Today's Google logo notes the birthday of one of America's great cartoonists, Elzie Crisler Segar (1894-1938). Mr. Segar wrote and drew a comic strip called Thimble Theatre, beginning in 1919 and continuing until his death. By that time, the strip had evolved into a showplace for one of its characters, the one-eyed sailor named Popeye, who popped up in it in '29 and nudged most of the other players aside.
The animated cartoons of the character, which began in 1933, were so popular that they came to define Popeye the Sailor for most people. There are comic strip purists who resent this, arguing that Segar's strip was the greater achievement and that it deserves to be remembered as more than just the spawning ground for the spinach-eater and his pals. They're not wrong except that some of them fail to note that the Popeye cartoons — at least, the first decade or so of them — were pretty darned wonderful, too.
Still, if you've never experienced Segar's strip, you only know a little of what a wonderful character is Popeye. Fantagraphics Books is reprinting the series in wonderful collections and you'd do well to check 'em out. Here's a link to order Volume One and if you fall in love, as I suspect you will, you can easily find your way to the other volumes. There have been four to date, all magnificent.