Al Capp

Al Capp (September 28, 1909 – November 5, 1979) was an American cartoonist best known for the satiric comic strip, Li'l Abner. He also wrote the comic strips Abbie and Slats and Long Sam. He won the 1947 National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award for the comic strip Li'l Abner, and their 1979 Elzie Segar Award posthumously. Born Alfred Gerald Caplin of Jewish heritage, Capp was the eldest child of Otto and Tillie Caplin, and a native of New Haven, Connecticut. He lost his right leg in a trolley accident at the age of nine. Capp spent five years at Bridgeport High School in Bridgeport, Connecticut without receiving a diploma. The cartoonist liked to tell how he failed geometry for nine straight terms. Ten years later, A. G. Caplin went to New York and found work drawing Mister Gilfeather, a one-panel, AP-owned property. He did this long enough to hate the feature and meet Milton Caniff before leaving town abruptly, moving to Boston and marrying Catherine Wingate Cameron (whom he...