Fearless Fosdick

Fearless Fosdick is a long-running parody of Chester Gould's Dick Tracy. It appeared intermittently as a strip-within-a-strip, in Al Capp's satirical hillbilly comic strip, Li'l Abner.

Li'l Abner's "ideel"

Fearless Fosdick made his debut in an August 1942 Li'l Abner Sunday sequence, as the unflappable comic book idol of Abner and an object of undying hero worship. Hayseed Abner mindlessly aped his role model—even going so far as submitting to marriage against his will.
Fearless Fosdick was a parody of all of Dick Tracy's memorable qualities. As described in Dick Tracy and American Culture, "Fosdick's square jaw was even more pronounced than Tracy's, violence was used much more gratuitously in Fosdick than in Tracy, grotesques were even more outrageous."
Cartoonist Al Capp would often use Li'l Abner continuity as a narrative framing device, bookending the offbeat Fosdick sequences. Abner himself serves as a rustic Greek chorus—to introduce, comment upon and comically sum up the Fosdick stories. Typically, an anxious Abner would race frantically to the mailbox or to the train delivering the morning newspapers, to get a glimpse of the latest cliffhanger episode. The next panel would reveal Abner's POV of the feature under an iconic logo: Fearless Fosdick by Lester Gooch. Subsequent installments would reinforce Abner's obsessive immersion in the unfolding Fosdick continuity while at the same time recapping the story within a story. While oblivious to the surrounding "real" world, Abner would be, as ever, fully engrossed in the Fosdick adventure. Eventually, Capp would dispense with Abner's introductory panels altogether, and the strip would carry a subheading reminding readers they were now reading Li'l Abner's "ideel," Fearless Fosdick.
Occasionally Fosdick's adventures would directly affect what happened to Abner, and the two storylines would artfully converge. The story-within-a-story often ironically paralleled and/or parodied the story itself. Also, by having the comically obtuse Abner "explain" the strip to Daisy Mae, Capp would use Fearless Fosdick to self-reflexively comment upon his own strip, his readers, and the nature of comic strips and "fandom" in general, resulting in an absurd but overall structurally complex and layered satire.
"Capp's Fearless Fosdick sequences proved over the years to be some of his most popular," according to M. Thomas Inge. "Fearless Fosdick remains the only comic strip-within-a-comic strip to achieve its own following."

Setting and themes

Fearless Fosdick is set in an unnamed, crime-infested American metropolis similar to Chicago. Its urban setting stands in stark contrast with Li'l Abners rural Dogpatch. Fosdick lives in squalor at the dilapidated boarding house run by his dour, pitiless landlady, Mrs. Flintnose. He never married his own long-suffering fiancée Prudence ' Pimpleton, but Fosdick was directly responsible for one of the seminal events of the strip—the famous marriage of his biggest fan, Li'l Abner, to Daisy Mae in 1952.
As the only grownup member of the local Fearless Fosdick kiddie fan club, Abner had unwittingly vowed to do everything Fosdick does, not realizing that Fosdick's comic strip marriage was only a dream.
In addition to being fearless, Fosdick is "pure, underpaid and purposeful," according to his creator. "Fearless is without doubt the world's most idiotic detective. He shoots people for their own good, is pure beyond imagining, and is fanatically loyal to a police department which exploits, starves and periodically fires him," Capp told Pageant magazine in May 1952. Although Fosdick is the hero of all red-blooded American boys, Daisy Mae detests him with venomous passion. All throughout Li'l Abner, the neglected Daisy Mae finds herself in the ironic position of being jealous of a "stoopid comical strip character!" When Capp was asked about the specific gender makeup of his readers, he responded by using Fosdick as an example of the inherent differences between the male and female sense of humor:
Although Fearless Fosdick began as a specific burlesque of Dick Tracy, it eventually grew beyond mere parody and developed its own distinctive, self-contained comic identity. Like all of Capp's creations, Fosdick gradually evolved into a broad, multileveled satire of contemporary American society. Mixing equal parts slapstick, black humor, irony, and biting social criticism, Fearless Fosdick provided a running commentary on, among other things: the lowly lives of policemen, the capriciousness of the general public, and the thankless role of society's "heroes"—as well as the superficiality of modern pop culture and the compulsive nature of its avid fans. Capp would return to these themes again and again in Fearless Fosdick''.

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. He thinks Fosdick is a fat headed, Moronic, egotistical Yellow Bellied slob
Prudence ' Pimpleton - Fosdick's homely, long-suffering fiancée They were perpetually "engaged for 17 years," throughout the entire 35-year run of Fearless Fosdick. Prudence always hoped that Fosdick would get a promotion and a subsequent pay raise of $10.00 to $32.50 per week-so he would have enough salary to support her in marriage-but Prudence was doomed to disappointment. A running gag is Prudence Pimpleton literally kicking Fearless Fosdick out of her house into the street. The nearest Prudence ever came to marriage is with Fosdick in a "dream sequence" nightmare Fosdick had-which ironically led to Li'l Abner Yokum finally marrying Daisy Mae Scragg after nearly 20 years of engagement in 1952. In another episode she was heroine when she saved the earth from destruction by uniting two lovesick machines "Solomon" and "Sheba" although it nearly cost her her life . Another time Fosdick saved Prudence from unknowingly marrying his evil twin brother, Jerry J. Fosdick, in 1975.
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 and is beaten up in place of Fosdick after Fosdick gets fired.
Purity Pinchwolf - a pretty policewoman of the Anti-Masher Squad ; after Fosdick made a vow not to use violence against criminals, his girlfriend Prudence Pimpleton kicked Fosdick out of her house and refused to feed him. Fosdick whistled about her, which was mistaken for a wolf whistle at Pinchwolf, who bonked Fosdick on the head; Fosdick falls in love with the fact that as the daughter of a supermarket owner she has a reserve supply of steaks. Later Purity had to defend herself against Mayor Smellgood.
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.

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, 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.
Stone Face - A supposedly fictional comic strip character who unexpectedly turns out to be "real," threatening and tormenting Fosdick cartoonist Lester Gooch. His solid granite head proves to be no match for Li'l Abner's, however.
Rattop - A particularly heinous villain, with a mouse head.
"The Hat" - A headless serial killer who wears a wide-brimmed zoot suit fedora atop his shoulders, concealing his empty collar. 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 One time he disguised himself as Fosdick only to be exposed as Anyface because his hair is not treated with Wildroot Cream-Oil hair tonic. In July 1966 Anyface disguised himself as Daisy Mae in order to get a manuscript of his life from Li'l Abner; although he failed to fool Li'l Abner; Li'l Abner realized who was the real Daisy Mae when she became jealous. Anyface grabbed the manuscript and, jumping a fence, fell into Dogpatch's Bottomless Canyon; Anyface tried to get the folks who live on the side of the canyon to save him by changing into John Wayne, however, as John Wayne always defeated the Indians in the movies-the "natives" refused to save him; in his last desperate chance Anyface changed himself into Lyndon Baines Johnson; however the last inhabitant of "Bottomless Canyon" refuses to save Anyface from being doomed to fall forever.
"Fearful" Fosdick - Fosdick's own dastardly, turncoat father. The senior Fosdick, a former policeman-turned-criminal mastermind, is one of only a handful of recurring Fosdick villains.
Jerry J. Fosdick - Fosdick's evil twin con-man brother; after he finds out about Prudence Pimpleton's 17-year engagement to Fosdick, Jerry J. Fosdick switches clothing with Fosdick and takes his place so he can "marry" Prudence Pimpleton; Fosdick "stops" the "wedding" at the last minute!
The Chippendale Chair - A murderously evil piece of furniture. Fosdick admonishes it, "You're going to get the chair, Chair!" As usual Fosdick does bring the chair to the electric chair--but only after a large body count due to Fosdick's stupidity.
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.
The Atom Bum - A vagrant tramp on an escalating crime spree, loaded with radioactive plutonium—and thus deadly if he is so much as jarred. After he is found not to be destructive, he makes the mistake of walking on the grass despite a "Do not walk on the Grass" sign, and is shot dead by Fearless Fosdick.
Sidney the Crooked Parrot - Fosdick's own mutinous, criminally insane house pet who after Fosdick cut down on his supply of crackers, made up his own criminal gang and nearly succeeded in killing Fosdick--but who ended up as a meal for Fosdick.
Ezio the Pincher - A petty jewel thief who stashes the "hot" Beanfort Knox wristwatch inside Fosdick's skull—where Fosdick cannot find it, but can hear it ticking. His name was a play on real-life opera star, Ezio Pinza.
Nelson Shrinkafeller - The mysterious Jívaro Jungle headshrinker. His moniker was a takeoff on then-New York governor Nelson Rockefeller.
Ricky Smellgood- a lovesick teenage Mayor for the Day who tries to woo Purity Pinchwolf; when he finds a rival in Fearless Fosdick, he sends Fosdick to enforce an ordinance from Smellgood forbidding the Bullgravians from celebrating a homicidal new year.
"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"..
"E.D.S." - The robotic "Electronic Detective Substitute," which managed to rack up even more collateral damage than Fosdick.
Frank Nutsy - Mobster boss of "The Unteachables," a parody of both TV's The Untouchables and real-life Al Capone henchman Frank Nitti. 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.
Babyface''' - Half-pint killer and racketeer with an incongruously angelic face. Disguised as a child, he passed as an adorable seven-year-old and stole the world's rarest jewel, the "Keeler Ruby."