Popeye

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For other uses, see Popeye (disambiguation).
Popeye (Thimble Theatre)

Tom Sims and Bill Zaboly's Thimble Theatre (November 9,

1951)

E. C. Segar (creator, 1919–1937, 1938)

Doc Winner (1937, 1938)
Tom Sims (cartoonist & Bela Zaboly
(1938–1955)
Author(s)
Ralph Stein & Bela Zaboly (1955–1959)
Bud Sagendorf (1959–1994)
Bobby London (1986–1992)
Hy Eisman (1994–present)

Website / www.popeye.com

Current status / New strips on Sundays, reprints Monday

schedule through Saturday

Launch date 1919-12-19

1994-07-30 (date of last daily strip,

End date
Sunday strips continue)
 Syndicate(s) King Features Syndicate

Genre(s) Humor, adventure

Popeye the Sailor is a fictional hero famous for appearing in comic strips and animated
films as well as numerous television shows. He was created by Elzie Crisler Segar,[1] and
first appeared in the daily King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre on January 17,
1929.

As of January 1, 2009, Segar's character of Popeye (though not the various films, TV
shows, theme music and other media based on him) has entered the public domain[2] in
most countries, but remains under copyright in the United States.

Although Segar's Thimble Theatre strip, first published on December 19, 1919, was in its
tenth year when Popeye made his debut, the sailor quickly became the main focus of the
strip and Thimble Theatre became one of King Features' most popular strips during the
1930s. Thimble Theatre was carried on after Segar's death in 1938 by several writers and
artists, including Segar's assistant Bud Sagendorf. The strip, now titled Popeye, continues
to appear in first-run installments in Sunday papers, written and drawn by Hy Eisman.
The daily strips are reprints of old Sagendorf stories.

In 1933, Max and Dave Fleischer's Fleischer Studios adapted the Thimble Theatre
characters into a series of Popeye the Sailor theatrical cartoon shorts for Paramount
Pictures. These cartoons proved to be among the most popular of the 1930s, and the
Fleischers—and later Paramount's own Famous Studios—continued production through
1957.

Since then, Popeye has appeared in comic books, television cartoons, arcade and video
games, hundreds of advertisements and peripheral products, and including a 1980 live-
action film directed by Robert Altman starring comedian Robin Williams as Popeye.