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| Blondie and Dagwood |
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Blondie and Dagwood Bumstead are about to celebrate their 75th anniversary as one of the world's most popular couples and many of their cartoon colleagues are coming to the party.
Garfield, Hagar the Horrible, Dick Tracy and Beetle Bailey are among the characters who will join the Bumsteads on Sunday, Sept. 4.
President Bush and his wife Laura will appear a week earlier, according to Blondie cartoonist Dean Young. He said the strip appears in over 2,300 newspapers in 55 countries with a readership of 250 million in 35 languages.
And Blondie and Dagwood willshow upin several othercomic stripsduring the next few weeks as they prepare for the big event.
"I'm hoping it will be a lot of fun for the readers," Young said.
Blondie was started by Young's father Murat "Chic" Young in 1930. Dean Young, 66, took over the strip in 1973 when his father died.
"He created these wonderful characters. He was a genius," Young said of his father.
When the strip debuted on September 8, 1930, its heroine was Blondie Boopadoop, who was pretty and single. Dagwood was the playboy son of a railroadtycoonand one of her several boyfriends.
Blondie was popular at first but interest in a strip about rich characters declined as the Depression spread.
In 1932, Chic Young had Blondie and Dagwood fall in love. They were married in 1933, but Dagwood's parents disapproved of Blondie and disinherited him, forcing him to go to work and live a middle class life. Their son Alexander was born in 1934 and daughter Cookie joined the family in 1941.
Young said he tries to keep the strip contemporary with the characters using computers and cell phones.
In 1991, Blondie got her first job when she started a catering business with her friend Tootsie.
Young said at the heart of the strip's success was the couple's relationship. "Blondie and Dagwood love each other. It's nice to see that," he said.
The strip's popularity led to a series of 28 Blondie movies between 1938 and 1950 as well as radio and television shows. Blondie was featured on a stamp issued by the U.S. Postal Service and in a Library of Congress exhibit. The characters are even seen on casino slot machines.
Young said he hopes Blondie can continue for many more years. He said one of his daughters may take over for him some day, but not anytime soon.
(Agencies)
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作为全球最受欢迎的一对漫画佳偶，勃朗黛和大梧·布斯蒂即将迎来他们的75岁诞辰，他们的许多漫画伙伴也将参加这个盛会。
2005年9月4日（星期日），加菲猫、恐怖的夏甲、迪克·崔西和小兵贝利这些大名鼎鼎的漫画人物都会参加布斯蒂一家的庆祝派对。
据勃朗黛连环漫画的作者、漫画家迪恩·扬透露，美国总统布什和妻子劳拉也会提前一周露面。他介绍说，这一系列连环漫画已被翻译成35种语言，在55个国家的2300多种报纸上刊载过，拥有2.5亿名读者。
当他们为即将到来的盛典做准备时，在接下来的几周里，勃朗黛和大梧还将出现在另外几部连环漫画中。
“我希望这会给读者带来无穷乐趣。”扬说。
勃朗黛是扬的父亲缪拉·奇克·扬于1930年开始创作的。现年66岁的迪恩·扬在父亲于1973年去世后接手了连环漫画的创作。
“是他创作了这些可爱的卡通人物，他是一个天才。”扬如此评价他的父亲。
1930年9月8日，当这一连环漫画首次公开亮相时，女主角勃朗黛·波帕度普是个漂亮尤物，还是单身。大梧则是有个铁路大亨老爸的花花公子，是勃朗黛众多男友中的一个。
漫画刚推出时，勃朗黛广受欢迎，但是，随着经济大萧条的蔓延，公众对漫画中富裕人物的兴趣也大打折扣。
1932年，奇克·扬让勃朗黛和大梧坠入爱河。他们于1933年结婚，但是大梧的父母对勃朗黛并不满意，剥夺了大梧的财产继承权，迫使他不得不出去工作，去过中等阶级的生活。1934年，他们的儿子亚历山大出生了，1941年，女儿库奇也加入了这个家庭。
扬说，他想让漫画中的人物能跟上当今时代的潮流，会使用计算机和手机。
1991年，勃朗黛得到了她的第一份工作，和朋友杜茜合伙开了一家餐馆。
扬说，这个连环漫画成功的秘诀在于这对夫妻永恒的爱恋。“勃朗黛和大梧相亲相爱。看到他们如此恩爱，感觉真是棒极了。”
这套连环漫画广受欢迎。1938至1950年间，人们拍摄了28部有关勃朗黛的影片，还制作了很多广播和电视节目。勃朗黛还一度登上美国邮政发行的邮票，参加了国会图书馆的展览，甚至在一些赌场的自动角子机上也能看到他们的人物形象。
扬说，他希望勃朗黛的故事还能继续发展下去，再写许多年。他透露，将来他的一个女儿可能会接替他的工作，但是这还需要一些时间。
（中国日报网站译）
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Updated: 2005-08-01 10:10
