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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 for only
$18.95
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