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Tweak says, "Squeaky, qaf fandom adores you"

dr_hermes (dr_hermes) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-08-10 17:19:00

Entry tags:

char: popeye, creator: e.c. segar, era: golden age

Why isn't Popeye rich?
From July, 1934, a Sunday page by E.C. Segar. Popeye has survived his first encounter with the Sea Hag and her Goon, and come home with a fortune. Finding treasure is not his usual means of support, when not at sea he's a fighter who normally gets in the ring with an opponent three or four times his since. But over the course of his life, the sailor has sometimes been wealthy. It never lasts, though.

This sequence must have been much more powerful back in 1934, when the Depression meant millions were out of work (the unemployment rate hits 30%), families were homeless, lots of children were trying to sleep with empty stomachs. It was a time before unemployment benefits, welfare (Roosevelt would introduce that), child services, shelters (the few church missions had long been swamped by then), any of that... when you hit hard times, you were on your own. Popeye being rich and impulsively seeing to it that poor families had good food to keep them was as much a wish fulfilment as any super-hero slugging a Nazi spy. And more satisfying.

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	taggerung301 2009-08-10 10:00 pm UTC (link)
	aw, that's nice (Reply to this)

	thehefner 2009-08-11 12:10 am UTC (link)
	Ever since I started reading the Segar strips with the hardcovers, I've become an instant convert and have been trying and failing to get people into POPEYE. It's just not grabbing them for whatever reason. They don't get it. I just don't know what it is about strips like the above that just get me right in that special spot, y'know? Too bad it doesn't get others. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	dr_hermes 2009-08-11 02:21 am UTC (link)
	It's a funny thing, this has happened to me as well. Maybe it's like when someone praises a band and loans you some of their CDs and you just don't see what the fuss is about. On the other hand, people have fallen in love with POGO after I've shown it to them, to the point of looking for their own copies. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	thehefner 2009-08-11 02:38 am UTC (link)
	So true. The flipside to this, I guess, is the fact that I cannot for the life of me understand the appeal of SCOTT PILGRIM. Meanwhile, I feel like the only person extolling the virtues of POPEYE, or, like, classic PEANUTS. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	dr_hermes 2009-08-11 03:11 am UTC (link)
	Oh well. Luckily, we can't be compelled to graze with the herd. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	lbd_nytetrayn 2009-08-11 04:11 am UTC (link)
	Popeye is awesome, from what I've seen here. And I'll take the old Peanuts over the newer stuff any day of the week. --LBD "Nytetrayn" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	dr_hermes 2009-08-11 07:47 pm UTC (link)
	I thought I disliked PEANUTS until I started glancing through the reprints of the older material. Suddenly I realized I had never seen the real PEANUTS before. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	thehefner 2009-08-11 08:44 pm UTC (link)
	Exactly my experience. And no one believes me when I try to tell them that. Hell, I probably would have been skeptical too. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	dr_hermes 2009-08-12 01:26 am UTC (link)
	Maybe you could post some 1951 PEANUTS here and win new fans (hint). (Reply to this) (Parent)

	geoffsebesta 2009-08-11 04:50 am UTC (link)
	I love this. (Reply to this)

	psychop_rex 2009-08-11 07:42 am UTC (link)
	Awww. Popeye, you old softy. This is one of the reasons why I like the character - he's not just a tough guy, he's a nice guy. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	dr_hermes 2009-08-11 07:45 pm UTC (link)
	All the major characters had well-developed personalities and reacted off each other. The strip was called THIMBLE THEATRE with good reason. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	psychop_rex 2009-08-11 08:37 pm UTC (link)
	I take it you're referring to the 'theatre', not the 'thimble'. I never did figure out that part. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

dr_hermes
2009-08-12 01:25 am UTC (link)

Yes. As I recall, the strip had been running for ten years before Popeye was introduced. Originally, it was said to feature the cast (Ham Gravy, Olive Oyl and the rest) in skits like a traveling stage company. I'd guess "Thimble" was added because the show fit on a newspaper stage (it was tiny enough to fit in a thimble), and for the alliteration but I haven't seen any but a sprinkling of the earlier episodes.

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	caeliluminar 2009-08-11 10:17 pm UTC (link)
	<3 (Reply to this) (Thread)

thebat_man
2009-08-12 11:51 pm UTC (link)

Money is not Popeye's god.
"I got the best of ever'thing, still i yam blue - I ain't happy." - Popeye.
Money can't buy long-term happiness. Money brings moochers, fakers, gold diggers. The best things in life are free. Society says you've got to be successful, and you've got to be a certain way, success and family, what they call traditional family values, there's a very strong sense of categorization and conformity - many people are not what they are, because of this materialistic dream. The best things in life are free. That's what I love about the authentic Popeye. He's an outside character. A non-conformist. He has freedom. "I yam what I yam." That's his motto. Great character.

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