Popeye The Sailor Day!

(Nick Cardy)

It's Popeye Day. Not just here at the Dojo, but across the globe. And to celebrate here's a wonderful character who evokes the essence of Segar's epic creation. The earliest version of Segar's grumpy hero debuted on this date in 1929 and falls into the grew maw of the Public Domain this year. But that doesn't mean there haven't been versions before now. 

(Popeye's debut)

One of my favorite Popeye stories doesn't technically involve Popeye at all. Captain Strong, a virile and excitable sailor who gets even more so when he munches on a radioactive plant called "sauncha" gave Superman, the vaunted Man of Steel a run for his money in several DC comics.

Here are three pages from the first Captain Strong story from Action Comics #421 written by his creator Cary Bates and the superstar team of Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson.

The doughty sailorman survived and returned to give Superman what for in more issues of Action, as can be seen below.

(Nick Cardy)

Though he didn't always make the cover.

(Mike Grell)

Some years later he showed up in an issue of Superman itself.

(Ross Andru and Dick Giordano)

And years later still another issue of Action Comics, toward the end of that comics historic run.

(Marshall Rogers and Jerry Ordway)

I don't know what's become of Captain Strong in the DCU these days, but for sheer fun those stories were rock solid reliable.

But these days such things might seem old hat.

E.C. Segar and Friend

 Eat your spinach!

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