Though at times he seems bereft of manners or uneducated, Popeye is often depicted as capable of coming up with solutions to problems that (to the police, or, most importantly, the scientific community) seem insurmountable. The cartoons also occasionally feature family members of Popeye that have never appeared in the strip, notably his look-alike nephews Pipeye, Peepeye, Poopeye, and Pupeye.Įven though there is no absolute sense of continuity in the stories, certain plot and presentation elements remain mostly constant, including purposeful contradictions in Popeye's capabilities. While Swee'Pea is definitively the ward of Popeye in the comic strips, he is often depicted as belonging to Olive Oyl in cartoons.
In 1933, Max and Dave Fleischer's Fleischer Studios adapted the Thimble Theatre characters into a series of Popeye the Sailor theatrical cartoon shorts for Paramount Pictures. The daily strips are reprints of old Sagendorf stories. The strip, now titled Popeye, continues to appear in first-run installments in its Sunday edition, written and drawn by Hy Eisman. Thimble Theatre was continued after Segar's death in 1938 by several writers and artists, most notably Segar's assistant Bud Sagendorf. Popeye also became the strip's title in later years.Įven though Segar's Thimble Theatre strip was in its 10th year when Popeye made his debut in 1929, the sailor quickly became the main focus of the strip and Thimble Theatre became one of King Features's most popular properties during the 1930s. The character has since continued to appear in comics and animated cartoons, in the cinema as well as on television. Segar as a supporting character in the daily King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre, appearing on January 17, 1929. For other meanings, see Popeye (disambiguation). This article is about the franchise as a whole.