Blondie (comic strip) over all he surveys, with one notable exception—his formidable and domineering wife, Cora. Blondie and Dagwood's best friends are their next-door neighbors Herb and Tootsie Woodley, although Dagwood and Herb's friendship is frequently volatile. Lou is the burly, tattooed owner of Lou's Diner, the less-than-five-star establishment where Dagwood often eats during his lunch hour. Other regular supporting characters include the long-suffering mailman, Mr. Beasley; Elmo Tuttle, a pesky neighborhood kid who often asks Dagwood to play; and a never-ending parade of overbearing door-to-door salesmen. There are several running gags in "Blondie", reflecting the trend after Chic Young's death for the
Comic strip German immigrant Rudolph Dirks, who created the "Katzenjammer Kids" in 1897. Familiar comic-strip iconography such as stars for pain, sawing logs for snoring, speech balloons, and thought balloons originated in Dirks' strip. Hugely popular, "Katzenjammer Kids" occasioned one of the first comic-strip copyright ownership suits in the history of the medium. When Dirks left William Randolph Hearst for the promise of a better salary under Joseph Pulitzer, it was an unusual move, since cartoonists regularly deserted Pulitzer for Hearst. In a highly unusual court decision, Hearst retained the rights to the name "Katzenjammer Kids", while creator Dirks retained the rights