You want to do something really nasty to the Bumsteads? Take Dennis the Menace over to their house. Thanks to Jon B. Cooke and Mike Kuypers who e-mailed to let me know.
Speaking of Dennis: The folks over at Fantagraphics Books have issued the first in a series of volumes reprinting the strip from its inception. I'm going to have to pick up a copy because Hank Ketcham's little brat has long annoyed me. The feature was always well-drawn but there was something very condescending to me about its attitude towards children. Ketcham seemed to treat them like pets who hadn't been properly house-trained but you have to love them even when they soil the carpet. I liked the comic books (which Ketcham neither wrote nor drew) but I'm going to have to get this new book and see what there is to like about the newspaper panel. I'm hoping I'll "get" something I've been missing. Click here if you want to buy one, too.
Getting back to the Blondie crossovers for a sec: David Goehner noticed something that got right by me. Below are some panels from strips that appeared on August 23. The one on the left is from Mutts and the two on the right are from that day's Blondie…
As you can see, the search for the little pink sock begins in one strip and concludes in the other. I seem to recall that Johnny Hart did something like this once, setting up a gag in that day's B.C. and sorta paying it off in Wizard of Id (or vice-versa) but I can't recall any other day-specific crossovers on the funny pages. Naturally, since there are no two strips that only appear in the same papers, a connection couldn't be too obvious.