don had sold a number of Disney publicity drawings before I had begun collecting them, so I contacted him and eventually bought a number of those he was still able to track down. After I foolishly passed on the three poster drawings that I discuss under the category for such art, I met Don in San Diego in the summer of 1985 to pick up another one of the drawings I had originally failed to buy, the design for the cover of the 1936 Elmer Elephant book. While at his table, I looked through his strip art, and came upon the original by Raymond for the February 4, 1933 Blondie. I asked him why it cost more than the other, earlier Blondies, and he explained that it had been ghosted by Raymond at the beginning of his career. I was out of money, as was usual when I went to San Diego, but Don let me take the strip and send him payment in a week or so. Very soon thereafter, another dealer, Jerry Muller in Corona Del Mar, CA, had the first strip in the Blondie hunger strike series on his list, for not much more money than I had paid for my first Raymond Blondie, and I bought it as well. Continued in the remarks section for the 1-3-1933 Blondie, below.