During the 1940s and '50s, Li'l Abner
was one of America's most popular comic strips, while creator Capp was hailed as a satirist in the same league as Voltaire and Mark Twain. The strip focused on how the naive hillbilly residents of Dogpatch got along with each other and with representatives of the more sophisticated, corrupt world around them. In particular, Li'l Abner Yokum was a strapping youth who was too ignorant and good-natured to realize how people were being abused by corrupt politicians and tycoons, and he was physically indestructible to boot. Like his family and neighbors, somehow he always survived the worst life could throw at him. At his best, Capp used the Dogpatchers as foils for wild comedy that was also genuinely biting social criticism. He was willing to take on anybody. Unfortunately, the reverse side of that readiness to attack was that Capp didn't really like anybody either, and his misanthropy was beginning to show by the time the strips collected here were done. On the other hand, the strip seldom looked better, since in 1954 Capp hired Frank Frazetta to help with the drawing. Frazetta's fondness for big, muscle-bound males and scantily clad, voluptuous females fit perfectly. He's good at rendering Capp's troupe of grotesque characters too, such as Joe Btfsplk, the walking jinx; and Fearless Fosdick, a parody of Dick Tracy. Their antics distract from the writing's basic bitterness. This carefully produced collection of Sunday strips is enjoyable despite the sad aura of approaching emotional meltdown. (Jan.)
