Popeye

Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar.Segar, Elzie (Crisler) – Encyclopædia Britannica Article
. Britannica.com. Retrieved on March 29, 2013.Goulart, Ron, "Popeye", ''St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture''. Detroit: St. James Press, 2000. (Volume 4, pp. 87-8).Walker, Brian. ''The Comics: The Complete Collection''. New York: Abrams ComicArts, 2011. (pp. 188-9,191, 238-243) The character first appeared on January 17, 1929, in the daily King Features comic strip ''Thimble Theatre''. The strip was in its tenth year when Popeye made his debut, but the one-eyed sailor quickly became the lead character, and ''Thimble Theatre'' became one of King Features' most popular properties during the 1930s. Popeye would become the suitor of longtime ''Thimble Theatre'' star Olive Oyl, and Segar would introduce new supporting characters such as adopted son Swee'Pea and friend J. Wellington Wimpy, as well as foes such as the Sea Hag and Bluto.

Following Segar's death in 1938, ''Thimble Theatre'' (later renamed ''Popeye. The strip continues to appear in first-run installments on Sundays, written and drawn by R. K. Milholland. The daily strips are reprints of old Sagendorf stories. In 1933, Max Fleischer adapted the ''Thimble Theatre'' characters into a series of ''Popeye the Sailor. These cartoons proved to be among the most popular of the 1930s, and Fleischer Studios, which later became Paramount's own Famous Studios, continued production through 1957. Cartoons produced during World War II included Allied propaganda, as was common among cartoons of the time. These cartoon shorts are now owned by Turner Entertainment and distributed by its sister company Warner Bros.

Over the years, Popeye has also appeared in comic books, television cartoons, video games, hundreds of advertisements, peripheral products ranging from spinach to candy cigarettes, and the 1980 live-action film directed by Robert Altman and starring Robin Williams as Popeye. In 2002, ''TV Guide'' ranked Popeye number 20 on its "50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time" list. Charles M. Schulz said, "I think ''Popeye'' was a perfect comic strip, consistent in drawing and humor."

Inspiration

The person believed to have inspired Popeye was Polish-born Frank "Rocky" Fiegel, a tough laborer from Chester, Illinois, who was always getting in fights. It was believed he could have been a professional boxer. However, he also gave out candy and treats to children, including E.C. Segar, who remembered Fiegel when he created Popeye. Fiegel was described as "just like the fictional spinach-loving mariner ... a one-eyed, pipe-smoking curmudgeon with a jutting chin."

Fictional character and story

Popeye's story and characterization vary depending on the medium. In his debut storyline, Popeye's superhumanly proportioned strength and endurance stemmed from the "luck" he acquired by rubbing the feathers of the head of Bernice, a "whiffle hen", thus enabling him to survive fifteen gunshot wounds. By the end of 1929, however, Popeye's strength had become a regular fixture of his character, with spinach, by 1932, becoming the primary repository of his prowess. In Segar's comic strip, Popeye's superhuman strength and near-invulnerabilty were permanent: only on some occasions would he need to eat additional spinach to boost his strength. It was Fleischer Studios's cartoon series that made Popeye eat a can of spinach whenever he needed to increase his strength to superhuman levels. Swee'Pea is Popeye's ward in the comic strips, but his custody is inconsistent in cartoons.

There is no absolute sense of continuity in the stories, although certain plot and presentation elements remain mostly constant, including purposeful contradictions in Popeye's capabilities. Popeye seems bereft of manners and uneducated, yet he often comes up with solutions to problems that seem insurmountable to the police or the scientific community. He has displayed Sherlock Holmes-like investigative prowess, scientific ingenuity, and successful diplomatic arguments. In the animated cartoons his pipe also proves to be highly versatile. Among other things, it has served as a cutting torch, jet engine, propeller, periscope, musical instrument, and a whistle with which he produces his trademark toot. He also eats spinach through his pipe, sometimes sucking in the can along with the contents. Since the 1970s, Popeye is seldom depicted using his pipe to smoke tobacco.

Popeye's exploits are also enhanced by a few recurring plot elements. The cartoons would introduce the love triangle between Popeye, Olive Oyl, and Bluto (sometimes called Brutus), and Bluto's endless machinations to claim Olive at Popeye's expense. Another plot element is Popeye's near-saintly perseverance in overcoming any obstacle to please Olive.

Comics

''Thimble Theatre'' and ''Popeye'' comic strips

Segar's ''Thimble Theatre'' debuted in the ''New York Journal'' on December 19, 1919. The paper's owner, William Randolph Hearst, also owned King Features Syndicate, which syndicated the strip. ''Thimble Theatre'' was intended as one of several Hearst-commissioned replacements for ''Midget Movies'' by Ed Wheelan (Wheelan having recently resigned from King Features).Clark, Alan and Laurel. ''Comics: An Illustrated History''. London, Green Wood Publishing, 1992. (p.54) While initially failing to attract a large audience, the strip nonetheless increasingly accumulated a modest following as the 1920s continued. At the end of its first decade, the strip resultantly appeared in over a dozen newspapers and had acquired a corresponding Sunday strip (which had debuted on January 25, 1925, within the Hearst-owned ''New York American'' paper).

''Thimble Theatre's'' first main characters were the lanky, long-nosed slacker Harold Hamgravy (rapidly shortened to simply "Ham Gravy") and his scrappy, headstrong girlfriend Olive Oyl. In its earliest weeks, the strip featured the duo, alongside a rotating cast of primarily one-shot characters, acting out various stories and scenarios in a parodic theatrical style (hence the strip's name). As its first year progressed, however, numerous elements of this premise would be relinquished (including the recurring character "Willie Wormwood", introduced as a parody of melodrama villainy), soon rendering the strip a series of episodic comic anecdotes depicting the daily life and dysfunctional romantic exploits of Ham Gravy and Olive Oyl. It could be classified as a gag-a-day comic during this period.

In mid-1922, Segar began to increasingly engage in lengthier (often months-long) storylines; by the end of the following year, the strip had effectively changed fully into a comedy-adventure style focusing on Ham, Olive, and Olive's ambitious-but-myopic diminutive brother Castor Oyl, initially a minor character yet arguably the protagonist of the strip by 1925. Castor and Olive's parents Cole and Nana Oyl also made frequent appearances beginning in the mid-1920s. By the late 1920s, the strip had likewise acquired a number of notable characters beyond the sphere of Ham Gravy and the Oyl family, including Castor Oyl's wife Cylinda (to whom he was married from 1926 to 1928), her wealthy, misanthropic father Mr. Lotts and Castor's fighting cockerel Blizzard, all of whom had exited the strip by the close of 1928 (although Cylinda would eventually maritally reunite with Castor under R. K. Milholland's authorship almost a century later).

Popeye first appeared in the strip on January 17, 1929, as a minor character. He was initially hired by Castor Oyl and Ham Gravy to crew a ship for a voyage to Dice Island, the location of a casino owned by the crooked gambler Fadewell. Castor intended to break the bank at the casino using the unbeatable good luck conferred by stroking the head feathers of Bernice the Whiffle Hen. Weeks later, on the trip back, Popeye was shot many times by Jack Snork, an undercover stooge of Fadewell's, but survived by rubbing Bernice's head. After the adventure's conclusion in June, Popeye left the strip, but, owing to reader reaction, he was brought back after an absence of only five weeks.

Ultimately, the Popeye character became so popular that he was given a larger role by the following year, and the strip was taken up by many more newspapers as a result. Initial strips presented Olive as being less than impressed with Popeye, but she eventually left Ham to become Popeye's girlfriend in March 1930, precipitating Ham's exit as a regular weeks later. Over the years, however, she has often displayed a fickle attitude towards the sailor. Initially, Castor Oyl continued to come up with get-rich-quick schemes and enlisted Popeye in his misadventures. By the end of 1931, however, he settled down as a detective and later on bought a ranch out west. Castor's appearances have resultantly become sparser over time. As Castor faded from the strip, J. Wellington Wimpy, a soft-spoken and eloquent yet cowardly hamburger-loving moocher who would "gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today" was introduced into the Sunday strip, in which he became a fixture by late 1932. After first appearing in the daily strip in March 1933, Wimpy became a full-time major character alongside Popeye and Olive.

''Thimble Theatre'' was renamed ''Thimble Theatre Starring Popeye'' in February 1931. It was eventually renamed simply ''Popeye'', the name under which the strip continues to run.

In July 1933, Popeye received a foundling baby in the mail whom he adopted and named Swee'Pea. Other regular characters introduced into the strip following its retool in 1930 were George W. Geezil, an irascible cobbler who spoke in a heavily affected accent and habitually attempted to murder or wish death upon Wimpy; Rough-House, the temperamental owner of a budget diner who served as a long-suffering foil to Wimpy; Eugene the Jeep, a yellow, vaguely doglike animal from Africa with magical powers; the Sea Hag, a terrible pirate and the last witch on Earth; Alice the Goon, a monstrous creature who entered the strip as the Sea Hag's henchwoman and continued as Swee'Pea's babysitter; the hapless, perpetually anxious King Blozo; Blozo's unintelligent lackey Oscar; Popeye's lecherous, scheming father Poopdeck Pappy; and Toar, an ageless, dim-witted caveman.

Segar's strip was quite different from the theatrical cartoons that followed. The stories were more complex (often spanning months or even years), with a heavier emphasis on verbal comedy and many characters that never appeared in the cartoons (among them King Blozo, Toar, and Rough-House). Spinach usage, a trait introduced in July 1931, was comparatively infrequent, and Bluto appeared in only one story arc. Segar signed some of his early Popeye comic strips with a cigar, his last name being a homophone of "cigar" (pronounced SEE-gar). Comics historian Brian Walker stated: "Segar offered up a masterful blend of comedy, fantasy, satire and suspense in ''Thimble Theater Starring Popeye''".

Owing to Popeye's increasingly high profile, ''Thimble Theatre'' became one of King Features' most popular strips during the 1930s. A poll of adult comic strip readers in the April 1937 issue of ''Fortune'' magazine voted ''Popeye'' their second-favorite comic strip (after ''Little Orphan Annie''). By 1938, ''Thimble Theatre'' was running in 500 newspapers, and over 600 licensed "Popeye" products were on sale. The success of the strip meant Segar was earning $100,000 a year at the time of his death. The strip continued after Segar's death in 1938 under a succession of artists and writers. Following an eventual name change to ''Popeye'' in the 1970s and the cancellation of the daily strip in 1992 (in favor of reprints), the comic, now solely a Sunday strip, remains one of the longest-running strips in syndication today.

Toppers

''Thimble Theatre'' had a number of topper strips on the Sunday page during its run; the main topper, ''Sappo'', ran for 21 years, from February 28, 1926, to May 18, 1947. (''Sappo'' was a revival of an earlier Segar daily strip called ''The Five-Fifteen'', aka ''Sappo the Commuter'', which ran from December 24, 1920, to February 17, 1925.) For seven weeks in 1936, Segar replaced ''Sappo'' with ''Pete and Pansy – For Kids Only'' (Sept 27 - Nov 8, 1936).

There were also a series of topper panel strips that ran next to ''Sappo''. Segar drew one of them, ''Popeye's Cartoon Club'' (April 8, 1934 – May 5, 1935). The rest were produced by Joe Musial and Bud Sagendorf: ''Wiggle Line Movie'' (September 11 – November 13, 1938), ''Wimpy's Zoo's Who'' (November 20, 1938 – December 1, 1940), ''Play-Store'' (December 8, 1940 – July 18, 1943), ''Popeye's Army and Navy'' (July 25 – September 12, 1943), ''Pinup Jeep'' (September 19, 1943 - April 2, 1944), and ''Me Life by Popeye'' (April 9, 1944-?).

Artists after Segar

Following Segar's illness and eventual death in 1938 (with his final ''Thimble Theatre'' strip appearing October 2 of that year), numerous people were hired to draw and write the strip. Tom Sims, the son of a Coosa River channel-boat captain, acted as the writer for ''Thimble Theatre'' beginning in August 1938 and established the ''Popeye the Sailorman'' spin-off. Doc Winner, who had previously filled in for Segar between January and May 1938, initially acted as Sims' artist, with Bela Zaboly succeeding him by December 1939. In 1954, Sims relinquished writing duties on the daily strip to Ralph Stein, who would continue to collaborate with Zaboly until both the daily and Sunday strips were taken over by Bud Sagendorf in 1959.

Sagendorf wrote and drew the daily strip until 1986, and continued to write and draw the Sunday strip until his death in 1994. Sagendorf, who had been Segar's assistant, made a definite effort to retain much of Segar's classic style, although his art is instantly discernible. Sagendorf continued to use many obscure characters from the Segar years, especially O. G. Wotasnozzle and King Blozo. Sagendorf's new characters, such as the Thung, also had a very Segar-like quality. What set Sagendorf apart from Segar more than anything else was his sense of pacing. Where plotlines moved very quickly with Segar, it sometimes took an entire week of Sagendorf's daily strips for the plot to be advanced even a small amount.

From 1986 to 1992, the daily strip was written and drawn by Bobby London, who, after some controversy, was fired from the strip for a story that could be taken to satirize abortion. London's strips put Popeye and his friends in updated situations, but kept the spirit of Segar's original. One classic storyline, titled "The Return of Bluto", showed the sailor battling every version of the bearded bully from the comic strip, comic books, and animated films. The Sunday edition of the comic strip was drawn by Hy Eisman from 1994 to 2022. Following Eisman's retirement, the Sunday strip was taken over by R. K. Milholland, who had previously contributed ''Popeye'' cartoons to the web-only feature ''Popeye's Cartoon Club'' in 2019 and 2020. The daily strip has featured reruns of Sagendorf's strips since London's firing.

Copyright expiration

According to a 1992 case in Japan, Popeye's copyright expired in May 1990 in the country. On January 1, 2009, 70 years since the death of his creator, Segar's comic strips (though not the various films, TV shows, theme music, and other media based on them) became public domain in most countries, but remained under copyright in the United States. Because Segar was an employee of King Features Syndicate when he created the ''Thimble Theatre'' strip, it is treated as a work for hire under U.S. copyright law. Works for hire are protected for 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation, whichever is shorter. On January 1, 2025, the ''Thimble Theatre'' strip that introduced Popeye entered the public domain. Certain elements of Popeye's character had already lapsed into public domain due to inconsistent copyright registrations and renewals on the strip and animated films; the first mention of Popeye eating spinach as a source of strength was in a 1931 strip in which the copyright was not renewed. However, even after Popeye's debut strips entered the public domain, King Features still retains trademarks regarding Popeye's name and image. Unlike copyright, trademarks do not expire unless they cease to be used, and King Features has used the Popeye trademark continuously since registering it in 1931.

Comic books

There have been a number of Popeye comic books, with his main series running continuously from 1948 to 1984 published in turn by Dell Comics, Gold Key Comics, King Comics, Charlton Comics, and back to Gold Key. The series was originally written and illustrated by Bud Sagendorf. In the series, Popeye became something of a crimefighter, thwarting evil organizations and Bluto's criminal activities. The new villains included the numerous Misermite dwarfs, who were all identical.

Popeye appeared in the British ''TV Comic'', becoming the cover story in 1960 with stories written and drawn by "Chick" Henderson. Bluto was referred to as Brutus and was Popeye's only nemesis throughout the entire run.

A variety of artists have created ''Popeye'' comic book stories since then; for example, George Wildman drew Popeye stories for Charlton Comics from 1969 until the late 1970s. The Gold Key series was illustrated by Wildman and scripted by Bill Pearson, with some issues written by Nick Cuti.

Popeye comics were also produced outside the United States, as Popeye and his supporting cast of characters were licensed to foreign publishers. In Japan, Popeye had his own manga series published by Shōnen Gahōsha, written and drawn by ''Robotan'' and ''Marude Dameo'' creator Kenji Morita, which ran from 1961 to 1965. In Italy, publishing house Edizioni Bianconi produced Popeye comic books aimed at the European market from 1963 to 1994.

In 1988, Ocean Comics released the ''Popeye Special'' written by Ron Fortier with art by Ben Dunn. The story presented Popeye's origin story, including his given name of "Ugly Kidd" and attempted to tell more of a lighthearted adventure story as opposed to using typical comic strip style humor. The story also featured a more realistic art style and was edited by Bill Pearson, who also lettered and inked the story as well as the front cover. A second issue, by the same creative team, followed in 1988. The second issue introduced the idea that Bluto and Brutus were actually twin brothers and not the same person, an idea also used in the comic strip on December 28, 2008, and April 5, 2009. In 1999, to celebrate Popeye's 70th anniversary, Ocean Comics revisited the franchise with a one-shot comic book, ''The Wedding of Popeye and Olive Oyl'', written by Peter David. The comic book brought together a large portion of the casts of both the comic strip and the animated shorts, and Popeye and Olive Oyl were finally wed after decades of courtship. However, this marriage has not been reflected in all media since the comic was published.

In 2012, writer Roger Langridge teamed with cartoonists Bruce Ozella, Ken Wheaton, and Tom Neely (among others) to revive the spirit of Segar in a 12-issue comic book miniseries published by IDW Publishing. Critic PS Hayes in reviewing the series stated:

In late 2012, IDW began reprinting the original 1940s–1950s Sagendorf Popeye comic books under the title of ''Classic Popeye''.

In November 2022, the publication of a new manga-inspired series called ''Eye Lie Popeye'' by Marcus Williams was announced, the series would be published in 2024 by Massive Publishing.

Webcomics

In January 2019, in celebration of its 90 years of character, King Feature Syndicate launched the webcomic ''Popeye's Cartoon Club''. In a series of Sunday-format comics, a wide assortment of artists depicted the characters in their own styles in one comic each, including Alex Hallatt, Erica Henderson, Tom Neely, Roger Langridge, Larry deSouza, Robert Sikoryak, Jeffrey Brown, Jim Engel, Liniers, Jay Fosgitt, Carol Lay, and Randy Milholland. At the end of the year, Milholland's ''Cartoon Club'' comic was declared the number one comic of the year on King Features' website, Comics Kingdom.

From February through April 2020, ''Cartoon Club'' ran an additional five comics by Milholland, which was followed by an extended run from May 28 through July 6, 2020, making Milholland the first person to write a daily-update ''Popeye'' comic for King Features since 1992.

In August 2022, a new twice-weekly (Tuesdays and Thursdays) webcomic titled ''Olive & Popeye'' debuted. Milholland writes and draws the Thursday strips, which focus on Popeye and his extended family, while Tuesday strips focus on Olive and her own adventures. These were initially drawn by Shadia Amin, who was later replaced by Emi Burdge in October 2023. The two storylines run in parallel and occasionally intersect.

Animation

Theatrical animated shorts

In November 1932, King Features signed an agreement with Fleischer Studios to have Popeye and the other ''Thimble Theatre'' characters begin appearing in a series of animated cartoons released by Paramount Pictures. The first cartoon in the series was released in 1933, and ''Popeye'' cartoons remained a staple of Paramount's release schedule for nearly 25 years. Billy Costello was the original voice of Popeye, a voice that was replicated by later performers, such as Jack Mercer and even Mae Questel. Many of the ''Thimble Theatre'' characters, including Wimpy, Poopdeck Pappy, and Eugene the Jeep, eventually made appearances in the Paramount cartoons, though Olive Oyl's extended family and Ham Gravy were absent. Thanks to the animated-short series, Popeye became even more of a sensation than he had been in comic strips, and by 1938, polls showed that the sailor was Hollywood's most popular cartoon character.

Although Segar used spinach as a prop a few times, it was Max Fleischer who realized its potential as a trademark. In almost every Popeye cartoon, the sailor is invariably put into what seems like a hopeless situation, upon which (usually after a beating), a can of spinach becomes available, and Popeye quickly opens the can and consumes its contents. Upon swallowing the spinach, Popeye's physical strength immediately becomes superhuman, and he is easily able to save the day, and very often rescue Olive Oyl from a dire situation. It did not stop there, as spinach could also give Popeye the skills and powers he needed, as in ''The Man on the Flying Trapeze'', where it gave him acrobatic skills. This cartoon, incidentally, was the only appearance of Olive Oyl's mother, Nana.

In May 1942, Paramount Pictures assumed ownership of Fleischer Studios, fired the Fleischers and began reorganizing the studio, which they renamed Famous Studios. The early Famous-era shorts were often World War II-themed, featuring Popeye fighting Nazi Germans and Japanese soldiers, most notably the 1942 short '' You're a Sap, Mr. Jap''. In late 1943, the ''Popeye'' series began to be produced in Technicolor, beginning with ''Her Honor the Mare.'' Famous/Paramount continued producing the ''Popeye'' series until 1957, with '' Spooky Swabs'' being the last of the 125 Famous shorts in the series. Paramount then sold the ''Popeye'' film catalog to Associated Artists Productions, which was bought out by United Artists in 1958. Through various mergers, the rights are currently controlled by Warner Bros. Discovery.

In 2001, Cartoon Network, under the supervision of animation historian Jerry Beck, created a new incarnation of '' The Popeye Show''. The show aired the Fleischer and Famous Studios ''Popeye'' shorts in versions approximating their original theatrical releases by editing copies of the original opening and closing credits (taken or recreated from various sources) onto the beginnings and ends of each cartoon, or in some cases, in their complete, uncut original theatrical versions direct from such prints that originally contained the front-and-end Paramount credits. The series aired 135 ''Popeye'' shorts over 45 episodes, until March 2004. ''The Popeye Show'' continued to air on Cartoon Network's spin-off network Boomerang.

While many of the Paramount ''Popeye'' cartoons remained unavailable on video, a handful of those cartoons had fallen into public domain and were found on numerous low budget VHS tapes and later DVDs. When Turner Entertainment acquired the cartoons in 1986, a long and laborious legal struggle with King Features kept the majority of the original Popeye shorts from official video releases for more than 20 years. King Features instead opted to release a DVD boxed set of the 1960s made-for-television ''Popeye the Sailor to MGM/UA Home Video in 1986, and eventually to Warner Home Video in 1999. In 2006, Warner Home Video announced it would release all of the ''Popeye'' cartoons produced for theatrical release between 1933 and 1957 on DVD, restored and uncut. Three volumes were released between 2007 and 2008, covering all of the black-and-white cartoons produced from 1933 to 1943. In December 2018, a fourth volume featuring the first 14 color shorts from 1943 to 1945 was released on DVD and Blu-ray from Warner Home Video through the Warner Archive Collection.

Original television cartoons

In 1960, King Features Syndicate commissioned a new series of cartoons titled ''Popeye the Sailor served as executive producer of the cartoons for King Features. Jack Mercer, Mae Questel, and Jackson Beck returned for this series, which was produced by a number of companies, including Jack Kinney Productions, Rembrandt Films, Larry Harmon Productions, Halas and Batchelor, and Paramount Cartoon Studios (formerly Famous Studios). The artwork was streamlined and simplified for the television budgets, and 220 cartoons were produced in only two years, with the first set of them premiering in the autumn of 1960, and the last of them debuting during the 1961–1962 television season. For these cartoons, Bluto's name was changed to "Brutus", as King Features believed at the time that Paramount owned the rights to the name "Bluto". Many of the cartoons made by Paramount used plots and storylines taken directly from the comic strip sequences – as well as characters like King Blozo and the Sea Hag. Since King Features has exclusive rights to these ''Popeye'' cartoons, they have been released on home video, with 85 of them included in a 75th anniversary ''Popeye'' DVD boxed set in 2004.

Popeye, Olive Oyl, Swee'Pea and Wimpy were featured prominently in the cartoon movie ''Popeye Meets the Man Who Hated Laughter'', which debuted on October 7, 1972, as one of the episodes of ''The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie''. It was co-directed and co-produced by Hal Seeger at Hal Seeger Productions and Jack Zander at Zander's Animation Parlour. In this cartoon, Brutus also appears as a turban-wearing employee of the nemesis, Dr. Morbid Grimsby.

On September 9, 1978, ''The All New Popeye Hour'' debuted on the CBS Saturday morning lineup. It was an hour-long animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, which tried its best to retain the style of the original comic strip (Popeye returned to his original costume and Brutus to his original name of Bluto), while complying with the prevailing content restrictions on violence. In addition to providing many of the cartoon scripts, Mercer continued to voice Popeye, while Marilyn Schreffler and Allan Melvin became the new voices of Olive Oyl and Bluto, respectively. ''The All New Popeye Hour'' ran on CBS until September 1981, when it was cut to a half-hour and retitled ''The Popeye and Olive Comedy Show''. It was removed from the CBS lineup in September 1983, the year before Jack Mercer's death. These cartoons have also been released on VHS and DVD.

During the time these cartoons were in production, CBS aired ''The Popeye Valentine's Day Special – Sweethearts at Sea'' on February 14, 1979.

Popeye briefly returned to CBS in 1987 for '' Popeye and Son'', another Hanna-Barbera series, which featured Popeye and Olive as a married couple with a son named Popeye Jr., who hates the taste of spinach, but eats it to boost his strength. Maurice LaMarche performed Popeye's voice as Mercer had died in 1984. The show lasted for one season. USA Network later picked up reruns of the series after CBS's cancellation. Additionally, the series aired on The Family Channel from 1994 until 1995.

In 2004, Lionsgate produced an animated television special, '' Popeye's Voyage: The Quest for Pappy'' to coincide with the 75th anniversary of Popeye. Billy West performed the voice of Popeye, describing the production as "the hardest job I ever did, ever" and the voice of Popeye as "like a buzzsaw on your throat". The uncut version was released on DVD on November 9, 2004; and was aired in a re-edited version on Fox on December 17, 2004, and again on December 30, 2005. Its style was influenced by the 1930s Fleischer cartoons, and featured Swee'Pea, Wimpy, Bluto, Olive Oyl, Poopdeck Pappy, and the Sea Hag as its characters. On November 6, 2007, Lionsgate re-released ''Popeye's Voyage'' on DVD with redesigned cover art.

Web series

On December 2, 2018, a Popeye web series named ''Popeye's Island Adventures'' produced by WildBrain subsidiary WildBrain Spark Studios premiered on the official Popeye YouTube channel. With intent on drawing in a younger, contemporary, international audience, the new series has updated the Popeye characters to fit the times. For instance, Popeye grows his own spinach and has replaced his corncob pipe with a bosun's whistle. Bluto no longer sports a beard and focuses his time on stealing Popeye's spinach rather than his girlfriend. Olive Oyl is shown as an inventor and engineer. The characters are drawn to appear younger than typically done, save Swea'pea, and no words are spoken, with all actions mimed.

Theme song

Popeye's theme song, titled "I'm Popeye the Sailor Man", composed by Sammy Lerner in 1933 for Fleischer's first ''Popeye the Sailor'' cartoon, has become forever associated with the sailor. "The Sailor's Hornpipe" has often been used as an introduction to Popeye's theme song.

In 1978, Japanese group Spinach Power released a disco version of the song, which became a hit, selling 400,000 copies. The song would be used as an insert song in the Japanese film the same year. A cover of the theme song, performed by Face to Face, is included on the 1995 tribute album '' Saturday Morning: Cartoons' Greatest Hits'', produced by Ralph Sall for MCA Records. A jazz version, performed by Ted Kooshian's Standard Orbit Quartet, appears on their 2009 Summit Records release ''Underdog and Other Stories''.

Playground song parodies of the theme have become part of children's street culture around the world, usually interpolating "frying pan" or " garbage can" into the lyrics as Popeye's dwelling place and ascribing to the character various unsavory actions or habits that transform the character into an "Anti-Popeye", and changing his exemplary spinach-based diet into an inedible morass of worms, onions, flies, tortillas and snot.

Portrayals

* Billy Costello (1933–1935)
* Harry Foster Welch (1934–1940s, 1946–1947, 1960s; public events and amusement parks, Pleasure Island, cartoons, Peter Pan Records records)
* Jack Mercer (1934–1945, 1947–1984)
* Floyd Buckley (1936–1937, 1945–1946; ''Popeye the Sailor'' radio show, Bluebird Records records, cartoons)
* Mae Questel (1945–1946; cartoons)
* Allen Swift (1956, 1959, 1960s–1970s; ''Official TV Popeye Record Album'', ''Popeye's Favorite Sea Shanties'', Start commercials)

* Robin Williams (1980; ''Popeye (1987–1990; '' Popeye and Son'')
* Jeff Bergman (1989–1996; commercials)
* Wally Wingert (1997–1998; ''Popeye and the Quest For the Woolly Mammoth'', ''Popeye: The Rescue'', ''Popeye and the Sunken Treasure'')
* Billy West (2001, 2004, 2006, 2014; Minute Maid commercial, '' Popeye's Voyage: The Quest for Pappy'', ''Drawn Together'', Bank of America commercial)
* Tom Kenny (2014; animation test)
* Joe Newton (2018; ''Popeye's Island Adventures'')

Additional actors

* Poley McClintock (1935; ''Beware of Barnacle Bill'')
* Detmar Poppen (1935–1936; ''Popeye the Sailor'' radio show)
* Hamp Howard (1939; additional lines in ''Wotta Nitemare'')
* Candy Candido (1952; ''I'm Popeye the Sailor Man/The Little White Duck'')
* Tetsuo Nishihama (1978; ''Popeye the Sailorman/Olive and Bluto's Race Song'')
* Keith Scott (1982, 1997, 1999; ''Popeye'', ''Pandemonium Cartoon Circus'')
* Tex Brashear (1987; Cocoa Puffs commercials)
* Víctor Laplace (1992; ''Popeye y Olivia'')
* Sonny Melendrez (1994–2004; Dickinson Theatres commercials)
* Tim Kitzrow (1994; '' Popeye Saves the Earth'')
* Geertjan Hessing (1997; "I'm Popeye The Sailor Man" cover)
* Scott Innes (1999, 2022; Campbell's commercial, Cellular One commercial)
* Marc Biagi (2002; ''Slots from Bally Gaming'')
* Richard Halpern (2004; ''Boop-Oop-a-Dooin'')
* Allen Enlow (2006; United States Power Squadrons radio spots)
* Matt Hurwitz (2018, 2023; ''Project Runway All Stars'', ''World of Warships'')
* Satoshi Ohno (2020; Ajinomoto commercials)

Other media

The success of Popeye as a comic-strip and animated character has led to appearances in many other forms. For more than 20 years, Stephen DeStefano has been the artist drawing Popeye for King Features licensing.

Radio

''Popeye'' was adapted to radio in several series broadcast over three different networks by two sponsors from 1935 to 1938. Popeye and most of the major supporting characters were first featured in a thrice-weekly 15-minute radio program, ''Popeye the Sailor