Popeye by E.C. Segar

Elzie Crisler Segar was an American cartoonist known for  his creation of Popeye, a character who appeared in 1929 in his comic strip Thimble Theatre. The Thimble Theatre strip was operated by the King Features Syndicate owner William Randolph Hearst. In it's early years the strip featured characters acting out various scenes in a theatrical style which was where the name Thimble Theatre came from. On January 17th 1929 Segar put out the comic strip Popeye. This sailor quickly became the focus of the strip even though Segar's Thimble Theatre was in it's tenth year when Popeye made his debut. Thimble Theatre's first main characters were the thin and lanky Olive Oyl and her boyfriend Harold Hamgravy and Olive's brother Castor Oyl. Olive's parents also popped up throughout the strip. This strip eventually settled into a comedy adventure style feature. Popeye first appeared on the strip as a minor character. At first he was just hired by Castor Oyl and Hamgravy to crew a ship for a voyage to Dice Island where the crooked gambler Fadewell owned a casino. On the trip back, Popeye was shot many times by Jack Snork a stooge of Fadewell's but survived. After this wild adventure Popeye was meant to leave the script but due to the audience's reaction he was brought back. The character Popeye became very popular and as a result was given a larger role and the strip was expanded into many more newspapers because of this. Eventually Olive Oyl leaves Hamgravy to become Popeye's girlfriend and Hamgravy leaves the strip as a regular. Popeye the sailor has bulging forearms and a mean upper cut. What gives him his strength is his canned spinach that becomes essential in the comic strip. As a matter of fact, due to Popeye's love for spinach, in the 1930s he saved the spinach industry with a 33% increase in the United States spinach consumption. With Popeye's canned spinach handy, he's able to fight off even the biggest nastiest man, Bluto. Olive Oyl causes most of the fights between Popeye and Bluto with Bluto always trying to steal her and Popeye having to save her...Popeye! Oh Popeye! Save me Popeye! 

In the 1920's Segar labored intensely and established the Thimble Theatre comic strip. At first being a daily strip, then a sunday page. The Thimble Theatre focused around the Oyl family. Popeye wasn't introduces until almost ten years later. E.C. Segar then took the strips narratives and ranged them from the everyday America to the Islands in Polynesia which brought fantasy and reality together in a way that made the audience have an escape from the depression that was occuring. Segar got better and better with his artistic skills and his storytelling that as the 20's progressed the adventures of these characters became longer, more involved and much funnier. Segar thought of Popeye as a cartoon version of himself. He represented all of Segar's emotions and said that comedy and tragedy are so closely related that it helped to bring laughter to American's in the sad times of the depression. Segar unfortunately died at a young age in 1938 right at the peek of his career. But till this day Popeye lives on. Thimble Theatre was continued after Segar's death by several writers and artists one of which was Segar's assistant Bud Sagendorf. But Popeye in my eyes meant more then just a funny cartoon sailor. It's full of emotion that I find rare in comics to date. Popeye shows something that is very real and serious. America at this time was in the midsts of a full on collapse due to the depression, but Segar punched his way through with Thimble Theatre and Popeye. He shows how in Popeye's world there is no what if's, you look whatever is facing you straight in the eye and see it for what it is and fight back. Fight for what you want, fight for what is right. Popeye in a sense is comparable in certain respects to America itself. They both are tough and strong and can not be messed around with. Like America, Popeye is no particular nationality or religion, everyone fighting through a problem relates to him. Not only did it touch people who were suffering from the depression but it also touched children. He made it a point to show children that were reading these comics that greens makes you stronger. He did it in a way that would attract children and it worked! It essentially saved the spinach industry in the 1930's. I feel as if Popeye, compared to other comics published around the same time such as Krazy Kat and Buck Rogers, is one of the few characters that still holds an importance in children and adults today, over 80 years later. He is still the same Popeye. People in America are still continuously fighting off problems and having this symbolic figure for happiness and laughter that is known around the world, Im certain he will stay that way for another 80 years to come.

Popeye was created to look more like a cartoon rather then giving off a realistic impression. The way Segar used the words for the comic and the images themselves he tended to blend them rather than having one dominate. McCloud called this representational, between the meaning and the reality vertex. With a simplified character it allows the comic artist to focus on ideas and allows the readers to empathise more easily with the character since there are fewer details to see a difference between the character and the reader. While also having a realistic environment around the character is an easy way to really draw the reader into this new world. 

 Not only did Popeye make a huge hit in the world of comics he also moved to silver screen and was made into short films both color and black and white, and was also made into a movie. He then in the later comics comes across a baby on his front step that he takes care of as his own child and names the baby Sweetpea. Popeye is a real humble man when he needs to be. He is not perfect and when he knows he has done wrong he will even throw himself in jail for a short time. He is big enough to take punches as much as he gives them and in many readers eyes is a friend and a hero. I feel as though Popeye will be around for many years to come and for new readers to see what a great comic E.C. Segar had created.