Li'l Abner: The Complete Dailies and Color Sundays, Vol. 5: 1943–1944 Hardcover – January 29, 2013

While it won't (at least in my openion) get to classic standard till the 50's (that gives us the Smoohs, General Bullmoose, Evil Eye Flegal, etc.) Capp is finding his footing. Bit pricey for a casual read (be ready to spend near $200 for a new copy and at least $70 for a good used) it's a nessary part of the story. And, as I said, a great imporvement on what has gone before.

He's back and at it again, the mastre of Satire and Parody, AL Capp, and as usual he is fine Form. While the war between Good and Evil raged in Europe and the South Pacific Capp made the decision to keep his Boy Abner Home and give peole what he thought they really needed in those stressful years: a place to escape . The 1943-44 Strips make scant metion of the World at War and instead gave its Readers plenty of suspense, action and Humour. with a full measure of knock-outs, kidnappings, murders and plenty of good ol-down home wooing. throw in Fearless Fosdick and hundreds of disreputable scallywags and lots of beautiful sexy gals and you Have another compenduim of the greates strip of all time. The action begins immediately with The Scraggs Kidnappping Daisy Mae and forcing her to be a Photo Model, she does the work they collect the Money. The strip really gets Viscious when the Scraggs are involved, They Murder people for the fun of it. At one point a photographer says he has work for a the cover of 'Nauseating Magazine" but he need a girl that looks badly beaten, so Pappy Scragg takes Daisy Mae into the Make up room and beats the hell ot of here to get 'the right look '. Daisy Mae escapes from the Scraggs and carried the strip on her own for a month, with a suspenseful horror take off- the Thing in the Basement. After that she somehow gets trapped on a boat headed to a Island of Love Mad Bachelors, finally Capp gets Tired of Too much Daisy Mae i guess and brings the strip back to Dogpatch, By March 1943 we are involved with a Wild Man who looks like Abner with a beard but is about a foot taller then him, more suspense as the wildman almost stabs Daisy Mae. Finally we come to the first real inspired Lunacy of the collection, from April 1943 to July 1943 we have the Burpinyore Vase a relic from India which is indestructible, in the course of the following weeks just about half the cast will become trpped inside it. We also indulge in one of Capps favorite Tropes, introducing a character famous for some infamous thing and driving the audience crazy as he keeps the thing secret, as he does with 'One Fault Jones' he only has one Fault-but ohh what a fault it is. During this storyline we get our first Faux Marriage, this Time its Daisy Mae who almost gets hitched Gat Garson: Abner's evil Doppleganger returns to cause Mayhem and Frustration, we the readers watch helpless as Abners Twin Causes Mayhem impersonating our true-blue hero. In September Ramrod Ramsbottom joins the strip and latches onto Daisy Mae ( Abner is dead for like the 20th time in strip history ) in the September 4th strip he graphically spanks Daisy Mae. Beautiful Patricia Cornblossom joins the strip in October, one of the prettiest Characters ever drawn. It turns out whoever she kisses suddenly most have her ( in the Biblical sense ) this whole episode is very racey as i guess Capp was testing the Perimeters of good taste. So of course this all leads into the Sadie Hawkins Race in November. This is followed in one of the weirdest chapters in the strip, it turns out Pappy Yokum has a special gift , the ability to identify any person by having their butt on his face-don't ask. After this the strip really takes off with one of its most famous episodes, the story of Concertion Constipation, the Following weeks will have Abner starved to the Point of Death to be the front man for a singer with a million doller voice and two cents worth of looks. A take off on Frank Sinatra follows. In Feb 1943 the Turnip Termites reek their usual damage, which leads to Abner becoming the Inside man at the Skonk works- a job that stinks. In March we have Daisy Mae far from Home and close to Mariage to Sheldon Sharpie, the Typical Big City Millionaire swine that frequently popped up in the strip in Capps more liberal years. Can a man enter a restaurant and through crazy circumstances never leave it, well it happens to Abner in April, he eneters a restaurant just to ask directions and the mastery of Capps mind follows, he simply can't get out of that restaurant . In may Daisy Mae is still in the big city ( sometimes Capp just got tired of Dogpatch and moved the characters to the City ) she is kidnapped rigth off the street , ABNER Is knocked out and a thug uses Chloroform on Daisy mae, she awkaken is a bed in a dingy room, a Guard keeps her there, her clothes are gone and she is in a sheer slip. It turns out she is being held by a advertizing firm which is using her stunning likeness to sell De-rumbalizing Pills- a pill used to reduce gas in the system. This goes on and on, A rich man falls IN LOVE with daisy and it looks like they are about to get married, and then Capp gets bored and ends the segment as quickly as possible. Finally In June we have the introduction of a strip Favorite : Fearless Fosdick. In the very first Panel that introduces Fearless he is cuttig a criminal very graphically in two with a Ax, the Ax has cleaved through the thugs head , we see the head split open and brains and such, The Ax comes to rest in the mans chest. I alway like Mammy Yokum best and she reappears in the next segment to hunt for Lil Abner who is in serious Danger in another big city adventure , this also features a graphic drawing of a thug sticking his hand down Abners throat right up to the forearm and Abner gagging on it. Nice drawings of Mammy climbing a buildings fire escape in search of Abner. then we get another maddening strip- a switched identity caper, somehow a super genuis with a miserabkle shrunken body transpose's his brains into Abner fine Physique and Vice a Versa, poor Abner, the story turns when the Cad Pays Abner 50 cents for the switch, when Abner returns home and finds the man has given him 75 cents instead, he being the honest boy decides to return to the big city and set the matter right. The best of the book comes last with the introduction of the one Women who ever defeated Mammy fair and Square, Joan L Sullivan and a particulary wild Sadie Hawkins Day Race, and Mammy return from Rock Bottom to Take on Joan one more time Throw in every Sunday Strip from 1943-44 and you have something

I grew up reading Li'l Abner and have always enjoyed the strip. Al Capp had an odd way of looking at American life and he was great at satirizing it. I think my favorite characters were the Shmoos but the Dick Tracy clone known as Fearless Fosdick ran a close second. It's nice to see the old strips again.

My winter reading.

It's Al Capp at his best with Fearless Fosdick's shades of Dick Tracy.When it arrives you appreciate the hard cover and Amazon's care in the packing This is something you want to keep and the hardcovers add a feeling of permanence which you appreciate.Good buy !SYDNEY PHILLIPS

It was absolutely hilarious! All these strips were written about a decade before I was born, so I was seeing them for the first time. The experience was thoroughly delightful.

Lil Abner was big for my generation. Cap's humor was pure genious.

smooth transaction. splendid

Great seller. Great book. Perfect.

bisogna saper bene non solo l'inglese ma anche alcuni dialetti americani...e avere pazienza e costanza e leggerlo appoggiato su un tavolo robusto