It's in this second hearty volume of Fantatagraphic's Popeye series that we really start to get the true-blue Sailor Man. As revealed in the last book, Thimble Theater was once home to the antics of the Oil brood and featured Castor and Olive's boyfriend Ham Gravy. The accidental addition of a minor character dubbed Popeye changed all that. The gruff two-fisted salt of the sea was popular and was brought back again and again and slowly first Ham left and in this tome we see that Castor too has departed the pages save for rare instances. This is the Popeye show now.
The Popeye of E.C. Segar is an American original, a violent-minded tender soul who takes no guff and expresses himself equally with his "fisks" as with is distinctive voice and speech pattern. Popeye is pretty much consistently in love with Olive here save when she makes him crazy or vice versa and sometimes when he has ready cash they plan wedlock and at others she's trying to make him understand his salt-sea manner is not conducive to effective lovemaking. He sort of understands some of the time. This is also when Popeye's affinity for spinach begins to make itself known as he begins to make that lowly green a super tonic of the imagination.
In the dailies Popeye spends time fighting a western outlaw named "Clint Gore" with some eventual success, and with the money he gets as a consequence opens the "One-Way Bank", a odd institution which gives out money to the needy but doesn't expect any back. Popeye's generous nature is revealed but his gullible side is also on display when pretty brunettes of all kinds take advantage and soon the bank is out of cash. Popeye as always is unfazed and he and Castor accept the odd job of becoming soliders of fortune in a war between "Nazila" and "Tonsylvania" on the side of the former. Castor quickly fades from view and a frequent character is "King Blozo", a anxiety-ridden coward. Popeye is quickly disillusioned with the war as he discovers no one is actually fighting on either side and neither can they remember what the fight is about. After he's done with this offbeat fracas he and Olive head out West again to tend a ranch Olive's dad bought near the town of "Skullyville", a town full of owlhoots and shifty types. The story ends when Popeye rescues Olive from a life as a barroom dancer and scullery maid and they head back home somewhat richer but perhaps marginally wiser.
In the Sunday pages Popeye stays pretty much at home around the Oyl residence dating Olive and fending off other potentential suitors, and fighting in the ring against opponents arranged by fight producer "Mr. Kilph". These fights are furious affairs and could and did last several weeks. When he wasn't fighting or wooing Popeye was often at Roughhouse's cafe eating hamburgers alongside the eternally broke Wimpy. Wimpy also was the fight referee and was easily corrupted to boot. In these colorful outings we see more of Popeye's philanthropy as he is as wont to spend his fight winnings on gambling as taking care of the poor and down and out he comes across. He buys one displaced woman and her family a house and takes in another little girl to reunite her with her real family after a time. Beneath the color Popeye strips are the misadventures of Sappo and his wife who welcome in a bearded inventor like Sappo himself -- O.G. Wotasnozzle has appeared and will be around for a while.
These are actively funny comics and I laughed out loud on many occasions reading them, a real accomplishment when I'm reading alone. It's easy to see why Popeye the Sailor Man was such a hit.
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