AL CAPP’S drawings were first syndicated in 1934, and since then he has risen to be one of the most popular and articulate of our comic artists. He does not know, nor does anyone else, how many copies of his books of Li’l Abner cartoons have been distributed; the number is astronomical. His book The Life and Times of the Shmoo was a best seller, and he is now writing his first extended work of prose, Inside Al Capp.
AL CAPP’S drawings were first syndicated in 1934, and since then he has risen to be one of the most popular and articulate of our comic artists. He does not know, nor does anyone else, how many copies of his books of Li’l Abner cartoons have been distributed; the number is astronomical. His book The Life and Times of the Shmoo was a best-seller, and he is now writing his first extended work of prose, Inside Al Capp, which Simon and Schuster are to publish in the autumn and from which we shall publish a series of chapters in preview.
One of the most inventive of America’s comic artists, AL CAPP is responsible foR Li’l Abner, for that mythical area known as Dogpalch, Jor the Schmoo and the Kigmy, and for his establishment of Sadie Hawkins Day. This, in case you don’t know, is the day when girls invite the boys to parlies and festivals, a sort of annual leap year scheme. Last year it was celebrated by some thirty thousand high schools, colleges, and church groups throughout the counthy. In Convention Hall at Philadelphia a few years back, Capp looked down on twelve thousand celebrators all dressed like his characters. He shuddered and said, “What have I wrought!”
No comic artist enjoys a more ardent following than AL CAPP has gained with his “Li’l Abner" and the other residents of that mythical area known as Dogpatch. Occasionally Capp erupts into a prose as branny as his visual technique, and his last book, The Life and Times of the Shmoo, sold into astronomical figures. Since 1934, when his drawings were first syndicated. Comedy has been his medium; with his skill and laughter, he has built up a cheering section of more than forty million, and in 1948 earned the annual Award of the Society of Cartoonists. This is the first of a series of articles by Mr. Capp which the Atlantic will publish in 1950.