Mondo Popeye [Paperback]

Bobby London (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: St Martins Pr; 1st edition (January 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312026110
• ISBN-13: 978-0312026110
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,406,693 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pirate On The Poopdeck, September 27, 2010

By 

PHILIP S WOLF (SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, CA. USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mondo Popeye (Paperback)

Underground comix great Bobby London, was the creator in the late sixties, of the wonderful strip of funnies (in the proud style of George Herriman's masterwork "Krazy Kat")that was entitled: "Dirty Duck"...the duck and his friends were one of the most popular features of an outta-wack period of comix madness. Dirty Duck, was featured in many alternative newspapers, National Lampoon & Playboy magazines. Bobby, had gotten himslf in heaps of trouble when he was one of the Air Pirates that did evil and perverse things to Mickey Mouse and his buddies in the pages of that comix in the early 1970's. Disney, in turn went after the Air-Pirates in court, and the story and legal battles that went on are stll the stuff of comic book legend.

Anyway, Bobby was the perfect choice to take on Popeye, and after he had worked for The Walt Disney Company as a freelance artist in the eighties, he started work on "Popeye" in February 1986. The strips featured in this book are taken from the daily strips of 1986 & 1987. Here the one eyed sailor, Olive Oyl, Wimpy, Sweepea, The Sea Hag, Alice The Goon, Castor Oyl & The Jeep are all featured, it is quite a cast of characters that do such modern stuff as use computers and watch the Home Shopping Network. Bobby, brought some new life into the strip by introducing some new cast members such as Nerdley and Olive's cousin, the huge-chested Sutra Oyl.

These are great comics, and they take Popeye and his pals and gals to places this comic strip hadn't gone to since the early 1930's. This was a crest-of-the wave for this great strip until Bobby got himself fired by wanting to publish the story of Olive being with child, and just how she was planning to deal with her pregnancy. (But, to avoid any legal action against me, I ain't going into any of that here!) This is a little look-see into Bobby's involvement with Popeye, and if any publisher is willing to collect his entire stay with the strip and stick it in a nice hardbound book, I'd be real happy to see that happen!
Popeye & Bobby London
FIVE STARS !!!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Blow Me Down!, December 9, 2003

By 

Hank Luttrell (Madison, WI United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mondo Popeye (Paperback)

Bobby London was born to be the artist/writer of Popeye. King Features' brilliant editor Jay Kennedy knew this, and hired him for the job. London's background was in underground comic books, and he was a popular contributor to National Lampoon. London's work always showed his interest in early comic strips such as George Herriman's Krazy Kat, but especially E. C. Segar, creator of Popeye.

The strips collected in this book, while great, aren't as good as his later work on Popeye. Eventually he started to tell longer, more ambitious story arcs -- but when the strip began to deal with somewhat controversial topics, London ran afoul of the King Features' marketing people, who brought his run on the strip to an end. It is incorrect to write that London's most controversial story concerned Olive Oyl being pregnant. Olive was sort of addicted to a cable shopping network, and it seems she had ordered too much stuff, including a doll. When she decided she needed to return this doll, some busy bodies spying on her misunderstood the situation, jumping to the wildly incorrect conclusion that she was seeking an abortion. A complex, clever, funny story! As far as I know, this volume is the only collection of London's Popeye, and as such is a treasure.