Fearless Fosdick - Definition and Overview

Fearless Fosdick was a comic strip policeman who was the hero of Li'l Abner, himself the hero of a comic strip by Al Capp which appeared from 1934 to 1977.

Fosdick was inspired by Dick Tracy, a similarly unflappable comic strip hero-cop and plain clothes detective. The strip-within-a-strip at times added much humour, as when Abner mindlessly aped his role model, even styling his hair similarly by using the product Fosdick endorsed.

Allegedly, Capp's work was not found to be particularly funny by Chester Gould, creator of Dick Tracy.

This was not surprising since Fosdick had an intellect only slightly superior to that of a mosquito. He behaved like a total fool, shooting innocent bystanders in a regular fashion and always apprehending the wrong individuals while criminals went free. He was a very gross caricature of detective work.