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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Popeye's Very Best, December 22, 2008
Famous characters that have stood the test of time generally evolve into something much greater then their creators could have ever envisioned. Few people look back at the Siegel and Schuster days as the height of Superman or the Kane and Finger tenure helming Batman as the characters peak. Ian Fleming wrote some fine spy novels but without the films Bond would be just another fairly non-descript spy in an obscure series of books. In this respect Popeye is the rare exception to the rule because no one has ever outdone E.C. Segar. Rather than expand on Segar's wonderful, multidimensional Popeye later writers have only watered him down. Even the brilliant Fleischer cartoons failed to capture Segars magic. Segar had a much richer, livelier world for Popeye than any later incarnations. In the nearly 80 year history of Popeye THIS is the best.
If you've never read Segar's Popeye you're in for a shock. Popeye is rude, crude and often a bully. He has a soft spot for hard luck cases but his desire to help often backfires. What makes Segar so great is that he develops Popeye into a fully three dimensional character flaws and all. In one story Popeye tries to help the poor farmers of Nazilia by insisting that King Blozo give each one a doorknob sized hunk of gold. This ends up shattering the countries economy which is exactly what would happen. Segar delves into some deep philosophical issue concerning the danger of excessively helping the poor and the unfortunate fact that sometimes even the best of intentions can blow up in a persons face. After the economy is repaired King Blozo's kingship is challenged by General Bunzo from volume 2 in a general election. Popeye attempts to rig the election and Segar shows awareness for the dubious morality of Popeye's actions.
Popeye expresses his philosophy of life saying, "I don't do good deeds to get credick. I does `em on account of they oughter get done... an if ya does good deeds jus' to get yerself a swell seat in heaven yer selfish. The only reward ya should expeck for doin' right is the sort of cumfterble feelin wich ya get from doin it" That is an amazingly deep statement coming from a character in a daily comic. The above quote is expressed as an explanation as to why he is helping Wimpy to earn enough money to help his mother afford a place to live. Popeye ill conceived plan is to buy Wimpy a hamburger stand with hopes of turning a profit. When Wimpy inevitably eats his own product Popeye simply gives Wimpy five grand to pass on to his mother. To Wimpy's credit he does give the money to his mother... right before hitting her up for some cash which he proceeds to spend on burgers. Segar sets up an admirable philosophy for Popeye and then shows its flaws. Segar's Popeye is not a great man but he is a complex man with flashes of greatness. This is exactly what elevates Segar above the rest.
This book features a ton of famous firsts including the first appearances of Swee'Pea and Mr. Geezel and the single appearance of Bluto who gets the business end of Popeye's devastating "Twisker Punch". Wimpy is given a much larger role and pretty much takes center stage in the color Sunday comics. The Sundays center around Popeye, Wimpy and Roughhouse and they're at least as much fun as the dailies. Wimpy may be the most amoral character ever to exist in the funny pages. In one hilarious comic Popeye bets a man ten bucks that Wimpy wouldn't choke his own grandmother for a burger. After devising a plan to test Wimpy Popeye ends up ten dollars lighter. Finally let me state that the E.C. Segar comics are clearly a product of the depression era where a violent sailor with poor grammar could be a hero. On the other hand the Segar Popeye, who is fast approaching his 80th birthday, holds up amazingly well and feels much less dated than other decades old characters. If I could give this book six stars I would.
Finally let me close with one quick joke as an example of Segar's wonderful comedic flair....
Popeye: Nothin kin kill me Mr. Works I yam immoral
Mr. Works: You mean immortal
Popeye: I means what I means - tha's what I means
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Popeye braves the pit of the Depression as only he can, December 7, 2008
Timing is everything, especially when it comes to a burgeoning pop-culture phenomenon of the sort that Popeye had become by the early 1930s. Bluto, Popeye's eternal antagonist on both the large and small screens, provides the menace in "The Eighth Sea" (1932), this latest Segar collection's first extended narrative. The hulking, black-bearded pirate scourge does enjoy the privilege of an extended fistfight with the sailor man (nearly getting permanently dispatched by the terrible force of Popeye's "twisker sock") but consequently suffers the relatively placid fate of being set adrift in a lifeboat, along with a band of thugs that had stowed away on Popeye's ship in hopes of glomming onto a "vast treasure." That was it for Bluto's comic-strip career, but the Fleischer Studios just happened to be starting its series of POPEYE shorts at the time and latched onto the big brute as an ideal foil.
"The Eighth Sea" cabooses neatly onto a lengthy, though sometimes wandering, story in which Nazilia's King Blozo returns in triumph to his country with gold to prop up his pathetic economy, survives an attempted coup and an electoral challenge from the cigar-chomping General Bunzo (his commander during "The Great Rough-House War"), and then agrees to sell an outlying island to Popeye, who's intrigued with the notion of setting up an entire nation from scratch. "Popeye, King of Popilania" definitely points toward the later "The Dictator of Spinachovia" but lacks the topical satirical sting of that story, including only a few passing references to the Depression (e.g. Popeye ensures "prosperiky" for his new realm by turning a horde of invading jaybirds sent by the jealous Blozo into a Shmoo-like source of all manner of salable products) and wedging in a severely silly subplot in which Popeye lures bachelors from Nazilia by offering them the matrimonial services of a tribe of "wild women." Presaging the denouement of "Spinachovia," Popeye ultimately gives up on nation-building and generously turns over his kingdom to Blozo, who's watched his land depopulate as a result of Popeye's eccentric, but genuine, largesse. Perhaps Popeye had come to realize that government will always turn out "punk" regardless of whether its leader is a two-fister straight-shooter like himself or a whining worrywart like Blozo. "Spinachovia" would hone this point to a rapier's keenness a few years down the line.
The last story in the volume, besides introducing another key member of Popeye's extended "tribe," illustrates Segar's nimbleness as a story-teller, in the sense that he knew when to cut away from a less-than-inspired plot and go in an entirely different direction that ultimately netted vast profits. After returning from Popilania/Nazilia, Popeye (joined by Wimpy, who'd made his first extended appearance in the daily strip in the role of the ineffective "commander" of Popilania's minuscule army), accepts Castor Oyl's offer to invest his profits in a newspaper. The ensuing reporter-and-photographer gags evidently didn't excite Segar, who executes a neat swerve by having Popeye receive a mysterious package. Inside is Swee'pea, who will, of course, become Popeye's child-ward forever after. (Segar obviously loved the "package" gambit, as he also used it to introduce Bernice the Whiffle Hen and Eugene the Jeep. No wonder; it's a sure-fire way to build suspense and make a new character's appearance seem like something really out of the ordinary.) Swee'pea is being pursued by agents of his "superstitious" homeland of Demonia, who regard the infant as a "lucky gift from the gods" on account of the seven moles on his back. The Demonians inflict such a series of head-blows upon Popeye that the sailor suffers a supposedly fatal case "bonkus of the conkus." Even when mentally addled, however, Popeye holds his ward in an iron grip, braving a sojourn in the desert (and an attack from a goon sent to track him and Swee'pea down) and finally curing himself through sheer willpower. Segar puts the cap on this extraordinarily detailed "diversion" by bringing Popeye home to take over a small-town newspaper.
In this era's Sunday strips, Wimpy really comes into his own as the ultimate sponger, driving Rough-House to distraction (and even into a hospital at one point!) and even discomfiting poor Popeye at times. The "sprize fight" theme gradually fades into the background as Segar prepares for "Plunder Island," his greatest Sunday continuity (and, arguably, his most famous story), which will be reproduced in full in the next volume. (In a sort of anticipation of that epic, Segar sends John Sappo and Professor O.G. Wottasnozzle on a lengthy trip to Mars and Venus in THIMBLE THEATRE's always-entertaining Sunday-page companion strip.) And that's not all, folks; we close the volume with a series of never-before-reprinted strips from early 1933 in which Popeye and friends experience the Chicago World's Fair in their own unique way. These strips appeared in the sports sections of the Hearst newspapers, which perhaps explains why Segar was willing to dare convention (not to mention evoke nausea) by having Olive Oyl emulate Sally Rand and perform a fan dance. Popeye likewise "has his way" with a series of chorus girls and dancers, as indirectly indicated by the fact that a whole slew of them cry at his departure from the Windy City in the series' final strip. Between this additional newspaper exposure, the debut of the Fleischer cartoons, and the canonical newspaper strip, 1933 might be considered the peak year of Segar's career -- except that some of his greatest narratives were still over the horizon. Save for another obscure and muddy introductory spiel by Donald Phelps, this would be an absolutely perfect package of classic comic-strip entertainment.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It was a hit as a Christmas gift, January 14, 2009
I've been buying these volumes for a Popeye fan each year -- 3rd gift. This is a knowledgeable and selective fan who has enjoyed these books immensely. So, for anyone who knows and loves Popeye, this is the real thing.
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