Bombface - Supporting Characters and Villains

Supporting Characters and Villains

Fearless Fosdick soon developed its own regular supporting cast, separate from Li'l Abner and the rest of the Dogpatch characters. Joining Fosdick's intermittent adventures were:

• The Chief - Fosdick's bloated, abusive and cheerfully corrupt superior.
• Prudence (ugh!) Pimpleton - Fosdick's homely, long-suffering fiancée (formerly known as "Bess Backache." Both names were a direct parody of Dick Tracy's sweetheart, Tess Trueheart.) They were perpetually "engaged for 17 years," throughout the entire 35-year run of Fearless Fosdick.
• Mr. and Mrs. Pimpleton - Prudence's frustrated parents, who were miffed about feeding the freeloading Fosdick.
• Mrs. Flintnose - Fosdick's mercenary, hatchet-faced landlady.
• Cousin Sebastian - The Chief's idiot relation, who periodically replaces Fosdick on the police force.
• Lester Gooch - Supposedly Fosdick's cartoonist "creator"—a broadly-drawn caricature of real-life Dick Tracy creator Chester Gould. The chronically overworked Gooch battles both his venal, exploitative comic strip syndicate and occasional bouts of temporary insanity. His mental lapses necessitate frequent visits to an insane asylum, complete with straitjacket and rubber room—from whence his most demented, diabolical plots would emerge, (much to the delight of his rabid fans).

The early strips referred to grotesque Dick Tracy-inspired public enemies with absurdly satirical names like "Banana Face," "Spinach Face" and "Hamburger Face." (One villain, "Carrot Top," could not be tracked by bloodhounds, as he had no blood. His head was a genuine carrot. But Fosdick tracks him to his doom—with a rabbit.) Over the years, other nemeses included:

• Bomb Face - Criminal gang leader with a cannonball bomb for a head (see excerpt), who tries to kill Fosdick by igniting his own fuse. Fosdick turns the tables on him—literally, causing the detonating Bomb Face to incinerate his own gang. (The original artwork for this Li'l Abner Sunday sequence, dated 30 May 1943, is currently housed at the Library of Congress in the Caroline and Erwin Swann Collection.)
• Stone Face - A supposedly fictional comic strip character who unexpectedly turns out to be "real," threatening and tormenting Fosdick cartoonist Lester Gooch (1943). His solid granite head proves to be no match for Li'l Abner's, however.
• Rattop - A particularly heinous villain, with a mouse head (1944).
• "The Hat" - A headless serial killer who wears a wide-brimmed zoot suit fedora atop his shoulders, concealing his empty collar (1945). He could not be executed, since his homicidal crimes are all hanging offenses. He's finally undone when Fosdick tricks him into crossing state lines—where the method of execution is by electric chair.
• Anyface - A diabolical master of disguise (1947)—albeit with slovenly personal grooming habits. (This episode ends in an unresolved cliffhanger when a feverish Lester Gooch suddenly becomes "sane," and abandons the storyline—much to Abner's frustration. Capp invited readers to submit their own solutions in a nationwide, promotional mail-in contest.) Anyface was later utilized as an all-purpose villain in a series of print ads featuring Fosdick, produced for Wildroot Cream-Oil hair tonic, (see Licensing and promotion).
• "Fearful" Fosdick (aka "The Original") - Fosdick's own dastardly, turncoat father (1948). The senior Fosdick, a former policeman-turned-criminal mastermind, is one of only a handful of recurring Fosdick villains.
• The Chippendale Chair - A murderously evil piece of furniture (1948). Fosdick admonishes it, "You're going to get the chair, Chair!" (This character was likely the inspiration for Chairface Chippendale, a perennial foe of parodic superhero The Tick.)
• Elmer Schlmpf - The product-tampering urban terrorist from "The Case of the Poisoned Beans" who is beyond the reach of the law—being already dead (1950).
• The Atom Bum - A vagrant tramp on an escalating crime spree, loaded with radioactive plutonium—and thus deadly if he's so much as jarred (1951).
• Sidney the Crooked Parrot - Fosdick's own mutinous, criminally insane house pet (1953).
• Ezio the Pincher - A petty jewel thief who stashes the "hot" Beanfort Knox wristwatch inside Fosdick's skull—where Fosdick can't find it, but can hear it "ticking" (1957). His name was a play on real-life opera star, Ezio Pinza.
• Nelson Shrinkafeller - The mysterious Jivaro Jungle headshrinker (1959). His moniker was a takeoff on then-New York governor (and future vice president) Nelson Rockefeller.
• "Solomon" - A lovesick, artificially intelligent weather satellite with the power to turn benign, man-made objects against humanity—unless it can unite with its mate satellite, "Sheba" (1960).
• "E.D.S." - The robotic "Electronic Detective Substitute," which managed to rack up even more collateral damage than Fosdick (1961).
• Frank Nutsy (aka "The Enforcer") - Mobster boss of "The Unteachables," a parody of both TV's The Untouchables and real-life Al Capone henchman Frank Nitti (1961). Nutsy bribes everyone in Fosdick's hometown of Honesty, Indiana into falsely declaring Fosdick 65-years old—and thus prematurely retired from the force.
• Boldfinger - Disguised as master spy "James Bumm," Fosdick pursues an arch-criminal with a forefinger that can pierce solid steel, and breath as hypnotically sweet as poppy blossoms (1965).
• Babyface - Halfpint killer and racketeer with an incongruously angelic face (1972). Disguised as a child, he passed as an adorable 7-year-old and stole the world's rarest jewel, the "Keeler Ruby."