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LI'L ABNER: The Frazetta
Years. Volume 2 (1956-57) by Al Capp.
Edited and Annotated by Denis Kitchen.
Milton the Masked Martian (a Superman parody)
leads this volume, followed by a super-sexy
Sunday with Marilyn Monroe in every panel
--- and as only Frank Frazetta could
draw her! Other highlights include...Al
Capp's legendary parody of busybody "Mary
Worm" led "Mary Worth" creator Allan
Saunders to reciprocate, casting Capp
as a drunken and loutish cartoonist in his
own daily strip! The ruckus made a
national scene, including Time magazine.
Others skewered are gay
pianist Liberace (Loverboynik),
bald actor Yul Brynner (Errol Skinn),
voluptuous actress Jayne Mansfield (Jayne
Cornfield), and film producer Howard
Hughes vs. actress-turned-princess Grace
Kelly (supplanted here by Daisy Mae
Yokum) marrying the Prince of Monte
Carload. Burlesque aside, Capp's
politics in the '50s were very progressive, as
underscored by his prescient strip on race
relations, created immediately after Rosa
Parks refused to give up her Birmingham
bus seat. What happens when new neighbors with
(gulp!) square eyes move into redneck
Dogpatch?!
Appearances by Evil-Eye
Fleegle (with his powerful whammy), Hairless
Joe and Lonesome Polecat, Moonbeam
McSwine (who prefers the company of pigs
to men) and über-capitalist General
Bullmoose (whose story here is swiped
years later as the film Trading Places).
All heavily ghosted by legendary illustratror
Frank Frazetta.
For the first time ever these gorgeous
FULL-COLOR SUNDAY PAGES are being
collected into a book! Four comprehensive
volumes are scheduled for 2003 and early 2004.
The color strips are being scanned from the
best available archival sources and Li'l
Abner expert Denis Kitchen is
editing the series and providing extensive
annotations (historic context, inside
information and commentary for virtually every
story).
None of these stories overlap with
the black & white dailies collections
compiled earlier by Kitchen Sink Press. Al
Capp's color Sunday stories were
completely
separate
continuities.
128 page hard cover book.
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