Popeye First Appears: The Sailor Man Enters Comics
Spinach wasn't even his thing yet. When Popeye first muscled into the Thimble Theatre comic strip, he was just another sailor with a squinty eye and a mumbling drawl. But Elzie Segar's rough-and-tumble character would soon become an American icon, transforming from a side character to the strip's unexpected star. Within months, readers were demanding more of this pipe-smoking, forearm-flexing mariner who'd punch first and ask questions never. And those muscles? Powered by leafy greens that would make nutritionists proud.
January 17, 1929
97 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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