POPEYE THE SAILOR FIRST APPEARANCE IN A STRIP

Visiting Popeye The Sailor's Village in Mellieħa

Today, The Grandma wants to remember the first appearance of Popeye the Sailor man in a comic strip on a day like today in 1929. The Grandma is a great fan of comics and she likes Popeye a lot. Last time she visited Malta, with all her friends, they visited the Popeye The Sailor's Village in Mellieħa and she remembers that day like a great experience full of funny moments.

Before remembering Popeye the Sailor, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her Elementary Language Practice manual (Grammar 76).

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Popeye the Sailor is a cartoon fictional character created by Elzie Crisler Segar. The character first appeared in the daily King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre on January 17, 1929, and Popeye became the strip's title in later years. Popeye has also appeared in theatrical and television animated cartoons.

Segar's Thimble Theatre strip was in its 10th year when Popeye made his debut, but the one-eyed, left, sailor quickly became the main focus of the strip, and Thimble Theatre became one of King Features' most popular properties during the 1930s.

Popeye the Sailor

After Segar's death in 1938, Thimble Theatre was continued by several writers and artists, most notably Segar's assistant Bud Sagendorf. The strip continues to appear in first-run installments in its Sunday edition, written and drawn by Hy Eisman. The daily strips are reprints of old Sagendorf stories.

In 1933, Max Fleischer adapted the Thimble Theatre characters into a series of Popeye the Sailor theatrical cartoon shorts for Paramount Pictures. These cartoons proved to be among the most popular of the 1930s, and Fleischer -and later Paramount's own Famous Studios-continued production through 1957. These cartoon shorts are now owned by Turner Entertainment and distributed by its sister company Warner Bros.

Over the years, Popeye has also appeared in comic books, television cartoons, arcade and video games, hundreds of advertisements, peripheral products ranging from spinach to candy cigarettes, and the 1980 live-action film directed by Robert Altman and starring Robin Williams as Popeye.

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Popeye's story and characterization vary depending on the medium. Originally, Popeye got luck from rubbing the head of the Whiffle Hen; by 1932, he was instead getting strength from eating spinach. Swee'Pea is Popeye's ward in the comic strips, but he is often depicted as belonging to Olive Oyl in cartoons.

There is no absolute sense of continuity in the stories, although certain plot and presentation elements remain mostly constant, including purposeful contradictions in Popeye's capabilities. Popeye seems bereft of manners and uneducated, yet he often comes up with solutions to problems that seem insurmountable to the police or the scientific community.

Bruto, Olive & Popeye

He has displayed Sherlock Holmes-like investigative prowess, scientific ingenuity, and successful diplomatic arguments. His pipe also proves to be highly versatile. 

Among other things, it has served as a cutting torch, jet engine, propeller, periscope, musical instrument, and a whistle with which he produces his trademark toot. He also eats spinach through his pipe, sometimes sucking in the can itself along with the contents. Since the 1970s, Popeye is seldom depicted using his pipe to smoke tobacco.

Popeye's exploits are also enhanced by a few recurring plot elements. One is the love triangle among Popeye, Olive, and Bluto, and Bluto's endless machinations to claim Olive at Popeye's expense. Another is his near-saintly perseverance in overcoming any obstacle to please Olive, who often renounces Popeye for Bluto.

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There have been a number of Popeye comic books, from Dell, King Comics, Gold Key Comics, Charlton Comics and others, originally written and illustrated by Bud Sagendorf. In the Dell comics, Popeye became something of a crimefighter, thwarting evil organizations and Bluto's criminal activities. The new villains included the numerous Misermite dwarfs, who were all identical.

Popeye appeared in the British TV Comic series, a News of the World publication, becoming the cover story in 1960 with stories written and drawn by Chick Henderson. Bluto was referred to as Brutus and was Popeye's only nemesis throughout the entire run.

Popeye the Sailor

In November 1932, King Features signed an agreement with Fleischer Studios to have Popeye and the other Thimble Theatre characters begin appearing in a series of animated cartoons. The first cartoon in the series was released in 1933, and Popeye cartoons, released by Paramount Pictures, would remain a staple of Paramount's release schedule for nearly 25 years.

In 1960, King Features Syndicate commissioned a new series of cartoons entitled Popeye the Sailor, but this time for television syndication. The artwork was streamlined and simplified for the television budgets, and 220 cartoons were produced in only two years, with the first set of them premiering in the autumn of 1960, and the last of them debuting during the 1961–1962 television season.

Since King Features had exclusive rights to these Popeye cartoons, 85 of them were released on DVD as a 75th anniversary Popeye boxed set in 2004.

Director Robert Altman used the character in Popeye, a 1980 live-action musical feature film, starring Robin Williams as Popeye, his first starring movie role, Shelley Duvall as Olive Oyl, and Paul L. Smith as Bluto, with songs by Harry Nilsson and Van Dyke Parks. The script was by Jules Feiffer, who adapted the 1971 Nostalgia Press book of 1936 strips for his screenplay, thus retaining many of the characters created by Segar.

A co-production of Paramount Pictures and Walt Disney Productions, the movie was filmed almost entirely on Malta, in the village of Mellieħa on the northwest coast of the island. The set is now a tourist attraction called Popeye Village. The US box office earnings were double the film's budget, making it a success.

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I'm strong to the finish, 'cause I eats me Spinach, 

I'm Popeye the sailor man! (toot, toot).

Popeye, the Sailor