Milt Caniff on Al Capp

CANIFF: ...although Capp and I were rivals, we were old friends. I even took over Colonel Gilfeather from him. Capp once wrote a story about that. He said, "My work was once given to guy named Milton Caniff-what ever happened to him?" [laughter] Part of the reason Capp lost interest in Li'l Abner was the reduction in size. He felt an awful, pounding limitation. You may recall that, as a counterpoint, he started doing lettering billboard-sized.
SABA: I could never understand why he did that.
CANIFF: He was just mad at the syndicate for demanding that it be done larger. So he said, "They want it larger, I'l make it larger." So he made it billboard-sized. This was Al. He overreacted.
SABA: It was all part of his personality, wasn't it.
CANIFF: Exactly. I won't say there is nothing subtle about him, because there is plenty subtle about him, but when he reacts, he reacts big. Then, he had some personal problems, as you know. His daughter committed suicide, and his granddaughter was killed in an automobile accident. One was almost right on top of the other.
SABA: I understand that he's still in bad health.
CANIFF: Yes, he is.
SABA: Are you still in touch with him?
CANIFF: Yes, we talked on the phone a little while ago. I called him on a Sunday morning, which is the low point of anybody's week. We had long talk about... oh, everything.
SABA: It's good that you keep in touch with each other.
CANIFF: Yes, we're old friends. People used to think we were bitter rivals, which we never were, because Li'l Abner and my stuff had no rival points. We always got along well together. He was always very generous to me. In the times that he was doing a lot a of radio and television appearances, he had nice things to say about me. In fact, he would turn the conversation around to that end. He always liked Alex Raymond, and while Alex was alive, he used to do the same thing for Alex.

[Al Capp was a very self-centered man, who was never shy about saying what he didn't like about other people, especially people in the same business. So if he spoke well of someone, it was a great honor. I've never read anything from Capp that was negative towards Milt Caniff, so that really says something. Not saying he never said anything negative, just a that I haven't read it]