Jim Raymond in the context of "Dean Young (cartoonist)"

Blondie is a comic strip created by American cartoonist Chic Young. The comic strip is distributed by King Features Syndicate, and has been published in newspapers since September 8, 1930. The success of the strip, which features the eponymous blonde and her sandwich-loving husband Dagwood, led to the long-running Blondie film series (1938–1950) and the popular Blondie radio program (1939–1950).

Young wrote and drew Blondie until his death in 1973, when creative control passed to his son Dean Young. A number of artists have assisted on drawing the strip over the years, including Alex Raymond, Jim Raymond, Paul Fung Jr., Mike Gersher, Stan Drake, Denis Lebrun, Jeff Parker, and (since 2005) John Marshall. Despite these changes, Blondie has remained popular, appearing in more than 2,000 newspapers in 47 countries and translated into 35 languages. From 2006 to 2013, Blondie was also available via email through King Features' DailyINK service.

Mike Gersher was formerly an artist on the Blondie comic strip. He started being credited as the head artist in late December 1981, after the death of the long serving Jim Raymond. Gersher had assisted Raymond for about seventeen years, originally as a trainee assistant but later becoming responsible for complete artwork. They met in 1963 after Gersher won a national cartooning contest. Raymond's health began to fail around 1979, and it is almost certain that Gersher was handling the majority of the strip from about April 1981. He began signing the strip on 28 December of that year.

Gersher's early solo strips bore a close resemblance to those of Jim Raymond, albeit with a slightly looser drawing style. Although few exact details are known, Gersher's time as lead artist did not run smoothly. He had to rely heavily on assistants, notably future head Blondie artist Denis Lebrun, who was soon brought in to ink backgrounds and improve the lettering.