The Shmoogenheim Shmooseum!

Shmoos exploded! Crazes come and go and some are more explosive and more lasting, but all fade in time. Shmoos were big, much bigger than Al Capp ever imagined, but not so much that he was not able to take advantage of the massive public interest in the pudgy little somewhat phallic critters.

He had gone independent in the nick of time. Taking Li'l Abner away from the syndicate, he and his brothers formed their own company to handle the marketing, and then came the Shmoos and life was good Capp clan indeed.

Here are just some of the many many many Shmoo items I've gathered up from across the wilderness of the internet. 

The Shmoos made a come back in the late 70's when Hanna-Barbera took a turn a trying to make them into TV stars on The New Shmoo Show.  He even went to Bedrock for a time. Weird. 

And that's "Shmoo"  business everybody. This way to the Egress as P.T. Barnum once directed.

Rip Off

What To Shmoo With A Super Shmoo!

Shmoos were a hit! So much so that merchandising of all kinds flowed into the marketplace of baubles and beads and more. Of the more some was comic books. Li'l Abner had been a comic for a while, so it was a snap to spin off All Capp's Shmoo Comics. These are not done by Capp but by others and in all fairness the comics make no secret of this fact.

The essential elements of the Shmoo curse (or blessing depending on your attitude) are established in issue one. To give the comic a perspective we get Washable Jones, the Huck Finn of Dogpatch who has come to love the Shmoos and takes care of them as much as they take care of him. The Shmoos are just a part of the fabric of life in Dogpatch and things seem to be going quite well for the most part. Through all five issues of the series Washable and his Shmoos (who are mostly props and not proper characters) fend off others who wish to mistreat them, Washable also goes on epic journeys to the Moon and elsewhere.

But introduced early on is the delightful Super Shmoo, a Shmoo unlike the others. In his naive Shmoo existence filled with punny Shmoos of all kinds Hugh Shmoo is struck by lightning and changed into Super Shmoo who is able to do whatever needs doing to uplift and improve Shmoo kind. His antics are utterly whimsical and jammed with as many Shmoo puns as the writers can dream up. It's this wonderful compression of little jokes relentlessly popping out that makes reading the Super Shmoo stories so much fun, better than the other Shmoo stuff in these issues.

After the "Expidishun to the Shmoon" cover the Super Shmoo takes the helm as the mascot of the comic book.

Super Shmoo even meets and helps Santa Claus. Now that's heroism.

In addition to the five issues of Shmoo comics this volume also offers up the Al Capp's Shmoo comic giveaway  mini-comic.

The second issue of Shmoo Comics was reprinted a year or so later with Washable Jones taking the lead spot.

The Shmoo craze came and went like all crazes do, but it left us some delightful evidence of its existence the comics are among the niftiest examples. They don't rise anywhere near the sharp satire of the comic strip, but they funny diverting comics nonetheless.

Tomorrow more Shmoo madness.

Rip Off

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!)

Rip Off