Cartoonist Al Capp presents 26 of his favorite sequences from his cartoon strip.

More than thirty years have passed since Al Capp's death, and he may no longer be a household name. But at the height of his career, his groundbreaking comic strip, Li'l Abner, reached ninety million readers. The strip ran for forty-three years, spawned two movies and a Broadway musical, and originated such expressions as "hogwash" and "double-whammy." Capp himself was a familiar personality on TV and radio; as a satirist, he was frequently compared to Mark Twain. Though Li'l Abner brought millions joy, the man behind the strip was a complicated and often unpleasant person. A childhood accident cost him a leg-leading him to art as a means of distinguishing himself. His apprenticeship with Ham Fisher, creator of Joe Palooka, started a twenty-year feud that ended in Fisher's suicide. Capp enjoyed outsized publicity for a cartoonist, but his status abetted sexual misconduct and protected him from the severest repercussions. Late in life, his politics became extremely conservative; he counted Richard Nixon as a friend, and his gift for satire was redirected at targets like John Lennon, Joan Baez, and anti-war protesters on campuses across the country. With unprecedented access to Capp's archives and a wealth of new material, Michael Schumacher and Denis Kitchen have written a probing biography. Capp's story is one of incredible highs and lows, of popularity and villainy, of success and failure-told here with authority and heart.

In the darkest hours of World War II, why were millions of people laughing? Because they were reading Li'l Abner, that's why! The fifth volume of this series features daily strips and full-color Sundays from 1943 and 1944, with a zany cast of characters that includes Shadrack Throwback, "The Monster," Madame Lazonga, and Joan L. Sullivan, plus returning favorites like Moonbeam McSwine, Swami Riva, and Available Jones. Capp also aims his satirical barbs at teen idol Frank Sinatra (yes, Frank Sinatra!), as a starving Li'l Abner Yokum croons his way into female hearts. Meanwhile, the hilarious take-off on Dick Tracy, Fearless Fosdick, is like getting two comic strips in one!

In Volume 4 in The Complete Li'l Abner...You'll Believe a Hillbilly Can Fly! High-octane humor and cockeyed characters -- it's the Cappian way! Sit a spell and you'll meet Available Jones (Is yo' available, Available?), Swami Riva, Big Stanislouse, Joe Btfsplk (the world's greatest jinx!), Dorothy Lamour (yes, that Dorothy Lamour), Lorna Goon, Orville Wolf, Cherry Blossom, the parents of Gat Garson, Sadie Hawkins V, Dinsmore Jerque, J.P. Fangsby, Tiny Mite, and that hog-wallowin' bundle of pulchritude, Moonbeam McSwine! They help make 1941 and 1942 fast, funny, and unforgettable!