The SHMOO first appeared in "Li'l Abner" in August 1948. They were a seeming miracle. The lovable creature laid eggs, gave milk and died of sheer ecstasy when looked at with hunger. The Shmoo loved to be eaten by humans and tasted like any food desired. Anything that delighted people delighted a Shmoo. Fry a Shmoo and it came out chicken. Broil it and it came out steak. Shmoo eyes made terrific suspender buttons. The hide of the Shmoo if cut thin made fine leather and if cut thick made the best lumber. Even the Shmoo's whiskers made splendid toothpicks. The Shmoo satisfied all the world's wants. You could never run out of Shmoon (plural of Shmoo) because they multiplied at such an incredible rate. The Shmoo believed that the only way to happiness was to bring happiness to others. Li'l Abner discovered Shmoos when he ventured into the forbidden Valley of the Shmoon, against the frantic protestations of Ol' Man Mose. "Shmoos," Mose warned, "is the greatest menace to hoomanity th' world has evah known." "Thass becuz they is so bad, huh?" asked Li'l Abner. "No, stupid," answered Mose, hurling one of life's profoundest paradoxes at Li'l Abner. "It's because they're so good!"

Ironically, the lovable and selfless Shmoos ultimately brought misery to humankind because people with a limitless supply of self-sacrificing Shmoos stopped working and society began to break down. Seen at first as a boon to humankind, they were ultimately hunted down and exterminated by the U.S. government to preserve the status quo. (Thought extinct after the 1948 adventure, one Shmoo always seemed to escape to Dogpatch's Valley of the Shmoon to form a new colony and the basis for a later plot revival by creator Al Capp). There was even a green-colored evil version of the Shmoo called a Nogoodnik.

Licensed Shmoo merchandise was a huge phenomenon in the late '40s and early '50s, spawning a wide variety of plush and plastic dolls, toys, drinking glasses, wallpaper, belts, books, jewelry, balloons, pendulum clocks, ashtrays, porcelain room deodorizers, canisters, salt & pepper shakers, dairy products, banks, games, masks, puzzles, comic books, baby rattles, 45 and 78 rpm records, ear muffs and more. Shmoos adorned Grape Nuts cereal boxes. There was even a Shmoo fishing lure! These are all highly collectible items today.

For more details see Shmoo Facts Sheet. See also Postcard No. 87 and Postcard No. 179 for a sense of the merchandise. The full 1948 Shmoo origin story, a preface on Shmoo merchandise and science fiction author Harlan Ellison's take on the phenomenon is in Li'l Abner Volume 14 (available on this web store in hard and softcover editions). A new Shmoo book is available from Overlook Press and a limited edition statue is available from Dark Horse Comics.