Capp, Al

Al Capp, byname of Alfred Gerald Caplin, (born September 28, 1909, New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.—died November 5, 1979, New Haven), American cartoonist who created the popular comic strip “Li’l Abner.”

Capp studied landscape architecture at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts school and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. In 1933 he was hired as an assistant to Ham Fisher, the creator of “Joe Palooka.” “Li’l Abner” first appeared in The New York Mirror in 1934. The broadly humorous comic strip was set in the fictitious backwoods community of Dogpatch, U.S.A., and featured Li’l Abner, a shy and awkward rustic; Daisy Mae, a persistent damsel who finally caught Abner after a 17-year pursuit; the pipe-smoking Mammy Yokum; and various social caricatures. “Li’l Abner” ended upon Capp’s retirement in 1977.