Our friends at Fantagraphics are already putting out a fine reprint set of Mr. Schulz's Peanuts and it's about to be joined by one of Elzie Segar's Thimble Theatre, the strip more commonly known as Popeye. These have been reprinted before but the new series — six hardcovers, Sundays in color, one volume every six months commencing this September — promises to be must-purchase even for those of us who bought the earlier collections.
And if you didn't…well, you may be in for a delightful surprise, especially if you think of Popeye only from his animated appearances. In Segar's newspaper strips, the sailor did a lot more than take six minutes to haul out his spinach and then thrash Bluto. There was a wonderful mix of silliness and solid adventure there, along with some truly memorable (and occasionally, downright odd) characters.
Some history. Elzie Crisler Segar began drawing Thimble Theatre in 1919, featuring a large cast of players but especially a guy named Castor Oyl and his pal, Ham Gravy. They encountered many weird characters and in 1929, one of 'em — a squinty sailor — just plain stayed around a while. In fact, he eventually kicked Castor Oyl out of his own strip and began romancing the guy's sister, Olive.
Segar drew the strip until his death in 1938 producing superb work that has been too often overlooked. When scholars start rattling off the names of the all-time great newspaper comics, they tend to skip over the ones that were continued, even quite ably, by others…so Thimble Theatre gets forgotten. Glad that Fantagraphics has remembered and will be favoring us with some nice "keeper" volumes. You can advanced order the first one here if you're eager.