In 1972 The New York Times Magazine contacted a few cartoonists for each to work up a page of
their famous characters centered around that year’s presidential election for their April 16 issue.
Over the years Pogo’s Smoke Filled Tavern by Walt Kelly (which made the cover) and The Amazing Spider-Man by Stan Lee and John Romita have shown up enough to no longer be rare. Most recently Tom Brevoort posted them, with the Spider-Man strip in color which is scarce.
above Spider-Man from Tom Brevoort; below Pogo from Bob Beerbohm
The original black and white art to Spider-Man still exists, and thank to The Museum of Cartoon Art’s A Retrospective of Walt Kelly and Pogo (1977) a b&w version of the Pogo page gets around.
Spider-Man © Marvel Characters, Inc.; Pogo © Okefenokee Glee & Perloo, Inc.
What is rare is the Li’l Av’rage by Al Capp contribution. When we mentioned Brevoort’s post a couple days ago we begged for someone to show us the Li’l Abner page from that April 16, 1972 N. Y. Times Magazine edition which we had never seen. Friend of The Daily Cartoonist Mike Rhode dove into the New York Times microfilm files and has come through. Mega-thanks Mike!
Li'l Abner/Li'l Av'rage © Capp Enterprises, Inc.
If we find a color copy of the Al Capp page you’ll be the first to know.
July 6, 2023 Update
Here (finally), courtesy James Gauthier and the Hogan’s Alley Facebook page, is the color version:
