Al Capp was an American cartoonist best known for the satiric comic strip, Li’l Abner. He also wrote the comic strips Abbie and Slats and Long Sam. He won the 1947 National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award for the comic strip Li’l Abner, and their 1979 Elzie Segar Award posthumously.

Li’l Abner lasted until 1977, when Capp retired. A lifelong smoker, Capp died two years later from emphysema, at his home in South Hampton, New Hampshire.

Besides his use of the comic strip to voice his opinions and display his humor, Capp was a popular speaker at universities and on television, including frequent appearances on The Tonight Show from the 1950s to the 1970s. One memorable story, in conversation with Johnny Carson, was about his meeting with then-president Eisenhower. As he was ushered into the Oval Office, his prosthetic leg collapsed and he entered the room in a pile of mechanical rubble on the floor. The president immediately turned to an aide and said, “Call Walter Reed (Hospital), or maybe Bethesda,” to which Capp replied “Hell no, just call a good local mechanic!”