Shmoo - Trivia

Trivia

• During the Soviet Union's blockade of West Berlin, Germany in 1948, candy-filled shmoos were air-dropped to hungry West Berliners from transport planes by America's 17th Military Airport Squadron. The commanders of the Berlin airlift had cabled Capp, requesting the inflatable shmoos as part of Operation: Little Vittles. "When the candy-chocked shmoos were dropped, a near-riot resulted...." (Reported in Newsweek—11 October 1948)

• Shmoos invaded the 1948 presidential election, as challenger Thomas Dewey accused incumbent Harry S. Truman of "promising everything, including the Shmoo!" (Reported in Newsweek—5 September 1948)

• Capp periodically reintroduced the Shmoos in Li'l Abner, sometimes with significant variations. "Bad" Shmoos (called "Nogoodniks") debuted in a series of Sunday strips in 1949. The nasty cousin of the good-natured Shmoo, Nogoodniks were a sickly shade of green, and had "li'l red eyes, sharp yaller teeth, an' a dirty look." Frequently sporting 5 o'clock shadows, eye patches, scars, bandages and other ruffian attributes—they devoured "good" Shmoos, were the sworn enemies of "hoomanity," and wreaked havoc on Dogpatch.

• There were also winged, flying Shmoos called "Shtoonks" (1976) and modified baby Shmoos called "Shminfants" (1970), which looked like human babies but were eternally young, came in a variety of different "colors," and never needed changing (Source: Al Capp's Complete Shmoo Vol. 2: The Newspaper Strips, 2011).

• Cartoonist Mell Lazarus, creator of Miss Peach and Momma, began his apprenticeship drawing Shmoo Comics at Toby Press in the late 1940s. His comic novel, The Boss Is Crazy, Too (1963), was partly based on this experience. In a seminar at the Charles Schulz Museum on November 8, 2008, Lazarus called his time at Toby "the five funniest years of my life." Lazarus went on to cite Capp as one of the "four essentials" in the field of newspaper cartoonists, along with Walt Kelly, Charles Schulz and Milton Caniff.