Into The Valley Of The Shmoon!

Al Capp's Lil Abner is one of the legendary comic strips, a rambunctious and vivid satirical farce that was the talk of the town in the first half of the 20th Century. The inhabitants of Dogpatch, the mythical backwoods hamlet in which Abner and his family and friends lived was a must-visit destination for countless Americans. And it seems rarely were they more interested in visiting than when Dogpatch was overrun by the Shmoos. 

The Shmoos come from the Valley of the Shmoon, a hidded vale even from the denizens of Dogpatch, but circumstances take Abner there where he meets a hirsute hermit who acts as the guardian of the gateway to the valley and who offers up his dire warnings about humanity interacting with the cute and exceedingly compliant Shmoos. He says that it will lead to the downfall of mankind if the Shmoos escape from their valley.

What the Shmoos offer mankind is a life free of want. Human economy is built around scarcity and we work presumably so that we can fulfill our needs and perhaps even our wants. But what if each human was suddenly free of the need to scour for needs? What if we had our basic desires available to us at no cost the save perhaps the labor we invest in acquiring them now. Well according to Al Capp, the Shmoos can offer mankind an endless supply of tasty morsels from their own bodies and when they are broiled they taste like steak, boiled like ham, and give us eggs and butter and more besides. 

In volume two Dark Horse's two-volume comprehensive look at the Shmoo phenomenon we have all the strips which dealt with the Shmoos from their debut to the end of the series itself, a span of decades.

When the Shmoos first arrive they fascinating creations and charm the entire country which promptly goes on something of a Shmoo craze with countless Shmoo items being produced. (More on those in a later post.) The Shmoos invariably smile and especially when they happily die to supply our desires. They free us from want and so it's presumed by Capp rob us of the incentives which drive work and spark creation. (To be fair he seems of two minds on this.)  But that's hogwash, a belief system built to keep people enslaved to the world of work which creates wealth not for the many but for the few. The Shmoos destroy that trickle down world, and allows us all to live like kings and queens. Can it succeed? It did quite well on Star Trek! (Oh that was just a fantasy! Don't I know it!)

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