Popeye The Comic Book Man!

1948

Popeye the Sailor Man has proven to be one of the most durable characters in the now longish history of comics. The character of course debuted in Thimble Theater in 1929 under the hand of his creator Elzie Segar. Popeye quickly took over that strip and then became an animated sensation under the hand of the Fleisher Studios. When Segar passed away the strip was taken on by a host of folks, but eventually it came under the guidance of Bud Sagendorf in 1959. Sagendorf came to the character with a wealth of experience because he had been the guiding hand of the comic book from Dell Comics for over a decade at that point. Popeye appeared as a comic book for a few publishers but in 1948 Sagendorf's version found steady footing at Dell and ran for fourteen years.

1962

1962

The Sagendorf comic shifted over to Gold Key Comics when Western Publishing broke from Dell and Popeye continued for several years under the handsome Gold Key brand.

1966

1966

In 1966 King Features launched its famous characters into a comic book line which ran for just about a year or so. Popeye, along with The Phantom, Flash Gordon, and Mandrake the Magician was a part of this initiative.

1967

King Features ended the comic book experiment in 1967 leaving Popeye without a publisher for a short time in its venerable run.

1969

In stepped Charlton Comics and artist George Wildman who brought the title back in 1969. Sagendorf was concentrating on the comic strip exclusively at this point.

1977

Wildman, who went on to become the editor of Charlton Comics, was the guiding hand of Popeye's comic book adventures for most of the next decade when finally in early 1977. He was assisted by Charlton workhorse Joe Gill and the talented writer Nicola Cuti.

1978

The same talents with the addition of Bill Pearson continued on the title as it moved back to the folks at Gold Key which published the title under both the Gold Key and Whitman labels in 1978.

1984

Popeye the comic book series ended with its one hundredth and seventy-first issue in 1984 when the final Gold Key/Whitman issues was released. That adds up to thirty-six years of Popeye comics from a wide array of publishers.

1987

Among the most unusual comics I have buried around here somewhere the Popeye Specials from Ocean Comics beginning in 1987. These comics showcase stories by Ron Fortier which put out a rather detailed back story and origin for the famous Sailor Man. Drawn by Ben Dunn and Bill Pearson the first issue shows us Popeye as a child. Check this out for a glimpse.

1988

The following year another issue drops with Fortier and Dunn still aboard, but with Dell Barras and  Tom Grummett joining in on the art chores. This issue takes Popeye and Bluto to the land down under, Australia.

1999

A full decade passes, but eventually another special issue appears this time written by Peter David with a cover by Tom Grummett and interior art by Dave Garcia and Sam De La Rosa. As you can tell by the title, at long last Popeye and Olive tie the knot, though with enough action for all Popeye fans. Here the writer reflects on the project.

2012

Yoe Books and IDW Publishing collaborated to launch a reprint series of the earliest Popeye comics from Dell in 2012 and I eagerly jumped aboard as it left the dock. It apparently has proven to be quite a sales success.

2017

That is evidenced by the fact that five years later the full Dell series was reprinted. What will become of the series at this point is unknown to me, but frankly I'd love to see the series continue capturing new stories from the Gold Key, King Features, and Charlton years. The George Wildman material deserves a larger audience. Maybe it will happen, because it has been proven time and again that Popeye is a reliable seller on the stands. But at this late date, I have little hope. 

2024

Yet just last year we were given Eye Lie Popeye, a totally new take on the character. This time he's given a taste of Manga to go with his usual diet of spinach. Can't say I'm impressed. 

Come back tomorrow to celebrate a very special day indeed. 

Rip Off

The Phantom - The Charlton Years Volume One!

The folks at King Features discovered making comics was harder than they suspected, so after a year or so, they licensed their characters back to a full-time comics firm, this time Charlton got the nod. Charlton Comics was notorious then and now for its pecunious ways, but they were a company which had been making comics since the Golden Age and with the collapse of the "Action Hero" line, they needed heroes. Enter the Phantom. 

In a move which is pure Charlton, they picked up the numbering of the series with issue thirty, which meant they skipped over twenty-ninth. For whatever reason, this gap exists in the run. The cover for issue thirty above is by Frank McLaughlin the talented penciller and inker who created Judomaster. 

Above is the artwork which would have been the cover for issue twenty-nine. Another lift from the work of Sy Barry. 

And here is a fun creation by fan Jim Keefe, a faux issue twenty-nine to fill the imagination. The actual contents of the first Charlton issue were two stories, the first by artists Jose Delbo and inker Sal Trapani for "The Secret of the Golden Ransom" written by Pat Fortunato. This is an adaption of a story from the comic strip. The second Phantom story is by writer Gary Poole and artist McLaughlin and is titled "The Secret of the Phantom".

With issue thirty-one Charlton really puts their stamp on the character for all time by assigning artist Jim Aparo to the character. Aparo's run on the character is still very well thought of by Phantom fans. Aparo is joined by writer Dick Wood on a story titled "The Phantom of Shang-Ri-La". I love this first Aparo cover, as he makes the Phantom into a veritable giant, chiseled from the mountain. The Ghost Who Walks had always been presented in a sleek manner, but Aparo gave the character an imposing muscular presence. 

In issue thirty-two things get even weirder as The Phantom has to contend with a character rising from an Egyptian tomb and claiming to be the original Phantom who helped Cleopatra among others in ancient times. The battle between this "Phantom" and our own sturdy hero is a rugged one indeed, with the Ghost Who Walks getting more than a few shocks before it's all said and done. Is "The Pharaoh Phantom" for real? I'll let you guess. 

Issue thirty-three gives us two Phanton stories. The first story is titled "The Curse of Kallai" and in this Dick Wood written tale a killer cult comes to the Deep Woods to get the Phantom who they think is responsible for their success many years before. They are of course wrong and suffer in this tale drawn by Pat Boyette with Nicholas Alascia on inks. The second story begins with the Phantom falling to his "death" and then we see the consequences when thugs imagine they've actually done in the hero. It's no great surprise when the Ghost Who Walks, walks in and confronts the villains. This story was drawn by Aparo and written by Steve Skeates. 

In both stories in this issue the Phantom must contend with madmen. First in "The Cliff Kingdom" a brother and sister have their plane crash amidst a peaceful people, but the brother is driven mad and uses the people as his personal army. In the second story an anthropologist is obsessed with the apes of  Bengalla and when he is saved by the Phantom from a deadly attack by a bull ape goes mad and assumes his role. Jim Aparo is top form in both these tales written by D.J. Arneson under his "Norm DiPluhm" name again. 

"The Ghost Tribe" is apparently the story originally intended for the lost issue twenty-nine and sees the  return of Bill Harris and artist Bill Lignante to the Phantom pages under a sleek Aparo cover. This tribe seek to imitate the Phantom but instead of peace they bring discord. The Phantom must disguise himself to get to the bottom of this latest threat to the Deep Woods. 

Aparo and Arneson return with issue thirty-six with two stories. The first titled "The River that Never Ends" finds the Phantom and some allies swept into a maelstrom which descends into an isolated cavern. It's all he can do to find a way out when pirates attack the area to boot. "Very Special Timber" is about diamond smugglers who use a sawmill to make special logs to carry their booty out and away from suspecting eyes. It doesn't take the Ghost Who Walks long to break up this scheme and free some natives suspected of the crimes from false imprisonment., 

When Charlton first took control of the comic, we got long Phantom tales taking up a complete issue. Then it shifted to two stories per issue and by this time the new standard seems to be three complete Phantom tales in each issue.  I enjoyed the longer stories, but these vignettes have virtues as well. The regular team of Aparo and Arneson are still in command. The first of the three stories is "Bandar Betrayers" and has the loyal warriors attack the Phantom because of the blooming of the Kacia Tree which sends a scent that makes men turn on their allies. It's up to Hero and Devil to save the day. "Skyjack" has the Phantom intercede in the middle of a skyjack by pretending to be an ally of the skyjacker. It's up to Diana Palmer to whisk him away after this one. "Disband the Patrol!" is a strange story in which to improve discipline and moral the Phantom issues strange orders to the Patrol to see how they perform. 

We get three more stories in issue thirty-eight. This is Jim Aparo's final issue, and he leaves the Ghost Who Walks with a stunner of a cover. Aparo's style has been shifting throughout his run on The Phantom, becoming sleeker and more refined. Aparo was already drawing Aquaman for DC when he was still working on The Phantom, and you can see the same shift on style there. It is this style he will use on the pages of The Phantom Stranger and The Brave and the Bold. "The Dying Groud" has the Phantom trussed up in an elephant graveyard as the natives are upset that their ivory is being poached by woodcutters and they blame the Ghost Who Walks. "The Phantom's New Faith" shows the Phantom with a rare moment of doubt as he reflects on the great achievements of his forefathers. But when a volcano erupts, he gets his chance to do the deeds he necessary to carry on the heritage. "The Trap" features Diana Palmer as she comes to Bangalla to catalogue art treasures. She doesn't realize she's being followed by thieves. 

This Hermes volume features a number of pieces of original artwork by Aparo, making this tome a worthy testament to the skills of one of the best talents in comic book history. I've not mentioned it, but Aparo almost always insisted on lettering the artwork he produced and this practice, much in evidence in these stories, gives them a distinctive character unlike anything other folks were doing save perhaps for Pat Boyette. 

And that's ironic since Boyette will be Aparo's replacement on the comic, but more on that next time. 

Rip Off

The Phantom - The Complete King Years!

Of all of the King Comics hero books, The Phantom was arguably the most consistent. That consistency didn't necessarily rise to greatness, but there was a modicum of quality issue in and issue out. The reason was artist Bill Lignante, a seasoned talent who had broached the Phantom on the strip itself after the passing of Wilson McCoy. When it was decided Sy Barry would take the helm of the venerable strip Lignante was shifted over to the comics. The comic books were then being published by Gold Key and underneath outstanding dramatic covers by George Wilson Linante's efforts were quite good. But then in the middle of the decade King decided they wanted to try and do comic books and took all of their characters then in comics and created their own brand. 

The eighteenth issue, the first of the King Comics issues, the work was decent but hardly stunning. To replace George Wilson, Sy Barry art was used for the covers. The Phantom had been involved in a range of stories at Gold Key, but it seems with his arrival at King the stories took on a smaller scope with nearly everything happening in or around the Deep Woods. "The Treasure of Skull Cave" is the debut King Comics tale and features some thieves who hear about a rumored trove in the Phantom's lair and plot to get access to it. There is much scheming but in-the-end, treasure can be defined a number of ways they discovered. 

There are of course some exceptions, but the Phantom of the King Comics era spent his time battling river pirates and smugglers and such and sadly few of these villains were all that memorable. "The Astronaut and the Pirates" has the Ghost Who Walks attempting to save a space man kidnapped by some scallywags. A second story titled "The Masked Emissary" acts as an official agent of the United Nations to bring down a wannabe dictator. 

One truly memorable aspect of the King Comics run was the debut in comic book form of the "The Girl Phantom". This was a rather silly story at its heart, but certainly one that made attempts to broaden the demographics of the strip. The Phantom of an earlier time, one hundred years or so, had a sister named Julie and when he was wounded for a protracted time, she took it upon herself to put on the mantle and act in his place despite the basic fact that no one ever thought she was actually the Phantom. "The Invisible Demon" pits the Phantom against Dr. Krazz, the agent of the underworld "Mytors" who give him strange powers so they can eventually come up and take over the surface world. 

One thing about the King year of 1966 was the new cover regime. Art was repurposed for the covers, sometimes quite effectively as seen above and in the several covers just below by Sy Barry. "The Treasure of Bengali Bay" has the Phantom battle another seeming haunt named "The Cutlass" who is keeping natives from getting a ship's sunken treasure so that wealth can be used to build a needed hospital. "The Terror Tiger" is about an Indian prince who trains a tiger specifically to hate and attack the Phantom. The Phantom must use a special knife with a strange secret to survive. 

"The Secret of Magic Mountain" gives us the story of a scheming witch doctor who uses a strange legend to gain power and pit himself and his tribe against the Phantom. They don't come out on top, as you'd likely already imagine. But this one is a two-part tale and it's all the Phantom can do to defeat this enemy fueled by superstition. 

In the story "Delilah" a woman of that name and her gang plot to pretend to be agents of the Peace Corps so they can gain access to the Phantom's treasure and plunder all of Bengali. Despite the use of a strange submarine designed to resemble an enormous crocodile their scheming still falls short in this two-part tale. 

We are treated to another tale of the Girl Phantom from Phantom lore as she takes on a strange and truly deadly witch of the dark caves trying to gain control of the local tribes. The Girl Phantom's name is Julie and she is assisted this time by native companion Maru who wears a cunning leopard pelt and her pet leopard named Fury. Another two-parter, these longer Phantom yarns are quite entertaining. 

As with all of the runs from King, the wheels slowly felt like they were coming off a bit as sales ended up putting the series into the famous plastic bags three a time. Another indicator is a different artist on the twenty-fifth issue. Senio Pratesi gives us another version of the Phantom in this story titled "The Cold Fire Worshippers" in which two gangs work together to enslave a tribe to get their diamonds. This is a reprint of an Italian story and there are some plot elements already underway when we begin this one. 

But still and all good stuff was being produced such as my favorite Phantom cover from the run seen above. "The Lost City of Yiango" sees the return of Bill Lignanate and once again the Phantom is working overtime to keep the trust of the local tribes when an idol in his keeping turns out to be a fake. The switch happened a generation earlier with is dad, but still our Phantom must find a solution. "The Pearl Raiders" sees the Phantom take on a disguise to find the thieves who have made off with the Black Pearl of Bengali. 

The Phantom was never bad in any real sense while King Features guided its destiny, but alas neither did it rise up and distinguish itself in any particular way. But they forged ahead with the origin of the Phantom's trusty steed in "The Story of Hero". Actually, Hero is hardly in this yarn after he saves Diana Palmer, and we learn what mission concerning the kidnapping of a royal heir the Phantom undertook which upon its success saw him gifted the valiant horse. 

The King Comics Phantom run ends with issue twenty-eight and the story "Diana's Deadly Tour" in which the lovely Miss Palmer finds herself the unknowing aid to spies trying to smuggle out secret rocket plans. "The Big Fight" wraps up the issue when the vain boxing champ gets humbled by the Ghost Who Walks. This is a good place to remind you that the covers of the King books didn't have much to do with the interiors. But some of them are quite dramatic. 

We also get four four-page Phantom stories used as back-ups in the pages of the first four issues of Mandrake the Magician. The stories are "SOS Phantom" about jungle drums used to save the day, "The River Pirates" where those same drums bring to justice some easily spooked villains, "The Magic Ivory Cage" bout just that which is used to try and capture the Phantom, and "The Girl Phanton" in which Julie uses her wits to stop a local slaver. All of these tales are drawn by Bill Lignante. 

These are good Phantom stories, perfectly fine, but not great ones for the most part. That would come later of all places at Charlton Comics. More on that next time. 

Rip Off

A Minnesota Woody In King Arthur's Court!

I cannot know, but likely Wally Wood's dream job was drawing the comic strip Prince Valiant. I might be wrong and the answer is Flash Gordon, but the strip Wood had a chance to draw was in fact Valiant. Hal Foster was nearing the end of his tenure on the massive successful comic strip he'd created decades before and was casting about for new talent to take the artistic helm while he continued to write. The call went out and two comic book favorites -- Wally Wood and Gray Morrow were selected to prepare sample pages, pages which actually ran in the strips longstanding continuity. Above is Wally Wood's effort.

Here it is in glorious black and white. Wood was able to mimic Foster's style quite effectively here, thereby hiding his own distinctive flourishes. While not a ghost the new artist was expected to maintain the look and feel of the strip and Wood does a stellar job here. Neither Morrow nor Wood got the gig, which went to John Cullen Murphy. 

Wood of course was no stranger to Prince Valiant in print, having done the definitive spoof of the comic for MAD magazine many years before in a little effort called "Prince Violent". Read the full effort here. 

He'd turn his hand to spoofing the strip again in the Marvel Mini-Comic Prince Violet. But he wasn't done yet. 

Some years later for the Nuance porn comic Gang Bang #2 Wood once again visited Camelot and gave Foster's Prince a distinctively naughty turn in "Prince Violate". Notice he Wood makes specific use of the very designs used some years before in his try-out for the official strip itself. In fact those are the best panels in this effort which produced at the end of Wood's career sadly show his diminished talents. It's a raunchy and sometimes funny spoof featuring an abundance of fellatio, but not prime Wood sadly. To see more check it out here, but make sure to clear away the kiddies. 

Note: This post originally appeared at Rip Jagger's Other Dojo. I will be transferring some of those posts over here as the month goes on. 

Rip Off

The Sunday Funnies - Prince Valiant 1973-1974!

In Prince Valiant Volume 19: 1973-1974 by Foster and Murphy from Fantagraphics we have the first full volume not drawn completely by Hal Foster the creator of Prince Valiant in 1936. He is still writing the strip and laying it out, but John Cullen Murphy has taken over the primary art chores. In the volume begins with a reminiscence of Murphy by fellow comic strip maven Jerry Dumas

The saga picks up where it left off with the budding romance of Jacques the troubadour and the young acrobat Joan. They are married off post haste and the story quickly turns to Prince Arn who has found a friend in Boltarson, the son of Boltar, Prince Valiant's longtime ally and husband of Tillicum who was Arn's nurse. They head North and meet up with various adventures in which Boltarson questions Arn's bravery but quickly learns he has mistaken guile for guts. The duo make for Thule and soon Arn is sent on a mission to help install the new king of Holvik, who it turns out doesn't want the job. The heir Heidmar arranges to take the place of an ill-fated serf and rides off escaping his duties. The job of king goes to the untrustworthy Grimner and his chosen wife Princess Frieda. After that Arn encounters Lydia who stakes a firm claim on his young heart. When he is ordered to check on Grimner he is reluctant but does the job and helps to settle down the area which has been invaded by Wanderers. He is wounded and returns to Camelot where he convalesces thanks to Lydia while his father finishes his mission in Holvek. There is much treachery and both Grimner and Frieda end up dead and another is selected to be king, who it turns out is Lydia's brother. But when Arn sees Lydia meet her brother at the docks with much affection his tender affections are wounded so much he leaves Camelot without a word. Arn provisions a ship of Vikings but soon leaves them when they desire raiding over trade. He then grows up a bit and loses his fathers tunic design to fashion his own in red. He becomes a knight errant and soon has a clever squire in a loquacious fellow named Paul. They have adventures and even end up in a castle under siege. Seeing it is hopeless they escape but do rescue a lost young girl who they named "Squirrel". Paul becomes attached to her and eventually he marries and becomes a happy father of many. Arn then encounters Sir Gawain and the two go to fight jousts, some not fair at all. Meanwhile Lydia's brother is searching for Arn and eventually finds him and tells him the truth. Overcome with joy Arn is breathless to get to Thule. The two stalwarts find a hidden valley in which the people have been protected from invasion for two hundred years and later a castle in which the reluctant queen has been dead behind a locked door for over fifteen years while her mad lover waits for a word. Soon after and Arn  and Gawain part company when the latter heads home to Camelot. Arn encounters more Vikings, helps two young lovers find themselves and then when he gets to Thule he is reunited with Lydia at last. Prince Valiant becomes the focus when he goes to stop a giant warrior form terrorizing the district. He overcomes this threat with his usual cleverness and bravery. As the tome ends we are treated to the daydreams of young Galen and later yet another siege on a castle. But that story will be next time. 

The extra treat in this volume is a classic Hal Foster piece from 1942 -- The Song of Bernadette which was a Book-of-the-Month Club offering. The complete piece is here. This installment wraps up "The Sunday Funnies" for at least the next month or more. Hopefully I'll be able to get back to it in November and bring more Prince Valiant to the Dojo. Until then. 

Rip Off