Li'l Abner: The Frazetta Years, Vol. 4: 1960-1961 [Hardcover]

Al Capp (Author), Frank Frazetta (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 16, 2004

This volume features two separate Fearless Fosdick adventures. In one, our favorite bumbling detective moonlights as female officer Phyllis Fosdick. Paramount successfully released their Li'l Abner movie in 1959, but here Li'l Abner makes a separate film... with disastrous results. Years before Japan invaded the American auto market, Capp presciently depicts the success of the $19.95 Japanese Nomotocar (it has no motor), and Capp foresaw the cross-breeding of animals long before DNA manipulation. Also featured in this volume: jinx Joe Btfsplk, pilot Captain Eddie Ricketyback, corrupt Senator Jack S. Phogbound, and criminal Abner doppelganger Gat Garson! Each quarterly volume contains extensive story-by-story annotations by Li'l Abner and Al Capp expert Denis Kitchen.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

During the 1940s and '50s, Li'l Abner was one of America's most popular comic strips, while creator Capp was hailed as a satirist in the same league as Voltaire and Mark Twain. The strip focused on how the naive hillbilly residents of Dogpatch got along with each other and with representatives of the more sophisticated, corrupt world around them. In particular, Li'l Abner Yokum was a strapping youth who was too ignorant and good-natured to realize how people were being abused by corrupt politicians and tycoons, and he was physically indestructible to boot. Like his family and neighbors, somehow he always survived the worst life could throw at him. At his best, Capp used the Dogpatchers as foils for wild comedy that was also genuinely biting social criticism. He was willing to take on anybody. Unfortunately, the reverse side of that readiness to attack was that Capp didn't really like anybody either, and his misanthropy was beginning to show by the time the strips collected here were done. On the other hand, the strip seldom looked better, since in 1954 Capp hired Frank Frazetta to help with the drawing. Frazetta's fondness for big, muscle-bound males and scantily clad, voluptuous females fit perfectly. He's good at rendering Capp's troupe of grotesque characters too, such as Joe Btfsplk, the walking jinx; and Fearless Fosdick, a parody of Dick Tracy. Their antics distract from the writing's basic bitterness. This carefully produced collection of Sunday strips is enjoyable despite the sad aura of approaching emotional meltdown.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The last in a series collecting the Li'l Abner newspaper strips on which renowned fantasy artist Frank Frazetta served as an assistant, this volume collects episodes from a period in which Abner-creator Capp's fluid cartooning and cornpone humor peaked (though many contend the strip jumped the shark when Abner finally married long-suffering Daisy Mae a decade earlier). These Sunday installments, reprinted in full color, feature the various hillbilly residents of Dogpatch--Abner and the rest of the Yokum family, Hairless Joe and Lonesome Polecat, and pulchritudinous pigkeeper Moonbeam McSwine--as well as pointy-jawed Dick Tracy parody Fearless Fosdick and the inhabitants of the frozen wasteland of Lower Slobbovia, the only place on earth worse off than Dogpatch. Capp's satiric streak is on display in send-ups of abstract art (painted by "Pablo Le Phonee") and Disneyland, where Abner's town is transformed into Dogpatchland. Hugely popular in its heyday and largely forgotten now, Abner, whose run concluded in 1977, is fondly regarded by hardcore comics fans and oldsters sentimental about "the funny pages." Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Hardcover: 120 pages
• Publisher: Dark Horse (March 16, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593071337
• ISBN-13: 978-1593071332
• Product Dimensions: 12.3 x 9.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #890,140 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious but marred by poor reproduction, January 3, 2005

By 

D. Bond "bocce king" (Rochester, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Li'l Abner: The Frazetta Years, Vol. 4: 1960-1961 (Hardcover)

I loved the material, but I wish the publishers had taken some care in reproducing the strips. Most look as if they are poor color copies of old Sunday papers. A very few appear to have been re-colored acceptably, but most are pretty darn sloppy.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comics Junkie, July 31, 2007

By 

Beaker 63 (Portland, Oregon United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Li'l Abner: The Frazetta Years, Vol. 4: 1960-1961 (Hardcover)

Grew up reading this series. Now I have a permanent copy of my own. Good price and great product for comics junkies.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Daisy, Daisy...., January 3, 2007

By 

Susan E. Buffum "button lover" (Westfield, MA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Li'l Abner: The Frazetta Years, Vol. 4: 1960-1961 (Hardcover)

I purchased this volume as a gift for my Dad who was a big fan of L'il Abner in the 50's and 60's. Dad always liked Daisy Mae! I figured Dad who is a widower could use a little Daisy Mae in his life again. Of course I couldn't resist sitting down and reading the four volumes I bought for him- I did read L'il Abner when I was a kid in the 60's but a lot of it was way over my head back then. Now I can see it through adult eyes and I understand the satire and the subtle shades of humor far better then ever! It's been a fun and interesting meander down Memory Lane! Highly recommended for those who enjoy pure slapstick humor and outrageous satire!