September 2013 Auction Ends Thursday, September 26th, 5pm Pacific
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 9/26/2013
Al Capp typed document with his handwritten corrections. Passionate text defends Capp from attacks by his cartoonist nemesis Ham Fisher, under whom Capp started as an assistant/ghost illustrator on Fisher's popular ''Joe Palooka'' strip. When Capp struck out on his own with ''Li'l Abner'', Fisher claimed the idea of comedic hillbillies had been his. The twenty-year feud resulted in Fisher's expulsion from the National Cartoonists Society for inappropriate conduct. Document reads in part, ''...the board knows that a man draws the way he draws...For the past fifteen years Mr. Fisher has claimed that I have plagiarized him...up till two weeks ago - this matter was a thing between Mr fisher, his conscience and me...Then this unsavory thing was suddenly made public. Mr. Fisher, in the first panel of his Sunday Page of two weeks ago wrote, 'the original hill-billies ever to appear in comics first appeared in this strip.'...Every editor and publisher in America recognized this as a public charge against me...Fisher's claim that the first hill-billies ever to appear in comics appeared in his strip is demonstrably untrue, and offensive to the reputations of A.B. Frost, George Luks - delineators of hill-billy charactersof the turn of the century in both newspapers and magazines, to Billy de Beck, whos [sic] hill-billy 'Hermie the Mermit' preceded those in 'Palooka' by at least a decade. The hill-billy [is] part of the American scene...Never has any cartoonist used the freedom and the space given him by the press to vent his own personal spite...'' Rant runs 6pp. on 5 sheets of different sizes ranging from 6.5'' x 10'' to 8.5'' x 11''. Toning and creasing, with some fading to type, else near fine.
Al Capp Rant With Hand Notes Pertaining to Feud With Ham Fisher, The ''Joe Palooka'' Cartoonist Who Claimed ''Li'l Abner'' Was His Idea -- ''...The hill-billy [is] part of the American scene...''
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