Today on the site R.C. Harvey reviews Michael Schumacher and Denis Kitchen's Al Capp: A Life to the Contrary. The Harv has written not only a thorough examination of the book, but also added some of his own memories of the man. So check it out.
The chief occurrences of Capp’s life are treated in great detail: the loss of his left leg at the age of nine and the probable psychological consequences; his education at a succession of art schools he was too poor to pay tuition to; his apprenticeship to Ham Fisher and the dispute about who created the hillbilly Big Leviticus in Joe Palooka; the resulting feud, its nastiness, and Fisher’s attempt to smear Capp’s reputation; Capp’s emergence as a pop culture celebrity; his shrill attacks on the New Student Left on college campuses; his notorious visit to John Lennon and Yoko Ono; the subliminal eroticism in Li’l Abner; Capp’s extracurricular sex life, preying upon show girls and college co-eds, and his fall from grace as a result. In every instance, the book offers insights into these events that are new to me (and I’ve researched Capp’s life for my book, at least as much as publicly available documents permit).
Elsewhere:
TCJ-contributor Sean T. Collins writes about the web comic Haunter.
Publishers Weekly reports on SXSW and SelfMadeHero.
Richard Brody on Pixar's storytelling.
A Kirby "rant" from Rob Steibel centered around the Captain America #200 letters column.
