The Shmoo (How Al Capp's Cartoon Critter Captured The Nation's Attention)

Who could have know then that one of their evil twins would go on to serve 2 terms as POTUS ('92-'00)
Am I the only one to notice the resemblance?

Nope. I thought it resembled a walking you-know-what too.

-Eric

Your wish is my command.

BTW, I don't recall the strip, but I found out yesterday that there was a character in it by the name of "Martha Hoople." Now that explains the name of the minor early-'70s band, "Mott the Hoople." I had always thought it was just nonsense sounds, but apparently it's a play on "Martha Hoople." Anyone recall the name of Mott the Hoople's big hit? A: "All the Young Dudes." I really liked that song, back when I was a young dude myself.

The things you can learn with a quick Internet search! Turns out, the name of the band "Mott the Hoople" was not taken from the comic strip character "Martha Hoople"--at least not directly:

Of course, there is Willard Manus' novel Mott The Hoople, which inspired the name, from 1966. . . .

So just what is a hoople? And what is a Mott the Hoople? Mott the Hoople is the character in a 1960s novel by Willard Manus. A "hoople" is a hobo or a buffoon. Guy Stevens, the band's producer and mentor during the Island years, was serving time in jail for a drug offense. While in jail, he met a young man serving time for a similar offense. That man was reading a novel called Mott the Hoople. Shortly thereafter, the man died, but the title Mott the Hoople stuck in Stevens' mind. . . .

So the band got the name from the title of the book. But I'm wondering if the book's author, Willard Manus, did not have name of the comic strip character at least in the back of his mind, subconsciously, when he came up with the title. Sounds too close to be coincidental. The common link, of course--which undoubtedly predates the comic strip, the book, and the band--is this word "hoople." Perhaps the originator of the strip used that word as a name for comic effect.

I vaguely remember that character. I liked all the more graphically "artistic" ones - not the overly gross, stoopid or political one, natch!

I found out that one of my college drawing instructors was published in some old underground rag. He was a friend of "Foolbert Sturgeon" ("Adventures of Jesus")- who I later met - AND the infamous (and RICH) Gilbert Sheldon ("Freak Brothers").

Anymore, these days, I'm learning a new appreciation for the early MAD artists (who probably started it all). And I'm also now inspired to look at some of the old Abner strips. Capp was a good artist too (and even had Frank Frazetta work w/ him).

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