So, what DOES Olive Oyl see in him again?

[icon_uk]

It may, or may not, be well known, that Popeye was never meant to be a star.

Olive Oyl and her original boyfriend, Harold Hamgravy, was the original star of "Thimble Theatre (Which debuted over 90 years ago in 1919). The style changed a little, and introduced her brother Castor, who was always up to some comedic enterprise or other.

Then on January 17 1929, a story required Castor hiring a boat



...and a legend was born



Judging by the comparison they make, they appear to be renting a boat from a Cantina in Tattooine, but never mind.

Popeye was an instant hit and the series made more use of him than originally planned, he eventually became the primary character.

Popeye's history is probably worth a series of posts of their own, and I think we might have had some a couple of S_D incarnations ago.

By why mention that now, since I'm not planning on making such a series of posts? Well, because of Bela Lugosi, that's why...




Preview from Bela Lugosi's Tales From The Grave #2 from previewsworld

Seven-time Academy Award-winning make-up legend Rick Baker creates his first comic book cover and only for Monsterverse's second issue of Bela Lugosi's Tales From The Grave. Baker has been responsible for cinema history with work like that with Dick Smith when he was only 18 for The Exorcist. He won the first Academy Award for Make-up as a category with American Werewolf In London. He created the make-up designs for Michael Jackson's Thriller, the most successful music video in history. He's created apes for Gorillas In The Mist, and turned Jack Nicholson into a werewolf in Wolf. And for Monsterverse's money he won another Oscar for turning Martin Landau into Bela Lugosi (who also won an Oscar for the role!). The list of Oscars goes on and on right up to the recent The Wolfman. Now, he's bringing Hollywood to modern horror comics!

And now he turns his attention to....



Yeah Olive, you got yourself a REAL catch there! And yes, this story does feature in the issue.


And another story in the same issue gives us an idea what the son of Batman, Bane and Spawn might look like (and how such a son might come into being is a Gotham pub crawl mental image I'm not going near)... Meet Walpurgis Knight




All this and stories featuring earth astronauts meeting a planet of teenage vampires, and an evil Harry Knowles analogue seeking out a lost, cursed, horror movie? Well, I'm sold... as long as I don't have to look at that cover too often, bloody thing would give me nightmares.

Oh, and as a purely incidental sidenote (honestly!), speaking of Popeye, I just got hold of an acetate used in producing a coloured page for one of my favourite comics ever, the New Mutants Special Edition, featuring not only my favourite little linguist, but analogues of Popeye and Bluto for good measure!

Comments

[featheredserpent]

A more wretched hive of scum and villainy you'll not find in the funny pages.

[icon_uk]

Oh great now I'm picturing Han Popeye (In debt to Wimpey the Hutt) and his first mate Eugene the Wookie, helping Sweepea Skywalker and Poopdeck Kenobi escape from the clutches of Darth Bluto.

[joasakura]

I'm sorry. "Poopdeck Kenobi"...

I.. I can't stop laughing now.

[heckfire]

"I will gladly pay you Tuesday for Popeye in Carbonite today."

[sigmund_droid]

wait what happened to olive's old boyfriend?

did...did popeye kill him?

[freezer]

Vanished into the same void as Lyman.

[darkblade]

Lyman saw what was to come and got the fuck out of there.

[ebailey140]

Ah, Popeye. I've always thought the 1980 movie adaptation was Robert Altman's most underrated film. Audiences just didn't know what to make of it at the time because, at a time when even the original black & white Fleischer cartoons had been unavailiable to the public for decades, Altman based the film on them and the original Thimble Theater strip, with the complete Oyl family and the town of Sweethaven.

Decades before modern techniques, Altman managed to make a live action film look and feel like a comic strip and cartoon. And you just had to love the opening song, establishing the setting...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG4K5mX7jgk

And here's the very first Popeye cartoon from 1933...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfKTC0yAKmM

Ah, the anarchy and violence of the early classic cartoons. I especially enjoy people's reactions the first time they see the uncensored Steamboat Willie from 1928. Kids, don't try this at home...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBgghnQF6E4

Yeah, Mickie was a little sociopathic, early on... :)

[icon_uk]

Have to say, I tried the Popeye movie on more than one occasion and it just plain did nothing for me.

I know it has it fans, and gawd bless 'em, but I found the jokes not funny at all, the songs, for the most part, tedious ("Sweethaven" makes me think of a less catchy more repetitive "Anatevka"), the washed out colours didn't make me want to watch more and the semi-grotesque makeup was more distracting than anything else.

[baihu]

Perhaps this is more up your alley - Chinese Popeye: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozuQsY0bLGk

[lissa_quon]

Wow...I have never actually sat down and watched all of Steamboat Willy before. That...was...what the? Mickey you damn lazy jerk.

[arilou_skiff]

If I remember correctly Popeye entered the Public Domain just recently.

[icon_uk]

Apparently only "sort of". From wiki.;

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 in most countries, but remains under copyright in the United States.

Because Segar was an employee of King Features Syndicate when he created the Popeye character for the company's Thimble Theatre strip, Popeye is treated as a work for hire under U.S. copyright law. Works for hire are protected for 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation, whichever is shorter. Since Popeye made his first appearance in January 1929, and all U.S. copyrights expire on December 31 of the year that the term ends, Popeye will not enter the public domain in the U.S. until January 1, 2025 (assuming that no further term extensions are passed into law in the interim)

[fifthie]

(assuming that no further term extensions are passed into law in the interim)

ie "he's never gonna be public anything cause disney will buy all the senators its gotta buy to make sure Mickey stays theirs."

[icon_uk]

Yeah, that's pretty much it I think.

[lonewolf23k]

Well, while Popeye and Co. are likely going to stay owned by the current owners, I doubt anyone's doing anything with Harold Hamgravy. Maybe it's time Olive's ex-boyfriend came back?

[baihu]

Didn't bother them in 1976 when they made that Brucexploitation film The Dragon Lives Again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozuQsY0bLGk

[greenmask]

The only time I ever remember Popeye popping up on s_d was in a Tijuana Bible appearance.

And I don't think it's canon that Popeye's popeye is THAT big.

[salinea]

It grows when you feed it spinach.

[greenmask]

Ahaauuuuhhh

You win.

[salinea]

Yay, I win! :D

... I thought you threw the line on purpose.

[greenmask]

It didn't even cross my mind!!

Shame on me.

[icon_uk]

drhermes posted a couple of samples, you can find them under the tags.

[tsunamiwombat]

Pulling off a Luchadores mask, bad, bad form! Definatly a stage villain- doing something like that is a slap in the face.

[darkblade]

Are we sure Walrus Knight isn't the love child of Spawn and Bane?

[icon_uk]

Walpurgis Knight, and I actually suggested that in the OP (Except mine implied a Batman three-way)

[thanekos]

Eli Wallach Knight doesn't like to talk about that, okay?

[halloweenjack]

See also: Barney Google and Snuffy Smith. Even though Barney remains in the title, he seldom appears (I read the strip regularly in my younger years and don't remember seeing him once).

[randyripoff]

For those of you who aren't reading the Fantagraphics collections, I highly recommend them. The adventures were funny and exciting, and really just top shelf all around.

The only bad thing I have to say about the collections is that Segar focused way too much on one of his weakest characters for the Sunday strips, namely one Wellington J. Wimpy.