Capp created the satirical comic strip Li'l Abner (1934–1977), which at its peak reached an estimated 60 million readers.

The strip popularized Sadie Hawkins Day and introduced the Shmoo (1948).

• He won the National Cartoonists Society's Reuben Award in 1947.

• Once a New Deal liberal, he became a conservative critic of the counterculture in the 1960s.

• In the early 1970s, following allegations of sexual misconduct toward female college students, he pleaded guilty to a charge of attempted adultery in Wisconsin.