{"id":30580,"date":"2024-09-22T08:00:56","date_gmt":"2024-09-22T08:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=30580"},"modified":"2024-09-20T11:44:15","modified_gmt":"2024-09-20T11:44:15","slug":"popeye-the-great-comic-book-tales-by-bud-sagendorf-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2024\/09\/22\/popeye-the-great-comic-book-tales-by-bud-sagendorf-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Popeye: The Great Comic Book Tales by Bud Sagendorf"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Bud Sagendorf<\/strong>, edited & designed by Craig Yoe<\/strong> (Yoe Books\/IDW)
\nISBN: 978-1-60010-747-4 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-68406-381-9<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced in less enlightened times.<\/em><\/p>\n

Forest Cowles Sagendorf (March 22nd<\/sup> 1915 – September 22nd<\/sup> 1994) died 30 years ago today. He was a master of cartoon comedy adventure only known for one stellar character.<\/p>\n

There are few comic stars to have entered communal world consciousness, but a grizzled, bluff, uneducated, visually impaired old sailor with a speech impediment is possibly the most well-known of that select bunch. He\u2019s a true global icon but today we\u2019re talking about and celebrating the second genius who crafted his salty exploits…<\/p>\n

Elzie Segar had been producing Thimble Theatre<\/strong> since December 19th<\/sup> 1919, but when he introduced a coarse, brusque \u201csailor man\u201d into the saga of vaudevillian archetypes Ham Gravy<\/em> and Castor Oyl<\/em> on January 17th<\/sup> 1929, nobody suspected the giddy heights the scrappy walk-on would reach. Once old swab Popeye<\/strong> appeared, he wouldn\u2019t go and he\u2019s still going strong under the aegis of cartoonist R. K. Milholland (Something Positive<\/strong>, New Gold Dreams<\/strong>, Midnight Macabre<\/strong>, Classically Positive<\/strong>, Super Stupor<\/strong>) who took over from Hy Eisman (Kerry Drake<\/strong>, Little Iodine<\/strong>, Bunny<\/strong>, Little Lulu<\/strong>, The Katzenjammer Kids<\/strong>) in 2022.<\/p>\n

Way back in 1924 Segar created second daily strip The 5:15<\/strong>: a surreal domestic comedy featuring weedy commuter and would-be inventor John Sappo<\/em> and his formidable wife Myrtle<\/em> which endured in one form or another as a topper\/footer-feature accompanying the main Popeye Sunday page throughout the author\u2019s career. It even survived Segar\u2019s untimely death, eventually becoming the trainee-playground of Popeye\u2019s second super stylist Bud Sagendorf…<\/p>\n

After Segar\u2019s demise in 1938, Doc Winner, Tom Sims, Ralph Stein and Bela Zambouly all worked on the newspaper strip even as animated short features brought \u201cThe Sailor Man\u201d to the entire world via the magic of movies. Sadly, none of the films had the eccentric flair and raw inventiveness which had rocketed Thimble Theatre<\/strong> to the forefront of cartoon entertainment…<\/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 supplies – introduced the star struck kid to the master who became his teacher and employer as well as a father-figure. In 1958, Sagendorf took over the strip and ALL merchandise design, becoming Popeye\u2019s prime originator…<\/p>\n

When he did, 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. He wrote and drew Popeye <\/strong>in every graphic arena – including the majority of licensed merchandise – for 24 years. When Sagendorf retired in 1986, Underground cartoonist Bobby London took over the sailor-man\u2019s voyages until his death in 1994.<\/p>\n

Bud had been Segar\u2019s assistant and apprentice and learned the ropes from a master. When Dell Comics – America\u2019s king of licensed periodicals – asked him to write and illustrate Popeye\u2019s comic book adventures, the title began in 1948 and carried on for three decades.<\/p>\n

When Popeye first appeared, he was a rude, crude brawler: a gambling, cheating, uncivilised ne\u2019er-do-well. He was embraced as the ultimate working-class hero: raw and rough-hewn, practical, but with an innate, unshakable sense of what\u2019s fair and what\u2019s not; a joker who wants kids to be themselves – but not necessarily \u201cgood\u201d – and someone taking guff from no one. 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 – but not in Sagendorf\u2019s comicbook yarns…<\/p>\n

Collected in this enchanting full-colour edition is an admittedly arbitrary, far from definitive selection of the Young Master\u2019s compelling Dell funnybook canon, spanning February\/April 1948 to September 1957. The many other yarns are available in IDW\u2019s Popeye Classics<\/strong> series and if you like this you\u2019ll be wanting those in the fullness of time.<\/p>\n

Stunning, seemingly stream-of-consciousness stories are preceded here by an effusively appreciative Introduction<\/em> by Jerry Beck before \u2018Ahoy, Ya Swabs!\u2019<\/em> relays official history and private recollections from inspired aficionado and historian\/publisher Craig Yoe, augmented by a fabulous collation of candid photos, original comic book art and more. Especial gems are Bud\u2019s 1956 lessons on backgrounds from the Famous Artists Cartoon Course<\/strong>, series of postcards and the Red Cross booklet produced for sailors.<\/p>\n

Popeye<\/strong>\u2019s fantastic first issue launched cover-dated February 1948, with no ads and offering duo-coloured (black & red) single page strips on the inside front and back covers. From that premiere a full-coloured crisis comes as \u2018Shame on You! or Gentlemen Do Not Fight! or You\u2019re a Ruffian, Sir!\u2019<\/em> sees our salty swab earning a lucrative living as an occasional prize-fighter. That all ends when upcoming contender Kid Kabagge<\/em> and his cunning manager Mr. Tillbox<\/em> use a barrage of psychological tricks to put Popeye off his game. The key component is electing his sweetie Olive Oyl<\/em> President of a fictitious Anti-Fisticuff Society<\/em> to convince her man to stop being such a beastly ruffian and to abandon violence. It works… but only until the fiery frail learns that she has also been gulled…<\/p>\n

Next up is the lead tale from #9, (October\/November) as \u2018Misermites! or I\u2019d Rather Have Termites!\u2019<\/em> details how peaceful coastal town Seawet is plagued by an invasion of plundering dwarves. When the pixie-ish petty pilferers vanish back to their island with \u201corphink kid\u201d Swee\u2019 Pea<\/em> as part of the spoils, Popeye and Wimpy<\/em> give chase and end up battling a really, really big secret weapon…
\n\"\"
\n\u2018Witch Whistle\u2019<\/em> comes from Popeye<\/strong> #12 (April\/May 1950) and sees the swabbie revisit embattled kingdom Spinachovia where old<\/em> King Blozo<\/em> is plagued by a rash of vanishing farmers. The cause is nefarious old nemesis The Sea Witch<\/em> whose vast army of giant vultures seem unbeatable until Popeye intervenes…<\/p>\n

Popeye<\/strong> #21\u2019s (July-September 1952) \u2018Interplanetary Battle\u2019<\/em> taps into a growing fascination with UFOs as Wimpy innocently seeks to aid his old pal. When no prize fighter on Earth will box with Popeye, the helpful vagabond moocher broadcasts a message to the universe. What answers the call is a bizarre shapeshifting swab with sneaky magic powers…<\/p>\n

An engaging Micawber<\/strong>-like coward, cad and conman, incorrigible insatiable J. Wellington Wimpy<\/em> debuted in the newspaper strip on May 3rd<\/sup> 1931: an unnamed and decidedly partisan referee in one of Popeye\u2019s pugilistic bouts. The scurrilous but so-polite oaf struck a chord and Segar gradually made him a fixture. Always hungry, eagerly soliciting bribes and a cunning coiner of many immortal catchphrases – such as \u201cI would gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today\u201d and “Let\u2019s you and him fight” – Wimpy was a perfect foil for the simple action hero and increasingly stole the entire show… and anything else unless it was extremely well nailed down…<\/p>\n

From Popeye<\/strong> #25 (July-September 1953), \u2018Shrink Weed\u2019<\/em> details how some \u201cwild spinach\u201d reduces the old salt and baby Swee\u2019 Pea to the size of insects with outrageous and potentially dire consequences before the entire cast visit \u2018The Happy Little Island\u2019<\/em> (#27, January-March 1954) and confront subsurface creatures doing their darndest to spoil that jolly atmosphere.<\/p>\n

An epic thrill-fest manifests in \u2018Alone! or Hey! Where is Everybody? or Peoples is All Gone!\u2019<\/em> (#32, April-June 1955) as humans are abducted from all over the coast, leading Popeye into another ferocious battle with evil machines and his most persistent enemy, after which another family sea voyage results in the cast being castaway on an island of irascible invisible folk in \u2018Nothing!\u2019<\/em> (#34, October-December 1955). The fun concludes in sheer surreal strife as Popeye<\/strong> #41 (July-September 1957) displays capitalism at its finest when Olive gets a new boyfriend: one with a regular job and prospects. Stung to retaliate, Popeye devises \u2018Spinach Soap!\u2019<\/em> to secure his own fortune, but being an un-ejjikated, rough-&-ready sort, appoints Wimpy as his boss and administrator. Big mistake…
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\nThere was only one Segar and only one Sagendorf but there has always been more than one Popeye. Most of them are pretty good, and some are truly excellent. The one in this book is definitely one of the latter and if you love lunacy, laughter and rollicking adventure you must now read this.
\nPopeye: The Great Comic Book Tales by Bud Sagendorf<\/strong> \u00a9 2018 Gussoni-Yoe Studio, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Popeye \u00a9 2018 King Features Syndicate. \u2122 & \u00a9 Heart Holdings Inc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bud Sagendorf, edited & designed by Craig Yoe (Yoe Books\/IDW) ISBN: 978-1-60010-747-4 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-68406-381-9 This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. Forest Cowles Sagendorf (March 22nd 1915 – September 22nd 1994) died 30 years ago today. He was a master of cartoon comedy adventure only known for one stellar character. … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Popeye: The Great Comic Book Tales by Bud Sagendorf”<\/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":[191,113,78,102,125,97,225,227,107,156],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-comedy","category-comic-strip-classics","category-fantasy","category-humour","category-kids-all-ages","category-mystery","category-popeye","category-science-fiction","category-world-classics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-7Xe","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30580","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=30580"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30584,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30580\/revisions\/30584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}