Editing Al Capp (section)

==''Li'l Abner''==
{{Main|Li'l Abner}}
What began as a [[hillbilly]] [[burlesque]] soon evolved into one of the most imaginative, popular, and well-drawn strips of the twentieth 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 the genre. The comic strip stars Li'l Abner Yokum—the simple-minded, loutish but good-natured, and eternally innocent hayseed who lives with his parents—scrawny but superhuman Mammy Yokum, and shiftless, childlike Pappy Yokum.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Berger |first1=Arthur Asa |title=Li'l Abner: A Study in American Satire |date=1969 |publisher=Twayne Publishers |location=New York, NY}}</ref>

"Yokum" was a combination of ''yokel'' and ''hokum'', although Capp established a deeper meaning for the name during a series of visits around 1965–1970 with comics historians George E. Turner and Michael H. Price: {{Blockquote|It's phonetic [[Hebrew language|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''. That was a fortunate coincidence, of course, that the name 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.comicmix.com/2007/11/11/li-l-abner-lost-in-hollywood-shuffle-by-michael-h-price/|title=Li'l Abner Lost in Hollywood, by Michael H. Price|date=November 11, 2007|website=ComicMix|access-date=2020-10-29}}</ref>}}

The Yokums live in the backwater hamlet of [[Dogpatch]], [[Kentucky]]. Described by its creator as "an average stone-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 Mae Scragg, his sexy, well-endowed, but virtuous girlfriend, until Capp finally gave in to reader pressure and allowed the couple to marry. This newsworthy event made the cover of ''Life'' on March 31, 1952.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Capp |first1=Al |title='It's Hideously True': Creator of Li'l Abner Tells Why His Hero Is (Sob!) Wed |journal=[[Life Magazine]] |date=31 March 1952 |volume=32 |issue=13 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SFUEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA108 |access-date=6 March 2022}}</ref>

Capp peopled his comic strip with an assortment of memorable characters, including Marryin' Sam, Hairless Joe, 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, Available Jones, Nightmare Alice, Earthquake McGoon, and a host of others. Especially notable, certainly from a [[G.I.]] point of view, are the beautiful, full-figured women — Daisy Mae, Wolf Gal, Stupefyin' Jones, and Moonbeam McSwine (a caricature of his wife Catherine, aside from the dirt) — all of whom found their way onto the [[nose art]] of [[bomber aircraft|bomber planes]] during World War II and the Korean War. Perhaps Capp's most popular creations were the [[Shmoo]]s, creatures whose incredible usefulness and generous nature made them a threat to civilization as we know it.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://main.nc.us/books/books.cgi?theshortlife&happytimesoftheshmoo |first=KNS |last=Maré |website=Mountain Area Information Network |year=2002 |title=''The Short Life & Happy Times of the Shmoo'' by Al Capp; with a foreword by Harlan Ellison |accessdate=2012-12-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120617090532/http://main.nc.us/books/books.cgi?theshortlife&happytimesoftheshmoo |archive-date=2012-06-17 }}</ref>

Another famous character was [[Joe Btfsplk]], who wants to be a loving friend but is "the world's worst jinx", bringing bad luck to all those nearby. Btfsplk (his name is "pronounced" by simply blowing a "raspberry" or [[Bronx cheer (gesture)|Bronx cheer]]) always has an iconic dark cloud over his head.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Raymond |first1=Ed |date=November 1, 2012 |title=The Resurrection of Al Capp's Joe Btfsplk |url=https://duluthreader.com/articles/2012/11/02/101028-the-resurrection-of-al-capps-joe-btfsplk |website=Duluth Reader |publisher=Reader Weekly, Inc.}}</ref>

Dogpatch residents regularly combat the likes of city slickers, business tycoons, government officials, and intellectuals 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 purely fanciful worlds of Capp's invention, including El Passionato, Kigmyland, The Republic of Crumbumbo, Skunk Hollow, The Valley of the Shmoon, Planets Pincus Number 2 and 7, and a miserable frozen wasteland known as [[Lower Slobbovia]], a pointedly political satire of backward nations and foreign diplomacy that remains a contemporary reference.<ref>{{cite news |last=Baker |first=Russell |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/13/opinion/observer-hillary-in-lower-slobbovia.html |title=Hillary in Lower Slobbovia – ''NY Times'' Jan. 13, 1996 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=January 13, 1996 |access-date=2009-08-29 }}</ref>

According to cultural historian Anthony Harkins: {{blockquote|Indeed, ''Li'l Abner'' incorporates such a panoply of characters and ideas that it defies summary. Yet though Capp's storylines often wandered far afield, his hillbilly setting remained a central touchstone, serving both as a microcosm and a distorting carnival mirror of broader American society.<ref>''Hillbilly: A Cultural History of an American Icon'' by Anthony Harkins (2004, Oxford Univ. Press) pp. 124–136</ref>}}

The strip's popularity grew from an original eight papers to eventually more than 900. At its peak, ''Li'l Abner'' was estimated to have been read daily in the United States by 60 to 70 million people (the U.S. population at the time was only 180 million), with adult readers far outnumbering children. Many communities, high schools, and colleges staged [[Sadie Hawkins dance]]s patterned after the similar annual event in the strip.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Parkin|first=Katharine|date=2021|title=Sadie Hawkins in American Life, 1937-1957|journal=Journal of Family History|volume=46|issue=4|pages=391–413|doi=10.1177/03631990211021153|s2cid=237456812}}</ref>

Li'l Abner has one odd design quirk that has puzzled readers for decades: the part in his hair always faces the viewer, no matter which direction Abner is facing. In response to the question "Which side does Abner part his hair on?", Capp would answer: "Both." Capp said he finally found the right "look" for Li'l Abner with [[Henry Fonda]]'s character Dave Tolliver in ''[[The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936 film)|The Trail of the Lonesome Pine]]'' (1936).<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U99JAAAAMAAJ&q=fonda+%22li'l+abner%22|title=Hollywood Speaks: An Oral History|first=Mike|last=Steen|date=October 29, 1974|publisher=Putnam|isbn=9780399111624|access-date=2020-10-29 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

In later years, Capp always claimed to have effectively created the [[miniskirt]], when he first put one on Daisy Mae in the 1930s.<ref>{{Cite web |last=VanHaren |first=Roger |date=2016-02-13 |title=Remembering the days of Dogpatch |url=https://www.wiscnews.com/opinion/remembering-the-days-of-dogpatch/article_4aed5b23-3535-5fc6-a739-b68404ff5da2.html |access-date=2022-11-09 |website=WiscNews |language=en}}</ref>