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Okay, you Swampheads…keep an eye out for Justice League Unlimited #1, the new series debuting today at a good comic shop near you, or even mine. Specifically, I’m talking about variant cover “D” with art by Howard Porter:
…where our favorite muck-encrusted mockery of a man is hanging out:
You can also find our floral friend on variant cover “E” by Ed Benes, off to the side there apparently making room for less-important characters:
A closer look:
So, can we expect a Swamp Thing-focused Justice League adventure in this book in the near future? One can hope!
• • •
And let’s take a look at one more of your
questions:
Wayne sez
“Mike. What are the odds tthat this was the original concept for THE THREE JOKERS?”
Wayne is referring to the pic I used as the header for the initial questions post, which I’ll reproduce here at slightly smaller size:
…and Three Jokers, for those who haven’t heard, was an intended out-of-contintuity story resolving an in-continuity mystery that was later Chip Zdarsky tried to make part of regular continuity in a one-off panel but I’m pretty sure everyone’s just trying to move past the whole thing. Anyway, it proposed that there literally three different people as The Joker, which is dumb and by extension makes Batman seem dumb as well.
Wayne was just being silly, which is fine, but it reminded me of some entries from the Bobby London’s 1986-1992 run on the Popeye comic strip. Specifically, instances where there were multiple versions of the same character.
Well, this one doesn’t really count, I guess, as we see Popeye being reverted into versions of himself from previous years, which I thought was a nice image:
But the storyline I specifically wanted to note was the one where Bluto returns to bedevil Popeye, this time with an army of multiple versions of Brutus:
Okay, I’m gonna let Mark Evanier explain why Brutus replaced Bluto for a time in the comics an’ such. But here you go, Wayne, Bobby London’s dozen-ish Brutuses laugh mockingly at the stinginess of only Three Jokers.
More of your questions, more of my answers!
ExistentialMan gets down to earth with
You’ve mentioned your comic reading backlog (and unfortunate eye challenges) several times over the years. I’m curious if you have a system for how you tackle your stacks of books. Do you just read them in the order you placed ’em in the longbox? Selectively choose back issues that relate to current titles? Toss a random dart at the stack? Please enlighten us.
For those of you new to the site, what EM is referring to is the fact I’ve had some vision issues in relation to actual physical problems with my eyeballs, discussed enough here that the topic has its own category.
Now, the eyeball situation has mostly stabilized, though I’m still getting treatments (i.e. the dreaded injections) in the left eye about once every couple of months…a vast improvement over getting shots in both eyes every month like I had been at the beginning. And I haven’t had a vision-obscuring bleeding incident in my eyes for quite some time now. So, you know, good news all around.
My vision is diminished from what it was, requiring glasses now. And though I no longer need the regular treatment on my right eye, the vision in that eye is impaired. I can see out of it, but not at the…resolution, I guess, as I can with my left eye, which is mostly at normal when using said glasses.
Anyway, as mentioned by EM, my reading had been slowed down a bit, after about an 18-month period at the beginning of all this when I read virtually nothing. When I did start reading again, it was slow going as I adjusted to my new vision status quo, and between bouts of eye-bleeds that would prevent me from reading again.
One result is that I gave up entirely on reading comics for a while, even during those periods when I could do so. I watched a lot of TV instead, which, thanks to a big ol’ flatscreen, was much easier for me to see than small print on paper pages. I was still picking up the comics I wanted to read, but setting them aside for a later date.
And that later date has been the last couple of years or so, as I’ve been making a stronger attempt at catching up on the backlog. I’ve adjusted to my vision, I’ve got a reading lamp that helps quite a bit, so I’ve been making some progress.
When I started to try catching up, my priority was the stuff I was reading on a serialized monthly basis. Gathering together all the Superman stuff, the Hulk stuff, so on and so forth, and reading through them a series at the time. Then, as new books come out, I read those as I get ’em and I stay caught up on those series.
Then there are the one-shots and the miscellaneous minis that have come out over the years, that got backlogged and I get to those as I find the time. There are probably still some of those DC/Hanna Barbera specials I haven’t read yet. But I’m getting through them as I can.
The real roadblocks are the magazines and the graphic novels/trades. I don’t get every issue of Back Issue, but about one out of every three issues or so there’s one stuffed with articles I want to read (“special DC Comics 1980s mini-series issue!” — DAMMIT) and I’ll pull it aside and I think I’m years behind on those and really need to stop picking them up. But then this month they had an issue about DC’s horror comics and DAMMIT.
Graphic novels, 100 to 200 or more pages a throw there, take a lot longer for me to plow through, but lately I’ve been trying to put more effort into reading them. For example, not long ago I finally read Matt Wagner’s newly expanded Grendel: Devil by the Deed, about a year after its release.
Now it’s not like I’m just talking home piles and piles of books every week. I have made an active effort to keep my personal pulls to a minimum, as I try to find a balance amongst 1) what new stuff I really want to read, 2) what I have time to read, and 3) how much backlog I still need to whittle down.
This isn’t even counting all the regular prose books I need to catch up on. I just read Opposable Thumbs, a book about the history of film critics Gene Siskel, Roger Ebert, and their partnership, and it took me like a year to get to that.
• • •
Adam Farrar gets up close and personal
with
“I’ve never read any of the original Popeye comics. But I’m missing out, yeah? My library has the six volumes from Fantagraphics. Should I try to find the pre-Popeye Thimble Theater strips to read first?”
Adam, Adam, Adam…how dare you come here, into my very own website, without having read any Popeye. Friend, run, do not walk, to that library and get those volumes into your hands. If it’s closed when you show up, break in. Do not delay feeding Popeye into your peepers any longer than you already have.
You do not need to read the earlier Thimble Theater strips. The first of those Fantagraphics volumes contain several non-Popeye TT strips, kicking off that storyline and eventually leading to Popeye’s introduction. That should give you enough of the taste as to what those early strips were like.
Should you ever decide to continue beyond those Fantagraphics reprints once you’ve caught Popeye fever, maybe you can try some Thimble Theater (available in very large and expensive, but nice, hardcovers). Or you can look at a bunch of the facsimile editions IDW published of 1940s-50s Popeye comics by Segar’s successor Bud Sagendorf, which can be found in single issue or collected form. there were also a couple volumes reprinting Bobbly London’s run on the strip from the late ’80s/early ’90s.
There’s a current Popeye comic, Eye Lie Popeye, done in a nigh-anime style that’s a little off-model from the original strips, maybe, but still a lot of fun.
But read those Segar comics! And always remember what Popeye says about cartoonists:
So last week, will richards remarked
“I seems ta remembersk a parody featuring Squinteye the Sailor (again, more appropriate than Popeye?), but can’t recall which comic that was in.”
I replied in the comments, but thought I’d point it out On Main, as the kids say. To the best of my knowledge, Squinteye stems from the 1985 release Cerebus Jam #1. This was a comic in which the regular Cerebus team, Dave Sim and Gerhard, team up with another creator to produce a short story. Said creators include Murphy Anderson, Will Eisner, and noted Popeye fan Terry Austin, who co-produced this tale of a Young Cerebus encountering a grizzled sailor down at the docks.
Eventually Squinteye bumps into an old adversary:
…who is dispatched in the typical fashion:
…leaving something of an impact on our junior main character:
According to the story notes in this issue, Sim provided very rough sketches of “Squinteye” and Bluto on the pages, which Austin very meticulously finished, including details like the dead Jeep on the (magically-changing) shoulder.
Like most Cerebus art in the main book, it’s quite stunningly detailed, and Austin fits right in with his legendary illustrative talent. It’s well worth tracking down a copy of this comic…all the stories found within are a lot of fun.
• • •
Snark Shark takes a bite at me
with
“twitter: ‘somebody’s breaking street date’
“How much trouble can they get in for that?”
Mr. Shark is referring to a couple of posts I made on the somehow-still-functional-mostly Twitter about a customer who came in Tuesday and indicated a DC book released that day had already been purchased by him days earlier. Given that specific books’ release date was the 14th, if he bought it earlier, then some other retailer sold it too early. (Assuming the customer isn’t mistaken of course.)
Putting street dates on books allows retailers to ship them to stores early, to allow for more time to process and count the received goods, as well as report shortages and damages more a more timely replacement. For example, I received DC Comics due for release on the 21st this past Tuesday, the 14th. My shipments from Penguin Random House (containing my Marvel and IDW and, soon, Dark Horse orders) generally arrive the Friday before the following Wednesday’s release date, though Monday is relatively common too. Diamond shipments with goods for sale Wednesday arrive on that week’s Tuesday, but the occasional delay or UPS error can mean I’m scrambling to process the order Wednesday morning before opening for the day.
For the most part, assuming no shipping delays, this is a lot easier on me than in Ye Olden Tymes, when everything showed up on Wednesday for that day’s release, and hopefully the shipment arrived early enough in the morning that everyone rushed through getting the order counted and shelved and maybe pulled for the comic savers before opening. Unless UPS decided to start at the other end of its route and we ended up getting our boxes at, like, 4 in the afternoon, which did happen. (Eventually we just had the boxes held at the UPS center, and I would pick them up on my way to work that morning.)
Now for early shipments to work, that requires retailers to stick to the street dates, and Diamond used to send out “secret shoppers” to keep tabs on stores and make sure they weren’t breaking street dates by putting material out too early. From all accounts I’ve heard, these distributor spies were obvious as all hell, but to the best of my knowledge I’ve never dealt with any, either at my previous place of employment or at my shop. So, either I’ve never been tagged as a secret shopper target, or my secret shoppers knew what they were doing and actually remained secret. Not that it mattered, since I never broke street dates.
To get to Snark Shark’s question, finally, as to what would be the penalty for selling stuff too early — first they’d stop shipping stuff to you early temporarily, and then I’d have to assume if you’re a repeat offender they’d stop the early shipping permanently. That would mean whatever poor bastard got caught breaking street dates would be back to the Bad Old Process of trying to get stuff taken care of the very morning of its release, which can be done but it’s a pain in the ass.
So anyway, don’t do this, fellow retailers. And again, not that I’m sure this happened in the first place in this instance, as I’m half-convinced this particular customer was mistaken about getting that comic early.
• • •
Again, sorry for the dearth in entries the last few days. There’s a period in March where I have a bunch of medical stuff all in a row, so it might happen again. Be forewarned, be forearmed!
So Reader John sent along a weird item from his own Vast Comics Archive, feeling that I’d be a good home, or at least a home, for this 1974 release. Identified as “Popeye L-2″ on the indicia, this is an educational item for both Spanish and English readers:
This is the front cover:
And here’s the back:
The Grand Comics Database entry calls this a “flip-book,” which it isn’t, really. The front and back covers are both oriented in the same direction, and the pages don’t suddenly turn upside-down halfway through necessitating turning the whole book over to start reading from the other side. The book just reads straight through, with this intro on the inside front cover:
Then you get this story (reprinted from Charlton’s Popeye #96 from 1969, first in Spanish:
…then in English:
…along with other short strips (in both languages) and vocabulary tests and such.
I’ve got to say…I’ve never seen a copy of this. The GCD entry says there are other comics like this from King Features…issue #L-1 is Beetle Bailey, for example.
Anyway, this is a neat item, so big thanks to John for sending it my way!
SPECIAL BONUS: yet another straight-on look at Popeye’s anatomically improbable face:
The pipe doesn’t go in your nariz, Popeye!
So I had a couple of questions in response to Wednesday’s post about the Popeye action figures:
Daniel T sez
“How do you feel about the Sunday Popeye by Randy Milholland or the ‘manga’ Popeye?”
I have to admit I hadn’t been following the new Sunday strips by Milholland very closely, for no really good reason other than “I forgot.” I have seen a handful of those strips, however (and here’s the most recent one as of this writing) and I think they’re perfectly fine. I’m glad New Popeye Drawings are still being generated on the funny pages (paper or virtual) and keeping our favorite Sailor Man alive and well. I really do need to keep on these strips. And the new Nancy too.
Now, “Manga Popeye” — I gotta say, that didn’t ring much of a bell for me. First thing I thought of was Momeye from Antarctic Press:
And I gotta tell ya, the first time I saw this comic, it took a few seconds for my brain to register what it was I was seeing. I’m still not sure it does.
Anyway, news of the actual thing slipped past me somehow, but now I’ve learned a cartoonist doing a fanfic Popeye Vs. Goku comic got tapped by King Features to do an actual, authorized manga-esque version of the classic character. The official page for the strip is here, and it appears the plot revolves around discovering the deal with Popeye’s missing eye. I’m sure whatever’s uncovered will be as canon as the story of the eye-loss related here, but…hey, it looks pretty good. Seems to mix the two styles nicely. A complete digital edition of the comic can be ordered for $5, but I’m hoping there’ll be a print edition someday.
“And will you be getting Popeye Variations?”
I think I saw that on Kickstarter, right? It’s a book featuring many artists’ interpretations of Popeye, as well as selected strips and some of the IDW covers, and it sounds great. Hopefully I’ll be able to get it through one of my distributors for the shop because I’d love to see it.
• • •
Real Live Comic Book Artist
Les McClain popped by to relate
“I designed two waves of non-poseable PVC figures for this line with a whole bunch of obscure characters but I don’t know if they’re ever going into production.
“The Flash Gordon/Phantom PVCs I designed are coming out, so maybe?”
Oh, you designed those? I saw them on the manufacturer’s site and they look great! I hope to see more!
• • •
joecab pulled up to the curb to say
“Is the package set by Stephen DeStefano? Because it sure looks it and it’s gorgeous.”
I did some Googling and I can’t find DeStefano’s name specifically connected to these items, but apparently he’s The Guy when it comes to providing illos for licensed Popeye product, and has been for a couple of decades. It does look a bit like his work, doesn’t it? These are wonderful packaging designs, which I hate because it means I can’t discard the wrapping after I open ’em up to pull the figures out. Oh, well.
• • •
Snark Shark bites off more than he can chew with
“I always thought [Brutus and Bluto] were the same guy!”
They are in fact two different guys, with Brutus created to replace Bluto after the Popeye cartoons switched animation studios. The reason why the replacement was made (and also why it was unnecessary in the first place) you can read about on Mark Evanier’s site, which is how I learned the story.
“‘the nephews Pupeye, Peepeye, Poopeye and Pipeye’
“There’s gotta be some SERIOUS inbreeding going on in that family tree!”
I’m going to assume genetic experimentation in an attempt to create a vast legion of super-sailors.
• • •
Thanks for your comments, pals (as well as for all the kind replies on my
anniversary post), and I’ll see you next week…possibly with less Popeye talk.
So of late I’ve been trying to get my comic collection at home reorganized and put away properly, part of which is clearing out some material and bringing it to the store for sale. As such, I’m trying to keep the intake of new stuff down to a dull roar, both comics and other related goodies. But there comes a time in every person’s life when one must acquire a full set of high-end fully articulated and accessorized Popeye figures.
Just released from Boss Fight Studio, this figures are “1/12th scale” (or between 4 and 6 inches tall, depending) and come in these nicely designed packages and are accompanied by a selection of accessories (extra hands, hats, that sort of thing).
Castor Oyl, pictured above, needed some extra special accessories to attract the “Castor who?” crowd and thus gets Eugene the Jeep and the Whiffle Hen.
Olive comes with Swee’Pea, as well as an extra head with an angry face:
…which sadly does not quite live up to the swell expression drawn on the packaging.
The most massive figure of the bunch, and rightly so, is Bluto:
…who comes with a few extra hands and his little cap.
The package opens up at the side, where a flap is held in place by a couple of inserted tabs (one covered with a clear sticker to keep it shut). I had trouble opening it up, putting a few tears into the slots in which the tabs go, but I don’t know if that’s a design flaw or just my clumsy, clumsy mitts. If only I had swappable hands like Bluto.
Anyway, this is what it looks like inside:
And here’s Bluto in all his ornery glory:
He doesn’t need an extra swappable head…THIS ONE IS PLENTY:
There was an additional item in this series I passed on, which was a “Popeye Vs. Bluto” set featuring basically the same designs as above but with “battle damage” (bruised knuckles, black eyes) that I passed on.
These are some beautiful figures that I absolutely didn’t need but picked up anyway. The second series should be here in a few months (with the Sea Hag, Wimpy, Poopdeck Pappy, and Popeye in his white sailor suit) and after seeing these, I can’t wait.
If there’s a third series, I’m hoping for Alice the Goon, and wouldn’t it be great to get a Brutus to go with Bluto? Or a Ham Gravy to go with Castor? Or even King Blozo!
I mean, after that we’d really be entering real Deep Cut territory, getting into Olive’s parents and Rough House and the like. More likely we’d see more design variations on the main characters (such as one based on Bluto’s appearance in Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor).
But what I really want is a 4-pack of the nephews Pupeye, Peepeye, Poopeye and Pipeye:
Just don’t do a “Popeye Whistling Through His Missing Eye variant, I’m begging you:
So a new post in the ongoing multiverse talk series just wasn’t coming together, and as such today I’ll instead post this Popeye comic I just acquired for the personal funnybook collection:
This is issue #166 from 1982, pretty late in its run (which would end in 1984). And since I’ve already been asked, no, it has nothing to do with the 1936 cartoon Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor, in that the the Sindbad in the animated feature is spelled with two Ds.
My eventual goal is to get my ungainly mitts on every issue of this publisher-spanning Popeye run, though I think I’ll be satisfied with having all the early Dell numbers in their IDW reprints.
Also of note is that there is no #93, lost in the transition between Gold Key/Whitman/Western/whatever and Charlton in the late 1960s. Plus, ssues #160 and #161 were not published during the later Western run at the title. And just to make things difficult, two issues (158 and 159) were only sold in those 3-packs, so I’m probably looking at paying more of a premium for those (but not as much as what I’d be paying for the similarly-distributed Uncle $crooge #179 — sheesh).
You see what I’m up against. Ah well, I hope at least I can find that #158…I need to learn more about THE MOODUC:
…but it’s been a long day and I’m Too Pooped to Post™. So let me leave you with this image of the forthcoming Castor Oyl action figure:
…which I almost passed on ordering along with the Popeye, Bluto, and Olive Oyl figures I was getting for myself from the latest Previews, until I saw that Castor had “Eugene the Jeep and Bernice the Whiffle Hen” included in his package:
Look, I know I’m weak. Also, did you know the Whiffle Hen predates Popeye his own self in the funny pages? IT’S TWOO, IT’S TWOO
Okay, definitely time for beddy-bye. See you pals on Monday.
§ February 25th, 2019 § Filed under popeye § 5 Comments
This is a hell of a thing to find as a back-up story in Popeye #108 (June 1971), especially it being the anniversary issue an’ all:
I feel like the funny animal potential for whales hasn’t been fully exploited. I mean, sure, there’s this, and I’m probably not remembering comic strip characters and such. But I think we can agree “whales” are far behind “dogs,” “cats” and probably “anteaters” in the Humorous Representation of Animals catalog.
And just to confirm, yes, I’m pretty sure those are supposed to be whales. Just look at this:
WHALE ANATOMY: 100% NAILED
So Dave Carter of Earth sez in response to my last post, he sez
“I wonder if kids these days get exposed to Popeye like we did when we were young? I mainly learned the basics of Popeye mythology (Popeye, Olive, Swee’Pea, Bluto/Brutus, Wimpy, spinach, etc.) though the cartoon, which ran on a local UHF station. But I’m not aware of any way a kid these days would encounter Popeye unless it is purposely placed in front of them by an adult-type.”
…And yeah, that was something I was wondering about myself the other day. Well, in sort of a roundabout way, I suppose. I was wondering if we would ever see, arising from the newspaper funny pages, a strip that would achieve the near-universal recognition and/or influence of, like, Garfield, or Peanuts, or Dilbert, or even Popeye.
I mean, sure, it’s not like the strips can’t be found, and even if people don’t have newspaper subscriptions, which nowadays is more and more likely, the comics can always be found online at the various syndication websites. But there that requires readers to go and seek the strips out, versus the strips coming into your home every day with the latest copy of the Oxnard Press-Courier (or your local equivalent). Near effortless daily access for readers of all ages compared to a readership comprised of at least slightly tech-savvy folks (or at least with tech-savvy relatives to show ’em how to get the new Marvin)…there’s going to be some attrition.
And not to mention selection…the latter group won’t be getting the full page or two of every strip in the paper, where they’ll at least be aware of Tumbleweeds, probably spending the couple of seconds to read it even if they don’t like it. Instead they’d likely pick and choose which strips they want to follow…no inadvertently scanning over strips they didn’t want to read, no basic knowledge of the strips they don’t see.
I’m making a lot of assumptions here. My thesis here essentially boils down to “comic strips aren’t the universal experience they used to be,” which I don’t think can be too heavily argued against, even if the reasons for this are up for debate. Is there going to be another licensing juggernaut like Garfield that spawns out of the traditional newspaper strip format? Or even from web-only strips? Surely there will be some marketing success with other strips, but only if they make it into other media, and not nearly on the scale of a slothful orange cat or a neighborhood filled with neurotic children.
Anyway, we were talking about Popeye. Popeye, of course, was immensely popular nearly from the get-go, with his introduction in the comic strip in 1929, and the famous cartoons, and, inexplicably, the chicken restaurant (RIP that tie-in license, by the way). But now, in 2018, like Dave said above, it seems like the number of opportunties for kids to learn about Popeye are drastically reduced.
The comic strip runs reruns of old Bud Sagendorf dailies, while still producing new Sunday strips by Hy Eisman. I don’t know how many subscribing papers Popeye has, but it can’t be too many, possibly only a fraction of the number it held in its heyday. You know, like almost every other strip.
The cartoons, which seemed ubiquitous on TV in my youth, have been relegated to the specialty channels. Not sure how often they’re shown, or what the viewership is, but certainly the numbers are lower there too.
And I don’t know how many kids are stumbling across the Official YouTube Popeye Channel…maybe some, I’m sure. Oh, and don’t forget the popular attraction in Malta built around the still-standing sets for the 1980 Popeye movie that starred Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall.
I admit some bias…I don’t see Popeye on TV or in the paper or just by happenstance over the course of my day (well, yes, except at the store), so I’m assuming nobody does. When I see anything Popeye-related, it’s when I seek it out…like renting the archival DVDs of the original cartoons from Netflix, or watching, like I did very recently, that 1980 live action adaptation (short review: beautifully designed, wondefully cast, stupefyingly presented), or buying a specific issue off the eBay.
As it turns out, when I received that very Popeye comic in the mail at the shop, my niece (who used to be the 10-year-old niece I’d occasionally mention on this site and who is now my 21-year-old niece, in case you needed another shove towards the grave) happened to stop by to say hello. I said “hey, look what I got in the mail!” and she replied “hey, Popeye!” so she definitely knew who the character was. A while later, thinking about what Dave said, I asked her about how she knew about Popeye. Her reply was that, when she was younger, her dad’s parents would sometimes let her read her dad’s comics from when he was a kid, which included the adventures of our favorite gazookus which hates all palookas. And she would see Popeye cartoons on the very same cable network I’d linked above while pooh-poohing its viewership.
So, you know, it’s Popeye. He’s too tough to be forgotten, and he’ll find a way to connect with kids somehow. Maybe the audiences aren’t are huge and widespread as they once were, and it’s not as easy to just happen across any of his material, but he and Olive and Wimpy and Bluto (and Brutus) are all still hanging in there, waiting for that next child eventually to discover what E.C. Segar created for all of us so long ago.
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