Alfred Gerald Caplin (September 28, 1909 - November 5, 1979), better known as Al Capp , is an American cartoonist and humorist known for his satirical comic strip Li ' l Abner, whom he created in 1934 and continued to write and (with help from assistants) drawing up to 1977. He also wrote the Abbie's' Slats strip comic strip (in the years 1937-45 ) and Long Sam (1954). He won the National Cartoon Society Rubens Award in 1947 for Cartoonist of the Year, and the 1979 Elzie Fresh Award, posthumously for "his unique and remarkable contribution to the cartoon profession". Comic strips deal with northern urban experiences until the year Capp introduced "Li'l Abner," the first strip based in the South. Although Capp is from Connecticut, he spent 43 years teaching the world about Dogpatch, reaching about 60 million readers in over 900 American newspapers and 100 foreign papers in 28 countries. M. Thomas Inge says Capp made a great personal fortune on the strip and "has a huge influence in the way the world sees South America."
Video Al Capp
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Born in New Haven, Connecticut, from the Jewish heritage of Eastern Europe, Capp is the eldest son of Otto Philip and Matilda (Davidson) Caplin. His brothers, Elliott and Jerome are cartoonists, and his sister, Madeline, is a publicist. Capp's parents are a native Latvian whose family migrated to New Haven in the 1880s. "My mother and father have been brought to this country from Russia when they were babies," wrote Capp in 1978. "Their father has found that America's great promise is true - no crime to become a Jew." The Caplins is a poor shit, and Capp later remembers his mother's story out at night to filter the ash barrel for reusable stone bits.
In August 1919, at the age of nine, Capp was hit by a trolley car and had to have his left leg amputated, well above the knee. According to Otto's unpublished autobiography his father, little Capp was not ready to be amputated before; After experiencing a coma for days, he suddenly wakes up to find that his legs have been lifted. She was finally given a prosthetic leg, but only learned to use it by adopting a slow walking way that became increasingly painful as she grew older. The childhood tragedy of losing legs tends to help shape Capp's cynical worldview, which is darker and more cynical than the average newspaper cartoonist. "I'm very angry about that leg," he would reveal in an interview in November 1950 in Time magazine.
"The secret of a way of life without hatred or shame in a world where I am different from others," wrote Cappia (in Life's magazine on May 23, 1960), "is to be indifferent to the difference." It was the prevailing opinion among his friends that Capp's Swiftian's insinuations, to some extent, were channeled creatively, in compensation for his incompetence.
Capp's father, a failed entrepreneur and amateur cartoonist, introduced him to draw as a form of therapy. He became very adept, mostly self-taught. Among the earliest influences are the Phil May hit artist, and American comic cartoonist Tad Dorgan, Cliff Sterrett, Rube Goldberg, Rudolph Dirks, Fred Opper, Billy DeBeck, George McManus and Milt Gross. At about the same time, Capp became a voracious reader. According to Capp's brother, Elliot, Alfred had completed all Shakespeare and George Bernard Shaw by the time he was 13 years old. 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, without receiving a diploma. The cartoonist likes to joke about how he failed geometry for nine straight periods. His formal training comes from a series of art schools in New England. Attending the three in sequence, the poor Capps were thrown out of each other for not paying the school fees - Boston Fine Arts School, Pennsylvania Fine Arts Academy, and Designer Arts School in Boston - the last before launching his book. career. Capp has decided to become a cartoonist. "I heard that Bud Fisher (creator of Mutt and Jeff ) earned $ 3,000 a week and constantly married French countesses," Capp said. "I decided it was for me."
In early 1932, Capp rode to New York City. He lives in the "stuffy rat hole" in Greenwich Village and turns the ad strips at $ 2 each while exploring the city looking for work. He finally found a job at the Associated Press when he was 23 years old. In March 1932, Capp was drawing a Colonel Gilfeather , an AP property owned by a single panel made in 1930 by Dick Dorgan. Capp changed the focus and title to Mister Gilfeather, but soon grew to hate the feature. He left the Associated Press in September 1932. Before leaving, he met Milton Caniff, and both became lifelong friends. Capp moved to Boston and married Catherine Wingate Cameron, whom he had met earlier in art class. He died in 2006 at the age of 96 years.
Leaving his new wife with his parents in Amesbury, Massachusetts, he then returned to New York in 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression. "I am 23 years old, I carry a large number of pictures, and I have almost five dollars in my pockets.. People sleep in the hallway then, willing to work on anything." There he meets Ham Fisher, who hired him to be a ghost on Joe Palooka. During one of Fisher's long vacations, the story of Capp's bow Joe Palooka introduces stupid, rough, and rugged mountain climbers named "Big Leviticus," a raw prototype. (Leviticus is actually much closer to the later Kapin villain, Lem and Luke Scragg, than Li'l Abner is far more interesting and innocent.)
Also during this period, Capp works at night on samples for strips that will eventually become Li'l Abner . He based his figures on the native mountain peoples he encountered as he passed through rural West Virginia and the Valley of Cumberland as a teenager. (This is the year before the Tennessee Valley Authority Act brings basic utilities such as electricity and water flowing into the area.) Leaving Joe Palooka, Capp sells Li'l Abner to the United Feature Syndicate (now known as United Media). This feature was launched on Monday, August 13, 1934, in eight North American newspapers - including the New York Mirror - and was soon successful. Alfred G. Caplin eventually became "Al Capp" because the syndicate felt the original did not fit in the cartoon frame. Capp had been changed legally in 1949.
His younger brother Elliot Caplin is also a comic writer, best known for creating the soap opera line of The Heart of Juliet Jones with artist Stan Drake and understanding Broom-Hilda's comic character. with cartoonist Russell Myers. Elliot also wrote several dramas outside Broadway, including A Nickel for Picasso (1981), which is based on and dedicated to his mother and his famous brother.
Maps Al Capp
What started as a haggard hound soon evolved into one of the most imaginative, popular, and well-drawn strips of the 20th century. Featuring strangely odd characters, strange situations, and the same tension, slapstick, irony, satire, black humor and social commentary bite, Li'l Abner is considered a classic genre. The comic strip stars Li'l Abner Yokum - a simple, loutish but kind-hearted and innocent-minded person who lives with his parents - skinny but super man Mammy Yokum, and without teeth, Pappy Yokum who is like a child.
"Yokum" is a combination of yokel and legal , although Capp built a deeper meaning to the name during a series of visits around 1965-1970 with comic historian George E. Turner and Michael H Price. "It's a phonetic Hebrew - that's right, all right - and that's what I mean by the name of Yokum, more than an attempt to sound hikis," Capp said. "It is a lucky coincidence, of course, that the name must connote backwoods, but it is pious pride, really, playing a godly name -
The Yokums live in a remote village in Dogpatch, Kentucky. Described by its creator as "the community of the average stone age," the dogpatch consists mostly of dilapidated dilapidated log cabins, pine trees, tarnip fields and hawgs wallowing. Whatever energy Abner spent to avoid the goal of Daisy Mae Scragg's marriage, her sexy and rich (but virtuous) girlfriend - until Capp finally gave in to the pressure of the reader and let the couple marry. This news-worth event was the closing of Life on March 31, 1952.
Capp opened his comic strip with a variety of memorable characters, including Marryin 'Sam, Hairless Joe, Lonesome Polecat, Evil-Eye Fleegle, General Bullmoose, Lena the Hyena, Sen. Jack S. Phogbound (caricature caricature of anti-New Deal Dixiecrats) , (horror!) Scraggs, Available Jones, Alice Nightmare, Earthquake McGoon, and a host of others. Especially, of course from G.I. point of view, are beautiful women, complete thinkers like Daisy Mae, Wolf Gal, Stupefyin 'Jones and Moonbeam McSwine (caricatures from his wife Catherine, apart from the ground) - all find their way to the painted nose. bomber aircraft during World War II and the Korean War. Perhaps Capp's most popular creations are Shmoos, the creatures whose incredible uses and generosity make them a threat to civilization as we know it. Another famous character is Joe Btfsplk, who wants to be a loving friend but is "the worst curse in the world," bringing bad luck to everyone nearby. Btfsplk (the name "pronounced" by simply blowing "raspberry" or cheering Bronx) always has an iconic dark cloud above his head.
Dogpatch residents regularly fight against people like city dwellers, business tycoons, government officials and intellectuals with their woven simplicity. The situation often takes character to other destinations, including New York City, Washington, D.C., Hollywood, tropical islands, Moon, Mars, and some of the truly fantastic worlds of Capp's invention. The latter include El Passionato, Kigmyland, Crumbumbo Republic, Skunk Hollow, Shmoon Valley, Planet Pincus Nos. 2 and 7, and a wretched frozen desert known as Lower Slobbovia, a political satire of underdeveloped countries and foreign diplomacy that remains contemporary references. "Indeed, Li'l Abner combines like a weapon full of characters and ideas against the summary," according to cultural historian Anthony Harkins. "However, although Capp's storyline often goes a long way, the setting of its hills remains a major test, serving both as a microcosm and a carnival mirror that diverges from the wider American society."
The popularity of this strip evolved from eight original papers, to more than 900. At its peak, Li'l Abner is estimated to have been read daily in the United States by 60 to 70 million people (US population at that time 180 million), with adult readers far exceeding the number of children. Many communities, high schools and colleges feature Sadie Hawkins dances, which are patterned after similar annual events on the strip.
Li'l Abner has a strange design peculiarity that has baffled the reader for decades: the inside of his hair always faces the audience, no matter which direction Abner is facing. Responding to the question "Which side is it that makes Abner separate?", Capp will reply, "Both." Capp said he finally found the right "view" for Li'l Abner with the character of Henry Fonda, Dave Tolliver, in the Loneome Pine Trail (1936). In the years that followed, Capp always claimed to have created a mini skirt effectively, when he first placed it on Daisy Mae in 1934.
Parodies, toppers, and alternate strips
Li'l Abner also features comic-in-the-strip strips: Fearless Fosdick is a parody of Chester Gould Dick Tracy . It first appeared in 1942, and proved so popular that it flew around for the next 35 years. Gould was personally parodied in the series as a cartoonist "Lester Gooch" - the creator of the tiny, much-harassed and sometimes crazy "Fosdick" creator. The styles of Fosdick are very close to Tracy mood, including urban settings, outrageous criminals, stellar death rates, crossed shadows, and even font styles. In 1952, Fosdick became the star of his own short doll show on NBC, featuring Mary Chase dolls.
In addition to Dick Tracy , Capp parodied many other comics on Li'l Abner - including Steve Canyon , Superman (at least twice as the first "Jack Jawbreaker" in 1947, and again in 1966 as "Chickensouperman"), Mary Worth as "Mary Worm", Peanuts {with " Peewee "parody of Charlie Brown with parody" Croopy "Snoopy" {1968} drawn by Bedley Damp parody of Charles Schulz}, Rex Morgan, MD , Little Annie Rooney and Little Orphan Annie (where Punjab becomes "Punjbag," oleaginous fat).
Capp also denounced 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 is the first major public figure I've ever written," Capp said. "I called him 'Hal Fascinatra.' I remember my news syndicate was so worried about what reaction might happen, and we were all surprised when she called and told me how pleased she was with her.She always made a point to send me champagne every time she saw me at a restaurant... "(from Frank Sinatra, My Father by Nancy Sinatra, 1985). On the other hand, Liberace was "cut to fast" over Loverboynik, according to Capp, and even threatened legal action - such as Joan Baez later, over "Joanie Phoanie" in 1967.
Capps also tend to create their own parody; caricatures herself making frequent, tongue-in-cheek appearances on Li'l Abner . The screams are often at their own expense, as in the order of 1951 above which shows Capp interactions with "fans" (see excerpt), or in the 1955 Disneyland parody, "Hal Yappland." Anything could be the target of Capp's sarcasm - in a single plot, Li'l Abner is revealed as the missing link between apes and humans. Elsewhere, search is on the Dogpatch for a pair of missing socks knitted by the first President of the United States.
In addition to creating Li'l Abner, Capp also created two other newspaper strips: Abbie an 'Slats with an illustrator of Raeburn van Buren magazine in 1937, and Long Sam with cartoonist Bob Lubbers in 1954, as well as the "top" Sunday strip of Washable Jones, Small Fry (aka Little Change ) , and Suggestions for 'Chillun.
Critical identifier
According to comic historian Coulton Waugh, a newspaper reader poll of 1947 claiming that they ignored the comic page altogether reveals that many claim to make one exception: Li'l Abner . "When Li'l Abner debuted in 1934, most comics were designed primarily to entertain or thrill their readers.Capp turned the world in reverse by routinely injecting political and social commentary into Li'l Abner The strip is the first to regularly introduce characters and storylines that have nothing to do with nominal strip stars.This technique - like refreshing because it is unorthodox - is then adopted by cartoonists such as Walt Kelly [< i> Pogo ] and Garry Trudeau [ Doonesbury ], "wrote comic historian Rick Marschall. According to Marschall, Li'l Abner gradually evolved into a broad allusion of human nature. In his book Great American Comic Strip Artist (1989), Marschall's analysis revealed a clear misanthropic subtext.
Over the years, Li'l Abner has been adapted into radio, animated cartoons, stage production, film and television. Capp has been compared, at various times, to Mark Twain, Dostoevski, Jonathan Swift, Lawrence Sterne, and Rabelais. The songwriter ranges from novelist John Steinbeck, who calls Capp "the best possible writer in the world today" in 1953, and even earnestly recommends him for the Nobel Prize in literature - for media critic and theoretician Marshall McLuhan, who considers Capp "The only powerful satirical force in American life." John Updike, comparing Abner with "Hillbilly Candide," adds that "the wealth of social commentary and philosophy is approaching the Voltairean." Charlie Chaplin, William F. Buckley, Al Hirschfeld, Harpo Marx, Russ Meyer, John Kenneth Galbraith, Ralph Bakshi, Shel Silverstein, Hugh Downs, Gene Shalit, Frank Cho, Daniel Clowes and (reportedly) even Queen Elizabeth has claimed to be fans of Li'l Abner .
Li'l Abner is also the subject of the first and longest scientific book valuation of American comics ever published. Li'l Abner: A Study in Satire by Arthur Asa Berger (Twayne, 1969) contains a serious analysis of Capp's narrative techniques, the use of dialogue, self-caricature and grotesquerie, where Li'l Abner in the American satire, and the importance of social criticism and graphic images. "One of the few strips ever considered serious by American cultural students," wrote Professor Berger, "Li'l Abner is worthy of study... because of Capp's imagination and art, and because the strip is a social relevance that very clear. "It was reprinted by the University Press of Mississippi in 1994.
The 1940s and '50s
During World War II and for many years thereafter, Capp worked tirelessly to the hospital to entertain patients, especially to entertain newly amputated people and explain to them that losing a limb does not mean ending a happy and productive life. Due to not keeping his own disability a secret, Capp openly joked about his prosthetic legs throughout his life. In 1946, Capp created a colorful comic book, Al Capp by Li'l Abner , to be distributed by the Red Cross to encourage thousands of amputated veterans returning from the war. Capp was also involved with the Sister Kenny Foundation, who pioneered a new treatment for polio in the 1940s. Serving in his capacity as honorary chairman, Capp made public appearances on their behalf over the years, donating free artwork for annual fundraising, and entertaining paralyzed and paralyzed children at children's hospitals with inspirational lectures, stories - funny stories and sketches.
In 1940, the RKO film adaptation starring Granville Owen (later known as Jeff York) as Li'l Abner, with Buster Keaton taking on the role of Lonesome Polecat, and featuring the title song with lyrics by Milton Berle. The successful musical comedy adaptation of the strip opened on Broadway at the St James Theater on November 15, 1956, and had a long-term 693 performances, followed by a nationwide tour. The musical stage, with music and lyrics by Gene de Paul and Johnny Mercer, was adapted into a Technicolor movie at Paramount in 1959 by producer Norman Panama and director Melvin Frank, with a score by Nelson Riddle. Some players repeat their Broadway role in the film, Julie Newmar is most remembered as Stupefyin 'Jones and Stubby Kaye as Marryin' Sam.
Other highlights of the decade include the 1942 Fearless Fosdick debut as Abner's "ideel" (hero); The Lena the Hyena contest of 1946, where the terrible Gal Slobbovian was finally revealed in a terrible triumphal entry (as judged by Frank Sinatra, Boris Karloff and Salvador DalÃÆ') drawn by the famous cartoonist, Basil Wolverton; and a bad Sunday parody of Gone With the Wind that evoked the anger and legal threats of author Margaret Mitchell, and caused apology to be printed on the strip. In October 1947, Li'l Abner met Rockwell P. Squeezeblood, the head of the Squeezeblood Comic Strip Syndrome who was cruel and corrupt. The resulting sequence, "Jack Jawbreaker Fights Crime !," is a crushing allusion from Jerry Siegel and the infamous exploits of Joe Shuster by DC Comics over Superman . It was later reprinted in The World of Li'l Abner (1953). (Siegel and Shuster previously made fun of Capp in Superman's Action Comics # 55 , December 1942, where a cartoonist named "Al Hatt" created a comic strip featuring hillbilly " Tiny Rufe. ")
In 1947, Capp got the cover story Newsweek . That same year, the profile of the New Yorker was on him for so long that he ran into successive problems. In 1948, Capp reached the creative peak by introducing Shmoos, the beloved and innocent fantasy creatures reproduced at an incredible pace and bringing so many ironic benefits, the world economy is threatened. A widely copied plot is a metaphorically interpreted metaphor in various ways at the beginning of the Cold War.
After leading his close friend Milton Caniff (with Steve Canyon ), Capp recently fought successfully with the syndicate to gain complete ownership of its features when Shmoos made his debut. As a result, he reaped huge financial rewards from unexpected (and almost unprecedented) merchandising phenomena. Like on the strip, Shmoos suddenly appeared everywhere in 1949 and 1950 - including the closing story Time . The collection of novels from the original sequence, The Life and Times of the Shmoo , became a bestseller for Simon & amp; Schuster. Shmoo dolls, watches, watches, jewelry, earplugs, wallpapers, fishing baits, air fresheners, soaps, ice cream, balloons, ashtrays, comic books, recordings, sheet music, toys, games, Halloween masks, salt and pepper, decals , pinbacks, tumblers, coin banks, greeting cards, planters, ties, suspenders, belts, curtains, pens, and other shmoo supplies are produced. A garment factory in Baltimore changed the entire clothing line of shmoo, including "Shmooveralls." The original sequence and sequel in 1959, The Return of the Shmoo, have been collected in print many times since, most recently in 2011, always with high sales figures. The Shmoos will have their own animated TV series.
Capp follows this success with other allegorical fantasy creatures, including the original "Kigia" and masochist, who crave abuse (a story that begins as a veiled comment about racial and religious oppression), the dreaded (or bad) "Nogoodnik" > shmoos), and the unbearable "Bubble Iggle", a mindless creature with a sad expression of his eyes imposing unintentional honesty - with predictable results.
Li'l Abner was censored for the first, but not the last in September 1947, and withdrawn from a paper by Scripps-Howard. The controversy, as reported in Time , centered on Capp's depiction of the United States Senate. Edward Leech of Scripps says, "We do not think it's a good editing or healthy citizenship to describe the Senate as a collection of freaks and bastards... breasts and undesirables." He criticized Senator Joseph McCarthy in 1954, calling it a "poet." "He uses a poetic license to try to create a beautifully ordered world of good people and bad people he wants," Capp said. "He looks great when scaring the helpless and naive."
Capp received the Billy DeBeck National Cartoonists Society Award in 1947 for Cartoonist of the Year. (When the award name was changed in 1954, Capp also retroactively accepted the Reuben statue.) He is a vocal pioneer who supports the NCS diversification by recognizing female cartoonists. Initially, the Society has banned female members. Capp briefly resigned his membership in 1949 to protest their denial of entry to Hilda Terry, creator of the Teena comic strip. According to Tom Roberts, author of Alex Raymond: His Life and Art (2007), Capp delivered an intriguing speech that was instrumental in changing the rules. The NCS finally received a female member the following year. In December 1952, Capp published an article in Real's magazine entitled "The REAL Powers in America" ​​which further challenged the conventional attitude of the day: "The real power in America is > women - the wives and lovers behind the masculine dolls... "
Key points of the 1950s include Abner and Daisy Mae's highly heralded marriage in 1952, the birth of their son "Honest Abe" Yokum in 1953, and in 1954, the introduction of Abner's very large and long-standing sister lost, 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 Guides. 1956 saw the debut of Bald Iggle, considered by some Abner fans to be the creative highpoint of the strip, as well as meeting Mammy's revelation with the "Square Eyes" Family - Capp thin-veiled pleading for racial tolerance. (This fable-like story was gathered into an educational comic book called Mammy Yokum and Great Dogpatch Mystery , and distributed by the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith later that year.) Two years later, Capp's studio released Martin Luther King and Montgomery Story, a biopic comic book distributed by the Fellowship of Reconciliation.
Capp often parodies corporate conglomerates - J. Roaringham Fatback's tycoon has been prominent in wiping out Shmoos. But in 1952, when General Motors President Charles E. Wilson, nominated for a cabinet post, told Congress "... what is good for the country is good for General Motors and vice versa," he inspired one of Capp's greatest satire- the introduction of General Bullmoose, a strong, cruel, and ageless business tycoon. The jarring Bullmoose, who seems to own and control almost everything, justifies his excesses and pride by saying "What's good for General Bullmoose is good for everyone!" "Bullmoose's corrupt interests are often pitted against them, from the sad Slobbovians Down in the classic" rich "versus" poor "classic. This character, along with Shmoos, helps to support Capp's kindness with the Left, and will increase their anger decades later when Capp, a liberal Franklin D. Roosevelt, switched targets, but General Bullmoose continued to emerge, unperturbed and unmerited, during the last right-wing phase and into the 1970s.
Feud with Ham Fisher
After Capp quit his ghosting job at Ham Fisher's Joe Palooka in 1934 to launch his own work, Fisher lied to his colleagues and editors, claiming that Capp had "stolen" his idea. Over the years Fisher will return the characters to his tone, billing him as "The Original Hillbilly Characters" and advising readers not to be "fooled by imitation". (In fact, the cruel character Fishery - Big Leviticus, created by Capp in Fisher's absence - is less similar to Li'l Abner.) According to the 1950 article Time, Capp separated from Fisher with a definite impression, subtly) that he had been paid low and unappreciated. Fisher, a man of Roman self-esteem, thought Capp was ungrateful and a proud man, and watched his rise become famous with unfounded horror. "
"Fisher has repeatedly brought Leviticus and his clan back, claiming their virtue as the comic 'first family of comics' - but he lost his essence, not the arrangement that made the success of the Capp strip so successful that it was the absurdity of Capp's absurdity, his ability to redden situations outrageous for every laughter in it and then, it is impossible, to suppress more laughter from him, who finds such kindness to the public, "(from Don Markstein Toonopedia ).
The Capp-Fisher feud is famous among cartoons, and it's becoming more personal because the Capp strips outperformed Joe Palooka in popularity. Fisher hired Capp's main assistant, Moe Leff. After Fisher underwent plastic surgery, Capp entered a racehorse at Li'l Abner named "Ham's Nose-Bob." In 1950, Capp introduced a cartoonist called "Happy Vermin" - a caricature of Fisher - who hired Abner to draw his comic strips in a dimly lit cabinet (after firing a temporary "temporary" assistant from 20 years old, who had been cut off from all his friends. friends in the process). Instead of using the weary characters of Vermin, Abner vigorously reveals the piece with those who ride the hill. A bighearted Vermin told his assistant, "I am proud to have created these characters !! They will make millions for me !! And if they do it - I will get you new light.
Traveling in the same social circle, the two men engaged in a mutual grudge for 20 years, as described by the New York Daily News in 1998: "They often cross the road, in the middle of the watering hole and at the Banquet National Cartoonists Society, and the city gossip column is full of public donaldbrooks that growl. "In 1950, Capp wrote a bad article for The Atlantic, titled" I Remember Monster. " The article tells of Capp's days working for anonymous "philanthropists" with a stingy and arrogant personality, which Capp claims is a never-ending source of inspiration when it comes to creating new, unsolved villains for his comics. The hidden boss was understood as Ham Fisher.
Fisher retaliated awkwardly, photographed from Li'l Abner and falsely accused Capp of slipping into a comic strip. Fisher submitted Li'l Abner's examples to the Capp syndicate and to the New York court, where Fisher had identified pornographic images hidden in the art background. However, X-rated material has actually been drawn there by Fisher. Capp was able to dispute the allegations by simply showing original artwork.
In 1954, when Capp was applying for a television license in Boston, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) received an anonymous package from images of Li'l Abner pornography. The National Cartoonists Society (NCS) held an ethics hearing, and Fisher was expelled for forgery from the same organization he helped find; The Fisher scheme has backfired in a spectacular way. Around the same time, his home in Wisconsin was destroyed by a storm. On December 27, 1955, Fisher committed suicide in his studio. Fisher's suicide and suicide are used as the basis for the very fictional murder mystery,
Another "feud" apparently loomed when, in one run of the Sunday strip in 1957, Capp lampooned the comic strip Mary Worth as "Mary Worm." The title character is described as an intruder who likes to intervene and loves to mix. Allen Saunders, the creator of the Mary Worth strip, restored the Capp flame by introducing the character "Hal Rapp," a drunken, rude, (and ironically) intoxicated cartoonist (Capp is a non-alcoholic). Later, it was revealed that it was a collaborative trick owned by Capp and his old friend Saunders. "Hostilities" Capp-Saunders fooled editors and readers, generating a lot of free publicity for both strips - and Capp and Saunders laughed when everything was revealed.
Personality
Capp is often associated with two other media giants: Milton Caniff ( Terry and Pirates , Steve Canyon ) and Walt Kelly ( Pogo ). The three cartoonists are close friends and professional associates throughout their adult life, and sometimes mutually refer to their strips. According to one anecdote (from Al Capp Remembered , 1994), Capp and his brother Elliot ducked out from a dull party at Capp's house - leaving Walt Kelly alone to fight his own entertaining group of Argentine messengers who could not speak English. Kelly retaliated by giving Capp's grand grand piano. According to Capp, who likes to tell his story, the two logical reasons Kelly has for doing are: a. to cement diplomatic relations between Argentina and the United States, and b. "Because you can not play the piano, anyway!" ( Beetle Bailey creator of Mort Walker confirms his story, relating to a slightly expanded version of his autobiography, Mort Walker Private Scrapbook , 2001.)
Milton Caniff offers another anecdote (from Phi Beta Pogo , 1989) involving Capp and Walt Kelly, "two sons from Bridgeport, Connecticut, nose to nose," on stage at a Comic Council meeting Newspapers in the sixties. "Walt will say to Al," Of course, Al, this is really how you should draw Daisy Mae, I'm just showing this to you for your own good. "Then Walt will make a sketch, Capp, of course, crossed out by this, as you imagine! So he replied by doing his version of Pogo .Unfortunately, the image is long gone; no recordings are made. shame! Nobody anticipates there will be this duel back and forth between them both... "
Though he is often considered a difficult person, some acquaintances of Capp have stressed that the cartoonist also has a sensitive side; in 1973, knowing that the son of his political rival, Ted Kennedy, had his right leg amputated, Capp wrote a letter of encouragement to the boy, giving honest advice about how to deal with the loss of limbs, which he himself had experienced. as a man. One of Capp's grandchildren reminds him that at one point, tears streamed down the cheek of a cartoonist while he was watching a documentary about the Jonestown massacre. Capp is also reported to have given anonymous money to charities and "people in need" at various points in his life.
Allegations of sexual assault
In his autobiography, American actress Goldie Hawn stated that Capp sexually proposed her on the casting couch and exposed herself when she was nineteen years old. When he rejects the down payment, Capp becomes angry and tells him that he "will never make anything in your life" and that he should "go and marry a Jewish dentist." You'll never get anywhere in the business. "
In 1971, investigative journalist Jack Anderson wrote that Capp had shown his genitals to four girls at the University of Alabama. Then after the incident at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Capp was arrested and tried for indecent exposure and sodomy. He was fined $ 500, and his career and reputation were ruined. Two biographies, one about Goldie Hawn and the other about Grace Kelly, describe Capp as trying to force Hawn and Kelly to have sex.
Production method
Like many cartoonists, Capp uses many assistants (notably Andy Amato, Harvey Curtis, Walter Johnson, and Frank Frazetta). During the peak of an extended line, increased workload includes advertising, merchandising, promotional work, public service comics and other specialized jobs - in addition to six regular and weekly weekly docks. From the early 1940s to the late 1950s, there were many Sunday strip style magazine advertisements for Cream of Wheat using Abner's characters, and in the 1950s, Fearless Fosdick became spokesperson for Wildroot Cream-Oil. hair tonic in a series of daily strip-style print ads. The figures also sell saws, underwear, ties, detergents, candies, soft drinks - including licensed versions of moonshine capp making, Kickapoo Joy Juice - and General Electric and Procter & amp; Gamble products, all need special artwork.
No matter how much help he has, Capp insists on drawing and carving the face and hands of characters - especially Abner and Daisy Mae - himself, and his distinctive touches are often seen. "He has a touch, " Frazetta said about Capp in 2008. "He knows how to take regular pictures and actually make it pop. I will never knock his talent. "
As always with the collaborative effort in comic strips, his name is the only one credited - though, sensitive to his own experience working on Joe Palooka, Capp often attracts his assistant's attention in interviews and publicity pieces.. The 1950 cover story at Time even includes a photo of two of his employees, whose roles in production are detailed by Capp. Ironically, this very irregular policy (along with Frank Frankie's subsequent fame) has led to the misconception that the lane is "smoothed" by other hands. Production Li'l Abner has been well documented, however. In fact, Capp maintains creative control over every stage of production for virtually the entire strip process. Capp himself started the story, wrote a dialogue, designed the main character, scratched out the early stages and the action of each panel, watched the finished pencil, and drew and marked the hands and faces of the characters. Frazetta Authority David Winiewicz describes the daily operation of operations at Li'l Abner Dailies: 1954 Volume 20 (Kitchen Sink, 1994):
By the time Frazetta starts working on the strip, the work produces Li'l Abner too much for one person. Capp has a group of assistants whom he teaches to reproduce his trademark style, working under his direct supervision. The actual production of the strip begins with a rough layout with a pencil made by Al Capp, from a Capp script or a script written together, and the page will be forwarded to Andy Amato and Walter Johnson. Amato would scratch the numbers, then Johnson added backgrounds and mechanical objects. Harvey Curtis is responsible for writing and distributing ink duties with Amato... To ensure that his work remains in line with his style, the final touch will be added by Capp himself. He enjoys adding a distinctive flash to the eye or an idiosyncratic dispute to the character's face. The finished strip is really an ensemble effort, a blend of skillful talent.
There are also separate comic book titles published by the family Toby Toby Press, including Shmoo Comics featuring Washable Jones. Cartoonist Mell Lazarus, creator of Miss Peach and Momma, wrote a comic novel in 1963 entitled The Boss Is Crazy, Too partly inspired by the day -day work apprentice working with Capp and his brother Elliot at Toby. In a seminar at the Charles Schulz Museum on November 8, 2008, Lazarus called his experience at Toby "the funniest five years of my life." Lazarus goes on to quote Capp as one of the "four important things" in the field of newspaper cartoonists, along with Walt Kelly, Charles Schulz and Milton Caniff.
Capp detailed his approach to writing and drawing stories in an instructional course book for the Famous Artist School, starting in 1956. In 1959, Capp recorded and released an album for Folkways Records (now owned by the Smithsonian) that he identifies and describes. "Comic Strip Mechanics."
Frazetta, later renowned as a fantasy artist, helped in the path from 1954 to December 1961. Fascinated by Frazetta's abilities, Capp initially gave him free hand in an extended daily sequence (about a biker named "Frankie," a caricature of Frazetta) to experiment with the basic look strip by adding a little more realism and detail (especially for ink). After the editor complains about the style change, the previous view of the strip was restored. During most of his tenure with Capp, Frazetta's primary responsibility - along with a variety of special arts, such as a series of Li'l Abner greeting cards - very tightly trimmed the Sunday page from studio rudeness. This work was collected by Dark Horse Comics in a four-volume hardcover series called Al Capp's Li'l Abner: The Frazetta Years . In 1961, Capp, complaining of a decline in income, wants Frazetta to continue with a 50% salary cut. "[Capp] says he'll cut the salary in half. Goodbye That's it. I say goodbye," (from Frazetta: Painting with Fire ). However, Frazetta returned briefly a few years later to draw a public service comic book called Li'l Abner and Creatures from Drop-Outer Space , distributed by Job Corps in 1965.
Public service jobs
Capp provides special artwork for civil groups, government agencies and charitable or non-profit organizations, spanning decades. The following titles are all single editions, educational comic books and pamphlets produced for various public services:
- Al Capp by Li'l Abner - Provision of public services issued by the Red Cross (1946)
- Yo 'Put Yo' Life! - Provision of public services issued by the U.S. Army (circa 1950)
- Li'l Abner Join the Navy - Provision of public services issued by the Department of the Navy (1950)
- Fearless Fosdick and Red Feather Cases - Provision of public services issued by Red Feather Services, the precursor of United Way (1951)
- Youth You are Supervising - Provision of public services issued by the US Department of Labor (1956)
- Mammy Yokum and Great Dogpatch Mystery! - Provision of public services issued by the Anti-Pollution League B'nai B'rith (1956)
- Operation: Survive! - Provision of public services issued by the Department of Civil Defense (1957)
- Natural Disasters! - Provision of public services issued by the Department of Civil Defense (1957)
- Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story - Provision of public services issued by The Fellowship of Reconciliation (1958)
- Li'l Abner and Beings from Drop-Outer Space - Providing public services issued by Job Corps (1965)
In addition, Dogpatch characters are used in national campaigns for the US Treasury, Cancer Foundation, March of Dimes, National Heart Fund, Sister Kenny Foundation, American Scouts, Community Crates, National Reading Board, Minnesota Tuberculosis and Health Association, Seals Christmas, Foundation National Amputation, and Veterans of Americans with Disabilities, among others.
Public image
In the Golden Age of the American comic strip, successful cartoonists receive a lot of attention; Their professional and personal lives are reported in the media, and their celebrities are often almost enough to rival their creations. When Li'l Abner reached his peak years, and following the success of Shmoos and other high moments in his work, Al Capp achieved an unparalleled public profile in his profession, and arguably beyond the fame of strip- his. "Capp is the most famous, most influential and most controversial cartoonist of his time," writes publisher (and leads Shmoo collector) Denis Kitchen. "His personal celebrity goes beyond comics, reaching out to the public and influencing culture in various media, over the years he simultaneously produces a daily strip, a weekly newspaper syndicated column, and a 500-station radio program...." He ran the Boston Summer Theater with cartoonist Lee Phalk, bringing Hollywood actors like Mae West, Melvyn Douglas and Claude Rains to star in their live productions. He even considered taking the Massachusetts Senate seat. Vice President Spiro Agnew urged Capp to run in the primary Massachusetts Democratic Party in 1970 against Ted Kennedy, but Capp eventually refused. (He did, however, donate his services as a speaker at a $ 100-a-plate fundraiser for Republican Jack Kemp.)
In addition to using comic strips to voice his opinions and featuring his humor, Capp is a popular guest speaker at the university, and on radio and television. He remains the only cartoonist embraced by TV; no other comic artist has until now approached the television exposure in Capp. Capp appeared as usual on the Criticism Writer (1948-'54) and made regular, weekly appearances on Today in 1953. He was also a periodic panelist at ABC and NBC's Who Said That? (1948-'55), and co-host 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 Capp Show (1952 and 1968) and Al Capp (1971-'72), Al Capp's America (a lively lime lecture, "with Capp providing thorny comments when sketching cartoons, 1954), and a CBS game show called Anyone can Win (1953) He also hosts a similar vehicle on the radio - and is a celebrity guest familiar to many other broadcast programs, including the long-running NBC Radio Monitor Beacon as a commentator dubbed "An expert nothing to say about everything ", Monitor
His frequent appearances on NBC's The Tonight Show stretched three hosts (Steve Allen, Jack Paar and Johnny Carson), from the 1950s to the 1970s. One unforgettable story, as told by Johnny Carson, is about his meeting with President Dwight D. Eisenhower. When Capp is escorted to the Oval Office, his prosthetic leg suddenly collapses into a pile of dislodged parts and hinges on the floor. The President immediately turned to an aide and said, "Call Walter Reed (Hospital), or maybe Bethesda," where Capp replied, "Hell no, just call a good local mechanic!" (Capp also falsified Carson in his work, in a 1970 episode titled "The Tommy Wholesome Show.")
Capp describes himself in a cameo role in Bob Hope's film The Specific Feelings, for which he also gives promotional art. He was interviewed personally on Person to Person on November 27, 1959, hosted by Charles Collingwood. She also appears as herself on The Ed Sullivan Show , Sid Caesar's
Capp will continue to visit amputations of war during the Korean War and the Vietnam War. He toured Vietnam with USO, entertaining troops along with Art Buchwald and George Plimpton. He served as chair of the Cartoonist Committee in the People-to-People program of President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1954 (though Capp actually supported Adlai Stevenson for president in 1952 and 1956), which was organized to promote Savings bonds to the US Treasury.. Capp previously provided Shmoo for a special Son Savings Bond in 1949, accompanying President Harry S. Truman at the bond-opening ceremony. During the Soviet Union blockade in West Berlin in 1948, Berlin's aircraft commanders had sent Capp, requesting inflatable shmoos as part of "Operation: Little Vittles." The candy-filled Shmoos were dropped to West Berlin hungry by the US 17th Military Airport Squadron during a humanitarian effort. "When shmoos of sweets-dropped, near unrest resulted," (reported in Newsweek - October 11, 1948).
In addition to his public service work for charitable organizations for people with disabilities, Capp also serves on the National Reading Council, which is organized to fight illiteracy. He published a column ("Wrong Turn Onto Sesame Street") challenging a federally funded Public Television fund that supported educational comics - which, according to Capp, "cost nothing in taxes and never existed." I point out that children can enjoy Sesame Street without learning how to read, but he can not enjoy comics except he can read, and it's a smaller investment in making kids reading by providing educational material in the form of such reading might make more sense. "
Capp's academic personality includes being one of nineteen original "Builders and Advisers" for "Endicott, Junior College for Young Woman", located at Pride's Crossing (Beverly), Massachusetts, founded in 1939. Al Capp is listed in the Year Book 1942 Mingotide, representing the first graduation class of Endicott Junior College. Yearbook entries include credentials as "Cartoonists for United Feature Syndicate" and New York City residents.
"Comics," wrote Capp in 1970, "can be a combination of the highest quality of art and text, and many of them." Capp will produce many educational comic books and public service pamphlets, spanning decades, for the Red Cross, the Department of Civil Defense, the Department of the Navy, the US Army, the Anti-Pollution League, the Department of Labor, the Dada Community (the pioneer of the United Way), and Job Corps. Capp's studios provide special artwork to various civil groups and non-profit organizations as well. Dogpatch characters are used in national campaigns for the Cancer Foundation, the March of Dimes, the National Heart Fund, the Boy Scouts of America, the Minnesota Tuberculosis and Health Association, the National Amputation Foundation, and the American Veterans with Disabilities, among others. They are also used to help sell Christmas Seals.
Capp was the subject of a Playboy interview in December 1965, in a conversation conducted by Alvin Toffler. In August 1967, Capp was the narrator and host of a special ABC network called Do Blondes Have More Fun? In 1970, he was the subject of a provocative NBC documentary called This Is Al Capp. In the early 1960s, Capp regularly wrote a column titled Al Capp's Column for New York's The Schenectady Gazette (currently The Daily Gazette).
The 1960s and 70s
Capp and his family lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near Harvard during the Vietnam War protest era. The turmoil that Americans watch on their TV happens instantly - right in their own neighborhood. The radical campus and the "hippies" must have been one of Capp's favorite targets in the sixties. In addition to his right-wing caricatures, major business types such as General Bullmoose and J. Roaringham Fatback, Capp began exhibiting counter-icons like Joan Baez (in the character of Joanie Phoanie, a rich speaker who offered ten poor orphanages. dollars of "protest songs"). The order implicitly referred to Baez as a liberal limousine, an accusation he brought to heart, as in the following years in his autobiography of 1987, And A Voice To Sing With: A Memoir. Another target is Senator Ted Kennedy, parodied as "Senator O. Noble McGesture," resident of "Hyideelsport." The name of the city is a play in Hyannisport, Massachusetts, where a number of Kennedy clans live.
Capp became a popular public speaker on college campuses, where he reportedly liked people who were excited. He attacked militant anti-war protesters, both in his personal appearance and in his work. He also insinuated student political groups. The Youth International Party (YIP) and Student for Democratic Society (SDS) appear in Li'l Abner as "Students are very angry about almost everything!" (PORK). In an April 1969 letter to Time, Capp insisted, "The students I blew were not dissidents, but the destroyers - less than 4 percent who locked the deans in the toilet, who burned unpublished manuscripts of books, books, which make combined pigments and playpens from their universities, while 96% hate them with all my heart. "
Capp's increasingly controversial remarks in his speeches on campus and during TV appearances made him a semi-regular place on the Tonight Show. His disputed public character during this period was arrested in the sixties LP called Al Capp On Campus. The album featured her interactions with students at Fresno State College (now California State University, Fresno) on topics such as "sensitivity training," "humanitarianism," "abstract art" (Capp hate it), and "student protests." The cover features Capp of wildlyeded cartoons, angry hippies carrying protest signs with slogans such as "End Capp Brutality," "Abner and Daisy Mae Smoke Pot," "Capp Is Over [30, 40, 50 - all crossed out] the Hill !!, "and" If You Like Crap, you'll love Capp! "
Key points of the last decade of the dash include "Boomchik" (1961), where American international prestige is rescued by Mammy Yokum, "Daisy Mae Steps Out" (1966), a story of women's empowerment from the brave and courageous "homewrecker gland" in Daisy. "The Lips of Marcia Perkins" (1967), satirical commentary, is veiled on venereal diseases and public health warnings, "Ignoble Savages" (1968), where Mob takes over Harvard, and "Corporal Crock" (1973), where Bullmoose reveals the role model of his reactionary cartoon, in an obsession story and a fanatical world of comic book collection.
The cartoonists visited John Lennon and Yoko Ono in their Bed-In 1939 for Peace in Montreal, and their testicle exchanges later appeared in the documentary Imagine: John Lennon (1988). Introducing himself with the words "I am a frightening Neanderthal fascist, how are you?", Capp cynically congratulates Lennon and Ono on the cover of their cover album: "I think everyone owes them a debt." world to prove that they have pubic hair. You've done it, and I'm telling you that I appreciate you for it. "After this exchange, Capp insulted Ono (" Oh God, you have to live with that? "), And asked to" get out "by Derek Taylor.Lennon let it stay, but the conversation got worse.At the Capp's exit, Lennon sang an impromptu version from the song Balada Yohanes and Yoko with a slightly revised lyric, but still prophetic tone: "God, you know it's not easy/you know how hard it can/How things go '/They will crucify Capp! "
Despite his political conservatism in the last decade of his life, Capp was reportedly liberal in several causes; he supports Gay Rights, and does not tolerate any attempt at homophobic jokes. He is also said to have supported Martin Luther King, Jr. and the struggle for racial equality in American society, although he is highly skeptical of Black Panthers and Malcolm X tactics.
In 1968, an amusement park called Dogpatch USA opened in Marble Falls, Arkansas, based on Capp's work and with support. The park became a popular attraction during the 1970s but was abandoned in 1993 due to financial difficulties. In 2005, an area devoted to Live-Action facsimile from Dogpatch (including a statue that lives on Dogpatch founder's premises, "General Jubilation T. Cornpone) has been stripped naked by rioters and souvenir hunters, and is slowly being reclaimed by the surrounding Arkansas Desert.
On April 22, 1971, syndicated columnist Jack Anderson reported allegations that Capp made indecent progress to four girls when he was invited to speak at the University of Alabama in February 1968. Anderson and his colleague Brit Hume confirmed that Capp was shown outside the city. by the university police, but the incident has been closed by the university to avoid negative publicity.
The following month, Capp was charged at Eau Claire, Wisconsin, in connection with another alleged incident after April 1 at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Capp is accused of proposing a married woman in his hotel room. Although no alleged sexual acts were produced, the original indictment included "sodomy." As part of the plea agreement, Capp pleaded guilty to allegations of "adultery trial" (adultery is a crime in Wisconsin) and other charges were dropped. Capp was fined $ 500 and court fee. In an article in 1992 for The New Yorker Seymour Hersh reported that Presidents Richard Nixon and Charles Colson have repeatedly discussed the Capp case in the Oval Office recording recently provided by the National Archives. Nixon and Capp are good friends, writes Hersh, and Nixon and Colson are working on how to get Capp to fight Ted Kennedy for the US Senate. "Nixon is worried about the allegations, worried that Capp's close links with the White House would be an embarrassing public," Hersh wrote. "White House cassettes and documents show that he and Colson discussed the matter over and over again, and that Colson finally convinced the President by saying that he was, in effect, correcting the case.In particular, the President was told that one of the Colson men had gone to Wisconsin and tried to talk to the prosecutor. "However, Colson's efforts failed. Eau Claire district attorney, a Republican, refuses to dismiss the trial of alleged adultery. In imposing a sentence in February 1972, the judge rejected the movement D.A. that Capp agreed to undergo psychiatric treatment.
The resulting publicity caused hundreds of papers to drop his comics, and Capp, who had failed health, resigned from public speaking. Celebrity biographer James Spada claims that similar allegations were made by actress Grace Kelly. However, no direct allegations have ever emerged.
"From the beginning to the end, Capp is a tongue acid to the target of his intelligence, intolerant of hypocrisy, and always very funny.After about 40 years, however, Capp's interest in Abner is decreasing, and this shows on the strip alone, "according to Don Markstein Toonopedia . On November 13, 1977, Capp retired with an apology to his fans for the quality of the recently declining strip, which he says is the best he can manage because of the declining health. "If you have a sense of humor about your strip - and I have a sense of humor about you - you know that for three or four years Abner is wrong.. Oh shit, it's like a retired fighter, I stay longer than should, "he admitted, adding that he could not breathe anymore. "When he retired, Li'l Abner, the papers published extensive articles and television commentators talked about the passing of the era. People Magazine had substantial features, and even comic-free > The New York Times presents almost a full page for the event, "Denis Kitchen publisher wrote.
The last years of Capp were marked by the advancement of family illness and tragedy. In October 1977, one of her two daughters died; a few weeks later, a beloved grandson was killed in a car accident. The lifelong chain smoker, Capp died in 1979 from emphysema at his home in South Hampton, New Hampshire. Capp is buried at Mount Prospect Cemetery in Amesbury, Massachusetts. Engraved on his tombstone is a stanza of Thomas Gray: The homebard plodman plods in his weary manner/And leaves the world into darkness and to me, (from "Elegy Written in the Country Church," 1751).
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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