La Zona Muerta

The other night, I was a bit bored and wanted to draw but couldn’t really find anything I wanted to do. The missus suggested “Why not Popeye?” We both have a mutual fondness for Thimble Theater, particularly under EC Segar’s pen… and of course the character (in)famously just fell into public domain.

Actually, before I continue talking about the venerable sailor, can I just mention classic characters falling into public domain for a moment? It should be a good thing, the public getting hold of a classic character, but few seem to understand what that means or what versions of characters that means we have unfettered access to. The absolute limit of our collective creativity seems to be making beloved characters into cheesy horror movie slashers. Even THAT could be POTENTIALLY interesting, if it weren’t done so callously, so cynically… but that’s all we get. Shitty sub-student films hoping to eke out one micron of bandwidth for YOUR streaming dollar and attention. Frustrating.

At.

Any.

Rate.

Much like Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck are richer on the page than on the screen, Popeye as a comic strip character is not the one note, shapeshifting spinach huffer years and years of mediocre cartoons have painted him as. I wouldn’t say he’s especially NUANCED, but I do think he and the assembled Thimble cast comprise a world that makes for both a great gap strip and great adventure stip, which is no mean feat. Even when Segar has codified Popeye more and the art isn’t quite as rough, it’s still a rough and tumble action strip that occasionally manages to deliver some poignant moments.

I decided, when I wanted to draw Popeye, that I wanted to draw a bit more polished version of the character. My immediate thought was to turn to the second main Popeye artist, Bud Sagendorf.

Now, Sagendorf’s remit was different than Segar’s. He was Segar’s assistant and then took over the strip when Segar passed. He was ALSO tasked with working on the litany of Popeye promotional material and Popeye’s expansion into actual comic books. The man had a LOT of work on his plate and he soon developed the refined, iconic Popeye visual that persists to this day. Is he the Floyd Gottfredson of Popeye? That’s probably selling Segar a bit short… but Sagendorf was unquestionably Popeye’s best, longest shepard. I chose to emulate one of his wonderful covers from the Dell Popeye comic book, trying to bring to it the polish only a hobbyist working digitally can, “cheating” here and there with computer assisted curves instead of ink templates and the like. If I told you what took the longest to draw on here, Popeye’s knuckles, you’d probably give me a weird look but believe me, I LABORED to make them not look funky. I also see the one mistake I made in regards to line weight but I’ll keep that to myself (see if you can guess! First prize is you’re fired)… but overall I was surprised how satisfying this recreation ended up being.

So here’s to Popeye, a wonderful character who will surely suffer for being in our hands, now. I can only hope the people who sink their claws into him take the time to acquaint themselves with the real character as found in the strips and not just the pale cartoon* shadow.

*I’ve denigrated the cartoons a couple of times now but of course I don’t mean the wonderful, original Fleischer cartoons. I mean pretty much everything that came after Fleischer’s shop was forcibly reorganized into Famous Studios and up to, I dunno… probably Popeye and Son from the late 80s? We’re talking nearly 50 years of drek