EXTRA

Al Capp was creator of the long-running and immensely popular American cartoon series Li'l Abner (see more HERE). One of the series' strengths was its special character gallery. In 1946 Capp introduced a new character to the gallery. She was known as Lena the Hyena, the world's ugliest woman, and the most puzzling was that Capp never showed her face in the strips. He claimed to only protect his readers, because her face was so hidious that anyone who saw it would go instantly insane!

Of course, this fact soon triggered lengthy discussions among the readers wondering what she looked like, and later that year Capp headed a contest in which everybody was invited to draw a picture of Lena. Despite the fairly small monetary prize of 525 dollars suggestions poured in from ordinary fans to professional cartoonists, and a panel of celebrity judges (Salvador Dali, Boris Karloff, and Frank Sinatra) was appointed to find a winner. The winning entry was made by cartoonist Basil Wolverton (known for Spacehawk), who had submitted 7 drawings.

The winning image was first published in the October 28, 1946, issue of Life magazine, and slightly different versions of Lena later went on to be reproduced in several other magazines.

Lena the Hyena

Mad magazine, May 1947

And what has all this got to do with Barks???

Well, Barks was one of the contributors, and his rendering of the freaky character is shown here: