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Al Capp

Born Alfred Gerald CaplinSeptember 28, 1909New Haven, Connecticut

Died November 5, 1979 (aged 70)South Hampton, New Hampshire

Nationality American

Occupation Cartoonist, satirist, radio and TVcommentator

Spouse Catherine Wingate Cameron Capp

Children Julie Ann Cairol, Catherine JanPeirce, Colin Cameron Capp(adopted)

Al CappFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alfred Gerald Caplin (September 28, 1909 – November 5,1979), better known as Al Capp, was an Americancartoonist and humorist best known for the satirical comicstrip Li'l Abner. He also wrote the comic strips Abbie an'Slats and Long Sam. He won the National CartoonistsSociety's Reuben Award in 1947 for Cartoonist of the Year,and their 1979 Elzie Segar Award (posthumously) for his"unique and outstanding contribution to the profession ofcartooning."

Contents1 Early life2 Li'l Abner3 Parodies, toppers and alternate strips4 Critical recognition5 The 1940s and 1950s6 Feud with Ham Fisher7 Personality8 Production methods9 Public figure10 The 1960s and 1970s11 Legacy12 Further reading13 Footnotes14 See also15 External links

Early lifeBorn in New Haven, Connecticut of Russian Jewish heritage, Capp was the eldest child of Otto Philip andMatilda (Davidson) Caplin. Capp's parents were both natives of Latvia whose families had migrated to NewHaven in the 1880s. "My mother and father had been brought to this country from Russia when they wereinfants," wrote Capp in 1978. "Their fathers had found that the great promise of America was true—it was nocrime to be a Jew." The Caplins were dirt poor, and Capp later recalled stories of his mother going out in thenight to sift through ash barrels for reusable bits of coal.

Capp lost his left leg in a trolley accident at the age of nine. This childhood tragedy likely helped shapeCapp’s cynical worldview, which, funny as it was, was certainly darker and more sardonic than that of theaverage newspaper cartoonist.[1] "I was indignant as hell about that leg," he would reveal in a November 1950interview in Time magazine.

"The secret of how to live without resentment or embarrassment in a world in which I was different fromeveryone else," Capp philosophically wrote (in Life magazine on May 23, 1960[2]) "was to be indifferent tothat difference." It was the prevailing opinion among his friends that Capp's Swiftian satire was, to somedegree, a creatively channeled, compensatory response to his disability.

Capp's father, a failed businessman and reportedly an amateur cartoonist, introducedhim to drawing as a form of therapy. He became quite proficient, learning mostly onhis own. Among his earliest influences were Punch cartoonist–illustrator Phil May,and American comic strip cartoonists Tad Dorgan, Cliff Sterrett, Rube Goldberg,Rudolph Dirks, Fred Opper, Billy DeBeck, George McManus and Milt Gross. Atabout this same time, Capp became a voracious reader. According to Capp's brotherElliot, Alfred had finished all of Shakespeare and George Bernard Shaw by the timehe turned 13. Among his childhood favorites were Dickens, Smollett, Mark Twain,Booth Tarkington, and later, Robert Benchley and S. J. Perelman.

Capp spent five years at Bridgeport High School in Bridgeport, Connecticut withoutreceiving a diploma. The cartoonist liked to joke about how he failed geometry fornine straight terms.[3] His formal training came from a series of art schools in theNew England area. Attending three of them in rapid succession, the impoverishedCapp was thrown out of each for nonpayment of tuition—the Boston Museum Schoolof Fine Arts, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and Designers Art School inBoston—the latter before launching his amazing career. Capp had already decided tobecome a cartoonist. "I heard that Bud Fisher (creator of Mutt and Jeff) got $3,000 aweek and was constantly marrying French countesses," Capp said. "I decided that was

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"I do Li'l Abner!!" aself-portrait by AlCapp, excerpted fromtheApril 16–17, 1951,Li'l Abner strips.Note reference toMilton Caniff.

for me."

In early 1932, Capp hitchhiked to New York City. He lived in "airless rat holes" inGreenwich Village and turned out advertising strips at $2 apiece, while scouring thecity hunting for jobs. He eventually found work at the Associated Press. At 23-yearsold, he was reportedly the youngest syndicated cartoonist in America.[citation needed]

By March 1932, Capp was drawing Colonel Gilfeather, a single-panel, AP-ownedproperty created in 1930 by Dick Dorgan. Capp changed the focus and title to MisterGilfeather, but soon grew to hate the feature. He left the Associated Press inSeptember 1932. Before leaving, he met Milton Caniff, and the two became lifelongfriends. Capp moved to Boston and married Catherine Wingate Cameron, whom hehad met earlier in art class. She died in 2006 at the age of 96.

Leaving his new wife with her parents in Amesbury, Massachusetts, he subsequentlyreturned to New York in 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression. "I was 23, Icarried a mass of drawings, and I had nearly five dollars in my pocket. People weresleeping in alleys then, willing to work at anything." There he met Ham Fisher, whohired him to ghost on Joe Palooka. During one of Fisher's extended vacations, Capp'sJoe Palooka story arc introduced a stupid, coarse, oafish mountaineer named "BigLeviticus," a crude prototype. (Leviticus was actually much closer to Capp's latervillains Lem and Luke Scragg, than to the much more appealing and innocent Li'lAbner.)

Also during this period, Capp was working at night on samples for the strip thatwould eventually become Li'l Abner. He based his cast of characters on the authenticmountain-dwellers he met while hitchhiking through rural West Virginia and theCumberland Valley as a teenager. (This was years before the Tennessee ValleyAuthority Act brought basic utilities like electricity and running water to the region.)Leaving Joe Palooka, Capp sold Li'l Abner to United Feature Syndicate (now knownas United Media). The feature was launched on Monday, August 13, 1934, in eightNorth American newspapers—including the New York Mirror—and was animmediate success. Alfred G. Caplin eventually became "Al Capp" because thesyndicate felt the original would not fit in a cartoon frame.[4] Capp had it changed legally in 1949.

His younger brother Elliot Caplin also became a comic strip creator, best known for co-creating the soap operastrip The Heart of Juliet Jones with artist Stan Drake, and conceiving the comic strip character Broom Hildawith cartoonist Russell Myers. Elliot also authored several off-Broadway plays, including A Nickel for Picasso(1981), which was based on and dedicated to his mother and his famous brother.[5]

Li'l AbnerMain article: Li'l Abner

What began as a hillbilly burlesque soon evolved into one of the most imaginative, popular and well-drawnstrips of the 20th century. Featuring vividly outlandish characters, bizarre situations, and equal parts suspense,slapstick, irony, satire, black humor and biting social commentary, Li'l Abner is considered a classic of thegenre. The comic strip stars Li'l Abner Yokum—the simple-minded, loutish but good-natured and eternallyinnocent hayseed who lives with his parents—scrawny but superhuman Mammy Yokum, and shiftless,childlike Pappy Yokum.

"Yokum" was a combination of yokel and hokum, although Capp established a deeper meaning for the nameduring a series of visits around 1965–1970 with comics historians George E. Turner and Michael H. Price.“It’s phonetic Hebrew—that’s what it is, all right—and that’s what I was getting at with the name Yokum,more so than any attempt to sound hickish," said Capp. "That was a fortunate coincidence, of course, that thename should pack a backwoods connotation. But it’s a godly conceit, really, playing off a godly name—Joachim means 'God’s determination', something like that—that also happens to have a rustic ring to it." [6]

The Yokums live in the backwater hamlet of Dogpatch, Kentucky. Described by its creator as "an averagestone-age community", Dogpatch mostly consists of hopelessly ramshackle log cabins, pine trees, "tarnip"fields and "hawg" wallows. Whatever energy Abner had went into evading the marital goals of Daisy MaeScragg, his sexy, well-endowed (but virtuous) girlfriend—until Capp finally gave in to reader pressure andallowed the couple to marry. This newsworthy event made the cover of Life on March 31, 1952.

Capp peopled his comic strip with an assortment of memorable characters, including Marryin' Sam, HairlessJoe, Lonesome Polecat, Evil-Eye Fleegle, General Bullmoose, Lena the Hyena, Senator Jack S. Phogbound(Capp's caricature of the anti-New Deal Dixiecrats), the (shudder!) Scraggs, Washable Jones, NightmareAlice, Earthquake McGoon, and a host of others. Most notably, certainly from a G.I. point of view, are thebeautiful, full-figured women like Daisy Mae, Wolf Gal, Stupefyin' Jones and Moonbeam McSwine (acaricature of his wife Catherine, aside from the dirt)—all of whom found their way onto the painted noses ofbomber planes during World War II and the Korean War. Perhaps Capp's most popular creations were theShmoos, creatures whose incredible usefulness and generous nature made them a threat to civilization as weknow it. Another famous character was Joe Btfsplk, who wants to be a loving friend but is "the world's worst

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jinx," bringing bad luck to all those nearby. Btfsplk (his name is "pronounced" by simply blowing a"raspberry" or Bronx cheer) always has an iconic dark cloud over his head.

Dogpatch residents regularly combat the likes of city slickers, business tycoons, government officials andintellectuals with their homespun simplicity. Situations often take the characters to other destinations,including New York City, Washington, D.C., Hollywood, tropical islands, the Moon, Mars, and some purelyfanciful worlds of Capp's invention. The latter includes El Passionato, Kigmyland, The Republic ofCrumbumbo, Skunk Hollow, The Valley of the Shmoon, Planets Pincus Number 2 and 7, and a miserablefrozen wasteland known as Lower Slobbovia, a pointedly political satire of backward nations and foreigndiplomacy that remains a contemporary reference.[7] "Indeed, Li'l Abner incorporates such a panoply ofcharacters and ideas that it defies summary," according to cultural historian Anthony Harkins. "Yet thoughCapp's storylines often wandered far afield, his hillbilly setting remained a central touchstone, serving both asa microcosm and a distorting carnival mirror of broader American society." [8]

The strip's popularity grew from an original eight papers, to ultimately more than 900. At its peak, Li'l Abnerwas read daily by 70 million Americans (the U.S. population at the time was only 180 million), with adultreaders far outnumbering children. Many communities, high schools and colleges staged Sadie Hawkinsdances, patterned after the similar annual event in the strip.

Li'l Abner has one odd design quirk that has puzzled readers for decades: the part in his hair always faces theviewer, no matter which direction Abner is facing. In response to the question “Which side does Abner part hishair on?", Capp would answer, “Both.” Capp said he finally found the right "look" for Li'l Abner with HenryFonda's character Dave Tolliver, in The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936).[9] In later years, Capp alwaysclaimed to have effectively created the miniskirt, when he first put one on Daisy Mae in 1934.

Caniff, in 1985, said Capp "was far more an intellectual than he allowed the public to see. Li'l Abner was hisjoke on the dismal world around him. His humor welled-up from the melancholy pits of a strapping kid madean amputee at age nine".

Parodies, toppers and alternate stripsLi'l Abner also features a comic strip-within-the-strip: Fearless Fosdick is a parody of Chester Gould's DickTracy. It first appeared in 1942, and proved so popular that it ran intermittently over the next 35 years. Gouldwas personally parodied in the series as cartoonist "Lester Gooch"—the diminutive, much-harassed andoccasionally deranged "creator" of Fosdick. The style of the Fosdick sequences closely mimicks Tracy,including the urban setting, the outrageous villains, the galloping mortality rate, the crosshatched shadows, andeven the lettering style. In 1952, Fosdick was the star of his own short-lived puppet show on NBC, featuringthe Mary Chase marionettes.

Besides Dick Tracy, Capp parodied many other comic strips in Li'l Abner—including Steve Canyon,Superman, (at least twice; first as "Jack Jawbreaker", 1947, and again in 1966 as "Chickensouperman") MaryWorth, Peanuts, Little Annie Rooney and Little Orphan Annie (in which Punjab became "Punjbag", anoleaginous slob). Fearless Fosdick—and Capp's other spoofs like "Little Fanny Gooney" (1952) and "JackJawbreaker"—were almost certainly an early inspiration for Harvey Kurtzman's Mad Magazine, which beganin 1952 as a comic book that specifically parodied other comics in the same distinctive style and subversivemanner.

Capp also lampooned popular recording idols of the day, such as Elvis Presley ("Hawg McCall", 1957),Liberace ("Loverboynik", 1956), the Beatles ("the Beasties", 1964)—and in 1944, Frank Sinatra. "Sinatra wasthe first great public figure I ever wrote about," Capp once said. "I called him 'Hal Fascinatra'. I remember mynews syndicate was so worried about what his reaction might be, and we were all surprised when hetelephoned and told me how thrilled he was with it. He always made it a point to send me champagnewhenever he happened to see me in a restaurant..." (from Frank Sinatra, My Father by Nancy Sinatra, 1985).On the other hand Liberace was "cut to the quick" over Loverboynik, according to Capp, and even threatenedlegal action—as would Joan Baez later, over "Joanie Phoanie" in 1967.[10]

Capp was just as likely to parody himself; his self-caricature made frequent, tongue-in-cheek appearances inLi'l Abner. The gag was often at his own expense, as in the above 1951 sequence showing Capp's interactionwith "fans" (see excerpt), or in his 1955 Disneyland parody, "Hal Yappland". Just about anything could be atarget for Capp's satire—in one storyline Li'l Abner is revealed to be the missing link between ape and man. Inanother, the search is on in Dogpatch for a pair of missing socks knitted by the first President of the UnitedStates.

In addition to creating Li'l Abner, Capp also co-created two other newspaper strips: Abbie an' Slats withmagazine illustrator Raeburn van Buren in 1937, and Long Sam with cartoonist Bob Lubbers in 1954, as wellas the Sunday "topper" strips Washable Jones, Small Fry (aka Small Change) and Advice fo' Chillun.

Critical recognitionAccording to comics historian Coulton Waugh, a 1947 poll of newspaper readers who claimed they ignoredthe comics page altogether revealed that many confessed to making a single exception: Li'l Abner. "When Li'l

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Al Capp drew his own autobiography, the 34-pageAl Capp by Li'l Abner (1946), distributed toreturning WWII amputee veterans.

Abner made its debut in 1934, the vast majority of comic strips were designed chiefly to amuse or thrill theirreaders. Capp turned that world upside-down by routinely injecting politics and social commentary into Li'lAbner. The strip was the first to regularly introduce characters and story lines having nothing to do with thenominal stars of the strip. The technique—as invigorating as it was unorthodox—was later adopted bycartoonists like Walt Kelly [Pogo] and Garry Trudeau [Doonesbury]," wrote comic strip historian RickMarschall.

According to Marschall, Li'l Abner gradually evolved into a broad satire of human nature. In his bookAmerica's Great Comic Strip Artists (1989), Marschall's analysis revealed a decidedly misanthropic subtext:"Capp was calling society absurd, not just silly; human nature not simply misguided, but irredeemably andirreducibly corrupt. Unlike any other strip, and indeed unlike many other pieces of literature, Li'l Abner wasmore than a satire of the human condition. It was a commentary on human nature itself."

Over the years, Li'l Abner has been adapted to radio, animated cartoons, stage production, motion pictures andtelevision. Capp has been compared, at various times, to Mark Twain, Dostoevski, Jonathan Swift, LawrenceSterne and Rabelais.[11] Fans of the strip ranged from novelist John Steinbeck, who called Capp "possibly thebest writer in the world today" in 1953, and even earnestly recommended him for the Nobel Prize in literature—to media critic and theorist Marshall McLuhan, who considered Capp "the only robust satirical force inAmerican life." John Updike, comparing Abner to a “hillbilly Candide”, added that the strip’s “richness ofsocial and philosophical commentary approached the Voltairean.” [12] Charlie Chaplin, William F. Buckley,Al Hirschfeld, Harpo Marx, Russ Meyer, John Kenneth Galbraith, Ralph Bakshi, Shel Silverstein, HughDowns, Gene Shalit, Frank Cho, Daniel Clowes [13] and (reportedly) even Queen Elizabeth have confessed tobeing fans of Li'l Abner.

Li'l Abner was also the subject of the first book-length, scholarly assessment of an American comic strip everpublished. Li'l Abner: A Study in American Satire by Arthur Asa Berger (Twayne, 1969) contained seriousanalyses of Capp's narrative technique, his use of dialogue, self-caricature and grotesquerie, the place of Li'lAbner in American satire, and the significance of social criticism and the graphic image. "One of the fewstrips ever taken seriously by students of American culture", wrote Professor Berger, "Li'l Abner is worthstudying... because of Capp's imagination and artistry, and because of the strip's very obvious socialrelevance." It was reprinted by the University Press of Mississippi in 1994.

John Updike called Li'l Abner "a comic strip with fire in its belly and a brain in its head". Salon.com, callingthe strip "one of the 20th century's three greatest comic strips", said Capp "mixed comedy and suspense in adaily cocktail that no one else has come close to duplicating".[14] In The Road to Hokum (1994), RodgerBrown said

Capp was master of every technique postmodernists celebrate: juxtaposition, parody, satire, irony,intertextual referencing, bricolage, chaos, the surreal, the carnivalesque, the tragicomic slapstick ofdifferences. In Li'l Abner, systems of logic and morality clashed... and from the resultingdreamscape of discourses came satirical comedy. Like all satire, the real and the fictive combinedto produce grotesque offspring.

The 1940s and 1950sDuring World War II and for many years afterward, Cappworked tirelessly going to hospitals to entertain patients,especially to cheer recent amputees and explain to themthat the loss of a limb did not mean an end to a happy andproductive life. Making no secret of his own disability,Capp openly joked about his prosthetic leg his whole life.In 1946 Capp created a special full-color comic book, AlCapp by Li'l Abner, to be distributed by the Red Cross toencourage the thousands of amputee veterans returningfrom the war. Capp was also involved with the SisterKenny Foundation, which pioneered new treatments forpolio in the 1940s. Serving in his capacity as honorarychairman, Capp made public appearances on its behalf foryears, contributed free artwork for its annual fund-raisingappeals, and entertained crippled and paraplegic children inchildren's hospitals with inspirational pep talks, humorousstories and sketches.[15]

In 1940, an RKO movie adaptation starred Granville Owen(later known as Jeff York) as Li'l Abner, with BusterKeaton taking the role of Lonesome Polecat, and featuringa title song with lyrics by Milton Berle. A successfulmusical comedy adaptation of the strip opened onBroadway at the St. James Theater on November 15, 1956and had a long run of 693 performances, followed by anationwide tour. The stage musical, with music and lyricsby Gene de Paul and Johnny Mercer, was adapted into a

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Technicolor motion picture at Paramount in 1959 byproducer Norman Panama and director Melvin Frank, with a score by Nelson Riddle. Several performersrepeated their Broadway roles in the film, most memorably Julie Newmar as Stupefyin' Jones and StubbyKaye as Marryin' Sam.[16]

Other highlights of that decade included the 1942 debut of Fearless Fosdick as Abner's "ideel" (hero); the 1946Lena the Hyena Contest in which a hideous Lower Slobbovian gal was ultimately revealed in the harrowingwinning entry (as judged by Frank Sinatra, Boris Karloff and Salvador Dalí) drawn by noted cartoonist BasilWolverton; and an ill-fated Sunday parody of Gone With the Wind that aroused anger and legal threats fromauthor Margaret Mitchell and led to a printed apology within the strip. In October 1947, Li'l Abner metRockwell P. Squeezeblood, head of the abusive and corrupt Squeezeblood Comic Strip Syndicate. Theresulting sequence, "Jack Jawbreaker Fights Crime!", was a devastating satire of Jerry Siegel and JoeShuster's notorious exploitation by DC Comics over Superman. It was later reprinted in The World of Li'lAbner (1953). (Siegel and Shuster had earlier poked fun at Capp in a Superman story in Action Comics #55(December 1942), in which a cartoonist named "Al Hatt" invents a comic strip featuring the hillbilly "TinyRufe".)

In 1947, Capp earned a Newsweek cover story. That same year the New Yorker's profile on him was so longthat it ran in consecutive issues. In 1948, Capp reached a creative peak with the introduction of the Shmoos,lovable and innocent fantasy creatures who reproduced at amazing speed and brought so many benefits that,ironically, the world economy was endangered. The much-copied storyline was a parable that wasmetaphorically interpreted in many different ways at the outset of the Cold War.

Following his close friend Milton Caniff's lead (with Steve Canyon), Capp had recently fought a successfulbattle with the syndicate to gain complete ownership of his feature when the Shmoos debuted. As a result, hereaped enormous financial rewards from the unexpected (and almost unprecedented) merchandisingphenomenon that followed. As in the strip, Shmoos suddenly appeared to be everywhere in 1949 and 1950—including a Time cover story, and a paperback collection of the original sequence, The Life and Times of theShmoo, became a bestseller for Simon & Schuster. Shmoo dolls, clocks, watches, jewelry, earmuffs, wallpaper,fishing lures, air fresheners, soap, ice cream, balloons, ashtrays, comic books, records, sheet music, toys,games, Halloween masks, salt and pepper shakers, decals, pinbacks, tumblers, coin banks, greeting cards,planters, neckties, suspenders, belts, curtains, fountain pens, and other shmoo paraphernalia were produced. Agarment factory in Baltimore turned out a whole line of shmoo apparel, including "Shmooveralls." Theoriginal sequence and its 1959 sequel, The Return of the Shmoo, have been collected in print many times since,most recently in 2002, always to high sales figures. The Shmoos would later have their own animated TVseries.

Capp followed this success with other allegorical fantasy critters, including the aboriginal and masochistic"Kigmies", who craved abuse (a story that began as a veiled comment on racial and religious oppression), thedreaded "Nogoodniks" (or bad shmoos), and the irresistible "Bald Iggle", a guileless creature whose sad-eyedcountenance compelled involuntary truthfulness—with predictably disastrous results.

Li'l Abner was censored for the first, but not the last time in September 1947, and was pulled from papers byScripps-Howard. The controversy, as reported in Time, centered on Capp's portrayal of the United StatesSenate. Said Edward Leech of Scripps, "We don't think it is good editing or sound citizenship to picture theSenate as an assemblage of freaks and crooks... boobs and undesirables." [17] He criticized Senator JosephMcCarthy in 1954, calling him a 'poet': "He uses poetic license to try to create the beautifully ordered world ofgood guys and bad guys that he wants. He seems at his best when terrifying the helpless and naïve." [18]

Capp was also an outspoken pioneer in favor of diversifying the National Cartoonists Society by admittingwomen cartoonists. Originally, the NCS disallowed female members. Capp briefly resigned his membership in1949, to protest their refusal of admission to Hilda Terry, creator of the comic strip Teena. According to TomRoberts, author of Alex Raymond: His Life and Art (2007), Capp delivered a stirring speech that wasinstrumental in changing those rules. The Society finally accepted female members the following year. InDecember 1952, Capp published an article in Real magazine titled “The REAL Powers in America” thatfurther challenged the conventional attitudes of the day: "The real powers in America are women—the wivesand sweethearts behind the masculine dummies..."

Highlights of the 1950s included the much-heralded marriage of Abner and Daisy Mae in 1952, the birth oftheir son "Honest Abe" Yokum in 1953, and in 1954, the introduction of Abner's enormous, long lost kidbrother Tiny Yokum, who filled Abner's place as a bachelor in the annual Sadie Hawkins Day race. In 1952,Capp and his characters graced the covers of both Life and TV Guide. 1956 saw the debut of the Bald Iggle,considered by some Abner enthusiasts to be the creative high point of the strip, as well as Mammy's revelatoryencounter with the "Square Eyes" Family—Capp’s thinly veiled appeal for racial tolerance. (This fable-likestory was collected into an educational comic book called Mammy Yokum and the Great Dogpatch Mystery!,and distributed by the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith later that year.)

Capp had often parodied corporate greed—pork tycoon J. Roaringham Fatback had figured prominently inwiping out the Shmoos. But in 1952, when General Motors president Charles E. Wilson, nominated for acabinet post, told Congress "...what was good for the country was good for General Motors and vice versa", heinspired one of Capp's greatest satires—the introduction of General Bullmoose, the robust, ruthless, andageless business tycoon. The blustering Bullmoose, who seemed to own and control nearly everything,justified his far-reaching and mercenary excesses by saying "What's good for General Bullmoose is good for

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everybody!" Bullmoose's corrupt interests were often pitted against those of the pathetic Lower Slobbovians ina classic mismatch of "haves" versus "have-nots". This character, along with the Shmoos, helped cementCapp's favor with the Left, and would increase their outrage a decade later when Capp, a former Franklin D.Roosevelt liberal, switched targets. Nonetheless, General Bullmoose continued to appear, undaunted andunredeemed, during the strip's final right-wing phase and into the 1970s.

Feud with Ham FisherAfter Capp quit his ghosting job on Ham Fisher's Joe Palooka in 1934 to launch his own strip, Fisherbadmouthed him to colleagues and editors, claiming that Capp had "stolen" his idea. For years, Fisher wouldbring the characters back to his strip, billing them as "The ORIGINAL Hillbilly Characters" and advisingreaders not to be "fooled by imitations." (In fact, Fisher's brutish hillbilly character—Big Leviticus, created byCapp in Fisher's absence—bore little resemblance to Li'l Abner.) According to a November 1950 Time article,"Capp parted from Fisher with a definite impression, (to put it mildly) that he had been underpaid andunappreciated. Fisher, a man of Roman self esteem, considered Capp an ingrate and a whippersnapper, andwatched his rise to fame with unfeigned horror." [19]

"Fisher repeatedly brought Leviticus and his clan back, claiming their primacy as comics' first hillbilly family—but he was missing the point. It wasn't the setting that made Capp's strip such a huge success. It was Capp'sfinely tuned sense of the absurd, his ability to milk an outrageous situation for every laugh in it and then,impossibly, to squeeze even more laughs from it, that found such favor with the public," (from DonMarkstein's Toonopedia.)[20]

The Capp-Fisher feud was well-known in cartooning circles, and it grew more personal as Capp's stripeclipsed Joe Palooka in popularity. Fisher hired away Capp's top assistant, Moe Leff. After Fisher underwentplastic surgery, Capp included a racehorse in Li'l Abner named "Ham's Nose-Bob". In 1950, Capp introduceda cartoonist character named "Happy Vermin"—a caricature of Fisher—who hired Abner to draw his comicstrip in a dimly lit closet, (after sacking his previous "temporary" assistant of 20 years, who had been cut offfrom all his friends in the process.) Instead of using Vermin's tired characters, Abner inventively peopled thestrip with hillbillies. A bighearted Vermin told his slaving assistant: "I'm proud of having created thesecharacters!! They'll make millions for me!! And if they do—I'll get you a new light bulb!!"

Traveling in the same social circles, the two men engaged in a 20-year mutual vendetta, as described by theDaily News in 1998: "They crossed paths often, in the midtown watering holes and at National CartoonistsSociety banquets, and the city's gossip columns were full of their snarling public donnybrooks."[21] In 1950,Capp wrote a nasty article for The Atlantic entitled "I Remember Monster". The article recounted Capp's daysworking for an unnamed "benefactor" with a miserly, swinish personality, whom Capp claimed was a never-ending source of inspiration when it came time to create a new unregenerate villain for his comic strip. Thethinly veiled boss was understood to be Ham Fisher.

Fisher retaliated clumsily, doctoring photostats of Li'l Abner and falsely accusing Capp of sneaking obscenitiesinto his comic strip. Fisher submitted examples of Li'l Abner to Capp's syndicate and to the New York courts,in which Fisher had identified pornographic images that were hidden in the background art. However, the X-rated material had actually been drawn there by Fisher himself. Capp was able to refute the accusation bysimply showing the original artwork.

In 1954, when Capp was applying for a Boston television license, the Federal Communications Commission(FCC) received an anonymous packet of pornographic Li'l Abner drawings. The National Cartoonists Society(NCS) convened an ethics hearing, and Fisher was expelled for the forgery from the same organization that hehad helped found; Fisher's scheme had backfired in spectacular fashion. Around the same time, his mansion inWisconsin was destroyed by a nor'easter. On December 27, 1955, Fisher committed suicide in his studio.[22]

The feud and Fisher's suicide were used as the basis for a lurid, highly fictional murder mystery, Strip forMurder by Max Allan Collins.

Another "feud" seemed to be looming when, in one run of Sunday strips in 1957, Capp lampooned the comicstrip Mary Worth as "Mary Worm." The title character was depicted as a nosy, interfering busybody. AllenSaunders, the creator of the Mary Worth strip, returned Capp's fire with the introduction of the character "HalRapp," a foul-tempered, ill-mannered, and (ironically) inebriated cartoonist (Capp was a teetotaler). Later, itwas revealed to be a collaborative hoax that Capp and his longtime pal Saunders had cooked up together. TheCapp-Saunders "feud" fooled both editors and readers, generated plenty of free publicity for both strips—andCapp and Saunders had a good laugh when all was revealed.[23]

PersonalityVolatile, contentious, cynical, sarcastic, contradictory, iconoclastic, misanthropic, curmudgeonly,controversial, and sardonically funny. According to Capp’s longtime friend Milton Caniff, Capp was“charming” when he chose to be, but added that “he could be very difficult if he didn’t like you.” FrankFrazetta described Capp as "exasperating, infuriating, domineering, obnoxious, loud, lots of fun, acidic andlovable." Frazetta's freewheeling description typifies the many conflicting firsthand accounts of Capp'scomplex personality. "He could be a real s.o.b. sometimes. Other times he was a lot of fun to be around. Hewas a brilliant guy—but a little screwed up," Frazetta has said (from The Comic Art of Frank Frazetta, 2008).

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In 1971, Walt Kelly said Capp "doesn't put his best foot forward always, but what foot he does put forward isone of his own". Capp's persona has long since eclipsed his work, complicating critical analysis and objectiveassessment of Li'l Abner to this day.

Capp is often associated with two other giants of the medium: Milton Caniff (Terry and the Pirates, SteveCanyon) and Walt Kelly (Pogo). The three cartoonists were close personal friends and professional associatesthroughout their adult lives, and occasionally referenced each other in their strips. According to one anecdote,(from Al Capp Remembered, 1994) Capp and his brother Elliot ducked out of a dull party at Capp's home—leaving Walt Kelly alone to fend for himself entertaining a group of Argentine envoys who didn't speakEnglish. Kelly retaliated by giving away Capp's baby grand piano. According to Capp, who loved to relate thestory, Kelly's two perfectly logical reasons for doing so were: a. to cement diplomatic relations betweenArgentina and the United States, and b. "Because you can't play the piano, anyway!" (Beetle Bailey creatorMort Walker confirmed the story, relating a slightly expanded version in his autobiography, Mort Walker'sPrivate Scrapbook, 2001.)

Milton Caniff offered another anecdote (from Phi Beta Pogo, 1989) involving Capp and Walt Kelly, "twoboys from Bridgeport, Connecticut, nose to nose," onstage at a meeting of the Newspaper Comics Council inthe sixties. "Walt would say to Al, 'Of course, Al, this is really how you should draw Daisy Mae, I'm onlyshowing you this for your own good.' Then Walt would do a sketch. Capp, of course, got ticked off by this, asyou can imagine! So he retaliated by doing his version of Pogo. Unfortunately, the drawings are long gone; norecording was made. What a shame! Nobody anticipated there'd be this dueling back and forth between thetwo of them...."

Production methodsLike many cartoonists, Capp made extensive use of assistants (notably Andy Amato, Harvey Curtis, WalterJohnson and Frank Frazetta). During the extended peak of the strip, the workload grew to include advertising,merchandising, promotional work, public service comics and other specialty work—in addition to the regularsix dailies and one Sunday strip per week. From the early 1940s to the late 1950s, there were scores of Sundaystrip-style magazine ads for Cream of Wheat using the Abner characters, and in the 1950s, Fearless Fosdickbecame a spokesman for Wildroot Cream-Oil hair tonic in a series of daily strip-style print ads. The charactersalso sold chainsaws, underwear, ties, detergent, candy, soft drinks—including a licensed version of Capp'smoonshine creation, Kickapoo Joy Juice—and General Electric and Procter & Gamble products, all requiringspecial artwork.

No matter how much help he had, Capp insisted on drawing and inking the characters' faces and hands—especially of Abner and Daisy Mae—himself, and his distinctive touch is often discernible. "He had thetouch," Frazetta said of Capp in 2008. "He knew how to take an otherwise ordinary drawing and really make itpop. I'll never knock his talent."

As is usual with collaborative efforts in comic strips, his name was the only one credited— although, sensitiveto his own experience working on Joe Palooka, Capp frequently drew attention to his assistants in interviewsand publicity pieces. A 1950 cover story in Time even included photos of two of his employees, whose roles inthe production were detailed by Capp. Ironically, this highly irregular policy (along with the subsequent fameof Frank Frazetta) has led to the misconception that his strip was "ghosted" by other hands. The production ofLi'l Abner has been well documented, however. In point of fact, Capp maintained creative control over everystage of production for virtually the entire run of the strip. Capp himself originated the stories, wrote thedialogue, designed the major characters, rough penciled the preliminary staging and action of each panel,oversaw the finished pencils, and drew and inked the hands and faces of the characters. Frazetta authorityDavid Winiewicz described the everyday working mode of operation in Li'l Abner Dailies: 1954 Volume 20(Kitchen Sink, 1994):

By the time Frazetta began working on the strip, the work of producing Li'l Abner was too muchfor one person. Capp had a group of assistants who he taught to reproduce his distinctiveindividual style, working under his direct supervision. Actual production of the strip began with arough layout in pencil done by Al Capp, from Capp's script or a co-authored script, and the pagewould pass to Andy Amato and Walter Johnson. Amato would ink the figures, then Johnson addedbackgrounds and any mechanical objects. Harvey Curtis was responsible for the lettering and alsoshared inking duties with Amato... In order to make sure that the work stayed true to his style, thefinal touches would be added by Capp himself. He enjoyed adding a distinctive glint to an eye oran idiosyncratic contortion to a character's face. The finished strip was truly an ensemble effort, askillful blending of talents.

There was also a separate line of comic book titles published by the Caplin family-owned Toby Press,including Shmoo Comics featuring Washable Jones. Cartoonist Mell Lazarus, creator of Miss Peach andMomma, wrote a comic novel in 1963 titled The Boss Is Crazy, Too which was partly inspired by hisapprenticeship days working with Capp and his brother Elliot at Toby. In a seminar at the Charles SchulzMuseum on November 8, 2008, Lazarus called his experience at Toby "the five funniest years of my life".Lazarus went on to cite Capp as one of the "four essentials" in the field of newspaper cartoonists, along withWalt Kelly, Charles Schulz and Milton Caniff.

Capp detailed his approach to writing and drawing the stories in an instructional course book for the Famous

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Artists School, beginning in 1956. In 1959, Capp recorded and released an album for Folkways Records (nowowned by the Smithsonian) on which he identified and described "The Mechanics of the Comic Strip".[24]

Frazetta, later famous as a fantasy artist, assisted on the strip from 1954 to December, 1961. Fascinated byFrazetta's abilities, Capp initially gave him a free hand in an extended daily sequence (about a biker named"Frankie", a caricature of Frazetta) to experiment with the basic look of the strip by adding a bit more realismand detail (particularly to the inking). After editors complained about the stylistic changes, the strip's previouslook was restored. During most of his tenure with Capp, Frazetta's primary responsibility—along with variousspecialty art, such as a series of Li'l Abner greeting cards—was tight-penciling the Sunday pages from studioroughs. This work was collected by Dark Horse Comics in a four-volume hardcover series entitled Al Capp'sLi'l Abner: The Frazetta Years. In 1961, Capp, complaining of declining revenue, wanted to have Frazettacontinue with a 50% pay cut. "[Capp] said he would cut the salary in half. Goodbye. That was that. I saidgoodbye." (Frazetta: Painting with Fire). However, Frazetta returned briefly a few years later to draw a publicservice comic book called Li'l Abner and the Creatures from Drop-Outer Space, distributed by the Job Corpsin 1965.

Public figureIn the golden age of the American comic strip, successful cartoonists received a great deal of attention; theirprofessional and private lives were reported in the press, and their celebrity was often nearly sufficient to rivaltheir creations. As Li'l Abner reached its peak years, and following the success of the Shmoos and other highmoments in his work, Al Capp achieved a public profile that is still unparalleled in his profession, andarguably exceeded the fame of his strip. "Capp was the best known, most influential and most controversialcartoonist of his era," writes publisher (and leading Shmoo collector) Denis Kitchen. "His personal celebritytranscended comics, reaching the public and influencing the culture in a variety of media. For many years hesimultaneously produced the daily strip, a weekly syndicated newspaper column, and a 500-station radioprogram...." He ran the Boston Summer Theatre with Phantom cartoonist, Lee Falk, bringing in Hollywoodactors such as Mae West, Melvyn Douglas and Claude Rains to star in their live productions. He even brieflyconsidered running for a Massachusetts Senate seat. Vice President Spiro Agnew urged Capp to run in theDemocratic Party Massachusetts primary in 1970 against Ted Kennedy, but Capp ultimately declined. (He did,however, donate his services as a speaker at a $100-a-plate fundraiser for Republican Congressman JackKemp.)

Besides his use of the comic strip to voice his opinions and display his humor, Capp was a popular speaker atuniversities and on television. He remains the only cartoonist to be embraced by TV; no other comic artist todate has come close to Capp's televised exposure.[25] Capp appeared as a regular on The Author Meets theCritics (1948–'54) and made regular, weekly appearances on The Today Show in 1953. He was also a periodicpanelist on ABC and NBC's Who Said That? (1948–'55) and co-hosted DuMont's What's The Story? (1953).Between 1952 and 1972, he hosted at least five television shows–three different talk shows called The Al CappShow (1952 and 1968) and Al Capp (1971–'72), Al Capp's America (a live "chalk talk", with Capp providing abarbed commentary while sketching cartoons, 1954), and a CBS game show called Anyone Can Win (1953).He also hosted similar vehicles on the radio—and was a familiar celebrity guest on various other broadcastprograms, including the long-running NBC radio series, Monitor.

His frequent appearances on NBC's The Tonight Show spanned three emcees (Steve Allen, Jack Paar andJohnny Carson) from the 1950s to the 1970s. One memorable story, as recounted to Johnny Carson, was abouthis meeting with then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower. As he was ushered into the Oval Office, his prostheticleg suddenly collapsed into a pile of disengaged parts and hinges on the floor. The President immediatelyturned to an aide and said, "Call Walter Reed (Hospital), or maybe Bethesda," to which Capp replied, "Hellno, just call a good local mechanic!" (Capp also spoofed Carson in his strip, in a 1970 episode called "TheTommy Wholesome Show".)

Capp portrayed himself in a cameo role in the Bob Hope film That Certain Feeling (for which he alsoprovided promotional art). He was interviewed live on Person to Person on 27 November 1959, by hostCharles Collingwood. He also appeared as himself on The Ed Sullivan Show, Sid Caesar's Your Show ofShows, The Red Skelton Show, The Merv Griffin Show, The Mike Douglas Show, and guested on RalphEdwards' This Is Your Life on February 12, 1961 with honoree Peter Palmer. Capp also freelanced verysuccessfully as a magazine writer and newspaper columnist, in a wide variety of publications including Life,Show, Pageant, The Atlantic, Esquire, Coronet, and The Saturday Evening Post. Capp was impersonated bycomedians Rich Little and David Frye. Although Capp's endorsement activities never rivaled Li'l Abner's orFearless Fosdick's, he was a celebrity spokesman in print ads for Sheaffer Snorkel fountain pens (along withcolleagues and close friends Milton Caniff and Walt Kelly), and—with an irony that would become apparentlater—a brand of cigarettes, (Chesterfield).

Capp would resume visiting war amputees during the Korean War and Vietnam War. He toured Vietnam withthe USO, entertaining troops along with Art Buchwald and George Plimpton. He served as chairman of theCartoonists' Committee in President Dwight D. Eisenhower's People-to-People program in 1954 (althoughCapp had actually supported Adlai Stevenson for president in 1952 and 1956),[26] which was organized topromote Savings Bonds for the U.S. Treasury. Capp had earlier provided the Shmoo for a special Children'sSavings Bond in 1949, accompanying President Harry S. Truman at the bond's unveiling ceremony. During theSoviet Union's blockade of West Berlin in 1948, the commanders of the Berlin airlift had cabled Capp,requesting inflatable shmoos as part of "Operation: Little Vittles". Candy-filled shmoos were air-dropped to

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hungry West Berliners by America's 17th Military Airport Squadron during the humanitarian effort. "When thecandy-chocked shmoos were dropped, a near-riot resulted," (reported in Newsweek—October 11, 1948).

In addition to his public service work for charitable organizations for the handicapped, Capp also served on theNational Reading Council, which was organized to combat illiteracy. He published a column ("Wrong TurnOnto Sesame Street") challenging federally funded Public Television endowments in favor of educationalcomics—which, according to Capp, "didn't cost a dime in taxes and never had. I pointed out that a kid couldenjoy Sesame Street without learning how to read, but he couldn't enjoy comic strips unless he could read; andthat a smaller investment in getting kids to read by supplying them with educational matter in such readingform might make better sense."

"Comics,” wrote Capp in 1970, “can be a combination of the highest quality of art and text, and many of themare.” Capp would produce many giveaway educational comic books and public services pamphlets, spanningseveral decades, for the Red Cross, the Department of Civil Defense, the Department of the Navy, the U.S.Army, the Anti-Defamation League, the Department of Labor, Community Chest (a forerunner of UnitedWay), and the Job Corps. Capp's studio provided special artwork for various civic groups and non-profitorganizations as well. Dogpatch characters were used in national campaigns for the Cancer Foundation, theMarch of Dimes, the National Heart Fund, the Boy Scouts of America, Minnesota Tuberculosis and HealthAssociation, the National Amputation Foundation, and Disabled American Veterans, among others. They werealso used to help sell Christmas Seals.

In August 1967 Capp was the narrator and host of a network special called Do Blonds Have More Fun? In1970, he was the subject of a provocative NBC documentary called This Is Al Capp. Capp was the Playboyinterview subject in the December 1965 issue of that magazine.

The 1960s and 1970sCapp, who by all accounts was contrary and contentious by nature, was a maverick politically.Characteristically, he went against the grain. He was a liberal during the conservative 1950s, only to switch toconservative during the liberal, hippie-era 1960s.

Capp and his family lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts near Harvard during the entire Vietnam War protestera. The turmoil that Americans were watching on their TV sets was happening live—right in his ownneighborhood. Campus radicals and “hippies” inevitably became one of Capp’s favorite targets in the sixties.Alongside his long-established caricatures of right-wing, big business types such as General Bullmoose and J.Roaringham Fatback, Capp began spoofing counterculture icons such as Joan Baez (in the character of JoaniePhoanie, a wealthy folksinger who offers an impoverished orphanage ten thousand dollars' worth of "protestsongs").[27] The sequence implicitly labeled Baez a limousine liberal, a charge she took to heart, as detailedyears later in her 1987 autobiography, And A Voice To Sing With: A Memoir. Another target was Senator TedKennedy, parodied as "Senator O. Noble McGesture", resident of "Hyideelsport." The town name is a play onHyannisport, Massachusetts, where a number of the Kennedy clan have lived.

Capp became a popular public speaker on college campuses, where he reportedly relished hecklers. Heattacked militant antiwar demonstrators, both in his personal appearances and in his strip. He also satirizedstudent political groups. The Youth International Party (YIP) and Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)emerged in Li'l Abner as "Students Wildly Indignant about Nearly Everything!" (SWINE). In an April 1969letter to Time, Capp insisted, "The students I blast are not the dissenters, but the destroyers—the less than 4%who lock up deans in washrooms, who burn manuscripts of unpublished books, who make combinationpigpens and playpens of their universities. The remaining 96% detest them as heartily as I do".[28]

Capp's increasingly controversial remarks at his campus speeches and during TV appearances cost him hissemi-regular spot on the Tonight Show. His contentious public persona during this period was captured on alate sixties comedy LP called Al Capp On Campus. The album features his interaction with students at FresnoState College (now California State University, Fresno) on such topics as "sensitivity training","humanitarianism", "abstract art" (Capp hated it), and of course "student protest". The cover features a cartoondrawing by Capp of wildly dressed, angry hippies carrying protest signs with slogans like "End CappBrutality", "Abner and Daisy Mae Smoke Pot", "Capp Is Over [30, 40, 50—all crossed out] the Hill!!", and "IfYou Like Crap, You'll Like Capp!"

Highlights of the strip's final decades include "Boomchik" (1961) in which America's international prestige issaved by Mammy Yokum, "Daisy Mae Steps Out" (1966), a female-empowering tale of Daisy's brazenlyaudacious “homewrecker gland", "The Lips of Marcia Perkins" (1967), a satirical, thinly-veiled commentaryon venereal disease and public health warnings, "Ignoble Savages" (1968), in which the mob takes overHarvard, and "Corporal Crock" (1973), in which Bullmoose reveals his reactionary cartoon role model, in atale of obsession and the fanatical world of comic book collecting.

The cartoonist visited John Lennon and Yoko Ono at their 1969 Bed-In for Peace in Montreal, and their testyexchange later appeared in the documentary film Imagine: John Lennon (1988). Introducing himself with thewords "I'm a dreadful Neanderthal fascist. How do you do?", Capp sardonically congratulated Lennon andOno on their Two Virgins nude album cover: "I think that everybody owes it to the world to prove they havepubic hair. You've done it, and I tell you that I applaud you for it." Following this exchange, Capp insultedOno ("Good God, you've gotta live with that?"), and is asked to "get out" by Derek Taylor. Lennon allowed

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him to stay however, but the conversation had soured considerably. On Capp's exit, Lennon sang animpromptu version of his Ballad of John and Yoko song with a slightly revised, but nonetheless propheticlyric: "Christ, you know it ain't easy / You know how hard it can be / The way things are goin' / They're gonnacrucify Capp! "[29]

According to an apocryphal tale from this era, in a televised face-off, either Capp (on the Dick Cavett Show)or (more commonly) conservative talk show host Joe Pyne (on his own show) is supposed to have tauntediconoclastic musician Frank Zappa about his long hair, asking Zappa if he thought he was a girl. Zappa is saidto have replied, "You have a wooden leg; does that make you a table?" (Both Capp and Pyne had woodenlegs). The story is considered an urban legend.

In 1968, a theme park called Dogpatch USA opened at Marble Falls, Arkansas, based on Capp's work andwith his support. The park was a popular attraction during the 1970s, but was abandoned in 1993 due tofinancial difficulties. As of late 2005, the area once devoted to a live-action facsimile of Dogpatch (including alifesize statue in the town square of Dogpatch "founder", General Jubilation T. Cornpone) has been heavilystripped by vandals and souvenir hunters, and is today slowly being reclaimed by the surrounding Arkansaswilderness.

In 1971, syndicated columnists Jack Anderson and Brit Hume published an article alleging instances of sexualharassment by Al Capp of students on his lecture tour.[30] Capp soon became involved in a scandal afterallegedly propositioning a married student from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in Capp’s Eau Clairehotel room. After being charged in the incident, Capp pleaded nolo contendere to "attempted adultery”(adultery was, and as of 2008 still is considered a felony in Wisconsin) and was fined $500.[31] The resultingpublicity led to hundreds of papers dropping his comic strip,[14] and Capp, already in failing health, withdrewfrom public speaking.

Years later, on Inside the Actor's Studio, Goldie Hawn claimed that Capp had sexually propositioned herduring her auditions for the 1964 New York World's Fair; other actresses who have made similar allegationsinclude Grace Kelly (unsubstantiated) and Edie Adams.[citation needed]

"From beginning to end, Capp was acid-tongued toward the targets of his wit, intolerant of hypocrisy, andalways wickedly funny. After about 40 years, however, Capp's interest in Abner waned, and this showed in thestrip itself," according to Don Markstein's Toonopedia. On November 13, 1977, Capp retired with an apologyto his fans for the recently declining quality of the strip, which he said had been the best he could manage dueto declining health. "If you have any sense of humor about your strip—and I had a sense of humor about mine—you knew that for three or four years Abner was wrong. Oh hell, it's like a fighter retiring. I stayed on longerthan I should have," he admitted,[32] adding that he couldn't breathe anymore. "When he retired Li'l Abner,newspapers ran expansive articles and television commentators talked about the passing of an era. Peoplemagazine ran a substantial feature, and even the comics-free New York Times devoted nearly a full page to theevent," wrote publisher Denis Kitchen.

Capp's final years were marked by advancing illness and by family tragedy, with the unexpected deaths of oneof his two daughters and a beloved granddaughter. A lifelong chain smoker, Capp died in 1979 fromemphysema at his home in South Hampton, New Hampshire.[33] Capp is buried in Mount Prospect Cemeteryin Amesbury, Massachusetts. Engraved on his headstone is a stanza from Thomas Gray: The plowmanhomeward plods his weary way / And leaves the world to darkness and to me (from "Elegy Written in aCountry Churchyard", 1751).

LegacyNeither the strip's shifting political leanings nor the slide of its final few years had any bearing on its status asa classic, and in 1995, Li'l Abner was recognized as such by the United States Postal Service. Li'l Abner wasone of 20 classic American comic strips honored with a USPS commemorative postage stamp. Al Capp, aninductee into the National Cartoon Museum, (formerly the International Museum of Cartoon Art) is one ofonly 31 artists selected to their Hall of Fame. Capp was also inducted into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Famein 2004. The Chicago Tribune called Capp a "wry, ornery, brilliantly perceptive satirist will go down as one ofthe Great American Humorists" (2002).

Sadie Hawkins Day and double whammy are two terms attributed to Al Capp that have entered the Englishlanguage. Other, less ubiquitous Cappisms include skunk works and Lower Slobbovia. The term shmoo hasalso entered the lexicon, defining highly technical concepts in no less than four separate fields of science,including the variations shmooing (a microbiological term for the "budding" process in yeast reproduction),and shmoo plot (a technical term in the field of electrical engineering). In socioeconomics, a "shmoo" refers toany generic kind of good that reproduces itself, (as opposed to "widgets" which require resources and activeproduction.) In the field of particle physics, "shmoo" refers to a high energy survey instrument, as utilized atthe Los Alamos National Laboratory to capture subatomic cosmic ray particles emitted from the Cygnus X-3constellation. Capp also had a knack for popularizing certain uncommon terms, such as druthers, schmoozeand nogoodnik, neatnik, etc. In his book The American Language, H.L. Mencken credits the postwar mania foradding "-nik" to the ends of adjectives to create nouns as beginning—not with beatnik or Sputnik—but earlier,in the pages of Li'l Abner.

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Al Capp's life and career are the subjects of a new life-sized mural commemorating his 100th birthday,unveiled in downtown Amesbury on May 15, 2010.[34][35] According to the Boston Globe (as reported onMay 18, 2010), the town has renamed its amphitheater in the artist's honor, and is looking to develop an AlCapp Museum. Capp is also the subject of an upcoming WNET-TV American Masters documentary, The Lifeand Times of Al Capp, produced by his granddaughter, independent filmmaker Caitlin Manning.

Since his death in 1979, Al Capp and his work have been the subject of more than 40 books, including threebiographies. Underground cartoonist and Li'l Abner expert Denis Kitchen has published, co-published, edited,or otherwise served as consultant on nearly all of them. Kitchen is currently compiling a monograph on AlCapp.

At the San Diego Comic Con in July 2009, IDW announced the upcoming publication of Al Capp's Li'l Abner:The Complete Dailies and Color Sundays as part of their ongoing Library of American Comics project. Thecomprehensive series, a reprinting of the entire 43-year history of Li'l Abner spanning a projected 21 volumes,began on April 7, 2010.[36]

Further readingCapp, Al, Li’l Abner in New York (1936) Whitman PublishingCapp, Al, Li’l Abner Among the Millionaires (1939) Whitman PublishingCapp, Al, Li’l Abner and Sadie Hawkins Day (1940) Saalfield PublishingCapp, Al, Li’l Abner and the Ratfields (1940) Saalfield PublishingSheridan, Martin, Comics and Their Creators (1942) R.T. Hale & Co, (1977) Hyperion PressWaugh, Coulton, The Comics (1947) Macmillan PublishersCapp, Al, Newsweek Magazine (November 24, 1947) "Li'l Abner's Mad Capp"Capp, Al, The Life and Times of the Shmoo (1948) Simon & SchusterCapp, Al, The Nation (March 21, 1949) "There Is a Real Shmoo"Capp, Al, Cosmopolitan Magazine (June 1949) "I Don't Like Shmoos"Capp, Al, Atlantic Monthly (April 1950) "I Remember Monster"Capp, Al, Time Magazine (November 6, 1950) "Die Monstersinger"Capp, Al, Life Magazine (March 31, 1952) "It's Hideously True!!..."Capp, Al, Real Magazine (December 1952) "The REAL Powers in America"Capp, Al, The World of Li'l Abner (1953) Farrar, Straus & YoungMikes, George, Eight Humorists (1954) Allen Wingate, (1977) Arden LibraryLehrer, Tom, The Tom Lehrer Song Book, introduction by Al Capp (1954) Crown PublishersCapp, Al, Al Capp's Fearless Fosdick: His Life and Deaths (1956) Simon & SchusterCapp, Al, Al Capp's Bald Iggle: The Life it Ruins May Be Your Own (1956) Simon & SchusterCapp, Al, et al. Famous Artists Cartoon Course - 3 volumes (1956) Famous Artists SchoolCapp, Al, Life Magazine (January 14, 1957) "The Dogpatch Saga: Al Capp's Own Story"Brodbeck, Arthur J, et al. "How to Read Li'l Abner Intelligently" from Mass Culture: Popular Arts inAmerica (1957) Free PressCapp, Al, The Return of the Shmoo (1959) Simon & SchusterHart, Johnny, Back to B.C., introduction by Al Capp (1961) Fawcett PublicationsLazarus, Mell, Miss Peach, introduction by Al Capp (1962) Pyramid BooksGross, Milt, He Done Her Wrong, introduction by Al Capp (1963 Ed.) Dell BooksWhite, David Manning, and Robert H. Abel, eds. The Funnies: An American Idiom (1963) Free PressWhite, David Manning, ed. From Dogpatch to Slobbovia: The (Gasp!) World of Li'l Abner (1964)Beacon PressCapp, Al, Life International Magazine (June 14, 1965) "My Life as an Immortal Myth"Capp, Al, Playboy Magazine (December 1965) interview with Al Capp by Alvin Toffler, pp. 89–100Moger, Art, et al. Chutzpah Is, introduction by Al Capp (1966) Colony PublishersBerger, Arthur Asa, Li'l Abner: A Study in American Satire (1969) Twayne Publishers, (1994)University Press of Mississippi ISBN 0-87805-713-7Sugar, Andy, Saga Magazine (December 1969) "On the Campus Firing Line with Al Capp"Gray, Harold, Arf! The Life and Hard Times of Little Orphan Annie, introduction by Al Capp (1970)Arlington HouseMoger, Art, Some of My Best Friends are People, introduction by Al Capp (1970) Directors PressCapp, Al, The Hardhat's Bedtime Story Book (1971) Harper & Row ISBN 0-06-061311-4Robinson, Jerry, The Comics: An Illustrated History of Comic Strip Art (1974) G.P. Putnam's SonsHorn, Maurice, The World Encyclopedia of Comics (1976) Chelsea House, (1982) AvonBlackbeard, Bill, ed. The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics (1977) Smithsonian Inst.Press/Harry AbramsMarschall, Rick, Cartoonist PROfiles #37 (March 1978) interview with Al CappCapp, Al, The Best of Li'l Abner (1978) Holt, Rinehart & Winston ISBN 0-03-045516-2Lardner, Ring, You Know Me Al: The Comic Strip Adventures of Jack Keefe, introduction by Al Capp(1979) Harcourt Brace JovanovichVan Buren, Raeburn, Abbie an' Slats - 2 volumes (1983) Ken Pierce BooksCapp, Al, Li'l Abner: Reuben Award Winner Series Book 1 (1985) BlackthorneMarschall, Rick, Nemo, the Classic Comics Library #18 (April 1986) Al Capp / Li'l Abner issueCapp, Al, Li'l Abner Dailies - 27 volumes (1988–1999) Kitchen Sink PressMarschall, Rick, America's Great Comic Strip Artists (1989) Abbeville PressCapp, Al, Fearless Fosdick (1990) Kitchen Sink ISBN 0-87816-108-2Capp, Al, My Well-Balanced Life on a Wooden Leg (1991) John Daniel & Co. ISBN 0-936784-93-8Capp, Al, Fearless Fosdick: The Hole Story (1992) Kitchen Sink ISBN 0-87816-164-3

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Caplin, Elliot, Al Capp Remembered (1994) Bowling Green State University ISBN 0-87972-630-XTheroux, Alexander, The Enigma of Al Capp (1999) Fantagraphics Books ISBN 1-56097-340-4Lubbers, Bob, Glamour International #26: The Good Girl Art of Bob Lubbers (2001)Capp, Al, The Short Life and Happy Times of the Shmoo (2002) Overlook Press ISBN 1-58567-462-1Capp, Al, Al Capp's Li'l Abner: The Frazetta Years - 4 volumes (2003–2004) Dark Horse ComicsAl Capp Studios, Al Capp's Complete Shmoo: The Comic Books (2008) Dark Horse ISBN 1-59307-901-XCapp, Al, Li'l Abner: The Complete Dailies and Color Sundays Vol. 1: 1934–1936 (2010) IDWPublishing ISBN 1-60010-611-0Capp, Al, Li'l Abner: The Complete Dailies and Color Sundays Vol. 2: 1937–1938 (2010) IDW ISBN 1-60010-745-1Capp, Al, Al Capp's Complete Shmoo Vol. 2: The Newspaper Strips (2011) Dark Horse ISBN 1-59582-720-X

Footnotes1. ^ "Inhuman Man," Time, February 6, 1950 (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,811832,00.html)2. ^ Life Magazine May 23, 1960 pp. 129–140 (http://books.google.com/books?

id=3k4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA129&dq=Al+Capp&as_pt=MAGAZINES#v=onepage&q=Al%20Capp&f=false)3. ^ Web page at Bridgeport Central High School devoted to Al Capp

(http://bridgeport.ct.schoolwebpages.com/education/components/scrapbook/default.php?sectiondetailid=5111)4. ^ A review of the 1934 strips reveals that the earliest strips were signed "Al G. Cap," which became "Al G. Capp"

and, finally, "Al Capp." However, the middle initial ("Al G. Capp") appeared from time to time during the first year.5. ^ New York Times theater column by Alvin Klein, November 8, 1987 (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?

res=9B0DEFDC1F38F93BA35752C1A961948260&sec=&spon=)6. ^ Li'l Abner Lost In Hollywood by Michael H. Price (http://www.comicmix.com/news/2007/11/11/li-l-abner-lost-in-

hollywood-shuffle-by-michael-h-price/)7. ^ Baker, Russell (1996-01-13). "Hillary in Lower Slobbovia - ''NY Times'' Jan. 13, 1996"

(http://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/13/opinion/observer-hillary-in-lower-slobbovia.html) . Nytimes.com.http://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/13/opinion/observer-hillary-in-lower-slobbovia.html. Retrieved 2009-08-29.

8. ^ Hillbilly: A Cultural History of an American Icon by Anthony Harkins (2004, Oxford Univ. Press) pp. 124–1369. ^ Steen, Mike Hollywood Speaks: An Oral History Putnam, 1974 (http://books.google.com/books?

id=U99JAAAAMAAJ&q=fonda+%22li%27l+abner%22&dq=fonda+%22li%27l+abner%22&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&num=100&as_brr=0)10. ^ UPI Photo/Files Al Capp Jan. 11, 1967 (http://www.upi.com/topic/Al_Capp/)11. ^ Brown, Rodger, "Dogpatch USA: The Road to Hokum" article, Southern Changes: The Journal of the Southern

Regional Council, Vol. 15, No. 3, 1993, pp. 18-2612. ^ Exile in Dogpatch: The Curious Neglect of Cartoonist Al Capp, City Journal, Spring 2010 (http://www.city-

journal.org/2010/20_2_urb-al-capp.html)13. ^ Spotlight on Daniel Clowes, CBR 18 October 2010 (http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=28945)14. ^ a b Dogpatch confidential - Salon.com (http://dir.salon.com/story/books/feature/2002/09/30/capp/index.html?pn=)15. ^ Letters of Note: Dear Chip... (Columbus Hospital, 28 May 1964) (http://www.lettersofnote.com/2010/05/dont-keep-

remembering-what-youve-lost.html)16. ^ The Screen 'Li'l Abner' - New York Times Review (http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?

res=9F04E3D9103CE63BBC4A52DFB4678382649EDE)17. ^ Tain't Funny - TIME (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,804275,00.html)18. ^ "Poet: Cartoonist Al Capp said in New York..." quoted in The Argus, 10 May 195419. ^ Die Monstersinger - TIME (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,813720-7,00.html)20. ^ Don Markstein's Toonopedia / Li'l Abner (http://www.toonopedia.com/abner.htm)21. ^ SPITTING ON PICTURES FUNNY PAPERS, 1955 (http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/1998/09/18/1998-

09-18_spitting_on_pictures_funny_p.html)22. ^ Maeder, Jay. “Spitting on Pictures Funny Papers, 1955”, Daily News, September 18, 1998.

(http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/1998/09/18/1998-09-18_spitting_on_pictures_funny_p.html)23. ^ Rap for Capp - TIME (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,893653,00.html)24. ^ An Interview with Al Capp - Smithsonian Folkways (http://www.folkways.si.edu/albumdetails.aspx?itemid=1284)25. ^ Al Capp Views the Networks (April 1952) Nieman Reports (http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reportsitem.aspx?

id=102060)26. ^ Al Capp's biography card from the National Cartoonists Society

(http://www.reuben.org/ncs/members/memorium/capp.jpg)27. ^ Which One Is the Phoanie? - Time (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,843312,00.html)28. ^ Letters page April 18, 1969 - TIME (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,844734-3,00.html)29. ^ Imagine: John Lennon Script - transcript from the screenplay and/or documentary movie about John Lennon

(http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/i/imagine-john-lennon-script-transcript.html)30. ^ Lil Abner & Al Capp History (http://www.al-capp-lil-abner.com/)31. ^ Adultery is a crime in Wisconsin | Law Offices of criminal defense attorneys Christopher Van Wagner and Tracey

Wood, Madison WI (http://www.vanwagnerwood.com/CM/Custom/Adultery.asp)32. ^ Mr. Dogpatch - 1979 TIME obituary (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,948819,00.html)33. ^ Al Capp Was Here Newburyport Daily News Sept. 27, 2009

(http://www.newburyportnews.com/local/x546276190/Al-Capp-was-here)34. ^ Town to Honor Famous Cartoonist Who Lived, Worked in Amesbury Newburyport Daily News April 20, 2010

(http://www.newburyportnews.com/local/x1612544031/Town-to-honor-famous-cartoonist-who-lived-worked-in-Amesbury#comment-45683673)

35. ^ Amesbury Gives Li'l Abner His Due Boston Globe May 15, 2010(http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2010/05/15/amesbury_gives_lil_abner_his_due/?page=full)

36. ^ IDW Library of American Comics (http://www.libraryofamericancomics.com/catalog/series/1101/)

See alsoLi'l Abner

5/27/11 8:04 PMAl Capp - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Page 13 of 13http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Capp

Fearless FosdickShmoo

External linksLi'l Abner official site (http://www.lil-abner.com/)Denis Kitchen biography: Al Capp (http://deniskitchen.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=bios.capp)ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive tribute to Al Capp part I(http://www.animationarchive.org/2008/04/biography-capps-off-lil-abner-without.html)ASIFA / Capp part II (http://www.animationarchive.org/2008/05/biography-al-capp-2-cappital-offense_08.html)ASIFA / Capp part III (http://www.animationarchive.org/2008/06/biography-al-capp-3-recapp-bio-of.html)ASIFA / Capp part IV (http://www.animationarchive.org/2008/07/cappital-ideas-modus-operandi-of-lil.html)ASIFA / Capp part V (http://www.animationarchive.org/2008/11/capptivating-heroes-jack-jawbreaker-and.html#comments)Al Capp Deserves a Tribute (Newburyport News, 28 Sept. 2009)(http://www.newburyportnews.com/opinion/x546276244/Al-Capp-deserves-a-tribute?keyword=topstory)Luminaries of the NCS: Al Capp (http://todaysinspiration.blogspot.com/2010/05/luminaries-of-ncs-al-capp.html)Dogpatch USA amusement park. (http://users.aristotle.net/~russjohn/attractions/dogpatch.html)The Dogpatch Family Band Mechanical Toy (http://www.jitterbuzz.com/indtoy.html#abner)Dogpatch and Li'l Abner on Broadway in Life, January 14, 1957, pp. 71–83(http://books.google.com/books?id=P1QEAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=magazine_serial:R1cEAAAAMBAJ&lr=&rview=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false)

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Capp"

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