At first glance, this comic strip struck me as…off. Was it the presence of a park bench so close to the shore? Or the concrete appearing to be level with the water? How about the black marks at the top corners of panel one, which look like placeholders in an old photo album? No, I think what jolted me most was the strip’s setting. I never noticed this before, but almost every Blondie strip takes place in one a handful of locales: the house, the office, the carpool transporting Dagwood from the house to the office… It’s like a sitcom, which is sad if you think about it. Television writers are constrained by the expense of building a set (or securing a location). Cartoonists can draw any location they want. Why not go exploring?
The Daily Funnies 