as asides, to bolster the effect of the printed speech balloons. 1400 Schertz Parkway. "What?" Aerospace research facility in the United States, "Skunk works" redirects here. There was not much industry in Dogpatch. (Although it is also the approximate Northern European pronunciation of the name "Joachim".) Others include double whammy, skunk works and Lower Slobbovia. Underground cartoonist and Li'l Abner expert Denis Kitchen has published, co-published, edited, or otherwise served as a consultant on nearly all of them. The essential spirit of the division was captured perfectly on July 15, 1955, in an entry from Kelly Johnsons logbook, after a frantic race to ready the U-2 for its inaugural test flight: Airplane essentially completed. Conceived in 1943, the Skunk Works divisiona name inspired by a mysterious locale from the comic strip LiL Abnerwas formed by Johnson to build Americas first jet fighter. Through Li'l Abner, the American comic strip achieved unprecedented relevance in the postwar years, attracting new readers who were more intellectual, more informed on current events, and less likely to read the comics (according to Coulton Waugh, author of The Comics, 1947). Salomey: The Yokums' beloved pet pig. He had an unfortunate predilection for snitching "preserved turnips" and smoking corn silk behind the woodshed much to his chagrin when Mammy caught him. Most Dogpatchers were shiftless and ignorant; the remainder were scoundrels and thieves. Li'l Abner's mom is the only character in the Dogpatch universe capable of defeating him in hand-to-hand combat. We have invested in developing and demonstrating hypersonic technology for over 30 years. "The Comic Page Is the Last Refuge of Classic Art". Mind Works integrates the most recent advances in psychology with time-tested treatment approaches. Exile in Dogpatch: The Curious Neglect of Cartoonist Al Capp, Town to Honor Famous Cartoonist Who Lived, Worked in Amesbury, "Al Capp's biography card from the National Cartoonists Society", The Hooded Utilitarian: Comics contributions to colloquial English, 18 December 2010, "REVIEWS: Al Capp: A Life to the Contrary,", TCJ.com: "Tales of the Founding of the National Cartoonists Society Part III" from, "Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blogzine: 464: "Li'l Melvin", "Presarvin' Freedom: Al Capp, Treasury Man,", "Egyptians draw inspiration from Civil Rights Movement comic book. [66] The storylines and villains were mostly separate from the comic strip and unique to the show. It featured a fictional clan of hillbillies in the impoverished mountain village of Dogpatch, USA. The name was taken from the moonshine factory in the satirical American comic strip, Li'l Abner. [9], In 2009, the Skunk Works was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame at the San Diego Air & Space Museum. They included: Al Capp, a native northeasterner, wrote all the final dialogue in Li'l Abner using his approximation of a mock-southern dialect (including phonetic sounds, eye dialect (nonstandard spelling for speech to draw attention to pronunciation), nonstop "creative" spelling and deliberate malapropisms). Skonk Works evolved into Skunk Works and is now a registered trademark of the company: Skunk Works. The "Skonk Works" was a dilapidated factory located on the remote outskirts of Dogpatch, in the backwoods of Kentucky. The name was taken from the moonshine factory in the satirical American comic strip, Li'l Abner. All Rights Reserved. The Skunk Worksis the proud home of eight Collier Trophies, awarded annually by the National Aeronautic Association for the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America during the preceding year. There were even Dogpatch-themed family restaurants called "Li'l Abner's" in Louisville, Kentucky, Morton Grove, Illinois, and Seattle, Washington. Aquatech | Will Sarni on why we need a Skunk Works in water The Sunday page debuted six months into the run of the strip. "Capp had always advocated a more activist agenda for the Society, and he had begun in December 1949 to make his case in the Newsletter as well as at the meetings," wrote comics historian R. C. Evil-Eye Fleegle and his "whammy" make an animated cameo appearance in the U.S. Armed Forces Special Weapons Project training film, Self Preservation in an Atomic Attack (1950). During the development of the P-80, work was carried out in a circus tent, with harsh chemicals from the nearby manufacturing plant filling it with a strong odor. [10], Next generation optionally-manned U-2 aircraft. The Lightning team was temporarily moved to the 3G Distillery, a smelly former bourbon works where the first YP-38 (constructor's number 2202) was built. Lower Slobbovia and Dogpatch are both comic examples of modern dystopian satire. Her most familiar phrase, however, is "Good is better than evil becuz it's nicer!" He would eventually acquire a couple of supporting character friends for his own semi-regularly featured adventures in the strip. The name was adapted by the Lockheed Corporation, the predecessor of the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, more than 50 years ago. He was also a periodic panelist on ABC and NBC's Who Said That? [38] Other promotional tie-ins included the Lena the Hyena Contest (1946), the Name the Shmoo Contest (1949), the Nancy O. There was an engineer working on the XP-80 team named Irv Culver. Tiny Yokum: "Tiny" was a misnomer; Li'l Abner's kid brother remained perpetually innocent and 1512 "y'ars" old despite the fact that he was an imposing, 7-foot (2.1m) tall behemoth. What is Skunk Works? - Flow Research Collective A rich guy falls in love with Daisy Mae. Capp is one of the great unsung heroes of comics. Mind Works is dedicated to excellence in psychology and counseling. Mencken credits the postwar mania for adding "-nik" to the ends of adjectives to create nouns as beginning not with beatnik or Sputnik, but earlier in the pages of Li'l Abner. Some of the Skunk Works' most notable aircraft have received the prestigious trophy, which bears the name of the past publisher and early president of the Aero Club of America, Robert J. Collier. Zugang! Following the 1989 revival of the Pogo comic strip, a revival of Li'l Abner was also planned in 1990. He also had notoriously bad aim often leaving a trail of collateral damage (in the form of bullet-riddled pedestrians) in his wake. As a result, the XP-38 was the first 400mph fighter in the world. He also briefly filled-in for radio journalist Drew Pearson, participated in a March 2, 1948 America's Town Meeting of the Air debate on ABC, and hosted his own syndicated, 500-station radio show.). Trusted to solve critical national needs for our warfighters, the Skunk Works never shies away from seemingly unsolvable challenges and has a reputation for solving hard problems quickly, quietly and affordably. The next comic frame says: HIDE FRIED, "Neither the strip's shifting political leanings nor the slide of its final few years had any bearing on its status as a classic; and in 1995, it was recognized as such by the, "ABNER" was the name given to the first codebreaking computer used by the, The original Dogpatch is a historical part of San Francisco dating back to the 1860s that escaped the, Li'l Abner, Daisy Mae, Wolf Gal, Earthquake McGoon, Lonesome Polecat, Hairless Joe, Sadie Hawkins, Silent Yokum and Fearless Fosdick all found their way onto the, Al Capp always claimed to have effectively created the, Li'l Abner has one odd design quirk that has puzzled readers for decades: the part in his hair always faces the viewer, no matter which direction Abner is facing. Like the Coconino County depicted in George Herriman's Krazy Kat and the Okefenokee Swamp of Walt Kelly's Pogo, and, most recently and famously, The Simpsons' "Springfield", Dogpatch's distinctive cartoon landscape became as identified with the strip as any of its characters. It featured a fictional clan of hillbillies in the impoverished mountain village of Dogpatch, USA. Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}343653N 1180707W / 34.614734N 118.118676W / 34.614734; -118.118676. The odor put out by Skonk Works was so hideous people avoided the area and the people who worked there. Later, many fans and critics saw Paul Henning's popular TV sitcom, The Beverly Hillbillies (1962'71) as owing much of its inspiration to Li'l Abner, prompting Alvin Toffler to ask Capp about the similarities in a 1965 Playboy interview. Just four years later, amidst growing fears over a potential Soviet missile attack on the United States, Skunk Works engineerswho often worked ten hours a day, six days a weekcreated the U-2, the worlds first dedicated spy plane. Even the trademark comic "signs" that clutter the backgrounds of Will Elder's panels had a precedent in Li'l Abner, in the residence of Dogpatch entrepreneur Available Jones, though they're also reminiscent of Bill Holman's Smokey Stover. I'll fight ya, and I'll win! One main building still remains at 2777 Ontario Street in Burbank (near San Fernando Road), now used as an office building for digital film post-production and sound mixing. [1][2][3] The Sunday page debuted six months after the daily, on February 24, 1935. ", "Wal, fry mah hide!" People magazine ran a substantial feature, and even the comics-free New York Times devoted nearly a full page to the event," according to publisher Denis Kitchen. The name "Skunk Works" was taken from the moonshine factory in the comic strip "Li'l Abner." Where it was originally spelled "Skonkworks" and their swill was made from old boots and dead skunks. By 1960, Soviet radar and surface-to-air missile technology had caught up with the U-2. Sworn to secrecy, they went by the code name Skunk Works (named in jest after Lil'Abner's "Skonk Works" forest, where musty and rank concoctions were brewed). Designed to help the U.S. and allies leverage emerging technologies to create a resilient multi-domain network. Capp derived the family name "Yokum" as a combination of yokel and hokum. Everybody almost dead.. Capp has credited his inspiration for vividly stylized language to early literary influences like Charles Dickens, Mark Twain and Damon Runyon, as well as Old-time radio and the Burlesque stage. In his November 5, 1977 strip, Li'l Abner and Daisy Mae make a final visit to Capp, and Daisy insisted the Capp settle on a date. Customer Care. The phrase "skunk works" originated from the aeronautics industry, and in that context it had a specific meaning (and still does). She is 100% "Hammus Alabammus" an adorable species of pig, and the last female known in existence. For the game featuring the. Conceived in 1943, the Skunk Works divisiona name inspired by a mysterious locale from the comic strip Li'L Abner was formed by Johnson to build America's first jet fighter. From then on, he referred to it as Dogpatch, USA, and did not give any specific location as to exactly where it was supposed to be located. The production of Li'l Abner has been well documented, however. [61] The following titles are all single-issue, educational comic books and pamphlets produced for various public services: In addition, Dogpatch characters were used in national campaigns for the U.S. Treasury, the Cancer Foundation, the March of Dimes, the National Heart Fund, the Sister Kenny Foundation, the Boy Scouts of America, Community Chest, the National Reading Council, Minnesota Tuberculosis and Health Association, Christmas Seals, the National Amputation Foundation and Disabled American Veterans,[63] among others. Comparing Capp to other contemporary humorists, McLuhan once wrote: "Arno, Nash, and Thurber are brittle, wistful little prcieux beside Capp!" [3] According to Ben Richs memoir, an engineer jokingly showed up to work one day wearing a Civil Defense gas mask. The local children were read harrowing tales from "Ice-sop's Fables", which were parodies of classic Aesop Fables, but with a darkly sardonic bent (and titles like "Coldilocks and the Three Bares"). In the comic strip Li'l Abner, the "Skonk Works" makes oil from the ground up dead skunks for some unknown . [69][70] Starring Peter Palmer, Leslie Parrish, Julie Newmar, Stella Stevens, Stubby Kaye, Billie Hayes, Howard St. John, Joe E. Marks, Carmen Alvarez, William Lanteau and Bern Hoffman, with cameos by Jerry Lewis, Robert Strauss, Ted Thurston, Alan Carney, Valerie Harper and Donna Douglas. The trophy is awarded annually by the National Aeronautic Association for the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America, with respect to improving the performance, efficiency, and safety of air or space vehicles, the value of which has been thoroughly demonstrated by actual use during the preceding year. Li'l Abner Gets a Job Part 2, script and art by Al Capp; Abner takes a job at the skunk works. 1,193,227 People also liked Fun Fact Skunk Works Blue Interesting Fact The term Skunk Works is synonymous with the research and development department of the Lockheed Martin Co. 10 Facts About Skunk Works | FactSnippet Al Capp ended his comic strip with the final gesture of setting a date for Sadie Hawkins Day. [9] She is consistently the toughest character throughout Li'l Abner. ", "Al Capp Replies to Critic of Newspaper Comic Strips;", "Li'l Abner Lost In Hollywood by Michael H. Price", "Gov. Li'l Abner - Wikipedia This dunks Upper Slobbovia into Lower Slobbovia, and raises the latter into the formera classic example of a literal revolution. [28] In Al Capp's own words, Dogpatch was "an average stone-age community nestled in a bleak valley, between two cheap and uninteresting hills somewhere." Big Funds Need a 'Skunk Works' to Stir Ideas Almost every line was followed by two exclamation marks for added emphasis. Before long he was in hundreds more, with a total readership exceeding 60,000,000. Skunk Works is an official pseudonym for Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Programs (ADP), formerly called Lockheed Advanced Development Projects. I am proud to see the classic logo - my father worked for more than 30 years at Lockheed Martin Advanced Development Projects, known as Skunk Works. The bumbling detective became the star of his own NBC-TV puppet show that same year. 2023 Lockheed Martin Corporation. A Mach-3 aircraft that could fly continuously for hours on end and literally outrun missiles. Privacy Policy. Written by Clare Sarah Goodridge Our flagship flow training, Zero to Dangerous helps you accomplish your wildest professional goals while reclaiming time, space, and freedom in your personal life. A customer would go to the Skunk Works with a request, and on a handshake the project would begin no contracts in place, no official submittal process. The F-104 Starfighter, the first Mach 2 aircraft, was developed to compete against Soviet MiGs in the early 1950s. On paper, the specifications read like works of pure fantasy: a spy plane capable of taking crystal-clear photographs from 70,000 feet. He was portrayed as a naive, simpleminded, gullible and sweet-natured hillbilly. The respondent company argued that Lockheed "used its size, resources and financial position to employ 'bullyboy' tactics against a very small company. Al Capp was a master of the arts of marketing and promotion. About - SKONKWERKS.ORG The musical has since become a perennial favorite of high school and amateur productions, due to its popular appeal and modest production requirements. Goldstein, Kalman, "Al Capp and Walt Kelly: Pioneers of Political and Social Satire in the Comics" from, Inge, M. Thomas, "Li'l Abner, Snuffy and Friends" from, This page was last edited on 25 February 2023, at 05:42. "It's Jack Jawbreaker!" After a series of successful test flights beginning in 1977, the Air force awarded Skunk Works the contract to build the F-117 stealth fighter on November 1, 1978. Shmoos were originally meant to be included in the 1956 Broadway Li'l Abner musical, employing stage puppetry. 2023 Flyer Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Kelly Johnson's elite engineering group was originally housed in a rented circus tent adjacent to a smelly plastics factory. Boody Rogers' Babe was a peculiar series of comic books about a beautiful hillbilly girl who lived with her kin in the Ozarks with many similarities to Li'l Abner. You wanna argue about it? As with virtually all Skunk Works projects that followed, the mission was secretive and the deadline was remarkably tight. In one storyline, he lives up to his nickname when during a nationwide search for a pair of socks sewn by Betsy Ross; after finding that his father was the current owner and preparing to trade them for the reward (a handshake from the President of the United States), he confesses at the last second that they were not his to give. Skunk Works - Everything2.com (Response: ", "What's good for General Bullmoose is good for, "Th' ideel o' ev'ry one hunnerd percent, red-blooded American boy! [14], During the development of the P-80 Shooting Star, Johnson's engineering team was located adjacent to a malodorous plastics factory. Lil Abner (1947) comic books - MyComicShop [4] It was originally distributed by United Feature Syndicate and, later by the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate. The demise of KSP in 1999 stopped the reprint series at Volume 27 (1961). (1947) and "Little Fanny Gooney" (1952), were almost certainly an inspiration to Harvey Kurtzman when he created his irreverent Mad, which began in 1952 as a comic book that specifically parodied other comics in the same subversive manner. The designation "skunk works" or "skunkworks" is widely used in business, engineering, and technical fields to describe a group within an organization given a high degree of autonomy and unhampered by bureaucracy, with the task of working on advanced or secret projects. But Lockheeds chief engineer, Clarence Kelly Johnson, simply fielded all requests and relayed to his handpicked band of Skunk Works employees what needed to be done. They have filed several challenges against registrants of domain names containing variations on the term under anti-cybersquatting policies, and have lost a case under the .uk domain name dispute resolution service against a company selling cannabis seeds and paraphernalia, which used the word "skunkworks" in its domain name (referring to "Skunk", a variety of the cannabis plant). Those who farmed their turnip fields watched "turnip termites" swarm by the billions every year, locust-like, to devour Dogpatch's only crop (along with their homes, their livestock and all their clothing). "He knew how to take an otherwise ordinary drawing and really make it pop. The following is a partial list of characteristic expressions that reappeared often in Li'l Abner: Li'l Abner had several toppers on the Sunday page, including[4]. He challenged the bureaucratic system that stifled innovation and hindered progress. ), In the late 1940s, newspaper syndicates typically owned the copyrights, trademarks and licensing rights to comic strips. Among the actors originally considered for the title role were Dick Shawn and Andy Griffith. [10] Pappy is dull-witted and gullible (in one storyline after he is conned by Marryin' Sam into buying Vanishing cream because he thinks it makes him invisible when he picks a fight with his nemesis Earthquake McGoon), but not completely without guile. Mis on SkunkWorksi projekt (Skunk Works)? (Aktualisiert 2023) - Krypton It made its debut in Li'l Abner on November 15, 1937. made famous between 1934 and 1977 as the home of professional mattress tester Li'l Abner, in the comic strip written and drawn by Al . This aircraft first flew in 1966 and remained in service until 1998. Mammy dominated the Yokum clan through the force of her personality, and dominated everyone else with her fearsome right uppercut (sometimes known as her "Goodnight, Irene" punch), which helped her uphold law, order and decency. "[15][16][17], At the request of the comic strip copyright holders, Lockheed changed the name of the advanced development company to "Skunk Works" in the 1960s. ", Daisy Mae Yokum (ne Scragg): Beautiful Daisy Mae's character was hopelessly in love with Dogpatch's most prominent resident throughout the entire 43-year run of Al Capp's comic strip. During AirVenture 2003, for example, a 4-year-old girl took one look at a picture of an artists drawing of the Lockheed Martin Space plane with the distinctive skunk on the tail and asked if it was a ride at Disneyland because the mascot was obviously Flower from the movie Bambi.. Capp originally created it as a comic plot device, but in 1939, only two years after its inauguration, a double-page spread in Life proclaimed, "On Sadie Hawkins Day Girls Chase Boys in 201 Colleges". The term "Skunk Works" came from Al Capp's hillbilly comic strip Li'l Abner, which was popular in the 1940s and '50s. Tellingly, Kurtzman resisted doing feature parodies of either Li'l Abner or Dick Tracy in the comic book Mad, despite their prominence. Drawn by cartoonist Steve Stiles,[58] the new Abner was approved by Capp's widow, and brother Elliott Caplin, but Al Capp's daughter, Julie Capp, objected at the last minute and permission was withdrawn. Pappy Yokum utters this tagline when, thinking he is dreaming, actually commands a bottle genie to do his bidding. Beginning in 1944, Li'l Abner was adapted into a series of color theatrical cartoons by Screen Gems for Columbia Pictures, directed by Sid Marcus, Bob Wickersham and Howard Swift. Capp, a lifelong chain smoker, died from emphysema two years later at age 70, at his home in South Hampton, New Hampshire, on November 5, 1979. [7] Some of the group of independent-minded engineers were later involved with the XP-80 project, the prototype of the P-80 Shooting Star. He never married his own long-suffering fiance Prudence Pimpleton (despite an engagement of 17 years), but Fosdick was directly responsible for the unwitting marriage of his biggest fan, Li'l Abner, to Daisy Mae in 1952. The style of the Fosdick sequences closely mimicked Tracy, including the urban setting, the outrageous villains, the galloping mortality rate, the crosshatched shadows, and the lettering style even Gould's familiar signature was parodied in Fearless Fosdick. Harvey. This project marked the birth of what would become the Skunk Works, with founder Kelly Johnson at its helm. Skunk Works' Rules & Practices The Alpine Review In America's Great Comic Strip Artists (1997), comics historian Richard Marschall analyzed the overtly misanthropic subtext of Li'l Abner: Capp was calling society absurd, not just silly; human nature not simply misguided, but irredeemably and irreducibly corrupt. Li'l Abner Yokum: Abner's character was 6feet 3inches (1.91m) tall and perpetually 19 years old. Jasper Jooks by Jess "Baldy" Benton (1948'49), Ozark Ike (1945'53) and Cotton Woods (1955'58), both by Ray Gotto, were clearly inspired by Capp's strip. Skunk Works name was taken from the "Skonk Oil" factory in the comic strip Li'l Abner. Skunk Works was responsible for several innovative aircraft designs, beginning with the P-38 Lightning in 1939, followed by the P-80 Shooting Star in 1943. About Mind Works Counseling | Anxiety Counseling | San Antonio, TX 78230 Skonk Works. Whew it's been a while huh? | by Aslan French | Medium In 1964, Capp left United Features and took Li'l Abner to the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate.[52]. But in 1947 Capp sued United Feature Syndicate for $14 million, publicly embarrassed UFS in Li'l Abner, and wrested ownership and control of his creation the following year."[51]. He left it at Dogpatch USA so there would be no headaches and problems.
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