Recently finished reading Al Capp: A Life to the Contrary
actually I listened to the unabridged audio version of the book as I rarely ever read books anymore. If you are unfamiliar with Al Capp (1909-1979) he was a Cartoonist most famous for his news paper strip Li’l Abner a strip he worked on for forty years. Al Capp also wrote two additional comic strips Abbie an/ Slats and Long Sam. Capp used a number of assistants throughout the years to help him with his work including the great Frank Frazetta who worked on Li’l Abner from 1954 to 1961. Later on Capp toured college campuses as a conservative speaker and was accused of sexually assaulting a number of female college students. In 1968 at the University of Alabama police escorted him off campus for sexually assaulting a woman. In Wisconsin he was charged with sodomy the charge was later changed to propositioning a married woman to which he pled guilty to in a plea agreement. Later on Goldie Han while beginning her career as an actress reported Al Capp had propositioned her for sex during what he told her would be an audition to play one of the female characters in a film adaptation of his comic strip Li’l Abner. Although the book only dedicates one chapter to all of the sexual allegations made against Al Capp the evidence does sit in his favor and leads me to believe he was an absolute and complete piece of shit as a person. Over all this biography is a fascinating read covering not just the history and story of Al Capps rise to fame and fortune as a cartoonist but also a large part of news paper comic strip history as a whole. I highly recommend the book.
