Politics of the Funnies Part 2

Imaginary Worlds

Eric Molinsky

Arts, Science Fiction, Fiction, Society & Culture

4.8 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 20 January 2022

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Once upon a time, the funnies or the comics pages dominated newspapers – back when newspapers were the main source of information for most Americans. In those days, Walt Kelly and Al Capp were titans of the funnies. Their strips Pogo and Li’l Abner were cultural sensations. Both artists were groundbreaking in the way they incorporated satire into their fantastical worlds, back when the comics page was supposed to be an apolitical neutral zone. Even though their strips are not front and center in pop culture today, we are still feeling the ripple effects of what they accomplished. In part two, I talk with BYU professor Kerry Soper and comic book publisher and author Denis Kitchen about how Al Capp became a hero to the left and the right, while questioning who should be the subject of satire. Link to Denis Kitchen's book, "Al Capp: A Life to the Contrary" Link to Kerry Soper's book, "We Go Pogo" This episode is sponsored by Brooklinen. Our ad partner is Multitude. If you’re interested in advertising on Imaginary Worlds, you can contact them here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Imaginary Worlds, a show about how we create them and why we suspend
0:04.2	or disbelieve.
0:05.6	I'm Eric Mollinsky and this is the second of a two-part episode about the politics of
0:10.8	the funny pages.
0:13.0	In the last episode, we looked at the career of Walt Kelly who created the strip Pogo.
0:18.0	This time, we're looking at the comic strip artist, Al Cap, who created Little Abner.
0:23.6	There are a lot of similarities between Pogo and Little Abner, but Abner had many more
0:28.5	readers in Pogo, and the characters went way beyond the comics page.
0:33.4	From the creative genius of cartoonist Al Cap, the fabulous characters of his world-famous
0:38.5	comic strip.
0:39.5	By the way, did you read Little Abner when you were a kid?
0:42.2	Absolutely, it was my favorite.
0:44.4	Dennis Kitchen is a legend in the comics field.
0:47.7	His company has published artists from Arkrum to Art Speegelman, and he wrote a biography
0:52.7	of Al Cap.
0:54.2	This was a strip that at its height was read by 80, 90 million people every day, or at
0:59.3	least that was the newspaper circulation.
1:02.0	The characters from Little Abner also appeared in animated shorts.
1:05.7	This statue were hairless Joe and Whom some warm cats almost done.
1:09.1	A live-action movie from 1940.
1:12.0	Out of fellers.
1:13.0	Faller Little Abner.
	...

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