Kentucky it was!

[Michael McKernan]

Jeff Prucher wrote:

>This may not be much to go on, but Denis Kitchen, the publisher of the Li'l
>Abner reprints, says: "Very early in the continuity Capp once referred to
>Dogpatch being in Kentucky, but he was careful afterwards to keep its location
>generic, probably to avoid cancellations from offended subscribing newspapers
>in Kentucky."

Thanks to everyone who's chimed in on this, I stand corrected.

Capp did refer to 'Dogpatch, Kentucky', in a dialogue box at the beginning
of day '9' in 1934 (the strip began running in August, but I'm not sure if
this represents August 9, since the numbers seem to be consecutive--i.e.,
no breaks for Sundays).

This strip can be found on the top of page 17 of Vol. 1 of Kitchen's
reprints (1934-5).


Also, in 1937, Capp did a promotional book through his United Features
Syndicate, which offered a comic strip format 'origin story' for Li'l
Abner, which shows himself as an unhandsome prototype of Li'l Abner,
hitchhiking on a 'walking trip through the Kentucky Mountains' and he then
depicts the 'hillbilly people there, the prototypes of Li'l Abner...'

This trip is supposedly at least a partially-true story; it happened when
he was 15, rather than the paunchy, roughly unshaven hobo-like adult as he
portrays himself in this comic strip version.  The actual Li'l Abner strip
drawings weren't begun until years later, when he was in NYC.

I have to agree with what Kitchen says about being generic afterward (for
whatever reasons).  Capp's original circulation was something like just 8
newspapers, so he probably figured he'd not get caught in that early
slip-up of specifying KY.

Thanks again.  I'm glad I've finally gotten that straight!

Michael McKernan, Ph.D.