( When the award name was changed in 1954, Capp also retroactively received a Reuben statuette.

In 1954, when Capp was applying for a Boston television license, the Federal Communications Commission ( FCC ) received an anonymous packet of pornographic Li ' l Abner drawings.

However, due to its enormous popularity and the numerous fan letters he received, Capp made it a tradition in the strip every November, lasting four decades.

However, due to its enormous popularity and the numerous fan letters he received, Capp obligingly made it a tradition in the strip every November, lasting four decades.

In addition to his public service work for charitable organizations for the handicapped, Capp also served on the National Reading Council, which was organized to combat illiteracy.

In a December 1992 article for The New Yorker, Seymour Hersh reported that President Richard Nixon and Charles Colson had repeatedly discussed the Capp case in Oval Office recordings that had recently been made available by the National Archives.

Al Capp, an inductee into the National Cartoon Museum ( formerly the International Museum of Cartoon Art ), is one of only 31 artists selected to their Hall of Fame.

* Al Capp, an inductee into the National Cartoon Museum ( formerly the International Museum of Cartoon Art ), is one of only 31 artists honored by inclusion into their Hall of Fame.

Al Capp was an outspoken pioneer in favor of diversifying the National Cartoonists Society by admitting women cartoonists.

He served as chairman of the Cartoonists ' Committee in President Dwight D. Eisenhower's People-to-People program in 1954 ( although Capp had actually supported Adlai Stevenson for president in 1952 and 1956 ), which was organized to promote Savings bonds for the U. S. Treasury.

Some legendary session musicians The Castells worked with later became known collectively as " The Wrecking Crew ". They included Billy Strange ( guitar ), Barney Kessel ( guitar ), Ray Pohlman ( bass & arranger of one of the group's sessions ), Frankie Capp ( any percussion device known to humanity ), Plas Johnson ( saxophone ), Glen Campbell ( guitar ), and Hal Blaine ( drums ).

Capp was also inducted into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2004.

* Capp, Al, Li ' l Abner: Reuben Award Winner Series Book 1 ( 1985 ) Blackthorne

* Al Capp was inducted into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2004.

* Capp, Al, Li ' l Abner: Reuben Award Winner Series Book 1 ( 1985 ) Blackthorne

* Capp, Al, Li ' l Abner: Reuben Award Winner Series Book 1 ( 1985 ) Blackthorne

Besides Dick Tracy, Capp parodied many other comic strips in Li ' l Abner — including Steve Canyon, Superman ( at least twice ; first as " Jack Jawbreaker " in 1947, and again in 1966 as " Chickensouperman "), Mary Worth, Peanuts, Rex Morgan, M. D., Little Annie Rooney and Little Orphan Annie ( in which Punjab became " Punjbag ," an oleaginous slob ).

In 1947, Capp earned a Newsweek cover story.

* Capp, Al, Newsweek Magazine ( November 24, 1947 ) " Li ' l Abner's Mad Capp "

* 1947: Al Capp, Li ' l Abner

Capp named her after the carnival-themed horror film, Nightmare Alley ( 1947 ).

But in 1947 Capp sued United Feature Syndicate for $ 14 million, publicly embarrassed UFS in Li ' l Abner, and wrested ownership and control of his creation the following year.

* Capp, Al, Newsweek Magazine ( November 24, 1947 ) " Li ' l Abner's Mad Capp "

Alfred Gerald Caplin ( September 28, 1909 – November 5, 1979 ), better known as Al Capp, was an American cartoonist and humorist best known for the satirical comic strip Li ' l Abner.

" The Caplins were dirt poor, and Capp later recalled stories of his mother going out in the night to sift through ash barrels for reusable bits of coal.

Attending three of them in rapid succession, the impoverished Capp was thrown out of each for nonpayment of tuition — the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and Designers Art School in Boston — the latter before launching his amazing career.

Also during this period, Capp was working at night on samples for the strip that would eventually become Li ' l Abner.

" 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.

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 ).

Fans of the strip ranged from novelist John Steinbeck, who called Capp " possibly the best writer in the world today " in 1953, and even earnestly recommended him for the Nobel Prize in literature — to media critic and theorist Marshall McLuhan, who considered Capp " the only robust satirical force in American life.

During World War II and for many years afterward, Capp worked tirelessly going to hospitals to entertain patients, especially to cheer recent amputees and explain to them that the loss of a limb did not mean an end to a happy and productive life.

Capp was also involved with the Sister Kenny Foundation, which pioneered new treatments for polio in the 1940s.

Serving in his capacity as honorary chairman, Capp made public appearances on its behalf for years, contributed free artwork for its annual fund-raising appeals, and entertained crippled and paraplegic children in children's hospitals with inspirational pep talks, humorous stories and sketches.

1956 saw the debut of the Bald Iggle, considered by some Abner enthusiasts to be the creative high point of the strip, as well as Mammy's revelatory encounter with the " Square Eyes " Family — Capp ’ s thinly-veiled appeal for racial tolerance.

" In 1950, Capp wrote a nasty article for The Atlantic entitled " I Remember Monster.

" The article recounted Capp's days working for an unnamed " benefactor " with a miserly, swinish personality, who Capp claimed was a never-ending source of inspiration when it came time to create a new unregenerate villain for his comic strip.

The Capp-Saunders " feud " fooled both editors and readers, generated plenty of free publicity for both strips — and Capp and Saunders had a good laugh when all was revealed.

According to one anecdote ( from Al Capp Remembered, 1994 ), Capp and his brother Elliot ducked out of a dull party at Capp's home — leaving Walt Kelly alone to fend for himself entertaining a group of Argentine envoys who didn't speak English.

According to Capp, who loved to relate the story, Kelly's two perfectly logical reasons for doing so were: a. to cement diplomatic relations between Argentina and the United States, and b. " Because you can't play the piano, anyway!

In point of fact, Capp maintained creative control over every stage of production for virtually the entire run of the strip.

Capp detailed his approach to writing and drawing the stories in an instructional course book for the Famous Artists School, beginning in 1956.