Andy Capp Strikes Back

A recent yard sale find.

Title: Andy Capp Strikes Back
Date: 1967
Publisher: Fawcett Gold Medal
Writer: Reg Smythe
Artist: Reg Smythe

This is a 1967 paperback, reprinting Andy Capp comic strips from the London Daily Mirror. My grandfather was a big Capp fan back when he used to take his daily walk up to the corner for the newspaper.

For those not familiar with the strip, the setup is pretty straightforward. Andy is a lazy drunk who tries to get by mooching what he can off of his long-suffering wife. Andy is of the same archetype that gave us every other lazy male chauvinist character from Fred Flintstone to Al Bundy.

Andy dodges the rent collectors, sneaks out to the pub at every opportunity, and has the occasional run-in with the law. He's not a complete loser: He's a pretty competent footballer (aside from the occasional own goal) and handles himself quite well in brawls.

This was probably fairly edgy stuff in the 1960s, but it has more of a ring of nostalgia when read today. Much of that nostalgia is pleasant, but it does get uncomfortable in a few sequences when Andy's treatment of his wife shifts from verbal jabs to physical abuse. The fact that Andy is often on the receiving end isn't enough to erase the cringe factor, nor does the idea that this is simply a product of its times. Those particular jokes are simply not funny in today's world.

There are only a few such moments in this book, and there were a fair number of jokes that I did find funny. But it didn't make for entirely comfortable reading.

Rating: 4/10

Note: I've got this volume up for sale on Ebay here.