{"id":28105,"date":"2023-06-04T09:00:12","date_gmt":"2023-06-04T09:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=28105"},"modified":"2023-06-02T17:14:28","modified_gmt":"2023-06-02T17:14:28","slug":"popeye-classics-volume-9-the-sea-hags-magic-flute-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2023\/06\/04\/popeye-classics-volume-9-the-sea-hags-magic-flute-and-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Popeye Classics volume 9: The Sea Hag\u2019s \u2018Magic Flute\u2019 and More!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" \"\"
\nBy Bud Sagendorf<\/strong>, edited and designed by Craig Yoe<\/strong> (Yoe Books\/IDW Publishing)
\nISBN: 978-1-63140-772-7 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-68406-092-4<\/p>\n

How many cartoon classics can you think of still going after a century? Here\u2019s one\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

There are a few fictional personages to enter communal world consciousness – and fewer still from comics – but this grizzled, bluff, uneducated, visually impaired old tar with a speech impediment is possibly the most well-known of that august bunch.<\/p>\n

Elzie Crisler Segar was born in Chester, Illinois on 8th <\/sup>December 1894. His father was a general handyman, and the boy\u2019s early life was filled with the solid, dependable blue-collar jobs that typified the formative years of his generation of cartoonists. Segar worked as a decorator, house-painter and also played drums; accompanying vaudeville acts at the local theatre.<\/p>\n

When the town got a movie-house, Elzie played silent films, absorbing all the staging, timing and narrative tricks from keen observation of the screen. Those lessons would become his greatest assets as a cartoonist. It was while working as the film projectionist, at age 18, that he decided to become a cartoonist and tell his own stories.<\/p>\n

Like so many others in those hard times, he studied art via mail, specifically W.L. Evans\u2019 cartooning correspondence course out of Cleveland, Ohio, before gravitating to Chicago where he was \u201cdiscovered\u201d by Richard F. Outcault – regarded as the inventor of modern newspaper comic strips with The Yellow Kid<\/strong> and Buster Brown<\/strong>. The celebrated pioneer introduced Segar around at the prestigious Chicago Herald<\/strong>. Still wet behind the ears, the kid\u2019s first strip, Charley Chaplin\u2019s Comedy Capers<\/strong>, debuted on 12th<\/sup> March 1916.<\/p>\n

In 1918, Segar married Myrtle Johnson and moved to William Randolph Hearst\u2019s Chicago Evening American<\/strong> to create Looping the Loop<\/em>, where Managing Editor William Curley foresaw a big future for Segar and promptly packed the newlyweds off to New York: HQ of the mighty King Features Syndicate<\/strong>. Within a year Segar was producing Thimble Theatre<\/strong>, (launching December 19th <\/sup>1919) in the New York Journal<\/strong>: a smart pastiche of cinema and knock-off of movie-inspired features like Hairbreadth Harry <\/strong>and Midget Movies<\/strong>, with a repertory of stock players acting out comedies, melodramas, comedies, crime-stories, chases and especially comedies for vast daily audiences. It didn\u2019t stay that way for long\u2026<\/p>\n

The core cartoon cast included parental pillars Nana<\/em> & Cole Oyl<\/em>; their lanky, cranky, highly-strung daughter Olive<\/em>; diminutive-but-pushy son Castor<\/em> and the homely ingenue\u2019s plain and (so very) simple occasional boyfriend Horace Hamgravy<\/em> (latterly, plain Ham<\/em> Gravy<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Thimble Theatre<\/strong> had already run for a decade when, on January 17th<\/sup> 1929, a brusque, vulgar \u201csailor man\u201d shambled into the daily ongoing saga of hapless halfwits. Nobody dreamed the giddy heights that stubbornly cantankerous walk-on would reach\u2026<\/p>\n

In 1924, Segar created a second daily strip. Surreal domestic comedy The 5:15<\/strong> featured weedy commuter\/aspiring inventor John Sappo<\/em> and his formidable spouse Myrtle<\/em>. It endured – in one form or another – as a topper\/footer-feature accompanying the main Sunday page throughout Segar\u2019s career, survived his untimely death, and eventually became the trainee-playground of Popeye\u2019s second great humour stylist – Bud Sagendorf.<\/p>\n

After Segar\u2019s premature passing in 1938, Doc Winner, Tom Sims, Ralph Stein and Bela Zambouly all took on the strip as the Fleischer Studio\u2019s animated features brought Popeye<\/strong> to the entire world, albeit a slightly variant vision of the old salt of the funny pages. Sadly, none had the eccentric flair and raw inventiveness that had put Thimble Theatre <\/strong>at the forefront of cartoon entertainments. And then, finally, Bud arrived\u2026<\/p>\n

Born in 1915, Forrest \u201cBud\u201d Sagendorf was barely 17 when his sister – who worked in the Santa Monica art store where Segar bought his drawing supplies – introduced the kid to the master cartoonist who became his teacher and employer as well as a father-figure. In 1958, after years on the periphery, Sagendorf finally took over the strip and all the merchandise design, becoming Popeye\u2019s prime originator\u2026<\/p>\n

With Sagendorf as main man, his loose, rangy style and breezy scripts brought the strip itself back to the forefront of popularity and made reading it cool and fun all over again. Bud wrote and drew Popeye<\/strong> in every graphic arena for 24 years. When he died in 1994, his successor was controversial \u201cUnderground\u201d cartoonist Bobby London.<\/p>\n

Bud had been Segar\u2019s assistant and apprentice, and in 1948 became exclusive writer\/artist of Popeye\u2019s comic book exploits. That venture launched in February of that year: a regular title published by America\u2019s unassailable king of periodical licensing, Dell Comics.<\/p>\n

On his debut, Popeye was a rude, crude brawler: a gambling, cheating, uncivilised ne\u2019er-do-well, but was soon revered as the ultimate working-class hero. Raw and rough-hewn, he was also practical, with an innate, unshakable sense of what\u2019s fair and what\u2019s not: a joker who wanted kids to be themselves – but not necessarily \u201cgood\u201d. Above all else he was someone who took no guff from anyone\u2026<\/p>\n

Naturally, as his popularity grew, Popeye mellowed somewhat. He was still ready to defend the weak and had absolutely no pretensions or aspirations to rise above his fellows, but the shocking sense of dangerous unpredictability and comedic anarchy he initially provided was sorely missed\u2026 except in Sagendorf\u2019s sagas\u2026<\/p>\n

Collected here are Popeye<\/strong> #40-44, crafted by irrepressible \u201cBud\u201d and collectively spanning April-June 1957 to April-June 1958. The stunning, nigh stream-of-consciousness slapstick sagas and nautical nuttiness are preceded by a treasure-stuffed treatise on \u2018The Big Guy who Hates Popeye!\u2019<\/em>, as Fred M. Grandinetti details all you need to know about archetypal \u201cheavy\u201d Bluto<\/em>. The lecture on the thug of many names is backed up by character and model sheets from animated appearances, comic book covers, and numerous comic excepts. Also emergent are strip precursors and alternate big bullies, original strip art from Sagendorf and London, plus a kind-of guest shot from Jackson Beck – the meaty matelot\u2019s on-screen voice\u2026<\/p>\n

Sadly missing the usual \u2018Society of Sagendorks\u2019<\/em> briefing by inspired aficionado, historian and publisher Craig Yoe, and the ever-tantalising teasers of ephemera and merchandise of \u2018Bud Sagendorf Scrapbooks\u2019, w<\/em>e instead plunge straight back into ceaseless sea-savoured voyages of laughter, surreal imagination and explosive thrills with quarterly comic book #40, opening with a monochrome inside front cover gag concerning the sailor\u2019s ward Swee\u2019Pea<\/em> and his fondness for digging in the dirt, before \u2018Thimble Theatre presents Popeye the Sailor in The Mystery of the \u201cMagic Flute!\u201d\u2019<\/em> once more pits the mariner marvel against the ghastly and nefarious Sea Hag<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Here she unleashes an army of agents to locate and secure a mystic talisman safeguarded by Popeye. With it, she can rid the world of her great enemy\u2026<\/p>\n

With the family house overrun, impetuous elder Poopdeck Pappy<\/em> unthinkingly hands over the wishing whistle and instantly Popeye is whisked into a pit with lions, thugs and Bluto all lined up to kill him. It doesn\u2019t work out well for any of them\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2018Popeye the Sailor and Eugene the Jeep\u2019<\/em> then reintroduces another of Segar\u2019s uniquely wonderful cartoon cryptids. The <\/em>little marvel had originally debuted on March 20th<\/sup> 1936: a fantastic 4th<\/sup> dimensional beast with incredible powers whom Olive and Wimpy use to get very rich, very quickly. Of course, they quickly lost it all betting on the wrong guy in another of Segar\u2019s classic and hilarious set-piece boxing matches between Popeye and yet another barely-human pugilist\u2026<\/p>\n

This time he pops up after Olive and the old salt clash over setting an engagement date, and Wimpey suggests asking the Jeep\u2019s advice. Instantly he materialises, and the question is nervously asked. The response is ambiguous and draws nothing but trouble\u2026<\/p>\n

Prose filler \u2018Ol\u2019 Blabber Mouth\u2019 <\/em>tells how a parrot accidentally causes all his friends to be captured by pet trade hunters before we arrive at the ever-changing back-up feature. Sappo – now reduced to gullible foil and hapless landlord to the world\u2019s worst lodger – endured the ethics-free experiments of Professor O.G. Wotasnozzle<\/em> \u201cThe Professor with the Atomic Brain\u201d.<\/p>\n

Callously and constantly inflicting the brunt of his genius on the poor schmuck, here the boffin seizes top billing with The Brain of<\/em> O.G. Wotasnozzle<\/em>, building a robot replica of his landlord and running rings around the sap in \u2018Double Double Who\u2019s Got Trouble\u2019<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n

The issue ends with an endpaper monochrome gag with Popeye and the precious \u201cinfink\u201d disputing bedtimes and a colour back cover jape with them disastrously fishing\u2026<\/p>\n

Issue #41 (July-September) opens with \u2018Popeye the Sailor in Spinach Soap!\u2019<\/em> as the sailor battles Olive\u2019s new beau. He looks just like Bluto, but has one advantage the sailor cannot match \u2026a steady job!<\/p>\n

In response, the money-disdaining matelot calls his secret weapon and Wimpey takes charge of Popeye\u2019s savings – a million bucks – all so that he can set up a business to employ the sailor man\u2026<\/p>\n

An engaging Micawber<\/em>-like coward, cad and conman, the insatiably ravenous J. Wellington Wimpy<\/em> debuted in the newspaper strip on May 3rd<\/sup> 1931 as an unnamed, decidedly partisan referee in one of Popeye\u2019s pugilistic bouts. Scurrilous, aggressively humble and scrupulously polite, the devious oaf struck a chord and Segar made him a fixture. Preternaturally hungry, ever-keen to solicit bribes and a cunning coiner of many immortal catchphrases – such as \u201cI would gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today\u201d and \u201cLet\u2019s you and him fight\u201d – Wimpy was the perfect foil for our straight-shooting action hero and increasingly stole the entire show\u2026 and anything else unless it was very heavy or extremely well nailed down.<\/p>\n

Full of good intentions but unable to control himself, Wimpey naturally embezzles it all and fobs off his pal with a get-rich-scheme. However when Popeye starts selling his vegetable-based cleanser door to door he soon finds his old tactics are enough to wash that man<\/em><\/strong> out of Olive\u2019s hair\u2026<\/p>\n

Co-starring Popeye, Swee\u2019Pea and the Jeep!, \u2018Sucker Gold!\u2019<\/em> sees the cowboy-obsessed kid head for the desert and perilous Apache Mountain to be a prospector. Happily, with Eugene along for the ride his safety and prosperity are assured\u2026<\/p>\n

The story of Bradley fills the prose section this revealing how the \u2018Horse Student\u2019<\/em> was kicked out of human high school, after which O.G. Wotasnozzle!<\/em> thinks himself into an invulnerable, inert state and the authorities resort to explosives to wake him up, before the back cover finds Popeye giving his kid a (kind-of) haircut\u2026<\/p>\n

Cover-dated October-December, Popeye<\/strong> #42 opens with the main event as the entire cast is caught on \u2018Trap Island!\u2019<\/em> as The Sea Hag and her hefty hench-lout target them from her mobile mechanised islet, before using doppelgangers to lure the sailor into ultimately useless death traps. Even her monster spinach-fuelled gorilla Smash<\/em> is helpless before the power of spinach inside Popeye\u2026<\/p>\n

Popeye then discovers Swee\u2019Pea can get into trouble anywhere, anytime when he sends him to fetch \u2018Today\u2019s Paper!\u2019<\/em> Through no fault of his own the mighty mite ends up trapped in a weather balloon, a target of the air force, 2300 miles from home in Harbor City, a blood enemy of angry Indian Chief Rock\u2019n\u2019roll<\/em> and locked in a missile, before dutifully bringing back that pesky periodical\u2026<\/p>\n

A duck with a speech impediment finds his purpose in prose yarn \u2018Big Toot\u2019<\/em> prior to Sappo giving O.G. Wotasnozzle the push. Typically, the toxic tenant terrorises every prospective replacement for his lodgings and the status quo is reluctantly re-established\u2026<\/p>\n

Another endpaper monochrome gag sees Popeye and Olive experiencing a little car trouble before Popeye<\/strong> #43 (cover-dated January-March <\/em>1958) opens in mono with another dig at Swee\u2019Pea and his shovel whilst main event \u2018Mind over Muscles!\u2019<\/em> finds Popeye in high spirits and utterly oblivious to Sea Hag\u2019s sinister surveillance. As the sailor eagerly anticipates his annual physical exam, she sends in her Sonny Boy<\/em> – AKA Bluto disguised as a physician – to undermine his confidence and poison his mind with the notion that spinach is killing him. However, even doctor\u2019s orders can\u2019t make him give up his green cuisine and everyone gets what they deserve in the end\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2018Popeye and Swee\u2019Pea in <\/em>\u201cThe Voyage!\u201d\u2019<\/em> finds the sailor man sent on a dangerous mission to an island of \u201cwild savages\u201d with his boy outrageously left behind and babysat by Poopdeck Pappy. The infernal infink\u2019s unhappy state is swiftly shifted by capricious fate though, and his soapbox boat is caught by wind, tide and a welcoming whale. When Popeye finally arrives, there\u2019s a big little surprise awaiting him\u2026<\/p>\n

Prose parable \u2018Diet!\u2019<\/em> reveals what happens when Mrs. Smith<\/em> declares the family is going vegetarian and pet dog Winky<\/em> disagrees, after which O.G. Wotasnozzle apparently mends his ways and declares himself \u2018\u201cA Friend to Man\u201d or \u201cBe Kind to Sappo Week!\u201d\u2019<\/em> Sadly, even his best intentions and domestic inventions are severely hazardous to his landlord\u2019s health – and the town\u2019s wellbeing\u2026<\/p>\n

Concluding with an endpaper monochrome gag seeing Popeye severely tested by the kid\u2019s bath time and a spot of gardening brings us to the last happy hurrah as Popeye<\/strong> #44 (April-June 1958) opens with black & white wisdom and Wimpy showing Olive the only way to Popeye\u2019s heart\u2026<\/p>\n

Full-colour feature \u2018Popeye meets \u201cOrbert\u201d\u2019<\/em> embraces a wider-screened, more dynamic illustration style for Sagendorf as occasional amorous arch rival Bluto makes another play for Olive. Whilst he and Popeye enjoy their violent clash, Swee\u2019Pea opens the box Bluto brought and unleashes a strangely alien flying beast. When its odd orbits kayo the blustering brute, Swee\u2019Pea christens it Orbert<\/em>. Soon they are inseparable and its ability to grant wishes have turned the kid into a bully and tyrant, and it\u2019s time for some stern parenting \u2026and spinach\u2026<\/p>\n

Sappo\u2019s d\u00e9tente with O.G. Wotasnozzle is still in play but comes under extreme pressure when the Prof joins a quiet day\u2019s fishing, and starts devising ways to make the pastime more efficient\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2018Specks\u2019<\/em> reflects in prose upon the life of short-sighted fish George<\/em>, before Popeye and Swee\u2019Pea star in self-proclaimed \u201chorrible story\u201d \u2018Follow the Leader!\u2019 <\/em>as spies kidnap the kid and try to make him tell where Popeye\u2019s pirate gold is stashed. The map he eventually draws them only leads to trouble and the issue and this volume wrap up on a monochrome end gag proving Swee\u2019Pea\u2019s punch is a powerful as his wits\u2026<\/p>\n

Outrageous and side-splitting, these universally appealing yarns are evergreen examples of narrative cartooning at its most absurd and inspirational. Over the last nine decades Thimble Theatre<\/strong>\u2019s<\/strong> most successful son and his family have delighted readers and viewers around the world. This book is simply one of many, but each is sure-fire, top-tier entertainment for all those who love lunacy, laughter, frantic fantasy and rollicking adventure. If that\u2019s you, add this compendium of wonder to your collection.
\nPopeye Classics volume 9 <\/strong>\u00a9 2016 Gussoni-Yoe Studio, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Popeye \u00a9 2016 King Features Syndicate. \u2122 Heart Holdings Inc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bud Sagendorf, edited and designed by Craig Yoe (Yoe Books\/IDW Publishing) ISBN: 978-1-63140-772-7 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-68406-092-4 How many cartoon classics can you think of still going after a century? Here\u2019s one\u2026 There are a few fictional personages to enter communal world consciousness – and fewer still from comics – but this grizzled, bluff, uneducated, … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Popeye Classics volume 9: The Sea Hag\u2019s \u2018Magic Flute\u2019 and More!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[191,90,113,125,97,227,107,156],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-cartooning-classics","category-comedy","category-humour","category-kids-all-ages","category-popeye","category-science-fiction","category-world-classics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-7jj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28105"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28108,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28105\/revisions\/28108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}