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Wednesday, June 16, 2010

"Li'l Abner": 'Sadie Hawkins Day'

Written and illustrated by cartoonist Al Capp, the second volume of the complete "Li'l Abner" newspaper comic strip, presenting the daily strips and color Sundays from 1937 and 1938, features the first 'Sadie Hawkins Day', "...in which the womenfolk chase the menfolk, and whosoever gets caught is brought to the altar before 'Marryin' Sam' himself..."

"Li'l Abner", considered the inspiration for the characters in the CBS comedy TV series "The Beverly Hillbillies", featured a clan of hillbillies from the impoverished town of 'Dogpatch', Kentucky
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The strip ran in North American newspapers from 1934 to 1977, distributed by United Feature Syndicate.

Characters included voluptuous 'Daisy Mae Scragg' hopelessly in love with Li'l Abner, before getting 'hitched' and producing their first child, 'Honest Abe' in 1953.

The 'Shmoo' characters introduced to the strip in 1948, were fabulous creatures that bred exponentially, consumed nothing and eagerly provided everything that humankind could wish for.

Besides producing both milk (bottled, grade A) and eggs (neatly packaged), they tasted like pork when roasted, chicken when fried and steak when broiled. Ironically, the shmoo's generous nature and incredible usefulness made it a threat to capitalism, to western society and perhaps to civilization itself.

Click the images to enlarge...