Sandwich shop named after Dagwood

After building his first skyscraper sandwich in a 1936 Blondie comic strip, Dagwood Bumstead ? well, at least the man behind him ? is finally making his daydream of venturing into the food business come alive. The first in a planned chain of “Dagwood’s Sandwich Shoppes” is due to open in Clearwater, Fla. in August. “I have had this idea for 30 or 40 years,” said company co-founder Dean Young, 66, who inherited the job of drawing Blondie from his father, creator Chic Young, in 1973. In the cartoon strip, Dagwood is a hapless member of the middle class, having landed there after marrying Blondie Boopadoop, a gorgeous flapper that his father ? billionaire railroad tycoon J. Bolling Bumstead ? disapproved of so heartily that he disinherited Dagwood from his playboy lifestyle. The chain isn’t planning the slapdash approach to sandwiches that Dagwood prefers in his midnight kitchen raids. The planned menu includes Cuban sandwiches, New Orleans-style roast beef sandwiches, corned beef and pastrami, along with cold cuts and cheese. And the stores will feature an actual Dagwood, checking in at a pound-and-a-half and several inches tall, for those with huge appetites and wide jaws.