Popeye the Sailor is a fictional hero famous for appearing in comic strips and animated films as well as numerous television shows. He was created by Elzie Crisler Segar,[1] and first appeared in the daily King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre on January 17, 1929. Popeye has now become the series' title as well. Although Segar's Thimble Theatre strip, first published on December 19, 1919, was in its tenth year when Popeye made his debut, the sailor quickly became the main focus of the strip and Thimble Theatre became one of King Features' most popular properties during the 1930s. Thimble Theatre was carried on after Segar's death in 1938 by several writers and artists, most notably Segar's assistant Bud Sagendorf. The strip, now titled Popeye, 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 and Dave Fleischer's Fleischer Studios 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 the Fleischersand later Paramount's own Famous Studioscontinued production through 1957. Since then, Popeye has appeared in comic books, television cartoons, arcade and video games, hundreds of advertisements and peripheral products, and a 1980 live-action film directed by Robert Altman starring comedian Robin Williams as Popeye. On January 1, 2009, 70 years since the death of his creator, Segar's character of Popeye (though not the various films, TV shows, theme music and other media based on him) became public domain[2] in most countries, but remains under copyright in the United States. Characters and story In most appearances (except during the World War II era), Popeye is a middle-aged independent sailor with a unique way of speaking, one eye apparently missing, disproportionately muscular forearms with two anchor tattoos, thinning red hair, and an ever-present corncob pipe (which he toots like a steamship's whistle at times). Despite some mistaken characterizations over the years, Popeye is generally depicted as having only one blue eye, his left. In at least one Fleischer cartoon, Bluto refers to Popeye as a "one-eyed runt." It has never been revealed specifically how Popeye lost his right eye, although he claims it was in "the mos' arful battle" of his life. Later versions of the character had both eyes, with one of them merely being squinty, or "squinky" as he put it. According to the official site, Popeye is 34 years old and was born in a typhoon off Santa Monica, California. Popeye's strange, comic and often supernatural adventures take him all over the world, and place him in conflict with enemies such as the Sea Hag and Bluto. His main base of operations is the fictional town of Sweethaven. Popeye's father is the degenerate Poopdeck Pappy, who does not share his son's moral righteousness and is represented as having abandoned Popeye in some sources. Popeye's sweetheart (and in some sources, wife) over the years is Olive Oyl; although the two characters often bickered, especially in early stories after his first appearance. Popeye is the adoptive father of Swee'Pea, an infant foundling left on his doorstep. (Sweet Pea is a term of affection used by Popeye; in the cartoon We Aim to Please, he addressed Olive Oyl as "Sweet Pea" at one point.) In addition to a gravelly voice and a casual attitude towards grammar, Popeye is known for having an apparent speech impediment (a common character-distinguishing device in early cartoons), which either comes naturally or is caused by the ever-present pipe in his mouth. Among other things, he has problems enunciating a trailing "t"; thus, "fist" becomes "fisk" (as sung in his theme song, which makes it conveniently rhyme with "risk") and "infant" becomes "infink." This speech impediment even found its way into some of the titles of the cartoons. Popeye is depicted as having superhuman strength, though the nature of his strength changes depending on which medium he is represented in. Originally, the comic-strip Popeye gained his strength and invulnerability in 1929 by rubbing the head of the rare Whiffle Hen. From early 1932 onward, especially the cartoons, Popeye was depicted as eating spinach to become stronger. The animated shorts depicted Popeye as ridiculously strong, but liable to be pummeled by the much larger Bluto before his eating of the spinach. When fed up with this treatment or exhausted, he would eat spinach, which would instantly restore and amplify his strength to an even greater level. In the comic strips, spinach is presented as a panacea, infusing Popeye not only with his extraordinary strength, but also making him invulnerable to all sorts of threats (including bullets, a basilisk's petrifying gaze, or aliens' weapons) and even capable of feats like flight or extraordinarily fast swimming (usually with the aid of his pipe as a propeller). In the animated shorts, Popeye's ingestion of spinach which is almost invariably canned is equally fanciful and often involves squeezing the can until the top opens, or sucking the spinach through his pipe, and on rare occasions, even ingesting the can as well. Occasionally, spinach has a similar invigorating power on other characters. Other differences in Popeye's story and characterization show up depending upon which medium he is presented in. While Swee'Pea is definitively the adopted child of Popeye in the comic strips, he is often depicted as being related to Olive Oyl in cartoons. The cartoons also occasionally feature family members of Popeye that have never appeared in the strip, notably his look-alike nephews Peepeye, Pupeye, Pipeye, and Poopeye. Even though there is no absolute sense of continuity in the stories, certain plot and presentation elements remain mostly constant, including purposeful contradictions in Popeye's capabilities. Though at times he seems bereft of manners or uneducated, Popeye is often depicted as capable of coming up with solutions to problems that (to the police, or, most importantly, the scientific community) seem insurmountable. Popeye has, alternatively, displayed Sherlock Holmes-like investigatigative prowess, determining for instance that his beloved Olive was abducted by estimating the depth of the villains' footprints in the sand, scientific ingenuity (as his construction, within a few hours, of a "spinach-drive" spaceship), or oversimplified (yet successful) diplomatic argumentation, by presenting to diplomatic conferences his own existence (and superhuman strength) as the only true guarantee of world peace. Popeye's vastly versatile exploits are deemed even more amusing by a few standard plot elements. One is the love triangle between Popeye, Olive and Bluto, and the latter's endless machinations to claim Olive at Popeye's expense. Another is his (near-saintly) perseverance to overcome any obstacle to please Olive - who, quite often, treats him like dirt, and ends up being the only character capable of beating him up. Finally, in terms of the endless array of villain plots, Popeye mostly comes to the truth by "accidentally" sneaking on the villains, the moment they are bragging about their schemes' ingenuity, thus revealing everything to an enraged Popeye, who uses his "fisks" in the name of justice. Olive Oyl Olive Oyl is a cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar in 1919 for his comic strip Thimble Theatre. The strip was later renamed Popeye after the sailor character that became the most popular member of the cast; however Olive Oyl was a main character for 10 years before Popeye's 1929 appearance. She is named after olive oil, used commonly in cooking or in salads. Segar's newspaper strips also featured a number of her relatives named after other oils, including her brother, Castor Oyl, their mother, Nana Oyl (after "banana oil," a mild slang phrase of the time used in the same way as "horsefeathers," i.e. "nonsense"), their father, Cole Oyl, Castor's estranged wife, Cylinda Oyl, and more recently, Olive's nieces Diesel Oyl & Violet Oyl appears in the cartoons. Also among Olive's family are her cousin, Sutra Oyl and her two uncles, Otto Oyl and Lubry Kent Oyl. The first two Popeye cartoons, Popeye The Sailor and I Yam What I Yam, featured Bonnie Poe as the voice of Olive Oyl. She was thereafter voiced by character actress Mae Questel (who also voiced Betty Boop and other characters); Questel styled Olive's voice after that of actress ZaSu Pitts. In 1938, Margie Hines took over as the voice of Olive Oyl, starting with the cartoon Bulldozing The Bull. Questel returned as her voice in 1944, starting with the cartoon The Anvil Chorus Girl; she would remain so until after the King Features Syndicate made-for-TV Popeye shorts in 1960. Marilyn Schreffler replaced Mae Questel as Olive when Hanna-Barbera obtained the rights to produce new made-for-TV Popeye cartoons for The All-New Popeye Hour in 1978. Bluto Bluto is a cartoon character created in 1932 by Elzie Crisler Segar as a one-time character, named "Bluto the Terrible", in his Thimble Theatre comic strip (later renamed Popeye). Bluto made his first appearance September 12 of that year. Fleischer Studios adapted him the next year (1933), to be the recurring villain in their theatrical Popeye animated cartoon series. Bluto or Brutus is Popeye's nemesis; he, like Popeye, is attracted to Olive Oyl, and usually attempts to kidnap her. However, with the help of some spinach, Popeye usually ends up defeating him. Bluto is a large, bearded, musclebound man. He mostly uses his physical brawn to accomplish what he is trying to do, but does display some ability for tactical planning. Neither Popeye and Olive Oyl, nor any other characters, think of him as anything more than a worthless scoundrel, although Olive seems to forget this in the beginning of an episode, only to discover it later. However, there are some cartoons that show Popeye and Bluto as friends and Navy buddies, with Bluto usually turning on Popeye when an object of interest (usually Olive) is put between them. A prime example of this is the cartoon We're On Our Way to Rio (1944) in which the two pals are singing together, "Tell all the girls in Rio that Popeye and Bluto are coming." In some cartoons and comic strips, Wimpy is portrayed hanging out with Bluto and usually appears to have nothing against him. In more recent Popeye cartoons, such as the computer-animated movie Popeye's Voyage: The Quest for Pappy, Bluto and Popeye are back to being good friends with Bluto being somewhat afraid of Popeye, although Bluto getting mind-controlled puts a wedge between them once again.[citation needed] In some cartoons it was directly shown that, unlike Popeye, Bluto hates spinach (which in Popeye usually gives people inhuman strength), which is the primary reason he will not use it against Popeye. However, in Twisker Pitcher Bluto eats spinach to win a baseball game against Popeye. A couple of times Popeye has tricked (or forced) Bluto into eating spinach, in order to benefit from his extra strength during tense situations. In certain "fourth wall-breaking" episodes (such as "Fightin' Pals" and "The Natural Thing to Do"), it is revealed that Popeye and Bluto are actually good friends who enjoy brawling together, but who simply portray themselves as adversaries for the sake of drama in their various adventures. Bluto or Brutus is Popeye's nemesis; he, like Popeye, is attracted to Olive Oyl, and usually attempts to kidnap her. However, with the help of some spinach, Popeye usually ends up defeating him. Bluto is a large, bearded, musclebound man. He mostly uses his physical brawn to accomplish what he is trying to do, but does display some ability for tactical planning. Neither Popeye and Olive Oyl, nor any other characters, think of him as anything more than a worthless scoundrel, although Olive seems to forget this in the beginning of an episode, only to discover it later. However, there are some cartoons that show Popeye and Bluto as friends and Navy buddies, with Bluto usually turning on Popeye when an object of interest (usually Olive) is put between them. A prime example of this is the cartoon We're On Our Way to Rio (1944) in which the two pals are singing together, "Tell all the girls in Rio that Popeye and Bluto are coming." In some cartoons and comic strips, Wimpy is portrayed hanging out with Bluto and usually appears to have nothing against him. In more recent Popeye cartoons, such as the computer-animated movie Popeye's Voyage: The Quest for Pappy, Bluto and Popeye are back to being good friends with Bluto being somewhat afraid of Popeye, although Bluto getting mind-controlled puts a wedge between them once again.[citation needed] In some cartoons it was directly shown that, unlike Popeye, Bluto hates spinach (which in Popeye usually gives people inhuman strength), which is the primary reason he will not use it against Popeye. However, in Twisker Pitcher Bluto eats spinach to win a baseball game against Popeye. A couple of times Popeye has tricked (or forced) Bluto into eating spinach, in order to benefit from his extra strength during tense situations. In certain "fourth wall-breaking" episodes (such as "Fightin' Pals" and "The Natural Thing to Do"), it is revealed that Popeye and Bluto are actually good friends who enjoy brawling together, but who simply portray themselves as adversaries for the sake of drama in their various adventures. Characters originating in the cartoons Pipeye, Pupeye, Poopeye, Peepeye (Popeye's identical nephews) Shorty (Popeye's shipmate in three World War II era Famous studios shorts) Diesel Oyl (Olive's identical niece, a conceited brat who appears in three of the 1960s King Features shorts) Popeye, Jr. (son of Popeye and Olive Oyl, exclusive of the series Popeye and Son)
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