What do you think?
Rate this book
Li'l Abner Dailies #7
Li'l Abner Dailies, 1941
Description from back On Monday, August 13, 1934, eight newspapers commenced printing an obscure comic strip by an equally obscure cartoonist about a family of poor hillbillies living in Kentucky. Before the cartoonist retired with his creation 43 later, Al Capp's Li'l Abner had become internationally famous, syndicated in over 900 newspapers worldwide and avidly followed by millions. Over the years, Capp and Li'L Abner were twin centers of both outrage and delight. Capp's trenchant outlook and sharp wit found voice in his comic strip and he seldom lacked an opinion about any facet of the national scene. John Steinbeck called him the greatest satirist since Laurence Sterne and recommended that he be considered for a Nobel Prize in literature. Others recommended that Capp be boiled in oil. Through all of it, Capp remained true to his personal vision of what Li'l Abner should be, and in the process, made it the greatest comic strip of all time. Meet Moonbeam McSwine, lovely daughter of Moonshine McSwine. Her favorite people are pigs. She's incredibly lazy. And in 1941, her father plotted to get her married to Abner Yokum. Meet the Flying Avenger, radio superhero to millions, who looks suspiciously like said Abner Yokum. Meet Big Stanislouse, brutal gangster, and Bet-a-Million Bashby, frustrated gambler. Meet Dorothy Lamour, Barbara Stanwyck, and the niece of Saide Hawkins, five times removed.
168 pages, Paperback
First published February 28, 1990
7 people want to read
About the author
Al Capp
142 books7 followersAlfred Gerald Caplin (1909-1979), better known as Al Capp, was an American cartoonist and humorist. He is best known as the creator, writer and artist of the satirical comic strip Li'l Abner, which run for 43 years from 1934 to 1977.
Capp was born in 1909 in New Haven, Connecticut, of a poor family of East European Jewish heritage. His childhood was scared by a serious accident: after being run over by a trolley car, nine years old Alfred had his left leg partially amputated. This early trauma possibly had an impact on Capp's cynical humour, as later represented in his strips. His father, Otto Philip Caplin, a failed businessman and an amateur cartoonist, is credited for introducing Al and his two brothers to making comics.
After some training in art schools in New England, in 1932 Al Capp moved to New York with the intent of becoming a newspaper cartoonist. The same year he married Catherine Wingate Cameron. In the first couple of years of his career Capp worked as an assistant/ghost artist on Ham Fischer's strip 'Joe Palooka', while preparing to pitch his own comic strips to the newspaper syndicate.
His strip Li'l Abner was launched on Monday, August 13, 1934, in eight American newspapers to immediate success. The comic started as an hillibilly slapstick, then shifted over the year in the direction of satire, black humor and social commentary. The strip run until 1977, written and mostly drawn by Capp.
A lifelong chain smoker, All Capp died in 1979 from emphysema at his home in South Hampton, New Hampshire.
Capp was born in 1909 in New Haven, Connecticut, of a poor family of East European Jewish heritage. His childhood was scared by a serious accident: after being run over by a trolley car, nine years old Alfred had his left leg partially amputated. This early trauma possibly had an impact on Capp's cynical humour, as later represented in his strips. His father, Otto Philip Caplin, a failed businessman and an amateur cartoonist, is credited for introducing Al and his two brothers to making comics.
After some training in art schools in New England, in 1932 Al Capp moved to New York with the intent of becoming a newspaper cartoonist. The same year he married Catherine Wingate Cameron. In the first couple of years of his career Capp worked as an assistant/ghost artist on Ham Fischer's strip 'Joe Palooka', while preparing to pitch his own comic strips to the newspaper syndicate.
His strip Li'l Abner was launched on Monday, August 13, 1934, in eight American newspapers to immediate success. The comic started as an hillibilly slapstick, then shifted over the year in the direction of satire, black humor and social commentary. The strip run until 1977, written and mostly drawn by Capp.
A lifelong chain smoker, All Capp died in 1979 from emphysema at his home in South Hampton, New Hampshire.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 16, 2020
How did one of the most overrated comic strips suddenly become pretty good? The introduction to this collection supplies one answer: Capp turn to satire of American culture in a way he hadn't before. Actually, he had before, but he widened the satire beyond New York society and the underworld to include Hollywood and a few other things, and while this satire is hardly revealing it is refreshing. There are two other improvements not mentioned in the introduction. Capp tells much shorter stories. Some just last for a few pages, so when he uses the same jokes and plot devices he has used a dozen times before, they at least end quickly, and he introduces some that are new to the strip, thank goodness. The art has also improved. There is less of the stiff anatomy and perspective, especially on the human form, and many background characters are drawn in a fresh and charming way. I suspect an assistant is responsible for this, but that does not matter. An improvement is an improvement, and I welcome it.
July 9, 2018
This peekoolyar funny book done made me laff! It be better'n polecat pie!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews