Li'l Abner

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Li'l Abner was a comic strip by Al Capp , who from 1934 bis 1977 in many newspapers in the United States appeared. The strip resembles a satirical family saga and parodied the American way of life .

content

The comic strip takes place in Dogpatch, a fictional village in a rural setting. Li'l Abner is an American youth who lives with his father Lucifer Yokum and domineering mother Pansey. He is a naive muscleman with the looks of young Henry Fonda , who shuns work and marriage, much to the displeasure of his girlfriend Daisy Mae Scraggs, American dream women like Marilyn Monroe or Mae West- inspired red-haired energetic woman. They married in 1952, which was picked up and commented on in many magazines.

Shmoon

Capp kept introducing characters to the comic to meet the needs of the Dogpatch people. In addition to the Kygmies, on which the residents of the village can react with a kick, the Shmoon (plural of Shmoo) are among them. They are pear-shaped, armless creatures with smooth leather-like skin, short legs and long whiskers. Everything about a Shmoo is usable and its purpose in life is to fulfill every material wish. When a person looks at him hungrily, a Shmoo dies joyfully to serve its purpose as a meal. Shmoon reproduce continuously and asexually. On behalf of the government, fearing the elimination of all food problems, Li'l Abner helps clear the Shmoon. Their introduction to the Strip in 1948 led to public discussions and radio interviews with Capp, including the question of whether the depicted willingness to make sacrifices undermines the capitalist performance system. The Shmoo enjoyed great popularity and was quickly used for merchandise such as dolls, postcards and drinking glasses.

Comic in comic

Li'l Abner likes to read his favorite comic Fearless Fosdick , a parody of Dick Tracy , whose title character is known for killing innocent passers-by on a regular basis in his chases.

Sadie Hawkins Day

In 1946, Capp introduced Sadie Hawkins Day, a boisterous holiday that occurs annually on November 15th. Bachelors were hunted like fair game. If one was caught by a girl by sundown, he had to marry her. This custom has been adopted by numerous universities.

Capp's argument with Ham Fisher

Capp used Li'l Abner to caricature his former employer Ham Fisher , with whom he was in a constant dispute, as a nasty cartoonist. The National Cartoonists Society Fisher was responsible for the appearance of fake Li'l Abner strips with partly pornographic content , so that his membership there was terminated.

publication

Li'l Abner appeared on his debut in eight United Feature Syndicate newspapers as a daily strip , within three years the circle expanded to over 200, sometimes up to 1,000 newspapers in the USA and Canada.

Capp announced the end of the strip in 1977. He only drew a few parts himself and came under increasing criticism for his conservative point of view, which, among other things, portrayed young people protesting as unwashed anarchists.

The strips were published in the comics series by Carlsen Verlag in the early 1970s . World-famous series of characters and published in Special Comics 1 , which was exclusively dedicated to Lil 'Abner , and published in Germany in the comic supplement Slapstick of the satirical magazine Pardon .

When the US Postal Service issued a series of 20 postage stamps for the comic's 100th birthday in 1995, the Strip was honored with its own stamp alongside The Yellow Kid , Krazy Kat , Popeye, and others.

Film adaptations

  • 1940: Li'l Abner - director: Albert S. Rogell, 78 min
  • 1959: Li'l Abner - director: Melvin Frank, 114 min
  • 1967: Li'l Abner (TV) - unsold pilot film for a television series, 30 min
  • 1971: Li'l Abner (TV) - Director: Gordon Wiles, 30 min

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b c Andreas C. Knigge: Sex in comics . Ullstein, 1985, Frankfurt / M. and Berlin. ISBN 3548365183 , pp. 93f.
  2. ↑ Comics. Art and consumption of picture stories . Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag Reinbek. 1978. ISBN 3499171716 . P. 81.
  3. ↑ a b Wolfgang J. Fuchs, Reinhold C. Rittberger: The great book of comics. Anatomy of a mass medium. Bertelsmann Gütersloh. P. 52ff.
  4. ^ Andreas C. Knigge: Comic Lexikon . Ullstein Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin and Vienna 1988, ISBN 3-548-36554-X , p. 197
  5. ↑ Gerhard Habarta (ed.): Comicworlds . Edition Comic Forum, Vienna 1992, ISBN 3-900390-62-2 , p. 198.

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