"Skonk Works"

[Donald Markstein]

I would say almost certainly, that Al Capp's "Skonk Works" (and again,
that's a deliberate misspelling to simulate a regional dialect for humorous
effect, which may not come off to non-native English speakers) came before
Barks's "Skunk Oil Factory". Capp was populating his strip, "Li'l Abner",
with things like that from the late 1930s to the '50s, and brought them back
over and over, so his tens of millions of readers got to know them by heart.
IF there's any influence (and I don't think Barks needed Capp to know a
skunk oil factory is funny), it probably went from Capp to Barks.

By the way, I can only recall the name of one of the grungy characters who
worked there. The "inside man at the skonk works" was Big Barnsmell. Can't
remember the name of the "outside man". Anybody know that one offhand?

Quack, Don

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