Fearless Fosdick
Encyclopedia
Fearless Fosdick is a long-running parody
of Chester Gould's Dick Tracy
. It appeared intermittently as a strip-within-a-strip, in Al Capp
's satirical hillbilly
comic strip
, Li'l Abner
(1934–1977).
idol of Abner's (and of every other "100% red-blooded American boy!") An object of undying hero worship
, hayseed Abner mindlessly aped his role model—even going so far as submitting to marriage against his will.
Cartoonist
Al Capp (1909–1979) would often use Li'l Abner continuity as a narrative framing device, bookending the offbeat Fosdick sequences. Abner himself serves as a rustic Greek chorus
—to introduce, comment upon and (sometimes) comically sum up the Fosdick stories. Typically, an anxious Abner would race frantically to the mailbox or to the train delivering the morning newspapers, to get a glimpse of the latest cliffhanger
episode. The next panel would reveal Abner's POV
of the feature under an iconic logo
: Fearless Fosdick by Lester Gooch. Subsequent installments would reinforce Abner's obsessive immersion in the unfolding Fosdick continuity while at the same time recapping the story-within-a-story. While oblivious to the surrounding "real" world (e.g., walking off a cliff or into the path of an oncoming train, or inadvertently ignoring one of Daisy Mae's perilous predicaments), Abner would be, as ever, fully engrossed in the Fosdick adventure. Eventually, Capp would dispense with Abner's introductory panels altogether, and the strip would carry a subheading reminding readers they were now reading Li'l Abner's "ideel," Fearless Fosdick.
Occasionally Fosdick's adventures would directly affect what happened to Abner, and the two storylines would artfully converge. The story-within-a-story often ironically paralleled and/or parodied the story itself. Also, by having the comically obtuse Abner “explain” the strip to Daisy Mae, Capp would use Fearless Fosdick to self-reflexively comment upon his own strip, his readers, and the nature of comic strips and "fandom" in general, resulting in an absurd but overall structurally complex and layered satire.
. Its urban setting stands in stark contrast with Li'l Abners rural Dogpatch
. Fosdick lives in squalor at the dilapidated boarding house run by his dour, pitiless landlady, Mrs. Flintnose. He never married his own long-suffering fiancée Prudence (ugh!) Pimpleton, but Fosdick was directly responsible for one of the seminal events of the strip—the famous marriage of his biggest fan, Li'l Abner, to Daisy Mae in 1952.
As the only grownup member of the local Fearless Fosdick kiddie fan club
, Abner had unwittingly vowed to do everything Fosdick does, not realizing that Fosdick's comic strip marriage was only a dream. (Ironically, Abner had previously told Daisy Mae that cartoonists often employ plot contrivances like dream sequences and impending weddings as sucker bait, to fool their gullible readers!)
In addition to being fearless, Fosdick is "pure, underpaid and purposeful," according to his creator. "Fearless is without doubt the world's most idiotic detective. He shoots people for their own good, is pure beyond imagining, and is fanatically loyal to a police department which exploits, starves and periodically fires him," Capp told Pageant
magazine in May 1952. Although Fosdick is the hero of all red-blooded American boys, Daisy Mae detests him with venomous passion. All throughout Li'l Abner, the neglected Daisy Mae finds herself in the ironic position of being jealous of a "stoopid comical strip character!" When Capp was asked (in a Playboy
interview conducted by Alvin Toffler
in 1965) about the specific gender makeup of his readers, he responded by using Fosdick as an example of the (perceived) inherent differences between the male and female sense of humor:
Although Fearless Fosdick began as a specific burlesque of Dick Tracy, it eventually grew beyond mere parody and developed its own distinctive, self-contained comic identity. Like all of Capp's creations, Fosdick gradually evolved into a broad, multileveled satire
of contemporary American society
. Mixing equal parts slapstick
, black humor, irony
, and biting social criticism
, Fearless Fosdick provided a running commentary on, among other things: the lowly lives of policemen, the capriciousness of the general public, and the thankless role of society's "heroes"—as well as the superficiality of modern pop culture and the compulsive nature of its avid fans. Capp would return to these themes again and again in Fearless Fosdick.
characters. Joining Fosdick's intermittent adventures were:
The early strips referred to grotesque Dick Tracy-inspired public enemies
with absurdly satirical names like "Banana Face," "Spinach Face" and "Hamburger Face." (One villain, "Carrot Top," could not be tracked by bloodhounds, as he had no blood. His head was a genuine carrot. But Fosdick tracks him to his doom—with a rabbit.) Over the years, other nemeses
included:
. Perpetually ventilated by flying bullets, an iconic Fosdick trademark
was the "Swiss cheese
look"—with smoking bullet holes revealing his truly two-dimensional cartoon construction. The impervious detective considers the gaping holes "minor scratches" or "mere flesh wounds" however, and always reports back in one piece for duty the next day. (When the Chief once said, "Fosdick! We thought you were dead!" Fosdick replied, "I was—but it didn't prove fatal. Only a mild case.")
Virtually indestructible, Fosdick's famous iron-jawed profile adorned both Consolidated
B-24 Liberator and Boeing
B-17 Flying Fortress bomber aircraft during World War II
, joining the other Li'l Abner-inspired wartime nose art
mascots—Earthquake McGoon, Moonbeam McSwine, Daisy Mae, Lonesome Polecat, Hairless Joe, Silent Yokum, Sadie Hawkins and Wolf Gal.
Fosdick has notoriously bad aim and even worse judgment. Oblivious to more obvious felonies being committed in broad daylight in the background (such as murders, assaults and bank robberies), Fosdick would bypass them to shoot someone who walked on the grass, or sold balloons without a license.
Gullible, inept and impossibly dense, he regularly shoots dozens of innocent bystanders and apprehends the wrong individuals—while the real criminals go free. A darkly comic running gag
in the series is the stoic, stone-faced image of a determined Fosdick standing amidst a still-smoking pile of bullet-riddled pedestrians—the inevitable collateral damage
of any Fosdick crimefighting endeavor. "When Fosdick is after a lawbreaker, there is no escape for the miscreant," wrote Capp in the introduction to Al Capp's Fearless Fosdick: His Life and Deaths (1956). "There is, however, a fighting chance to escape for hundreds of innocent bystanders who happen to be in the neighborhood—but only a fighting chance. Fosdick's duty, as he sees it, is not so much to maintain safety as to destroy crime, and it's too much to ask any law-enforcement officer to do both, I suppose."
Perennially underpaid at $22.50 per week (a running gag in the strip has Fosdick getting rehired after being fired from the force. He has to start over again at an apprentice rate, which is half his regular onerous salary), public servant Fosdick is duty-bound and literal-minded to the point of being a public menace to the citizens he is sworn to protect. Typically guileless Fosdick logic occurs in "The Case of the Poisoned Beans" (1950), a quintessential Fearless Fosdick continuity. In the story, the ever-vigilant detective goes about town shooting anyone he sees eating "Old Faithful" brand beans in an attempt to prevent them from consuming a toxic can he knows to have been tampered with. Throughout the story, the absurdity continues to mount—along with the astronomical body count
—to its outlandish (and characteristically sardonic) dénouement.
No one is spared Capp's merciless satire in "The Case of the Poisoned Beans"—from the venality of the justice system to the crookedness of a complicit media
(which refuses to air public safety warnings for fear of offending its sponsor, Old Faithful Beans); from the corruption of big business to the fickleness and stupidity of a complacent public. The diabolical plot, which concerns urban terrorism and product tampering, presaged the 1982 Tylenol
case by more than 30 years.
"Capp makes Fosdick's police brutality acceptable, even funny, because Fosdick acts out of misguided goodness. He is, like Abner, an innocent," wrote Max Allan Collins in 1990. He's also a victim of the system himself. According to Capp, "Fosdick is underpaid only in terms of money. His superiors and his community are lavish with things worth more than money, such as hollow praise and chances to risk his life." Capp dedicated a book of reprinted Fosdick continuities to "all underpaid cops, because there are no other kind."
, the thick square panels, the crosshatched shadows, and even the lettering style.
Gould was also probably less than enamored of his own unflattering portrayal in the character of Fosdick's "creator," the diminutive and occasionally mentally deranged cartoonist Lester Gooch. (Even Gooch's bogus "autograph" in the panels of Fearless Fosdick is a parody, a direct takeoff of Gould's own famously flamboyant signature.) Gooch toiled for the abusive and corrupt "Squeezeblood Syndicate," a dig at Capp's own real-life syndicate, United Features
, which owned Li'l Abner until Capp successfully wrested back ownership in 1948.
Whatever Capp really thought of Dick Tracy, he always went out of his way to praise Gould and his strip in conversation and in print, invariably referring to it as "Chester Gould's magnificent Dick Tracy." In The World of Li'l Abner (1953), Capp even credited Dick Tracy (along with Little Orphan Annie) with directly influencing Abner, prompting his early decision to add suspense
to the humorous feature. "The greatest tribute paid to Chester Gould by another famous comic strip artist and storyteller and his creation was, of course, Al Capp's Fearless Fosdick," wrote author and Dick Tracy expert Garyn G. Roberts in 1993. "In short, Fearless Fosdick was a great deal of fun, but must be taken seriously as a loving tribute to Chester Gould and Dick Tracy."
To his great credit, Gould never publicly objected to Fearless Fosdick, or made any attempt to interfere with Capp's continuing the feature during the 35 years in which it appeared. Gould and Capp met only once, according to Capp (interviewed in Cartoonist PROfiles #37, March 1978). It was reportedly a friendly meeting, and Gould took the occasion to thank Capp for doing what he called "full-time press agentry for another comic strip." Capp readily agreed. Unlike Gould, Max Allan Collins
, who took over the helm of Dick Tracy when Gould retired, thoroughly enjoyed Fearless Fosdick and even wrote an appreciative foreword to a recently published collection of Fosdick cartoons.
Besides Dick Tracy, Capp spoofed many other comic strips in Li'l Abner, including Steve Canyon
, Superman
(at least twice; first as "Jack Jawbreaker!" in 1947 and again in 1966 as "Chickensouperman!"), Mary Worth, Peanuts, Rex Morgan, M.D.
, Little Annie Rooney
, and Little Orphan Annie
. Although they proved fertile sources of parody—most memorably "Little Fanny Gooney" (1952), "Rex Moonlight, M.D." (1956),"Steve Cantor" and "Mary Worm" (1957)—no other strip seemed to provide Capp with the same bottomless well of inspiration as Dick Tracy. Later comic strip parodies were mostly one-shot affairs. They never achieved quite the same degree of repeat success or sustained popularity as Fearless Fosdick.
program in the early 1950s. A puppet show based on Fosdick premiered on NBC-TV on Sunday afternoons, and even made the cover of TV Guide
for the week of October 17, 1952. (The TV show also sparked the permanent switch in the strip from Fosdick's early Dick Tracy fedora to his later trademark bowler hat
, when Capp felt the three-dimensional puppet looked too close for comfort to the genuine article.) Created for television and directed by puppeteer
Mary Chase, Fearless Fosdick was written by Everett Crosby and voiced by John Griggs, Gilbert Mack, and Jean Carson
. The storylines and villains were mostly separate from the comic strip and unique to the show. Thirteen episodes were produced featuring the Mary Chase marionettes. Presumed lost for many years, vintage kinescopes of the show have reportedly begun to resurface. (According to publisher Denis Kitchen
: "There are currently efforts underway to release these exceedingly rare Fosdick episodes on a set of DVDs. Stay tuned...") Two of the half-hour episodes (The Haunted House and Lonely Hearts) are housed at the Library of Congress
, in the J. Fred and Leslie W. MacDonald Collection.
for Wildroot Cream-Oil, a popular men's hair tonic of the postwar period. Fosdick's image on tin signs and counter displays became a prominent fixture in barbershops across America in the late 1940s through the mid 1950s, as well as in animated TV commercials. A long-running series of print ads appeared in newspapers, national magazines (such as Life, Boys' Life
, and Argosy), and comic books (including Archie Comics
, Gang Busters
, All-Star Western
, Casper the Friendly Ghost
, Mystery in Space
, House of Mystery
, All-American Men of War, and The Adventures of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis). Scores of comic strip-format ads were produced, usually featuring Fosdick's farcical triumphs over his archvillain nemesis "Anyface." Anyface was a murderous, shape-shifting scoundrel whose plastic facial features could be molded into any identity—or any animal, object or appliance. (However, he was always given away in the last panels by his telltale dandruff
and messy, unkempt hair.) The ads would invariably end with Fosdick advising readers to "Get Wildroot Cream-Oil, Charlie!"
The Wildroot jingle
, Wildroot Charlie—instantly familiar to radio listeners in the 1950s—was performed by everyone from the Bil Baird
puppets to Nat King Cole
, who once sang it on Woody Herman
's radio program:
Although Li'l Abner was heavily merchandised in the 1940s and 1950s (especially the Shmoo
), Fosdick products are relatively rare and highly valued by collectors. There was a rubber Halloween
mask manufactured by Topstone, and a chalkware statue of the character was issued by Artrix Products in 1951. Various Wildroot tie-ins and giveaways also appeared, such as window decals, matchbook covers, and collegiate book jackets. More recently, Dark Horse Comics
issued a limited edition Fearless Fosdick statue in 2001 (complete with a cannonball-sized hole through his midsection), #17 in their line of Classic Comic Characters figures. Various nostalgic reproductions of Wildroot advertising tin signs have also been recently available.
's major inspiration for creating his irreverent Mad magazine, which began in 1952 as a comic book
that specifically parodied other comic books and strips in a similar style and similarly subversive manner. By the time EC Comics
published Mad #1, Capp had been doing Fearless Fosdick for nearly a decade. Parallels between Li'l Abner and the early Mad are unmistakable: the incongruous use of mock-Yiddish slang
terms, the nose-thumbing disdain for pop cultural icons, the rampant and pervasive sick humor
, the pointedly subversive tone, the total disregard for sentiment and the extremely broad visual styling. Even the trademark comic signs that clutter the backdrops of Will Elder
's panels would seem to have a precedent in Li'l Abner, in the headquarters of Dogpatch entrepreneur Available Jones. Tellingly, Kurtzman resisted parodying either Li'l Abner or Dick Tracy in the comic book Mad, despite their prominence. (Both Li'l Abner and Dick Tracy were later satirized in EC's Panic, "the only authorized imitation of Mad," edited by Al Feldstein
.)
Producer/director Ralph Bakshi
worked with Al Capp for a year at Terrytoons
on an unproduced animated cartoon
adaptation of Fearless Fosdick in the late sixties. Said Bakshi in 2008 at the ASIFA Animation Archive in Hollywood:
Elements of Fearless Fosdick can be gleaned in Bob Clampett
's classic Warner Bros. cartoon
The Great Piggy Bank Robbery
(1946), as when avid "fan" Daffy Duck
makes a panicked dash to the mailbox to retrieve the latest comic book, just like Li'l Abner often did. Later, after Daffy portrays his alter ego
"Duck Twacy" in a manic nightmare sequence (complete with bullet-riddled corpses and "impossible" villains with names like "Jukebox Jaw," "Pickle Puss," "88 Teeth" and "Neon Noodle"), he "wakes up" in a rural, Dogpatch-like setting—on a pig farm.
Cartoonist/illustrator Frank Cho
, a Li'l Abner fan, occasionally references Fearless Fosdick in his comic strip Liberty Meadows
in the guise of "Fearless Detective Richard Stacey." Fosdick has also turned up in Zippy the Pinhead
by Bill Griffith. Johnny Hart
, creator of B.C.
and The Wizard of Id
, also cited Fearless Fosdick as one of his early inspirations. Comedian Chuck McCann
portrayed a decidedly Fosdick-like Dick Tracy parody character, complete with stage makeup, named "Detective Dick H. Dump of Bunko Squad" on his irreverent WNEW-TV kids show in the sixties.
. All titles are by Al Capp:
Fosdick also appears sporadically, but memorably, in:
Among Fosdick's initial appearances in Li'l Abner are:
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
of Chester Gould's Dick Tracy
Dick Tracy
Dick Tracy is a comic strip featuring Dick Tracy, a hard-hitting, fast-shooting and intelligent police detective. Created by Chester Gould, the strip made its debut on October 4, 1931, in the Detroit Mirror. It was distributed by the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate...
. It appeared intermittently as a strip-within-a-strip, in Al Capp
Al Capp
Alfred Gerald Caplin , better known as Al Capp, was an American cartoonist and humorist best known for the satirical comic strip Li'l Abner. He also wrote the comic strips Abbie an' Slats and Long Sam...
's satirical hillbilly
Hillbilly
Hillbilly is a term referring to certain people who dwell in rural, mountainous areas of the United States, primarily Appalachia but also the Ozarks. Owing to its strongly stereotypical connotations, the term is frequently considered derogatory, and so is usually offensive to those Americans of...
comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
, Li'l Abner
Li'l Abner
Li'l Abner is a satirical American comic strip that appeared in many newspapers in the United States, Canada and Europe, featuring a fictional clan of hillbillies in the impoverished town of Dogpatch, Kentucky. Written and drawn by Al Capp , the strip ran for 43 years, from August 13, 1934 through...
(1934–1977).
Li'l Abner's "ideel"
Fearless Fosdick made his debut in an August 1942 Li'l Abner Sunday sequence, as the unflappable comic bookComic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
idol of Abner's (and of every other "100% red-blooded American boy!") An object of undying hero worship
Apotheosis
Apotheosis is the glorification of a subject to divine level. The term has meanings in theology, where it refers to a belief, and in art, where it refers to a genre.In theology, the term apotheosis refers to the idea that an individual has been raised to godlike stature...
, hayseed Abner mindlessly aped his role model—even going so far as submitting to marriage against his will.
Cartoonist
Cartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
Al Capp (1909–1979) would often use Li'l Abner continuity as a narrative framing device, bookending the offbeat Fosdick sequences. Abner himself serves as a rustic Greek chorus
Greek chorus
A Greek chorus is a homogenous, non-individualised group of performers in the plays of classical Greece, who comment with a collective voice on the dramatic action....
—to introduce, comment upon and (sometimes) comically sum up the Fosdick stories. Typically, an anxious Abner would race frantically to the mailbox or to the train delivering the morning newspapers, to get a glimpse of the latest cliffhanger
Cliffhanger
A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma, or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode of serialized fiction...
episode. The next panel would reveal Abner's POV
Point of view shot
A point of view shot is a short film scene that shows what a character is looking at . It is usually established by being positioned between a shot of a character looking at something, and a shot showing the character's reaction...
of the feature under an iconic logo
Logo
A logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition...
: Fearless Fosdick by Lester Gooch. Subsequent installments would reinforce Abner's obsessive immersion in the unfolding Fosdick continuity while at the same time recapping the story-within-a-story. While oblivious to the surrounding "real" world (e.g., walking off a cliff or into the path of an oncoming train, or inadvertently ignoring one of Daisy Mae's perilous predicaments), Abner would be, as ever, fully engrossed in the Fosdick adventure. Eventually, Capp would dispense with Abner's introductory panels altogether, and the strip would carry a subheading reminding readers they were now reading Li'l Abner's "ideel," Fearless Fosdick.
Occasionally Fosdick's adventures would directly affect what happened to Abner, and the two storylines would artfully converge. The story-within-a-story often ironically paralleled and/or parodied the story itself. Also, by having the comically obtuse Abner “explain” the strip to Daisy Mae, Capp would use Fearless Fosdick to self-reflexively comment upon his own strip, his readers, and the nature of comic strips and "fandom" in general, resulting in an absurd but overall structurally complex and layered satire.
Setting and themes
Fearless Fosdick is set in an unnamed, crime-infested American metropolis similar to ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. Its urban setting stands in stark contrast with Li'l Abners rural Dogpatch
Dogpatch
Dogpatch was the fictional setting of cartoonist Al Capp's classic comic strip, Li'l Abner .In Capp's own words, Dogpatch was "an average stone-age community nestled in a bleak valley, between two cheap and uninteresting hills somewhere." The inhabitants were mostly lazy hillbillies, who usually...
. Fosdick lives in squalor at the dilapidated boarding house run by his dour, pitiless landlady, Mrs. Flintnose. He never married his own long-suffering fiancée Prudence (ugh!) Pimpleton, but Fosdick was directly responsible for one of the seminal events of the strip—the famous marriage of his biggest fan, Li'l Abner, to Daisy Mae in 1952.
As the only grownup member of the local Fearless Fosdick kiddie fan club
Fan club
A fan club is a group that is dedicated to a well-known person, group, idea or sometimes even an inanimate object . Most fan clubs are run by fans who devote considerable time and resources to supporting them. There are also "official" fan clubs that are run by someone associated with the person...
, Abner had unwittingly vowed to do everything Fosdick does, not realizing that Fosdick's comic strip marriage was only a dream. (Ironically, Abner had previously told Daisy Mae that cartoonists often employ plot contrivances like dream sequences and impending weddings as sucker bait, to fool their gullible readers!)
In addition to being fearless, Fosdick is "pure, underpaid and purposeful," according to his creator. "Fearless is without doubt the world's most idiotic detective. He shoots people for their own good, is pure beyond imagining, and is fanatically loyal to a police department which exploits, starves and periodically fires him," Capp told Pageant
Pageant (magazine)
Pageant was a 20th-century monthly magazine published in the United States from November 1944 until February 1977. Printed in a digest size format, it became Coronet magazine's leading competition, although it aimed for comparison to Reader's Digest....
magazine in May 1952. Although Fosdick is the hero of all red-blooded American boys, Daisy Mae detests him with venomous passion. All throughout Li'l Abner, the neglected Daisy Mae finds herself in the ironic position of being jealous of a "stoopid comical strip character!" When Capp was asked (in a Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
interview conducted by Alvin Toffler
Alvin Toffler
Alvin Toffler is an American writer and futurist, known for his works discussing the digital revolution, communication revolution, corporate revolution and technological singularity....
in 1965) about the specific gender makeup of his readers, he responded by using Fosdick as an example of the (perceived) inherent differences between the male and female sense of humor:
Although Fearless Fosdick began as a specific burlesque of Dick Tracy, it eventually grew beyond mere parody and developed its own distinctive, self-contained comic identity. Like all of Capp's creations, Fosdick gradually evolved into a broad, multileveled satire
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
of contemporary American society
Society
A society, or a human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations...
. Mixing equal parts slapstick
Slapstick
Slapstick is a type of comedy involving exaggerated violence and activities which may exceed the boundaries of common sense.- Origins :The phrase comes from the batacchio or bataccio — called the 'slap stick' in English — a club-like object composed of two wooden slats used in Commedia dell'arte...
, black humor, irony
Irony
Irony is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or situation in which there is a sharp incongruity or discordance that goes beyond the simple and evident intention of words or actions...
, and biting social criticism
Social commentary
Social commentary is the act of rebelling against an individual, or a group of people by rhetorical means, or commentary on social issues or society...
, Fearless Fosdick provided a running commentary on, among other things: the lowly lives of policemen, the capriciousness of the general public, and the thankless role of society's "heroes"—as well as the superficiality of modern pop culture and the compulsive nature of its avid fans. Capp would return to these themes again and again in Fearless Fosdick.
Supporting characters and villains
Fearless Fosdick soon developed its own regular supporting cast, separate from Li'l Abner and the rest of the DogpatchDogpatch
Dogpatch was the fictional setting of cartoonist Al Capp's classic comic strip, Li'l Abner .In Capp's own words, Dogpatch was "an average stone-age community nestled in a bleak valley, between two cheap and uninteresting hills somewhere." The inhabitants were mostly lazy hillbillies, who usually...
characters. Joining Fosdick's intermittent adventures were:
- The Chief - Fosdick's bloated, abusive and cheerfully corrupt superior.
- Prudence (ugh!) Pimpleton - Fosdick's homely, long-suffering fiancée (formerly known as "Bess Backache." Both names were a direct parody of Dick Tracy's sweetheart, Tess Trueheart.) They were perpetually "engaged for 17 years," throughout the entire 35-year run of Fearless Fosdick.
- Mr. and Mrs. Pimpleton - Prudence's frustrated parents, who were miffed about feeding the freeloading Fosdick.
- Mrs. Flintnose - Fosdick's mercenary, hatchet-faced landlady.
- Cousin Sebastian - The Chief's idiot relation, who periodically replaces Fosdick on the police force.
- Lester Gooch - Supposedly Fosdick's cartoonist "creator"—a broadly-drawn caricature of real-life Dick Tracy creator Chester Gould. The chronically overworked Gooch battles both his venal, exploitative comic strip syndicate and occasional bouts of temporary insanity. His mental lapses necessitate frequent visits to an insane asylum, complete with straitjacket and rubber room—from whence his most demented, diabolical plots would emerge, (much to the delight of his rabid fans).
The early strips referred to grotesque Dick Tracy-inspired public enemies
Public Enemy
Public Enemy is an American hip hop group consisting of Chuck D, Flavor Flav, Professor Griff and his S1W group, DJ Lord , and Music Director Khari Wynn...
with absurdly satirical names like "Banana Face," "Spinach Face" and "Hamburger Face." (One villain, "Carrot Top," could not be tracked by bloodhounds, as he had no blood. His head was a genuine carrot. But Fosdick tracks him to his doom—with a rabbit.) Over the years, other nemeses
Archenemy
An archenemy, archfoe, archvillain or archnemesis is the principal enemy of a character in a work of fiction, often described as the hero's worst enemy .- Etymology :The word archenemy or arch-enemy originated...
included:
- Bomb Face - Criminal gang leader with a cannonball bomb for a head (see excerpt), who tries to kill Fosdick by igniting his own fuse. Fosdick turns the tables on him—literally, causing the detonating Bomb Face to incinerate his own gang. (The original artwork for this Li'l Abner Sunday sequence, dated 30 May 1943, is currently housed at the Library of CongressLibrary of CongressThe Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
in the Caroline and Erwin Swann Collection.) - Stone Face - A supposedly fictional comic strip character who unexpectedly turns out to be "real," threatening and tormenting Fosdick cartoonist Lester Gooch (1943). His solid graniteGraniteGranite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
head proves to be no match for Li'l Abner's, however. - Rattop - A particularly heinous villain, with a mouse head (1944).
- "The Hat" - A headless killer who wears a wide-brimmed yellow StetsonStetsonStetsons are the brand of hat manufactured by the John B. Stetson Company of St. Joseph, Missouri.Stetson eventually became the world’s largest hat maker, producing over 3.3 million hats a year in a factory spread over . Today Stetson remains a family-owned concern...
atop his shoulders, concealing his empty collar. He could not be executed, since his homicidal crimes are all "hanging" offenses (1945). He's finally undone when Fosdick tricks him into crossing state lines—where the method of execution is by electric chairElectric chairExecution by electrocution, usually performed using an electric chair, is an execution method originating in the United States in which the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes placed on the body...
. - Anyface - A diabolical master of disguise (1947)—albeit with slovenly personal grooming habits. (This episode ends in an unresolved cliffhangerCliffhangerA cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma, or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode of serialized fiction...
when a feverish Lester Gooch suddenly becomes "sane," and abandons the storyline—much to Abner's frustration. Capp invited readers to submit their own solutions in a nationwide, promotional mail-in contest.) Anyface was later utilized as an all-purpose villain in a series of print ads featuring Fosdick, produced for Wildroot Cream-Oil hair tonic, (see Licensing and promotion). - "Fearful" Fosdick (aka "The Original") - Fosdick's own dastardly, turncoatTurncoatA turncoat is a person who shifts allegiance from one loyalty or ideal to another, betraying or deserting an original cause by switching to the opposing side or party...
father (1948). The senior Fosdick, a former policeman-turned-criminal mastermind, is one of only a handful of recurring Fosdick villains. - The Chippendale Chair - A murderously evil piece of furniture (1948). Fosdick admonishes it, "You're going to get the chairElectric chairExecution by electrocution, usually performed using an electric chair, is an execution method originating in the United States in which the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes placed on the body...
, Chair!" (This character was likely the inspiration for Chairface Chippendale, a perennial foe of parodic superhero The TickThe TickThe Tick is a fictional character created by cartoonist Ben Edlund in 1986 as a newsletter mascot for the New England Comics chain of Boston area comic stores. He is an absurdist spoof of comic book superheroes. After its creation, the character spun off into an independent comic book series in...
.) - Elmer Schlmpf - The product-tampering urban terrorist from "The Case of the Poisoned Beans" who is beyond the reach of the law—being already dead (1950).
- The Atom Bum - A vagrant tramp on an escalating crime spree, loaded with radioactive plutoniumPlutoniumPlutonium is a transuranic radioactive chemical element with the chemical symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, forming a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four oxidation...
—and thus deadly if he's so much as jarred (1951). - Sidney the Crooked Parrot - Fosdick's own mutinous, criminally insane house pet (1953).
- Nelson Shrinkafeller - The mysterious Jivaro Jungle headshrinkerShrunken headA shrunken head is a severed and specially prepared human head that is used for trophy, ritual, or trade purposes.Headhunting occurred in many regions of the world. But the practice of headshrinking has only ever been recorded in the northwestern region of the Amazon rain forest...
(1959). His moniker was a takeoff on then-New York governor (and future vice president) Nelson RockefellerNelson RockefellerNelson Aldrich Rockefeller was the 41st Vice President of the United States , serving under President Gerald Ford, and the 49th Governor of New York , as well as serving the Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower administrations in a variety of positions...
. - "E.D.S." - The robotic "Electronic Detective Substitute," which managed to rack up even more collateral damage than Fosdick (1961).
- Frank Nutsy (aka "The Enforcer") - Mobster boss of "The Unteachables," a parody of both TV's The UntouchablesThe Untouchables (1959 TV series)The Untouchables is an American crime drama that ran from 1959 to 1963 on ABC. Based on the memoir of the same name by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley, it fictionalized the experiences of Eliot Ness, a real-life Prohibition agent, as he fought crime in Chicago during the 1930s with the help of a...
and real-life Al CaponeAl CaponeAlphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone was an American gangster who led a Prohibition-era crime syndicate. The Chicago Outfit, which subsequently became known as the "Capones", was dedicated to smuggling and bootlegging liquor, and other illegal activities such as prostitution, in Chicago from the early...
henchman Frank NittiFrank NittiFrancesco Raffaele Nitto , also known as Frank "The Enforcer" Nitti, was an Italian American gangster. One of Al Capone's top henchmen, Nitti was in charge of all strong-arm and 'muscle' operations...
. Nutsy bribes everyone in Fosdick's hometown of Honesty, Indiana into falsely declaring Fosdick 65-years old—and thus prematurely retired from the force (1961). - Boldfinger - Disguised as master spy "James Bumm," Fosdick pursues an arch-criminal with a forefinger that can pierce solid steel, and breath as hypnotically sweet as poppy blossoms (1965).
- Babyface - Halfpint killer and racketeer with an incongruously angelic face (1972). Disguised as a child, he passed as an adorable 7-year-old and stole the world's rarest jewel, the "Keeler RubyRuby KeelerRuby Keeler, born Ethel Hilda Keeler, was an actress, singer, and dancer most famous for her on-screen coupling with Dick Powell in a string of successful early musicals at Warner Brothers, particularly 42nd Street . From 1928 to 1940, she was married to singer Al Jolson...
."
The "hole" story
Fosdick is so tough that on the rare occasions he isn't wearing his black suit, he pins his badge to his bare chest. The ramped-up comic violence depicted in Fearless Fosdick is (usually) bloodless, over-the-top and deliberately surrealSurrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
. Perpetually ventilated by flying bullets, an iconic Fosdick trademark
Trademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
was the "Swiss cheese
Swiss cheese
Swiss cheese is a generic name in North America for several related varieties of cheese which resemble the Swiss Emmental. Some types of Swiss cheese have a distinctive appearance, as the blocks of the cheese are riddled with holes known as "eyes". Swiss cheese has a piquant, but not very sharp,...
look"—with smoking bullet holes revealing his truly two-dimensional cartoon construction. The impervious detective considers the gaping holes "minor scratches" or "mere flesh wounds" however, and always reports back in one piece for duty the next day. (When the Chief once said, "Fosdick! We thought you were dead!" Fosdick replied, "I was—but it didn't prove fatal. Only a mild case.")
Virtually indestructible, Fosdick's famous iron-jawed profile adorned both Consolidated
Consolidated Aircraft
The Consolidated Aircraft Corporation was founded in 1923 by Reuben H. Fleet, the result of the Gallaudet Aircraft Company's liquidation and Fleet's purchase of designs from the Dayton-Wright Company as the subsidiary was being closed by its parent corporation, General Motors. Consolidated became...
B-24 Liberator and Boeing
Boeing
The Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...
B-17 Flying Fortress bomber aircraft during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, joining the other Li'l Abner-inspired wartime nose art
Nose art
Nose art is a decorative painting or design on the fuselage of a military aircraft, usually located near the nose, and is a form of aircraft graffiti....
mascots—Earthquake McGoon, Moonbeam McSwine, Daisy Mae, Lonesome Polecat, Hairless Joe, Silent Yokum, Sadie Hawkins and Wolf Gal.
Fosdick has notoriously bad aim and even worse judgment. Oblivious to more obvious felonies being committed in broad daylight in the background (such as murders, assaults and bank robberies), Fosdick would bypass them to shoot someone who walked on the grass, or sold balloons without a license.
Gullible, inept and impossibly dense, he regularly shoots dozens of innocent bystanders and apprehends the wrong individuals—while the real criminals go free. A darkly comic running gag
Running gag
A running gag, or running joke, is a literary device that takes the form of an amusing joke or a comical reference and appears repeatedly throughout a work of literature or other form of storytelling....
in the series is the stoic, stone-faced image of a determined Fosdick standing amidst a still-smoking pile of bullet-riddled pedestrians—the inevitable collateral damage
Collateral damage
Collateral damage is damage to people or property that is unintended or incidental to the intended outcome. The phrase is prevalently used as an euphemism for civilian casualties of a military action.-Etymology:...
of any Fosdick crimefighting endeavor. "When Fosdick is after a lawbreaker, there is no escape for the miscreant," wrote Capp in the introduction to Al Capp's Fearless Fosdick: His Life and Deaths (1956). "There is, however, a fighting chance to escape for hundreds of innocent bystanders who happen to be in the neighborhood—but only a fighting chance. Fosdick's duty, as he sees it, is not so much to maintain safety as to destroy crime, and it's too much to ask any law-enforcement officer to do both, I suppose."
Perennially underpaid at $22.50 per week (a running gag in the strip has Fosdick getting rehired after being fired from the force. He has to start over again at an apprentice rate, which is half his regular onerous salary), public servant Fosdick is duty-bound and literal-minded to the point of being a public menace to the citizens he is sworn to protect. Typically guileless Fosdick logic occurs in "The Case of the Poisoned Beans" (1950), a quintessential Fearless Fosdick continuity. In the story, the ever-vigilant detective goes about town shooting anyone he sees eating "Old Faithful" brand beans in an attempt to prevent them from consuming a toxic can he knows to have been tampered with. Throughout the story, the absurdity continues to mount—along with the astronomical body count
Body count
A body count is the total number of people killed in a particular event. In combat, a body count is often based on the number of confirmed kills, but occasionally only an estimate.-Military use:...
—to its outlandish (and characteristically sardonic) dénouement.
No one is spared Capp's merciless satire in "The Case of the Poisoned Beans"—from the venality of the justice system to the crookedness of a complicit media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
(which refuses to air public safety warnings for fear of offending its sponsor, Old Faithful Beans); from the corruption of big business to the fickleness and stupidity of a complacent public. The diabolical plot, which concerns urban terrorism and product tampering, presaged the 1982 Tylenol
1982 Chicago Tylenol murders
The Chicago Tylenol murders occurred when seven people died after taking pain-relief medicine capsules that had been poisoned. The poisonings, code-named TYMURS by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, took place in late 1982 in the Chicago area of the United States.These poisonings involved...
case by more than 30 years.
"Capp makes Fosdick's police brutality acceptable, even funny, because Fosdick acts out of misguided goodness. He is, like Abner, an innocent," wrote Max Allan Collins in 1990. He's also a victim of the system himself. According to Capp, "Fosdick is underpaid only in terms of money. His superiors and his community are lavish with things worth more than money, such as hollow praise and chances to risk his life." Capp dedicated a book of reprinted Fosdick continuities to "all underpaid cops, because there are no other kind."
Chester Gould's reaction
Newspaper editors began clamoring for Fosdick to star in his own strip, something Capp briefly considered. Chester Gould, the creator of Dick Tracy, reportedly did not find Capp’s parody particularly funny. This isn't surprising, since Fearless Fosdick lampoons every aspect of Dick Tracy, all grossly exaggerated for comic effect, from Fosdick's impossibly square-jawed profile to his propensity for creating mayhem beyond all reason. The style of the Fosdick sequences closely mimics Tracy—including the urban setting, the outrageously grotesque villains, the galloping mortality rateMortality rate
Mortality rate is a measure of the number of deaths in a population, scaled to the size of that population, per unit time...
, the thick square panels, the crosshatched shadows, and even the lettering style.
Gould was also probably less than enamored of his own unflattering portrayal in the character of Fosdick's "creator," the diminutive and occasionally mentally deranged cartoonist Lester Gooch. (Even Gooch's bogus "autograph" in the panels of Fearless Fosdick is a parody, a direct takeoff of Gould's own famously flamboyant signature.) Gooch toiled for the abusive and corrupt "Squeezeblood Syndicate," a dig at Capp's own real-life syndicate, United Features
United Media
United Media is a large editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States, owned by The E.W. Scripps Company. It syndicates 150 comics and editorial columns worldwide. Its core business is the United Feature Syndicate and the Newspaper Enterprise Association...
, which owned Li'l Abner until Capp successfully wrested back ownership in 1948.
Whatever Capp really thought of Dick Tracy, he always went out of his way to praise Gould and his strip in conversation and in print, invariably referring to it as "Chester Gould's magnificent Dick Tracy." In The World of Li'l Abner (1953), Capp even credited Dick Tracy (along with Little Orphan Annie) with directly influencing Abner, prompting his early decision to add suspense
Suspense
Suspense is a feeling of uncertainty and anxiety about the outcome of certain actions, most often referring to an audience's perceptions in a dramatic work. Suspense is not exclusive to fiction, though. Suspense may operate in any situation where there is a lead-up to a big event or dramatic...
to the humorous feature. "The greatest tribute paid to Chester Gould by another famous comic strip artist and storyteller and his creation was, of course, Al Capp's Fearless Fosdick," wrote author and Dick Tracy expert Garyn G. Roberts in 1993. "In short, Fearless Fosdick was a great deal of fun, but must be taken seriously as a loving tribute to Chester Gould and Dick Tracy."
To his great credit, Gould never publicly objected to Fearless Fosdick, or made any attempt to interfere with Capp's continuing the feature during the 35 years in which it appeared. Gould and Capp met only once, according to Capp (interviewed in Cartoonist PROfiles #37, March 1978). It was reportedly a friendly meeting, and Gould took the occasion to thank Capp for doing what he called "full-time press agentry for another comic strip." Capp readily agreed. Unlike Gould, Max Allan Collins
Max Allan Collins
Max Allan Collins is an American mystery writer. He has written novels, screenplays, comic books, comic strips, trading cards, short stories, movie novelizations and historical fiction. He wrote the graphic novel Road to Perdition , created the comic book private eye Ms...
, who took over the helm of Dick Tracy when Gould retired, thoroughly enjoyed Fearless Fosdick and even wrote an appreciative foreword to a recently published collection of Fosdick cartoons.
Besides Dick Tracy, Capp spoofed many other comic strips in Li'l Abner, including Steve Canyon
Steve Canyon
Steve Canyon was a long-running American adventure comic strip by writer-artist Milton Caniff. Launched shortly after Caniff retired from his previous strip, Terry and the Pirates, Steve Canyon ran from January 13, 1947 until June 4, 1988, shortly after Caniff's death...
, Superman
Superman (comic strip)
Superman was a daily newspaper comic strip which began on January 16, 1939, and a separate Sunday strip was added on November 5, 1939. These strips ran continuously until May 1966. In 1941, the McClure Syndicate had placed the strip in hundreds of newspapers...
(at least twice; first as "Jack Jawbreaker!" in 1947 and again in 1966 as "Chickensouperman!"), Mary Worth, Peanuts, Rex Morgan, M.D.
Rex Morgan, M.D.
Rex Morgan, M.D. is an American soap-opera comic strip, created in 1948 by psychiatrist Dr. Nicholas P. Dallis under the pseudonym Dal Curtis. It maintained a readership well over a half-century, and in 2006 it was published in more than 300 U.S. newspapers and 14 foreign countries, according to...
, Little Annie Rooney
Little Annie Rooney
Little Annie Rooney was a comic strip about a young orphaned girl who traveled about with her dog, Zero. King Features Syndicate launched the strip on January 10, 1927, not long after it was apparent that the Chicago Tribune Syndicate had scored a huge hit with Little Orphan Annie.Although the King...
, and Little Orphan Annie
Little Orphan Annie
Little Orphan Annie was a daily American comic strip created by Harold Gray and syndicated by Tribune Media Services. The strip took its name from the 1885 poem "Little Orphant Annie" by James Whitcomb Riley, and made its debut on August 5, 1924 in the New York Daily News...
. Although they proved fertile sources of parody—most memorably "Little Fanny Gooney" (1952), "Rex Moonlight, M.D." (1956),"Steve Cantor" and "Mary Worm" (1957)—no other strip seemed to provide Capp with the same bottomless well of inspiration as Dick Tracy. Later comic strip parodies were mostly one-shot affairs. They never achieved quite the same degree of repeat success or sustained popularity as Fearless Fosdick.
Fearless Fosdick TV show
Fearless Fosdick proved popular enough to be incorporated into a short-lived televisionTelevision
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
program in the early 1950s. A puppet show based on Fosdick premiered on NBC-TV on Sunday afternoons, and even made the cover of TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
for the week of October 17, 1952. (The TV show also sparked the permanent switch in the strip from Fosdick's early Dick Tracy fedora to his later trademark bowler hat
Bowler hat
The bowler hat, also known as a coke hat, derby , billycock or bombin, is a hard felt hat with a rounded crown originally created in 1849 for the English soldier and politician Edward Coke, the younger brother of the 2nd Earl of Leicester...
, when Capp felt the three-dimensional puppet looked too close for comfort to the genuine article.) Created for television and directed by puppeteer
Puppeteer
A puppeteer is a person who manipulates an inanimate object, such as a puppet, in real time to create the illusion of life. The puppeteer may be visible to or hidden from the audience. A puppeteer can operate a puppet indirectly by the use of strings, rods, wires, electronics or directly by his or...
Mary Chase, Fearless Fosdick was written by Everett Crosby and voiced by John Griggs, Gilbert Mack, and Jean Carson
Jean Carson
Jean Carson was an American stage, film and television actress best known for her work on the classic 1960s sitcom The Andy Griffith Show as one of the "fun girls".-Biography:Born to Alexander W...
. The storylines and villains were mostly separate from the comic strip and unique to the show. Thirteen episodes were produced featuring the Mary Chase marionettes. Presumed lost for many years, vintage kinescopes of the show have reportedly begun to resurface. (According to publisher Denis Kitchen
Denis Kitchen
Denis Kitchen is an American underground cartoonist, publisher, author, and agent from Wisconsin, and the founder of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.-Early life:...
: "There are currently efforts underway to release these exceedingly rare Fosdick episodes on a set of DVDs. Stay tuned...") Two of the half-hour episodes (The Haunted House and Lonely Hearts) are housed at the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
, in the J. Fred and Leslie W. MacDonald Collection.
- The Haunted House - aired June 15, 1952
- Lonely Hearts - aired June 22, 1952
- The Onion Ring - aired July 6, 1952
- Mr. Ditto - aired July 13, 1952
- Match Head - aired July 20, 1952
- Frank N. Stein - aired July 27, 1952
- The Frog Man - aired August 3, 1952
- Swenn Golly - aired August 10, 1952
- The Suit - aired August 17, 1952
- The Ice Man - aired August 24, 1952
- Evil-Eye Fleegle - aired August 31, 1952
- The Sleep Walker - aired September 7, 1952
- Batula - aired September 14, 1952
Wildroot Cream-Oil
Fosdick was also licensed for use outside the strip in an advertising campaignAdvertising campaign
An advertising campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication...
for Wildroot Cream-Oil, a popular men's hair tonic of the postwar period. Fosdick's image on tin signs and counter displays became a prominent fixture in barbershops across America in the late 1940s through the mid 1950s, as well as in animated TV commercials. A long-running series of print ads appeared in newspapers, national magazines (such as Life, Boys' Life
Boys' Life
Boys' Life is the monthly magazine of the Boy Scouts of America . Its targeted readership is young American males between the ages of 6 and 18.Boys' Life is published in two demographic editions...
, and Argosy), and comic books (including Archie Comics
Archie Comics
Archie Comics is an American comic book publisher headquartered in the Village of Mamaroneck, Town of Mamaroneck, New York, known for its many series featuring the fictional teenagers Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Reggie Mantle and Jughead Jones. The characters were created by...
, Gang Busters
Gang Busters
Gang Busters was an American dramatic radio program heralded as "the only national program that brings you authentic police case histories." It premiered as G-Men, sponsored by Chevrolet, on July 20, 1935.-History:...
, All-Star Western
All-Star Western
All-Star Western was the name of three American comic book series published by DC Comics, each a Western fiction omnibus featuring both continuing characters and anthological stories. The first ran from 1951 to 1961, the second from 1970 to 1972 and the third is part of the DC New 52 released in...
, Casper the Friendly Ghost
Casper the Friendly Ghost
Casper the Friendly Ghost is the protagonist of the Famous Studios theatrical animated cartoon series of the same name. As his name indicates, he is a ghost, but is quite personable...
, Mystery in Space
Mystery in Space
Mystery in Space is the name of two science fiction comic book series published in the United States by DC Comics, then known as National Comics. The first series ran for 110 issues from 1951 - 1966, with a further 7 issues continuing the numbering during a 1980s revival of the title...
, House of Mystery
House of Mystery
The House of Mystery is the name of several horror-mystery-suspense anthology comic book series. It had a companion series, House of Secrets.-Genesis:...
, All-American Men of War, and The Adventures of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis). Scores of comic strip-format ads were produced, usually featuring Fosdick's farcical triumphs over his archvillain nemesis "Anyface." Anyface was a murderous, shape-shifting scoundrel whose plastic facial features could be molded into any identity—or any animal, object or appliance. (However, he was always given away in the last panels by his telltale dandruff
Dandruff
Dandruff is the shedding of dead skin cells from the scalp . Dandruff is sometimes caused by frequent exposure to extreme heat and cold. As it is normal for skin cells to die and flake off, a small amount of flaking is normal and common; about 487,000 cells/cm2 get released normally after...
and messy, unkempt hair.) The ads would invariably end with Fosdick advising readers to "Get Wildroot Cream-Oil, Charlie!"
Jingle
A jingle is a short tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. The jingle contains one or more hooks and lyrics that explicitly promote the product being advertised, usually through the use of one or more advertising slogans. Ad buyers use jingles in radio and television...
, Wildroot Charlie—instantly familiar to radio listeners in the 1950s—was performed by everyone from the Bil Baird
Bil Baird
William Britton Baird , professional name Bil Baird, but often referred to as Bill Baird, was an American puppeteer of the mid- and late 20th century.One of his better known creations was Charlemane the lion...
puppets to Nat King Cole
Nat King Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres...
, who once sang it on Woody Herman
Woody Herman
Woodrow Charles Herman , known as Woody Herman, was an American jazz clarinetist, alto and soprano saxophonist, singer, and big band leader. Leading various groups called "The Herd," Herman was one of the most popular of the 1930s and '40s bandleaders...
's radio program:
- Get Wildroot Cream-Oil, Charlie!
- It keeps your hair in trim
- Y'see it's non-alcoholic, Charlie
- It's made with soothing lanolin!
- You'd better get Wildroot Cream-Oil, Charlie!
- Start using it today
- You'll find that you'll have a tough time, Charlie
- Keeping all those gals away!
Although Li'l Abner was heavily merchandised in the 1940s and 1950s (especially the Shmoo
Shmoo
A shmoo is a fictional cartoon creature. Created by Al Capp , it first appeared in his classic comic strip Li'l Abner on August 31, 1948, and quickly became a postwar national craze in the USA....
), Fosdick products are relatively rare and highly valued by collectors. There was a rubber Halloween
Halloween
Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...
mask manufactured by Topstone, and a chalkware statue of the character was issued by Artrix Products in 1951. Various Wildroot tie-ins and giveaways also appeared, such as window decals, matchbook covers, and collegiate book jackets. More recently, Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...
issued a limited edition Fearless Fosdick statue in 2001 (complete with a cannonball-sized hole through his midsection), #17 in their line of Classic Comic Characters figures. Various nostalgic reproductions of Wildroot advertising tin signs have also been recently available.
Influence and legacy
Fearless Fosdick was almost certainly Harvey KurtzmanHarvey Kurtzman
Harvey Kurtzman was an American cartoonist and the editor of several comic books and magazines. Kurtzman often signed his name H. Kurtz, followed by a stick figure Harvey Kurtzman (October 3, 1924, Brooklyn, New York – February 21, 1993) was an American cartoonist and the editor of several comic...
's major inspiration for creating his irreverent Mad magazine, which began in 1952 as a comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
that specifically parodied other comic books and strips in a similar style and similarly subversive manner. By the time EC Comics
EC Comics
Entertaining Comics, more commonly known as EC Comics, was an American publisher of comic books specializing in horror fiction, crime fiction, satire, military fiction and science fiction from the 1940s through the mid-1950s, notably the Tales from the Crypt series...
published Mad #1, Capp had been doing Fearless Fosdick for nearly a decade. Parallels between Li'l Abner and the early Mad are unmistakable: the incongruous use of mock-Yiddish slang
Slang
Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...
terms, the nose-thumbing disdain for pop cultural icons, the rampant and pervasive sick humor
Sick comedy
Sick comedy was a pejorative term for some comedy, that was made up by the mainstream weeklies Time and Life to attack the new satire that was affirming in the United States in the late 50s. The mainstream comic taste in the United States until the 50s was mostly based on more innocuous forms, like...
, the pointedly subversive tone, the total disregard for sentiment and the extremely broad visual styling. Even the trademark comic signs that clutter the backdrops of Will Elder
Will Elder
William Elder was an American illustrator and comic book artist who worked in numerous areas of commercial art, but is best known for a zany cartoon style that helped launch Harvey Kurtzman's Mad comic book in 1952....
's panels would seem to have a precedent in Li'l Abner, in the headquarters of Dogpatch entrepreneur Available Jones. Tellingly, Kurtzman resisted parodying either Li'l Abner or Dick Tracy in the comic book Mad, despite their prominence. (Both Li'l Abner and Dick Tracy were later satirized in EC's Panic, "the only authorized imitation of Mad," edited by Al Feldstein
Al Feldstein
Albert B. Feldstein is an American writer, editor, and artist, best known for his work at EC Comics and, from 1956 to 1985, as the editor of the satirical magazine Mad. Since retiring from Mad, Feldstein has concentrated on American paintings of Western wildlife...
.)
Producer/director Ralph Bakshi
Ralph Bakshi
Ralph Bakshi is an Israeli-American director of animated and live-action films. In the 1970s, he established an alternative to mainstream animation through independent and adult-oriented productions. Between 1972 and 1992, he directed nine theatrically released feature films, five of which he wrote...
worked with Al Capp for a year at Terrytoons
Terrytoons
Terrytoons was an animation studio founded by Paul Terry. The studio, located in suburban New Rochelle, New York, operated from 1929 to 1968. Its most popular characters included Mighty Mouse, Gandy Goose, Sourpuss, Dinky Duck, Deputy Dawg, Luno and Heckle and Jeckle; these cartoons and all of its...
on an unproduced animated cartoon
Animated cartoon
An animated cartoon is a short, hand-drawn film for the cinema, television or computer screen, featuring some kind of story or plot...
adaptation of Fearless Fosdick in the late sixties. Said Bakshi in 2008 at the ASIFA Animation Archive in Hollywood:
Elements of Fearless Fosdick can be gleaned in Bob Clampett
Bob Clampett
Robert Emerson "Bob" Clampett was an American animator, producer, director, and puppeteer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes animated series from Warner Bros., and the television shows Time for Beany and Beany and Cecil...
's classic Warner Bros. cartoon
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
The Great Piggy Bank Robbery
The Great Piggy Bank Robbery
The Great Piggy Bank Robbery is a Warner Brothers Looney Tunes theatrical cartoon short, produced in early 1945, and released in 1946. It was directed by Robert Clampett, and features Daffy Duck in Clampett's penultimate Warner cartoon and final Daffy Duck cartoon, produced shortly before he left...
(1946), as when avid "fan" Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons, often running the gamut between being the best friend and sometimes arch-rival of Bugs Bunny...
makes a panicked dash to the mailbox to retrieve the latest comic book, just like Li'l Abner often did. Later, after Daffy portrays his alter ego
Alter ego
An alter ego is a second self, which is believe to be distinct from a person's normal or original personality. The term was coined in the early nineteenth century when dissociative identity disorder was first described by psychologists...
"Duck Twacy" in a manic nightmare sequence (complete with bullet-riddled corpses and "impossible" villains with names like "Jukebox Jaw," "Pickle Puss," "88 Teeth" and "Neon Noodle"), he "wakes up" in a rural, Dogpatch-like setting—on a pig farm.
Cartoonist/illustrator Frank Cho
Frank Cho
Frank Cho, born Duk Hyun Cho, is a Korean-American comic strip and comic book writer and illustrator, known for his series Liberty Meadows, as well as for books such as Shanna the She-Devil, Mighty Avengers and Hulk for Marvel Comics, and Jungle Girl for Dynamite Entertainment...
, a Li'l Abner fan, occasionally references Fearless Fosdick in his comic strip Liberty Meadows
Liberty Meadows
Liberty Meadows is a comic strip and comic book created, written and illustrated by Frank Cho. It relates the comedic activities of the staff and denizens of the titular animal sanctuary/rehabilitation clinic.-Publication history:...
in the guise of "Fearless Detective Richard Stacey." Fosdick has also turned up in Zippy the Pinhead
Zippy the Pinhead
Zippy is an American comic strip created by Bill Griffith. The character of Zippy the Pinhead initially appeared in underground publications during the 1970s...
by Bill Griffith. Johnny Hart
Johnny Hart
Johnny Hart was an American cartoonist noted as the creator of the comic strip B.C. and co-creator of the strip The Wizard of Id. Hart was recognized with several awards, including the Swedish Adamson Award and five from the National Cartoonists Society...
, creator of B.C.
B.C. (comic strip)
B.C. is a daily American comic strip created by cartoonist Johnny Hart. Set in prehistoric times, it features a group of cavemen and anthropomorphic animals from various geologic eras...
and The Wizard of Id
The Wizard of Id
The Wizard of Id is a daily newspaper comic strip created by American cartoonists Brant Parker and Johnny Hart. Beginning in 1964, the strip follows the antics of a large cast of characters in a shabby medieval kingdom called "Id". From time to time, the king refers to his subjects as "Idiots"...
, also cited Fearless Fosdick as one of his early inspirations. Comedian Chuck McCann
Chuck McCann
Chuck McCann is a film actor, television actor, stage actor, and a voice actor from Brooklyn, New York.-Early career:...
portrayed a decidedly Fosdick-like Dick Tracy parody character, complete with stage makeup, named "Detective Dick H. Dump of Bunko Squad" on his irreverent WNEW-TV kids show in the sixties.
Beyond the strip-within-a-strip
- Fearless Fosdick invaded the 1968 presidential campaign, as DemocraticDemocratic Party (United States)The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
candidate Hubert HumphreyHubert HumphreyHubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr. , served under President Lyndon B. Johnson as the 38th Vice President of the United States. Humphrey twice served as a United States Senator from Minnesota, and served as Democratic Majority Whip. He was a founder of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and...
accused his RepublicanRepublican Party (United States)The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
opponent Richard NixonRichard NixonRichard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
of playing loose with law and order issues. "His [Nixon's] privilege, if he wants to play Fearless Fosdick," said Humphrey.
- Sharp-eyed viewers of Warren BeattyWarren BeattyWarren Beatty born March 30, 1937) is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and director. He has received a total of fourteen Academy Award nominations, winning one for Best Director in 1982. He has also won four Golden Globe Awards including the Cecil B. DeMille Award.-Early life and...
's big screen adaptation of Dick Tracy (1990) will have detected a direct, onscreen homageHomageHomage is a show or demonstration of respect or dedication to someone or something, sometimes by simple declaration but often by some more oblique reference, artistic or poetic....
to Fearless Fosdick. The "opera" Tracy is seen attending when his 2-way wrist radio suddenly calls him to duty is titled "Die Schlmpf" in the end credits—after Elmer Schlmpf, the maniacal (albeit deceased) product-tampering fiend from "The Case of the Poisoned Beans."
- "Fearless Fosdick" is also the title of a jazzJazzJazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
instrumental by Bill HolmanBill Holman (musician)Willis Leonard Holman , known also as Bill Holman, is an American composer/arranger, conductor, saxophonist, and songwriter working primarily in the jazz idiom....
, recorded live by Vic LewisVic LewisVic Lewis was a British jazz guitarist and bandleader.Lewis began playing the guitar at the age of three, and dabbled with cornet and trombone. One of his early bands included George Shearing, then a teenager, among its members...
and His Orchestra with Tubby HayesTubby HayesEdward Brian "Tubby" Hayes was an English jazz multi-instrumentalist, best known for his tenor saxophone playing in groups with fellow sax player Ronnie Scott and with trumpeter Jimmy Deuchar. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest British jazz instrumentalists.- Early life :Hayes was born...
in 1954. Another, unrelated jazz composition, "Fearless Fosdick's Tune," was composed and recorded by Umberto Fiorentino for his Brave Art/Columbia-Sony CD, Things to Come (2002).
- Fearless Fosdick is an example of a metafictional characterMetafictionMetafiction, also known as Romantic irony in the context of Romantic works of literature, is a type of fiction that self-consciously addresses the devices of fiction, exposing the fictional illusion...
—a character who exists in a separate fictional realm within an already fictional universe. Other metafictional (or fictional fictional) characters in modern popular culture include Itchy and Scratchy and The Happy Little Elves, the cartoons-within-a-cartoon in The SimpsonsThe SimpsonsThe Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
, and the science fictionScience fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
"works" of fictional author Kilgore TroutKilgore TroutKilgore Trout is a fictional character created by author Kurt Vonnegut. He was originally created as a fictionalized version of author Theodore Sturgeon , although Trout's consistent presence in Vonnegut's works has also led critics to view him as the author's own alter ego...
, which reappear sporadically within the novels of Kurt VonnegutKurt VonnegutKurt Vonnegut, Jr. was a 20th century American writer. His works such as Cat's Cradle , Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions blend satire, gallows humor and science fiction. He was known for his humanist beliefs and was honorary president of the American Humanist Association.-Early...
.
- The popular Canadian children's novel The Secret World of OgThe Secret World of OgThe Secret World of Og is a children's novel written by Pierre Berton and illustrated by his daughter Patsy. It was first published in 1961 by McClelland and Stewart.This Canadian classic has sold more than 200,000 copies in four editions....
(1961) by Pierre BertonPierre BertonPierre Francis de Marigny Berton, was a noted Canadian author of non-fiction, especially Canadiana and Canadian history, and was a well-known television personality and journalist....
features a cat called "Earless Osdick," because he kept his ears down like the dog he thought he was.
- Fosdick's oft-mentioned weekly salary of $22.50 is a direct reference to Al Capp's own pitiful salary when he was still an anonymous "ghost" on Ham FisherHam FisherHammond Edward Fisher was an American comic strip writer and cartoonist who signed his work Ham Fisher...
's Joe PalookaJoe PalookaJoe Palooka was an American comic strip about a heavyweight boxing champion, created by cartoonist Ham Fisher in 1921. The strip debuted in 1930 and was carried at its peak by 900 newspapers....
, according to Li'l Abner expert Denis Kitchen. Kitchen believes that Fisher was meant to cringe every time the amount was mentioned, as he writes in the notes to Al Capp's Li'l Abner: The Frazetta Years.
- According to The Marx BrothersMarx BrothersThe Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act, originally from New York City, that enjoyed success in Vaudeville, Broadway, and motion pictures from the early 1900s to around 1950...
Scrapbook (1974, Richard J. Anobile, ed.), comedian Harpo MarxHarpo MarxAdolph "Harpo" Marx was an American comedian and film star. He was the second oldest of the Marx Brothers. His comic style was influenced by clown and pantomime traditions. He wore a curly reddish wig, and never spoke during performances...
, a professed Li'l Abner fan, named one of his dogs "Fearless Fosdick" for its extraordinary dauntlessness.
- Comic book writers Marv WolfmanMarv WolfmanMarvin A. "Marv" Wolfman is an award-winning American comic book writer. He is best known for lengthy runs on The Tomb of Dracula, creating Blade for Marvel Comics, and The New Teen Titans for DC Comics.-1960s:...
and Craig Miller developed Fearless Fosdick for a big screen, live-action comedy in the 1990s, but the project to date remains unsold.
Further reading
Representative samplings of Fearless Fosdick have been collected in two comparatively recent reprint anthologies, both published by Kitchen Sink PressKitchen Sink Press
Kitchen Sink Press was a comic book publishing company founded by Denis Kitchen in 1970. Kitchen owned and operated Kitchen Sink Press until 1999. Kitchen Sink Press was a pioneering publisher of underground comics, and was also responsible for numerous republications of classic comic strips in...
. All titles are by Al Capp:
- Al Capp's Li'l Abner #68 - Fearless Fosdick Battles Anyface (January 1949) Toby Press
- Fearless Fosdick and the Case of the Red Feather (1951) Public servicesPublic servicesPublic services is a term usually used to mean services provided by government to its citizens, either directly or by financing private provision of services. The term is associated with a social consensus that certain services should be available to all, regardless of income...
giveaway issued by Red Feather Services, (a forerunner of United Way) - Al Capp's Li'l Abner #95 - Fearless Fosdick Is Back (September 1954) Toby Press
- Al Capp's Fearless Fosdick: His Life and Deaths (1956) Simon & SchusterSimon & SchusterSimon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. It is one of the four largest English-language publishers, alongside Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins...
- Pappagalli e Fagioli di Al Capp (1970) Milano Libri Edizioni
- L'Ossobuco Vivente di Al Capp (1970) Milano Libri Edizioni
- Fearless Fosdick (1990) Kitchen Sink (A new edition of the above 1956 title) ISBN 0878161082
- Fearless Fosdick: The Hole Story (1992) Kitchen Sink ISBN 0878161643
Fosdick also appears sporadically, but memorably, in:
- Pageant Digest - Vol. 7, #11 (May 1952) A 20-page exposé on Fearless Fosdick, with strip excerpts
- The World of Li'l Abner (1953) Farrar, Straus & Young
- Charlie MensuelCharlie MensuelCharlie Mensuel was a French monthly comics magazine. Its publication began in February 1969, and ceased in February 1986.-History:...
#20 (September 1970) A French monthly periodical devoted to comics - Charlie Mensuel #27 (April 1971)
- Charlie Mensuel #115 (August 1978)
- The Best of Li'l Abner (1978) Holt, Rinehart & Winston ISBN 0030455162
- Li'l Abner Dailies - 27 volumes (1988–1998) Kitchen Sink (Fosdick first appears in Vol. 10, ISBN 0878160795)
- The Comics JournalThe Comics JournalThe Comics Journal, often abbreviated TCJ, is an American magazine of news and criticism pertaining to comic books, comic strips and graphic novels...
#141 (April 1991) "Ideelism" in Comics and Law: Li'l Abner's Fearless Fosdick by Kyle Rothweiler - Al Capp's Li'l Abner: The Frazetta Years - 4 volumes (2003–2004) Dark Horse ComicsDark Horse ComicsDark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...
- Li'l Abner: The Complete Dailies and Color Sundays Vol. 4: 1941–1942 (2012) IDW ISBN 1613771231
Among Fosdick's initial appearances in Li'l Abner are:
- Aug. 30, 1942 (first appearance of Fearless Fosdick and Lester Gooch)
- Sept. 6–13, 1942
- Nov. 22–Dec. 6, 1942
- May 30, 1943 (featuring Bomb Face)
- June 6–27, 1943 (featuring Stone Face)
- June 19, 1944 (rejecting the romantic advances of the Countess Wolfina)
- June 28, 1944
- July 12–15, 1944 (featuring Rattop)
- Sept. 2–16, 1945 (featuring "The Hat")
- April 21, 1947
- May 1–31, 1947 (featuring Anyface)
- Jan. 30–March 21, 1948 (featuring the Chippendale Chair)
- July 4–Aug. 29, 1948 (first appearance of Fosdick Sr., "The Original")
- Dec. 25, 1949