Like a lot of kids of my generation, I first encountered Popeye not in the funny pages, but in animated cartoons that were pretty ubiquitous on TV in the sixties. So I was pretty familiar with the cast of characters by the time I discovered their print adventures.
Created by the endlessly imaginative E.C. Segar right after World War I, the strip existed as a platform for the nebbishy adventurer Castor Oyl (brother of Olive) for most of its first decade, under the title
Thimble Theater. But it really raised its profile, both comedically and in terms of exotic adventures, with the introduction of the muttering Popeye the Sailor.
A big part of what made Segar's work so engaging was the amazing cast of freaky characters who populated his world (in fact, the most ordinary of them-- Castor-- disappeared more or less for good after Popeye came along). Wimpy, Alice the Goon, the Sea Hag, the Jeep, not to mention Olive Oyl and Bluto, were all kind of weird and creepy though in a mostly benign sort of way.
Popeye was-- strangely given his own characteristic oddities, not least his propensity for violence-- the normal one that provided some degree of grounding in this bizarre world.
Unlike many of his cartoonist contemporaries, Segar was not much of an experimentor with regard to layout or other visual elements in his strip. Instead, the appeal is mainly in the great characterizations and variations on recurring themes, like Popeye's courtship of Olive Oyl or Wimpy's endless pursuit of food, preferably free.
Recently Fantagraphis Press began reprinting Segar's strip, beginning with the introduction of Popeye, so if you'd like to see more of this classic strip, it should be available in bookstores and libraries. After Segar's death, the strip was continued by lesser artists, but the originl stuff is well worth hunting up.
Like a lot of kids of my generation, I first encountered Popeye not in the funny pages, but in animated cartoons that were pretty ubiquitous on TV in the sixties. So I was pretty familiar with the cast of characters by the time I discovered their print adventures. 
Created by the endlessly imaginative E.C. Segar right after World War I, the strip existed as a platform for the nebbishy adventurer Castor Oyl (brother of Olive) for most of its first decade, under the title Thimble Theater. But it really raised its profile, both comedically and in terms of exotic adventures, with the introduction of the muttering Popeye the Sailor. 
A big part of what made Segar's work so engaging was the amazing cast of freaky characters who populated his world (in fact, the most ordinary of them-- Castor-- disappeared more or less for good after Popeye came along). Wimpy, Alice the Goon, the Sea Hag, the Jeep, not to mention Olive Oyl and Bluto, were all kind of weird and creepy though in a mostly benign sort of way.
Popeye was-- strangely given his own characteristic oddities, not least his propensity for violence-- the normal one that provided some degree of grounding in this bizarre world.
Unlike many of his cartoonist contemporaries, Segar was not much of an experimentor with regard to layout or other visual elements in his strip. Instead, the appeal is mainly in the great characterizations and variations on recurring themes, like Popeye's courtship of Olive Oyl or Wimpy's endless pursuit of food, preferably free. 
Recently Fantagraphis Press began reprinting Segar's strip, beginning with the introduction of Popeye, so if you'd like to see more of this classic strip, it should be available in bookstores and libraries. After Segar's death, the strip was continued by lesser artists, but the originl stuff is well worth hunting up.
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