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.

Born in New Haven, Connecticut of Russian Jewish heritage, Capp was the eldest child of Otto Philip and Matilda ( Davidson ) Caplin.

This childhood tragedy likely helped shape Capp ’ s cynical worldview, which, funny as it was, was certainly darker and more sardonic than that of the average newspaper cartoonist.

" The secret of how to live without resentment or embarrassment in a world in which I was different from everyone else ," Capp philosophically wrote ( in Life magazine on May 23, 1960 ), " was to be indifferent to that difference.

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.

" I heard that Bud Fisher ( creator of Mutt and Jeff ) got $ 3, 000 a week and was constantly marrying French countesses ," Capp said.

By March 1932, Capp was drawing Colonel Gilfeather, a single-panel, AP-owned property created in 1930 by Dick Dorgan.

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.

“ It ’ s phonetic 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 ," said Capp.

" Sinatra was the first great public figure I ever wrote about ," Capp once said.

On the other hand Liberace was " cut to the quick " over Loverboynik, according to Capp, and even threatened legal action — as would Joan Baez later, over " Joanie Phoanie " in 1967.

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

In 1948, Capp reached a creative peak with the introduction of the Shmoos, lovable and innocent fantasy creatures who reproduced at amazing speed and brought so many benefits that, ironically, the world economy was endangered.

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

According to Tom Roberts, author of Alex Raymond: His Life and Art ( 2007 ), Capp delivered a stirring speech that was instrumental in changing those rules.

" 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.

Capp was able to refute the accusation by simply showing the original artwork.

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.

Allen Saunders, the creator of the Mary Worth strip, returned Capp's fire with the introduction of the character " Hal Rapp ," a foul-tempered, ill-mannered, and ( ironically ) inebriated cartoonist, ( Capp was a teetotaler ).

Later, it was revealed to be a collaborative hoax that Capp and his longtime pal Saunders had cooked up together.

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.

The President immediately turned to an aide and said, " Call Walter Reed ( Hospital ), or maybe Bethesda ," to which Capp replied, " Hell no, just call a good local mechanic!

At that first meeting there was Al Capp, Walt Kelly, Alex Raymond, Ernie Bushmiller, Milton Caniff, all of them just sitting there, big as life.

Capp, who lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, just a stone's throw from Harvard, satirized campus radicals, militant student political groups and hippies during the Vietnam War protest era.

Little Orphan Annie lent itself easily to parody, which was taken up by both Walt Kelly in Pogo ( as " Little Arf ' n Nonnie " and later " Lulu Arfin ' Nanny ") and by Al Capp in Li ' l Abner, where Punjab became Punjbag, an oleaginous slob.

According to Capp, Liberace was " cut to the quick " when the parody appeared.

Al Capp once told one of his assistants that he knew Li ' l Abner had finally " arrived " when it was first pirated as a pornographic Tijuana bible parody in the mid-1930s.

Capp had previously spoofed the idea of a theme park based on his characters in Li ' l Abner, in a 1955 Disneyland parody called " Hal Yappland.

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.

No matter how much help he had, Capp insisted on drawing and inking the characters ' faces and hands — especially of Abner and Daisy Mae — himself, and his distinctive touch is often discernible.

Capp himself originated the stories, wrote the dialogue, designed the major characters, rough penciled the preliminary staging and action of each panel, oversaw the finished pencils, and drew and inked the hands and faces of the characters.

Capp portrayed himself in a cameo role in the Bob Hope film That Certain Feeling, ( for which he also provided promotional art ).

) Capp introduced Tiny to fill the bachelor role played reliably for nearly two decades by Li ' l Abner himself, until his fateful 1952 marriage threw the carefully orchestrated dynamic of the strip out of whack for a period.

Capp himself appeared in numerous print ads.

Capp himself originated the stories, wrote the dialogue, designed the major characters, rough penciled the preliminary staging and action of each panel, oversaw the finished pencils, and drew and inked the faces and hands of the characters.

Capp has appeared as himself on The Ed Sullivan Show, Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows, The Today Show, The Red Skelton Show, The Merv Griffin Show, The Mike Douglas Show, and on This Is Your Life on February 12, 1961 with host Ralph Edwards and honoree Peter Palmer.

Revealing an important key to the story, Al Capp himself wrote that the Shmoo metaphorically represented the limitless bounty of the earth in all its richness — in essence, Mother Nature herself.

Instead of drawing it himself, Capp recruited van Buren.

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 ).

* Goldstein, Kalman, " Al Capp and Walt Kelly: Pioneers of Political and Social Satire in the Comics " from Journal of Popular Culture ; Vol.

) The local geography was fluid and vividly complex ; Capp continually changed it to suit either his whims or the current storyline.

* Goldstein, Kalman, " Al Capp and Walt Kelly: Pioneers of Political and Social Satire in the Comics " from Journal of Popular Culture ; Vol.

In 1953, Arthur Schwartz and Alan Jay Lerner obtained the rights to the show from Al Capp ; the three were to co-produce the show, with Schwartz writing the music and Lerner writing the book and lyrics for an opening during the 1954 – 55 season.

He was originally billed as Buster: Son of Andy Capp ; Andy Capp is the lead character of the eponymous Daily Mirror newspaper strip, and Buster wore a similar flat cap to reinforce the connection.

The local geography was fluid and vividly complex ; Capp continually changed it to suit either his whims or the current storyline.