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Rating: 
Summary: "Free food for everybody? That's horrible!"
Review: Here collected in one volume are the amazing Li'l Abner strips that featured the shmoo. Most people today still know "the shmoo", but few probably know the origins and original purpose of this whiskered globule. In 1948 and 1959 Al Capp used the eager to please and adorable character to make poingant points about the American landscape. For those who don't know, the shmoos were self-maintaining providers of all of humanity's essentials. Ask a shmoo for milk, milk appears. Ask for a pineapple, and presto. What's better, shmoos don't need to eat and they reproduce so fast rabbits hang their heads in shame. They also taste great and when gazed upon with hunger they fall over dead with happiness. Ready to eat, as if they wanted it that way. When shmoos appear in Dogpatch (the setting of Li'l Abner) people realize that all of their troubles are over. With all of their needs met, the crooked grocer can no longer take them for all they have ("Fo' a whole week ah left yo t'sell our below-standard groceries an' condemned meat - an thar's not a cent in th' till..." - the accent reflects the language of the strip), and business starts to fail horribly. Multinational corporations soon feel the sting. Of course this has ramifications for everyone, especially the shmoos. An amazing satire on American society follows, one that still resonates some fifty years later. Along the way the origin of Sadie Hawkins day also pops out of seemingly nowhere. The strips are still hilarious and pointed half a century after their penning. Harlan Ellison's frenetic introduction elucidates some of the nuances of the strip and the hubbub that was the shmoo in 1948. He literally compares the popularity and fuss made by the shmoo in mainstream American culture to Beatlemania. The quality of these strips doesn't dispute his claim. They're hard to put down once looked upon, and they probably won't date anytime soon. A good introduction to Li'l Abner and a piece of American pop culture.
Rating:
Summary: I Hears That Beautiful Mooosic again...
Review: I've been aware of Li'l Abner since I was a kid. One of the things that I used to share with my father was a love for the citizens of Dogpatch and how their little backwoods town became a microcosm of our big ol' USA. Al Capp was a genius satirist and the SHMOO was his greatest creation. A rapidly procreating creature who gave you all of life's staples: eggs, milk, (even a birthday cake for an unsuspecting policeman!)... and if you looked at the shmoo hungrily, the little creature dropped dead with sheer delight. Broiled they taste like chicken, baked like fish and the finest steak when cooked over an open flame. Why, their little eyes even made the finest suspender buttons! The only problem is, that when you have everything that you want, you don't have to work anymore. And this throws the powers-that-be (government, big business) into a righteous tizzy. So the Big Boys decide to wipe out the Shmoo and go on a mission to brainwash the citizens against the lovable little creatures. So, asks Li'l Abner, "Do we have to hate the Shmoo 'cause they bad?" "NO, we gotta hate the Shmoo 'cause they too GOOD!" I loved this book. Buy it. You won't be sorry!
Rating:
Summary: Nothing New, But Great Stuff
Review: This book presents the two major Shmoo stories (from 1948 and 1959) from Al Capp's mega-classic comic strip "Li'l Abner", in slightly abridged form. In fact, it combines the contents of two earlier books ("The Life And Times Of The Shmoo" and "The Return Of The Shmoo") which were published in paperback in those years. Needless to say, Al Capp's brilliance shines through in every panel of these stories from the peak of his remarkable career, and the Shmoos remain the most lovable of his many memorable creations (which also included Fearless Fosdick, Sadie Hawkins Day, Lower Slobbovia, the Scraggs, Bet-a-Million Bashby, the Kigmies, Wolf Gal, and Evil-Eye Fleegle, whose double-whammy entered the language). This material is found in its complete context in volumes 14 and 25 of Kitchen Sink Press' complete reprinting of "Li'l Abner", which made it to volume 27. In fact, the jacket art and Harlan Ellison's introduction are cribbed from volume 14. Size and clarity of reproduction are about the same in either. This book will be a must for completists (like me), a pleasant rediscovery for the nostalgist, and an absolute joy for the uninitiated.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing New, But Great Stuff
Review: This book presents the two major Shmoo stories (from 1948 and 1959) from Al Capp's mega-classic comic strip "Li'l Abner", in slightly abridged form. In fact, it combines the contents of two earlier books ("The Life And Times Of The Shmoo" and "The Return Of The Shmoo") which were published in paperback in those years. Needless to say, Al Capp's brilliance shines through in every panel of these stories from the peak of his remarkable career, and the Shmoos remain the most lovable of his many memorable creations (which also included Fearless Fosdick, Sadie Hawkins Day, Lower Slobbovia, the Scraggs, Bet-a-Million Bashby, the Kigmies, Wolf Gal, and Evil-Eye Fleegle, whose double-whammy entered the language). This material is found in its complete context in volumes 14 and 25 of Kitchen Sink Press' complete reprinting of "Li'l Abner", which made it to volume 27. In fact, the jacket art and Harlan Ellison's introduction are cribbed from volume 14. Size and clarity of reproduction are about the same in either. This book will be a must for completists (like me), a pleasant rediscovery for the nostalgist, and an absolute joy for the uninitiated.
Rating:
Summary: NEW SHMOO REVIEW
Review: Whoa! My old pal JOE SUGGS from Atlanta! - being sharp and insightful, as per usual. I can't add anything to Joe's perceptive analysis except to say that abridged Capp is better than no Capp at all, and easily better than EVERYTHING you'll find on today's comics page combined.
I remember scouring the Vagabond bookshop in Los Angeles with Joe, searching in vain for our two favorite cartoonists: Al Capp and Walt Kelly. We couldn't find them - not until the wise proprietress told us she puts them in the Literature section - alongside the likes of James Joyce and Jonathan Swift. (LI'L ABNER and POGO are much too good to go in the cartooning section, she explained, next to modern garbage like GARFIELD and CATHY. We couldn't have agreed more.. )
I consider Al Capp to be in the highest echelon of American arts and letters, as well as a crackerjack cartoonist and a brilliant social satirist.
His American masterpiece LI'L ABNER was arguably the greatest comic strip of them all. What a pleasure to remake the acquaintance of the Yokums again after all these years.
(Hope you're doing great, Joe. Best wishes from your old pal, Mike.)
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