I've enjoyed comic strips for most of my life. At one point, it looked like I was going to be a cartoonist and have written numerous artistic and historical articles about them. It may be hard to believe but, comic strips were once a significant reason why people would buy one newspaper over another. During a newspaper strike in the 1940s, the mayor of NYC went on the radio to read the strips so his citizens wouldn't fall behind on their favorite characters' exploits. Today, comic strips are greatly diminished in respect, quality, popularity, and reproduction size.

One of the most popular comic strips of all time is Blondie. It appears in over 2,300 papers across the globe and is read by an estimated 280 million people daily. Not bad for a simple comic strip about a family with a lovable, hot wife and her dim-witted, sandwich-eating husband. On September 8th, the comic strip will reach its 75th anniversary.

The past few months have been building towards the celebration of Blondie and Dagwood's wedding anniversary with lots of preparations for a big party. The Bumsteads have been spotted in other comic strips inviting characters to their big shin-dig. In the past couple of weeks, characters from other strips have been cameoing in Blondie, creating the biggest crossover event in comic strip history.

To check out the celebration, you can read the current and past strips by visiting the Blondie site. Make yourself a "Dagwood" sandwich and have a peek!