"Li'l Abner" was a comic strip made by Al Capp that ran from 1934 to 1977 in newspapers in the United States, Canada, and Europe. It depicted a town of hillbillies in the impoverished mountain village of Dogpatch, USA. In the comic was Sadie Hawkins' Day, November 13th, in which single women, including the namesake Sadie Hawkins, would chase the men in town and force them into marriage. Daisy Mae always pursued Abner on those days. On college campuses in the late 1930s and 1940s, it became a trend for Sadie Hawkins' Day events where students would dress up as "Li'l Abner" characters and race. If a woman caught a man during this race, he was obligated to take her to a party later that evening. In 1939, TIME published an article that stated 201 colleges had "Li'l Abner" events with the popularity only increasing. Capp's story developed the event of the Sadie Hawkins' dance in which women ask men to be their dates instead of men being in the traditional role of pursuing women.