Cartoonist. He is best remembered for creating the popular, long-running comic strip "Blondie." He was born in Chicago, Illinois where his father was a shoe salesman and his mother was an artist, who encouraged him to draw. He graduated from high school in Saint Louis, Missouri, and returned to Chicago, working as a stenographer while attending night school at the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1921, he learned that the Newspaper Enterprise Association was looking for an artist to do a comic strip that featured an attractive young woman. He then moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he obtained a job for five months drawing "The Affairs of Jane," which was about a struggling film actress who dreamed of graduating from low-budget pictures to stardom. In 1922, he left for New York City where he created another female comic strip "Beautiful Bab." While it ran for only months, it landed him a job in the art department of King Features Syndicate. In 1924, he started "Dumb Dora," which was about a female brunette Dora who "wasn't as dumb as she looked." In the summer of 1930, he created "Blondie" while working in his studio in Great Neck, Long Island, New York, which debuted on September 8 1930. It quickly became the most popular comic strip in America, and increased in popularity when Blondie and Dagwood married in 1933, which was followed by the birth of Baby Dumpling (now Alexander) in 1934. In 1937, he took a year's hiatus and visited Europe with his wife after the death of their first son, Wayne, but returned in 1938 to continue drawing "Blondie." The comic strip became a licensing and media bonanza from the royalties made with the film, radio, and television distribution along with products sales. In 1939, he relocated to California to be more closely involved with Columbia's "Blondie" film series. Later, in the 1950s, he moved to Florida. At the peak of his career, he received more fan mail than any other cartoonist. Over the course of his lifetime, he produced more than 15,000 "Blondie" comic strips. His other works include "Colonel Potterby and the Duchess," which ran as a topper strip on the "Blondie" page from 1935 through 1963. He received the National Cartoonists Society's Reuben Award in 1948. He died in Saint Petersburg, Florida, and "Blondie" is currently written and managed by his son, Dean Young.