Page "Li'l Abner" Paragraph 145

Through Li ' l Abner, the American comic strip achieved unprecedented relevance in the postwar years, attracting new readers who were more intellectual, more informed on current events, and less likely to read the comics ( according to Coulton Waugh, author of The Comics, 1947 ).

" When Li ' l Abner made its debut in 1934, the vast majority of comic strips were designed chiefly to amuse or thrill their readers.

Capp turned that world upside-down by routinely injecting politics and social commentary into Li ' l Abner ," wrote comics historian Rick Marschall in America's Great Comic Strip Artists ( 1989 ).

With adult readers far outnumbering juveniles, Li ' l Abner forever cleared away the concept that humor strips were solely the domain of adolescents and children.

Li ' l Abner provided a whole new template for contemporary satire and personal expression in comics, paving the way for Pogo, Feiffer, Doonesbury and MAD.