Sunday, May 9, 2010

Bodybuilding in Al Capp's Lil' Abner

Amazing how some things in pop culture can be totally everywhere one minute and then totally vanish forever the next. Most people that know something about "Li'l Abner" know about it from the Broadway musical, but at one point it was a pop cultural phenomenon.

Essentially, the jokes are all about laughing at the dumb, hick ways of rural poor people - a now radioactively politically incorrect style of humor, which may explain why this isn't paid attention much these days.

This strip is from 1956 and features "Tiny" Yokum, an overdeveloped 15 1/2 year old muscular kid that gets bamboozled by some Charles Atlas type, who exploits him for his overdeveloped hick muscles.








2 comments:

Yachirobi said...

Thanks for posting this. I love old comic strips and I love Al Capps renderings of people. I love how his idealized women don't all look alike (in the face) but his men are fantastic, even better than the superheroes being published at the time. The man was a great artist all around.

Massageman said...

I've been trying to find a "Lil Abner" where Tiny poses for a magazine that I think might even have been called "Playgirl" long before the real one appeared. He is seen by this rich girl who has him kidnapped or something so she can have him all to herself. Do you have it?