Essay on British Comic Strip: Andy Capp

Set in Hartlepool, England, the comic strip by Reg Smythe is a contemporary view into the creators own society, evolving from the early days of daily doses of domestic violence, to a time when the titular character quitting smoking was seen as being too politically correct. Featuring Andy Capp, a likeable oaf, critics decried him as a stereotypical character that embodied the negative attributes of this demographic. Sure enough, early on, the black and white comic strip saw Mr. Capp, with his now iconic flat black cap, eerily worn over his eyes; engage in activities that would shock many modern lovers of the comic strip that has continuously run for over six decades, featuring in over a thousand newspapers all over the globe including Cold War Russia. This article explores how the comic strip Andy Capp changed over time, to reflect the similarly evolving societal attitudes in post war Britain and the rest of the world, particularly towards domestic violence towards women.

Andy Capp is a phonetic representation of Smythes home in the Northern, particularly since the character was a handicap to his hardworking and long suffering wife of many years, Flo (1). In the strips early year, the rarely smiling Flo and the chronically lazy Capp often engaged in clouds of cartoon violence, with limbs sticking out and all. It should be noted that despite few victories, Flo was often the target of the savage, cartoonish violence that Nick Hiley of the British Cartoon Archives is Smythes own critical look at the early sixties; a society where gender based violence was commonplace (1). Quoted in the BBC, Hiley adds that of about two thousand sketches of Andy Capp featured in the Daily Mirror, one hundred and forty of those contained some sort of domestic violence, with Andy Capp noting early of the pleasure he derived from chastising his wife (4).

However, with the advent of feminism in the western society, Hiley agrees with the Letherndale of the Women Aid Charity that national attitudes towards gender equality were reflected by changes to Andy Capp, arguably one of the worlds most popular comic strips (1). However, she adds that despite the substantial gains being made in the period, a fact reflected by the little outrage over less violence in the comic strip, much remains to be done to change social attitudes towards gender violence. Lastly, it is evident that despite stretching his artistic liberties to near breaking point, Reg Smythes portrayal of antebellum Britain employed most of sarcasm to critique the general attitudes of a society that did not value equality. However, its sanitizing is evidence that society indeed does change over time, albeit at a snails pace.

Works Cited

Hiley, D. John. Mirth and Misogyny in Andy Capp. British Broadcasting Corporation. 2016. Web. www.bbc.com/mirthandmisogynyinandycapp/

Letherndale, Susan. Post Modern attitudes towards gender based violence in the Media, A critical review. Women Aid Charity Gender Based Violence Report. 2014. Internet Resource.