E.C. Segar « The Hooded Utilitarian

I Continue to be Grumpy: Don’t Do That Direct Adaptation From Comics To Animation!

Looking at animations of Calvin and Hobbes, Achewood, and Axe Cop.

April 4, 2011
By Alex Buchet
Blog, Columns
11 comments

Strange Windows: Monumental

An examination of monuments of Popeye, Mickey, Peanuts, and other cartoon characters.

December 11, 2010
By Alex Buchet
Columns, Keeping Up With the Goonses, Series
no comments

Strange Windows: Keeping Up with the Goonses (part 2)

Jeep! Jeep! This is part two of our survey of language spawned by comics and cartoons. Here’s a strip that, in comics, is one of the richest contributors to the language: Thimble Theatre, better known worldwide by the name of its protagonist, the sailor Popeye. The strip’s creator, Elzie Segar (1894– 1938) is credited with several coinages, some [...]

DWYCK: Critiquing a Lively Art

High art, low art, critics and Popeye.

Phooey From Me to You: “Largely of Historical Interest”

Reading through my reviews of the first three Fantagraphics collections of E.C. Segar’s Popeye (my review of Volume I is here, II here, and III here), one repeated phrase jumps out at me: “largely of historical interest.” The challenge I gave the work was for it to transcend that description. It occasionally did; there were [...]

Phooey From Me to You: Huh

Back in the day, I used to watch Popeye cartoons. I liked them OK, although I enjoyed Scoobie Doo more. Olive Oyl was feisty, and she didn’t wait around to be rescued. She was a force to be reckoned with. I never really liked Popeye himself, since he was kind of dumb and kind of [...]

Phooey from me to you: Who cares about Sappo?

For me, E.C. Segar’s Popeye remains, no matter what Noah says, not only one of the great comics of the 20th century but a great piece of Americana as well. It manages to combine hilarious slapstick, daffy absurdity, high adventure, sentimental melodrama and still create genuine emotion and care for the cast’s well-being. It deserves [...]