Sad Comics History: Feuds, Fallout & Al Capp’s Forgotten Genius

The Saturday Evening Post wrote about 10 stories from comics history they describe as “wild”, and while that may be the case for some, I don’t think such a description fits the bill when it comes to the following about a certain late cartoonist:

In their heyday, Ham Fisher, the creator of Joe Palooka, and Al Capp, the creator of Li’l Abner, were superstars of the comics pages. They were also bitter enemies who engaged in a years-long feud over the origins of Li’l Abner that ultimately destroyed them both. Their animosity came to a head when Fisher, in a pique, accused Capp of hiding pornographic images within the panels of Li’l Abner. Almost no one believed the accusation, and it destroyed Fisher’s reputation. He was drummed out of the National Cartoonists Society and took his own life shortly after. But Capp was no saint. In the 1960s and ’70s, several women accused him of sexual impropriety. Capp pled no contest to certain accusations, which led to hundreds of newspapers dropping Li’l Abner from their pages.

Yes, I know all about that sad history regarding Capp, who also offended actress Goldie Hawn decades before. And what he did is much worse than what the now deceased Scott Adams was accused of. Capp may not have concealed smut of the sort Fisher accused him of, but I do recall seeing an illustration or two from Capp’s work that were troubling in terms of implied male-on-female violence. And that certainly doesn’t reflect well on his reputation viewed in context of the sexual offenses he was accused of.

That said, this particular history isn’t what I’d call “wild”. It’s just sad and disgusting. Here, Capp could’ve made an effort to stick to a more positive path, and instead, he became one of the earliest examples of a comics specialist who did horrible deeds, and now, if Lil’ Abner’s obscure by today’s standards, it shouldn’t be a surprise.

Originally published here