Al Capp

Became disenchanted with the direction he believed the political left to be moving in America during the 1960s and early 1970s, and "Li'l Abner" began to reflect this. Capp's once sharp-edged liberal view began to sound more and more like conservatism. Through all this, he maintained that it was the left that had moved, not he. Nevertheless, during the period 1968-78, "Li'l Abner," once one of the most popular comic strips in America, lost nearly half its markets and Capp finally had to face the fact that times had changed in politics and popular entertainment. He retired Abner, Daisy Mae and the other denizens of Dogpatch in 1977. He died of emphysema two years later.

He was a writer and actor, known for Li'l Abner (1959), Li'l Abner (1940) and Fearless Fosdick (1952). He was married to Catherine Wingate Cameron.

Mr. Capp created his comic strip within a comic strip of FEARLESS FOSDICK in LI'L ABNER; which was Abner's hero. The recurring "strip" proved to be so popular that it was adapted into a 13 episode TV Series using puppets in 1952 and was also employed in advertising Wildroot Cream Oil (hair tonic),. The Fosdick character was a parody of Chester Gould's DICK TRACY.

Al Capp was born on September 28, 1909 in New Haven, Connecticut, USA as Alfred Gerald Caplin.