in connection with the 75th anniversary of the comic strip "Blondie" the King and Julius Dithers were soul brothers. A running gag is that at Christmas the King tries to get presents from Santa Claus and always fails. The Wizard: The title character, he is the king's royal wielder of magic, sometimes nicknamed "Wiz". He is smart but sarcastic, good-natured but cynical, and is constantly dominated by his wife, Blanch. He wears a traditional pointed wizards' cap festooned with stars and crescent moons, like Merlin. From his basement he works over a vat, where his spirit familiar lives. He is capable of powerful spells, but often his plans backfire on him. One time on the day of the Royal picnic a heavy rainstorm broke out. The Wizard tried to dispel the rain by repeating a spell for the rain to go away and to come again some other day; too late he remembers the last time it rained he recited this spell and that the other day is now the Royal picnic day; the angry king has him chained up in the dungeon under a perpetual shower of water! He is friendly to all the king's subjects, but like most of them, he secretly considers the king to be a creep (or a fink). Both his parents are involved with magic-his father can turn himself invisible; his 800-year-old mother is also a sorceress; every Mother's Day she receives a cat from her son. Blanch: The Wizard's worse half; his domineering, meddlesome harridan of a wife. It has been said the Wizard married Blanch for her money, for she is considered extremely ugly by everyone in the kingdom. She nags at Wiz every day, and her cooking is awful. Her mother (who is never seen) is apparently just as bad. Occasionally though, she looks to him for romance, which he is hesitant to offer. She also heads the Women's Liberation front in Id. One time the Wizard make a foolish comment to Blanch not to stand too long in a antique store else someone would hang a "For Sale" sign on her; Blance put him into a vase; another time Gwen asked the Wizard why he did not marry a witch; he did not answer because as Blanch explained his teeth will not allow his tongue to give an answer. Once two Huns decided to Attack the Kingdom of ID-until they