There's always something going on in Dogpatch - from Shmoo-invasions to Sadie Hawkins Day races to the ever-amusing capers of Li'l Abner and his best gal Daisy Mae. But did you know that the beloved character of Li'l Abner had a favorite comic strip character of his own? You'll recall that last week, we mentioned a 1943 Li'l Abner Sunday strip, with a very early appearance of this character, which sold for $2,200 at Russ Cochran's Comic Art Auction.

We're talking, of course, about Fearless Fosdick, and this week, we thought we'd take a closer look at that wayward detective with the permanent grin, square jaw, closed eyes, and little dabby mustache.

In a strip-within-a-strip style that made for twice as much reading fun, Al Capp created a comic strip hero for his own comic strip hero to enjoy. In fact, Capp even went so far as to give Fearless a fictitious creator in Lester Gooch. Clearly, Capp based Fearless Fosdick on Dick Tracy, and the name Lester Gooch was a direct parallel to Tracy creator Chester Gould. So, in addition to the always-entertaining Li'l Abner, Capp gave readers a whole new hero to adore in Fearless Fosdick. When Fearless made an appearance, his story would flow seamlessly from Li'l Abner's story - making the reader feel as if they were reading right along with him.

Today, we thought we'd take a look at a particularly hilarious Li'l Abner/Fearless Fosdick story - involving one very murderous chair.

We begin with Lester Gooch, recently released from an insane asylum and ready to begin writing his popular Fearless Fosdick strip again. This utterly disheartens Li'l Abner, who is convinced that the strips will be awful because of Gooch's newfound sanity. And, Gooch's bosses in New York feel the same way. Certain that the "sane" strips are too "namby-pamby" to interest any real American kids, they decide to shake Gooch up a bit with beatings and electric shocks - until he produces new Fearless Fosdick strips that meet his bosses' "insane" expectations...and Li'l Abner's.

So, we see Daisy Mae giving her dark-haired honey a newspaper featuring the new strips, to which Li'l Abner replies, "Ah love this!" Then, the story begins...

We meet up with Fearless Fosdick as he's walking along the streets shooting people for fun. He just finishes boasting to the commissioner that the town is 100% criminal free...when a mysterious chair comes into play. It's the Chippendale Chair...and it is a force to be reckoned with. It steals jewelry and murders everyone from bank presidents to wedding guests. Fosdick becomes obsessed with the chair, but no one in the town believes that a chair could possibly be responsible for all that mayhem. After one particular bloodbath, we flash back over to Daisy Mae, who doesn't believe it either. She thinks Fearless Fosdick is "stooped," and tells Li'l Abner so. Li'l Abner, however, wants no part of her hero-bashing, and believes he knows the method behind Fearless Fosdick's madness.

We return to the Fearless strips, where the Chippendale Chair continues on its vicious path. It murders the dear, sweet old philanthropist, J. Sweetbody Goodpants, then robs him and tosses him out of a six-story window and into a garbage can. Then it kills the town commissioner. Then, 3,000 guests at a fundraising event where the chair is present are slaughtered in cold blood.

By now, Gooch's bosses are stunned at the ridiculous proportions the tale has taken. And when they confront him on it, they find a wild-haired, raging madman who kicks them out and plops down at his drafting table to weave more fantastically wild tales.

He makes Fearless Fosdick the bodyguard of Presidential candidate Marmaluke Minuet - but even Fosdick's brave detective prowess can't save the would-be President from the vile Chippendale Chair and its murderous rage. When Fosdick tries to explain to the new town Commissioner who he believes the murderer is, he gets repeatedly kicked out of the office - much to his dismay...and much to the dismay of Li'l Abner. Li'l Abner is heartbroken as he continues to read of Fosdick's humiliation, his forced resignation, the appointment of a dopey, drooling loon named Sebastian in his place and the commissioner's suggestion that he commit suicide.

But commit suicide he does not. Rather, he peddles apples for 5 cents each. After yet another theft and heinous murder, however, old Fearless at last convinces the commissioner to let him interrogate the vile chair. After a hilarious question-answer session, Fosdick finally gets the thing to confess - but after taking it to the commissioner, the chair freezes up and refuses to speak. Fosdick beats it to a pulp before being carried away in a net, and then things start to get very insane.

The chair is picked up by two henchmen, and it is then delivered to its, yes, girlfriend. The chair, however, has only one thing on its mind: killing Fearless Fosdick. And he doesn't just want the good detective dead - he wants "to see his corpse - full o' hot lead - here - within 24 hours!!"

Fearless, however, has been locked in a padded cell at the "Home for Defective Detectives". And when he escapes, he sets to killing every Chippendale chair that crosses his path in the hopes of nabbing the evil one. Soon, he meets up with the chair's henchmen, and a wild shooting match ensues, with Fearless emerging from a bullet-ridden trashcan very much alive - to the delight of Li'l Abner. Of course Li' Abner is "con-foozed" over whether or not Fearless will capture the chair and whether the chair will then get "the chair".

We then flash back over to Fearless' story, where a sneeze causes him to lose his gun and gives the henchmen the opportunity to attack. Full of holes but still far from dead, the adventures continue with the chair at last being caught and getting, yes, "the chair". Fosdick ends up getting a raise, to which Daisy Mae replies, "Why, thass enough fo' a chap t'git married on!" Li'l Abner responds with a classic," Married? Fosdick? He'll nevah git married!! Thass why he is mah ideel!!"

And the adventures of Li'l Abner and Fearless Fosdick are exactly what make Al Capp's always-hilarious strip our ideel!