Popeye Blog

Let me set up the scene for you all. It's between 1978 and 1980. Within that stretch of time you could find me (roughly between the age of 3 to 5 years old) planted all glassy-eyed and slack-jacked in front of the television set on Saturday mornings watching Hanna-Barbera's The All-New Popeye Hour. Probably on CBS. It seemed like CBS had cornered the market on Saturday Morning Television during that time I could be wrong though but it doesn't matter.

I had mentioned it before, but between the ages of three and and five I was all about Popeye. I owned the lunchbox in the picture above. I think Popeye was probably the second character I learned to draw really well as a young lad. The very first was Fred Flintstone.

I loved the cartoon and I loved the movie starring Robin Williams. Even though I did not enjoy the HB incarnation of Popeye when I watched it years later, the movie still stands the test of time for me and I still love to watch it.




If you hate the character of Popeye it's most likely you were introduced to the later Famous Studio, King Feature or Hanna-Barbera versions of the one-eyed sailor. However, Famous Studio would periodically draw him with both eyes opened. It seems the thought of a toothless sailor with one of his eyes shut permanent wasn't cute enough for Famous Studios saccharine standards.

Like I said in my previous blog, I have always loved the Fleischer Studios version of Popeye. That one is still probably the best version of the character to date as far as animation is concerned.

But I've been introducing myself to the original EC Segar cartoons of Popeye and his Thimble Theater friends for the first time. And to be honest, as much as I love and adore the Fleischer animations, the original comic strips are even better than the animated Popeye.



The comics page today is a shell of what it used to be like as far as both the artwork and the stories they told are concerned. There were no real set rules in the original Popeye comics that we have today. There were no spinach and no Bluto or Brutus as he is sometimes referred to. There was no real formula to the storylines of the Popeye strips. None of the eat spinach to pound Bluto (or Brutus) to save Olive that we know Popeye for today.

The storylines are absurdly funny as I found in Fantagraphic Books first collection of the Popeye strips. And what I love most is the dialogue Popeye uses like "I'll lay ya's among the sweet pea's" and "I socked him permanent". Which most likely translates that he killed whoever he hit.

Two of my favorite strips from the first collection was one where Olive is trying to get Popeye to stop fighting so she makes him count to 1000 to calm him and not hit Johnny Doodle. Some dopey guy Olive was fancying over Popeye. Well, he goes the week and finally when everyone is sitting down to dinner Popeye finally gets to 1000 and hits Johnny Doodle.

The other cartoon I really liked was one where Popeye and his buddy Castor Oyle (Olive's brother) are going fishing and some big jerk starts paying tricks on Castor to ruin his time fishing so to get back Castor tells the guy that sneaking up behind Popeye and yelling BOO! and watch him run. The big jerk does just that and Popeye runs up to the guy hitting him in the face saying "I'll BOO ya! Blow me down I'll BOO ya!" which then Castor says to the guy smiling "I forgot to tell you which way he'd run, mister!"

Another great thing about Segar's art. If you're meant to hate a character he went out of his way to make the character look like someone you would love to punch ;-)

Reading the volume has made me appreciate both Popeye as well as how well Jules Feiffer. What amused me the most was reading the Sappo comic strips that went along with the regular Thimble Theater ones that had an artist named Mr. Splat who seemed very similar to the Mr. Geezil character from the movie who had an undying hatred for Wimpy. Both characters were constantly saying "PHOOEY!" after every sentence.

For the longest time I thought the movie was the origin of Popeye until I read the Fantagraphic collection of Popeye cartoons. It just shows what an enjoyable film Robert Altman produced and how true it was to the spirit of the original comics.

Again, for those of you who hate Popeye, you might have just been watching and reading the wrong things over the years. Pick up Fantagraphics coffee table collections of the original Segar cartoons.

If you don't like Popeye then... well... I think you might have issues ;-)