Andy is a working-class figure who never actually works, living in Hartlepool, a harbour town in County Durham, in North East England. The title of the strip is a pun on the local pronunciation of "handicap"; and the surname Capp signifies how Andy's cap always covered his eyes along with, metaphorically, his vision in life. Handicap racing and handicapping, in sport and games, is part of betting, a favourite activity of Andy Capp.

If you take the time to make a study of my characters,” he says, “the character that is nicest and best is Florrie. Why, therefore, am I never accused of being a feminist? She is my creation as well, isn’t she?” To Americans, judging by the values they say they live by, Andy Capp represents everything they are taught from infancy to eschew energetically wherever possible. He’s an anti-role model. Yet despite his wholly unsavory behavior, he was immediately hugely popular in this country—a roaring success. Perhaps because readers saw him as “getting away with it”—with everything we’re all taught we shouldn’t do. In 1931, Smythe quit school at the earliest permissible age, 14. “I was somewhere near the bottom of the class. I was the kind of bloke, if someone said, ‘What is 2 and 2,’ I’d say 22. Up till then, I never drew. I didn’t draw then, either. I was on the dole.” Andy's and Flo's best friends are their neighbours Chalkie and Rube White. Chalkie is a hard-drinking working-class type like Andy, who can often be seen sharing a pint with him at the corner pub, but Chalkie seems mellower than Andy, and more tolerant of his wife. Rube is Flo's confidante, and the two often trade gossip over the clothesline about their husbands' latest escapades. The local vicar is also often seen. Andy despairs of his holier-than-thou attitude, as he is constantly criticising Andy for his many bad habits and vice-ridden lifestyle. He often lets his opinion be known to Flo, who agrees with his low assessment of Andy's character. In the U.S., Andy Capp appeared in only forty-five papers the first year; in the second, the strip took off, appearing in over 400 newspapers. By the 1990s, it was in nearly a thousand U.S. papers a day. When Smythe died of lung cancer June 13, 1998, Andy Capp was in 1,700 newspapers in fifty-two countries, translated into fourteen languages—proving that a drunken layabout is unaccountably popular everywhere.Shenton, Mark (9 February 2016). "Andy Capp the Musical review at Finborough Theatre, London – 'utterly charming' ". The Stage. London . Retrieved 23 March 2016.

Two of the constables who observe Andy's drunken behavior are named Alan and Trevor. [10] Continuation [ edit ] Victor E. Neuburg (1983). The Popular Press Companion to Popular Literature. Popular Press. pp. 20–21. ISBN 978-0-87972-233-3. Smythe grew up in Northern England under conditions that made Andy Capp seem like a kindred soul if not an alter ego. “He was my best friend yet,” Smythe once said. Growing into manhood, Smythe was often jobless for long stretches, making him sympathetic to Andy’s situation (which, in Andy’s case, is self-inflicted by preference). This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sourcesin this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( August 2016) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) When I’d finished the poster, one of the group said, ‘Hey, that’s not bad! Why don’t you take up commercial art for a living?’ After thinking about it,” said Smythe, quoted in The World, “I thought it a very good suggestion.”I realized long ago,” Smythe said, “that if I gave the character my likes and dislikes, I wouldn’t have to make a conscious effort to remember anything I had ever written or drawn. I wouldn’t have to keep a reference file. Andy’s ways of looking at things are therefore, by and large, my ways of looking at things. There are exceptions to this rule, the most important of which is the fact that he drinks beer while I prefer gin and tonic. But I can afford it, and he can’t, can he? Their furniture has been repossessed on several occasions. Somehow they always manage to retrieve it, and Andy is always able to afford beer and gambling money, usually by borrowing from Florrie. He took a job as errand boy for a butcher. At the age of 16, he was forced to quit the job: his employer wanted to avoid paying a special tax he would be liable for in employing anyone 16 or older. For the next three years, Smythe was “on the dole” (welfare): he couldn’t find work. Fed up at last, he joined the Northumberland Fusiliers in 1936 and was posted to Egypt. Then World War II broke out, and instead of being on active duty for the contracted seven years, Smythe served until 1946, 10 years. He was a machine gunner and had achieved the rank of sergeant by the time he left the service. He was also the unlikely hero of a 1980s computer game, on Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum, in which players had to borrow money to replenish Andy’s alcohol supply while avoiding fights with his wife Flo and the police.