Marvel Masterworks: Defenders Vol. 4
Mutts
by Robert Greenberger
I used to have a secret identity. In 9th grade, I was encouraged to audition for the annual musical, which that year was going to be Li’l Abner. Apparently, the director thought I’d be perfect for Evil Eye Fleegle and when I won the role, I apparently also adopted the Method school of acting. For much of that spring into the summer, I adopted his Groucho-like walk and was called to do some of his stage shtick for months after the show ended.
Truth to tell, it was my first real exposure to Al Capp’s hillbilly comic strip, which didn’t run in my local papers but I had known about. Capps’ strip ran from August 13, 1934 through November 13, 1977 and for many people it was a real glimpse into a lifestyle long since vanished. In the days when the strip debuted, movies, radio, and newspapers didn’t spent a lot of time on social issues such as the poor socio-economic plight of the “hill people”. If anything, they were the source of slapstick humor, presuming them all to be uneducated, dirt poor folk who interbred.
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