American cartoonist (1909-1979). Born
Alfred Gerald Caplin in
New Haven, Connecticut. He lost his
leg in a
trolley accident when he was just nine years old. He was encouraged to develop his
cartooning skills by his
artistically-minded father, and at age 19, he became the
youngest syndicated cartoonist in
America, drawing a comic called "
Colonel Gilfeather" for the
Associated Press. He soon left
AP and started ghost-writing the popular "
Joe Palooka", but he disliked working for creator
Ham Fisher, so in 1934, Capp took an idea for a strip about
hillbillies to the
United Features Syndicate, creating "
Li'l Abner"--what would eventually become the most
popular comic strip in the nation, if not the
greatest strip in history...
"Li'l Abner" started out in only eight
newspapers, but the
dirt-poor residents of
Dogpatch were just what readers in the
Depression were interested in; within three years, "Li'l Abner" was being read by over 15 million people, and just a few short years after that,
readership passed 60 million! Capp was also one of the few
comic creators of the time to own all the
copyrights,
trademarks, and
merchandise rights to his strip--most strips were owned by
syndicates or
newspapers.
The popularity of "Li'l Abner" has never been surpassed. In 1937, when Capp introduced the
Sadie Hawkins Day race--where any girl who could catch a boy was allowed to
marry him--the strip inspired
girls-asks-
boys
dances called Sadie Hawkins Day dances that persist to this day. When the strapping but dim-witted Abner finally married the luscious
Daisy Mae in 1952, the event made
front page news all over the country. The cast of the strip inspired a
Broadway musical in 1957 and two different
movies. People loved the
hell out of this strip and all its characters, from
Abner and
Daisy Mae, to the ass-kicking
Mammy Yoakum and lazy
Pappy Yoakum, to the unlucky and cloud-shadowed
Joe Bfstplk and
double-whammy dealing
Evil Eye Fleegle, to the
bullet-riddled and inept detective
Fearless Fosdick, to
Lonesome Polecat and
Hairless Joe, who brewed
Kickapoo Joy Juice deep in their cave.
Capp
retired from the strip in 1977 and died two years later. Though his original "Li'l Abner" strips are surprisingly hard to find these days outside of the Web, those who
remember them still consider them to be among the best examples of
Comic Strip Art...
All info taken from www.al-capp.com