Customer Reviews

Enigma of Al Capp

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Al Capp was the creator of "Li'l Abner", which in my opinion was the greatest comic strip ever. Capp was a very complicated man, and this book does a credible job of telling his life story. Much of this information was already know to me, however. For Capp fans only.

This miniscule book reads more like a synopsis that the author would have submitted to a publisher as a book proposal, not an actual fleshed-out biography. There is a smattering of biographical information, a few patches of analysis, and not much more. For example, the last two years of Capp's life took two sentences: "He was suffocating. Two years later he died." Suffocating from what? Emphysema? Where and when did he die? What happened to his assets?

The writing style is uneven, ranging from obtuse comma-heavy sentences filled with sub-sub-sub-clauses, to clear and passionate passages.

Either there simply isn't enough source material to flesh out a biography of Al Capp, or this author gave up after finding a few sources.

Either way, Al Capp deserves a much more thorough biography, which this author presumably could have written. I give this two stars just because it's the only thing available on the topic.

Very well written,compassionate and informative. A hell of alife.Not all cookies and cream.He had the money but no happinessexcept the strip.The accident and the leg drew a black shroud over the rest of his life.

It appears the author was one of those liberals in the 1960's and 1970's that Al Capp attacked and is seeking revenge.

One of the best insights into Al Capp was a book called A Hard Hat's bedtime story where Al Capp stated he did not switch political beliefs, but switched to the group he felt down trodden which was the working stiffs who supported the spoiled brat hippies and others blaming the older generation

When Al Capp was a liberal up until the 1960's, the conservative element who he attacked chose to ignore him, but when he started attacking liberals, they chose to censor him, harass him and other dirty politics.

This book is filled with inaccuracies. Further, it does not attempt to explain what it purports to: his "enigma." One example: the picture on the original cover (Capp with a woman) is never credited or captioned.