Customer Reviews

The Short Life and Happy Times of the Shmoo

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This book presents the two major Shmoo stories (from 1948 and 1959) from Al Capp's mega-classic comic strip "Li'l Abner", in slightly abridged form. In fact, it combines the contents of two earlier books ("The Life And Times Of The Shmoo" and "The Return Of The Shmoo") which were published in paperback in those years.

Needless to say, Al Capp's brilliance shines through in every panel of these stories from the peak of his remarkable career, and the Shmoos remain the most lovable of his many memorable creations (which also included Fearless Fosdick, Sadie Hawkins Day, Lower Slobbovia, the Scraggs, Bet-a-Million Bashby, the Kigmies, Wolf Gal, and Evil-Eye Fleegle, whose double-whammy entered the language).

This material is found in its complete context in volumes 14 and 25 of Kitchen Sink Press' complete reprinting of "Li'l Abner", which made it to volume 27. In fact, the jacket art and Harlan Ellison's introduction are cribbed from volume 14. Size and clarity of reproduction are about the same in either. This book will be a must for completists (like me), a pleasant rediscovery for the nostalgist, and an absolute joy for the uninitiated.

I've been aware of Li'l Abner since I was a kid. One of the things that I used to share with my father was a love for the citizens of Dogpatch and how their little backwoods town became a microcosm of our big ol' USA.

Al Capp was a genius satirist and the SHMOO was his greatest creation. A rapidly procreating creature who gave you all of life's staples: eggs, milk, (even a birthday cake for an unsuspecting policeman!)... and if you looked at the shmoo hungrily, the little creature dropped dead with sheer delight. Broiled they taste like chicken, baked like fish and the finest steak when cooked over an open flame. Why, their little eyes even made the finest suspender buttons!

The only problem is, that when you have everything that you want, you don't have to work anymore. And this throws the powers-that-be (government, big business) into a righteous tizzy. So the Big Boys decide to wipe out the Shmoo and go on a mission to brainwash the citizens against the lovable little creatures.

So, asks Li'l Abner, "Do we have to hate the Shmoo 'cause they bad?"

"NO, we gotta hate the Shmoo 'cause they too GOOD!"

I loved this book. Buy it. You won't be sorry!

When I was 5 I would love to have my father read Pogo, Dagwood and Blondie, and Li'l Abner to me from the daily and Sunday newspapers. When I was 7 years old, I loved reading them by myself and about this time, 1958, the Shmoo became a major theme in the Li'l Abner series. I could not wait for the paper to arrive so I could read the latest adventures of these Shmmos that were so accommodating to meet almost all human needs. Yet even then, at age 7, I began to "get" the message behind the series. This is wonderful social commentary on the limits of capitalism and the limits government will go to ensure that capitalism remains our economic model. However for captitalism to work, there has to be need or the threat of need which creates demand which stimulates supply, and I am sure you know the rest of this formula. If the basic needs of labor are met, they won't work, and thus the costs of labor goes up and the profits go down. Al Capp was brilliant to bring this message into America's homes soon after the McCarthy Anti-American hearings in Washington. Capp, like the Shmoo, is subversive in such a clever endearing entertaining way that when I saw this book I had to re-read the scripts to see what I may have remembered from so many years ago.

The book contains the original Shmoo characters and script from 1948-49 and the return of the Shmoo in 1958. If I was ever to teach High School Seniors in an Economics class, I would have them read this book along with their text, maybe not to strengthen the neurons but to lighten them.

Capp's other Dogpatch hillbilly characters and story lines are also delightful. Li'l Abner, Daisy Mae, Ma and Pa Yokum, and Sadie Hawkings are all here!

Here collected in one volume are the amazing Li'l Abner strips that featured the shmoo. Most people today still know "the shmoo", but few probably know the origins and original purpose of this whiskered globule. In 1948 and 1959 Al Capp used the eager to please and adorable character to make poingant points about the American landscape. For those who don't know, the shmoos were self-maintaining providers of all of humanity's essentials. Ask a shmoo for milk, milk appears. Ask for a pineapple, and presto. What's better, shmoos don't need to eat and they reproduce so fast rabbits hang their heads in shame. They also taste great and when gazed upon with hunger they fall over dead with happiness. Ready to eat, as if they wanted it that way. When shmoos appear in Dogpatch (the setting of Li'l Abner) people realize that all of their troubles are over. With all of their needs met, the crooked grocer can no longer take them for all they have ("Fo' a whole week ah left yo t'sell our below-standard groceries an' condemned meat - an thar's not a cent in th' till..." - the accent reflects the language of the strip), and business starts to fail horribly. Multinational corporations soon feel the sting. Of course this has ramifications for everyone, especially the shmoos. An amazing satire on American society follows, one that still resonates some fifty years later. Along the way the origin of Sadie Hawkins day also pops out of seemingly nowhere. The strips are still hilarious and pointed half a century after their penning. Harlan Ellison's frenetic introduction elucidates some of the nuances of the strip and the hubbub that was the shmoo in 1948. He literally compares the popularity and fuss made by the shmoo in mainstream American culture to Beatlemania. The quality of these strips doesn't dispute his claim. They're hard to put down once looked upon, and they probably won't date anytime soon. A good introduction to Li'l Abner and a piece of American pop culture.

This was more amusing that I expected. I hadn't read much of "Li'l Abner" and was surprised. However, I have two objections to this book. First, the original strips seem a bit truncated. Surely, they could have gotten more of the dailies in this book than they did. And second, the awful introduction by Harlan Ellison. He seems to be in love with the sound of his voice and not necessarily a Li'l Abner fan. The Schmoo seems to have been a craze like the "Pet Rock." More information about that and less about Ellison's advertures in New York City would have been welcomed.

I'd like to point out that the two stories in this book are not all of the Shmoo stories; there were at least a half dozen more.

Pity no one thought to put all of them in a book.

The book does justice to combine two previous books THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE SHMOO and RETURN OF THE SHMOO. Both have been out of print for decades.

Pity about Harlan Ellison's over blown introduction. He can't stick to the subject.

It's good to see this great part of the Li'l Abner comic strip is once again available. I takes me back to when I was 14 and in High School.Not only did Al Capp give us the wonderful Shmoos;but also Sadie Hawkins Day and all the fun we had with that.
This story of the Shmoo came out in the daily Comic Strips but it also was published in Paperbook form in 1948 and 1949.I still have my copy from those days and wrote a review on it on November 27,2007.
It has the title,"The Life and Times of the Shmoo",by Al Capp.
One thing worth mentioning is the high level of artwork that the cartoonists like Al Capp,Walt Kelley and Chester Gould gave us,and it was so good that it still remains the standard for cartoon art to aspire even today.

Whoa! My old pal JOE SUGGS from Atlanta! - sharp and insightful, as per usual. I can't add anything to Joe's perceptive analysis except to say that abridged Capp is better than no Capp at all, and easily better than EVERYTHING you'll find on today's comics page combined.

I remember scouring the Vagabond bookshop in Los Angeles with Joe, searching in vain for our two favorite cartoonists: Al Capp and Walt Kelly. We couldn't find them - not until the wise proprietress told us she puts them in the Literature section - alongside the likes of James Joyce and Jonathan Swift. (LI'L ABNER and POGO are much too good to go in the cartooning section, she explained, next to modern garbage like GARFIELD and CATHY. We couldn't have agreed more.. )

I consider Al Capp to be in the highest echelon of American arts and letters, as well as a crackerjack cartoonist and a brilliant social satirist.
His American masterpiece LI'L ABNER was arguably the greatest comic strip of them all. What a pleasure to remake the acquaintance of the Yokums again after all these years.

I may date myself by saying that I remember cartoonist Al Capp, who created Lil' Abner (cartoons, movie, etc.). Al Capp always did cartoons that were fun but with some meaning or insight included, and Schmoos are no exception. I do not know if he was using Schmoos to show silly government trying to give everyone everything they want all the time (as in anti-Democrat), or using the anti-Schmoo people to show how greedy industrialists will do anything to protect their wealth and personal interests (as in anti-Republican), or maybe both! But the book is funny, clever, a good read. Some of the scantily-clad women may make this a bit racy for younger kids but other than that, it's a great book today and, for many of us, a trip to Memory Lane.

Are you familiar with The Shmoo, Mr. Fisher?
The Shmoo was a loveable creature, really.
Laid eggs...
gave milk...
...and died of sheer ecstasy when looked at with hunger.
It could taste like any food you desire.
Shmoo hide, cut thin, made fine leather.
Even Shmoo whiskers made excellent toothpicks.
In essence, the Shmoo supplied all of the world's wants.
I only bring up the Shmoo because it's relevant to you and why you were brought here.

I'm sorry, who are you?

I'm The Boss.