John Updike called his work “Voltairean.” The Life editor Wilson Hicks claimed he never worked with a “more difficult person.” John Steinbeck said he was “the best writer in the world.” Goldie Hawn believed her brief and unfortunate encounter with him was preparation for a career in a frequently demeaning industry. Such was the Janus-like character of Al Capp.

Capp’s signature creation, “Li’l Abner,” which ran for forty-three years, was the longest-lived comic strip of all time. With a readership of 90 million, both in this country and in twenty-eight others, it was arguably the most popular as well. But it was hardly just a commercial proposition. Alarming censors, annoying politicians, and tweaking self-important celebrities, “Li’l Abner” was also a vehicle for cutting social commentary.

Very few other residents of the funny pages can lay claim to such a record, and few of their creators were as notorious as Capp, the subject of A Life to the Contrary, an absorbing and occasionally appalling new biography by Michael Schumacher and the cartoonist Dennis Kitchen. Capp’s life was a messy affair, and the authors’ exhaustive research leaves little to the imagination. Readers will wince at his lecherous and often petty behavior, but the book importantly confirms that Capp, despite his many flaws, was a brilliant artist and a gifted writer who revolutionized his medium.

Born Alfred G. Caplin to a lower-class Jewish family in New Haven, Connecticut, Capp was shaped by a childhood misfortune. At nine,