National Museum of the U.S. Navy

How many of you remember the fictional squinting one-eyed sailor with his omnipresent wood pipe, bottle-shaped forearms, and healthy appetite for spinach? Popeye the Sailor made his comic strip debut in 1929 in a quiet post-World War I America.  The character quickly became popular and remained so throughout the 1930s. In the years that followed, Popeye spawned a multitude of television cartoons, books, video games, advertisements, product merchandise, live-action feature length film, a commemorative postage stamp, and even a nation-wide fast-food chain. 

In recognition of National Arts and Humanities Month, and in collaboration with the Cartoon Art Museum, San Francisco, curator, Andrew Ferago talks about the man behind the creation, artist Elzie C. Segar.  Learn how his Popeye character became a pop culture icon both within the United States and beyond, and who some say was the precursor to early super hero characters that followed such as Superman and Batman.  Recently quoted by the Washington Post, Ferago said “What we really respond to is that the character has such a good heart.  How Popeye goes about it, that’s up for debate, but his motives are always pure, and he’s always looking out for those in need of help.  There’s something appealing about that.”  This year, the comic book hero turns 93, and his antics are still being published in newspapers nationally in webcomic form.

About the Curator:  Andrew Farago is the curator of San Francisco’s Cartoon Art Museum and the author of The Complete Peanuts Family Album, Totally Awesome: The Greatest Cartoons of the Eighties, the Harvey Award–winning Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Ultimate Visual History, and Batman: The Definitive History of The Dark Knight in Comics, Film, and Beyond. In 2015, he received the prestigious Inkpot Award from Comic-Con International. He lives in California with his wife, cartoonist Shaenon K. Garrity, and their son, Robin.