Popeye Volume 1: I Yam What I Yam

This beautifully designed book is the perfect showcase for the daily and colour Sunday Popeye strips. Segar is a master of humour and suspense - in just four panels he can tell a story, develop characters and fire off great jokes. Then he takes an idea and strings it out for weeks on end, creating absurdly convoluted epics with a whole cast of villains and stooges. The first volume is the introduction of the Popeye character in the famous Wiffle Hen story. It's fascinating watching Popeye's character get refined gradually into the invincible icon we know today. I like George Herriman's Krazy Kat a lot, and Segar shares his scratchy, doodley drawing style. It's heresy in the strip world to say so, but I find Segar the better cartoonist, even if Herriman tends to draw more of the high art plaudits. Segar's genius is all pantomime, whereas Herriman's is mostly in his verbal poetry. I can't recommend this highly enough.

Everyone should read this book!! This book is so full of incredible wit,nail biting suspense, and absolute hilarity.If you are only familiar with the Popeye cartoons on TV, then this book will be a total surprise to you.The animated Popeye is basically about Popeye fighting Bluto over Olive, However, in the comic, Popeye is a much more complex character,and is not such a model hero. Popeye gets arrested, curses, gambles and picks fights with police officers, yet he still manages to be remarkably likeable.Once you start reading this book, E.C Segar's incredibly suspenseful story lines with keep you hooked for hours.A must have for any fan of comics, or a fan of great genius.

a

Popeye seems to have disappeared from the cultural radar. I suspect this is down to the non-PC way in which he dealt with problems (i.e. using violence) and overprotective parents fearing that their kids will run around eating spinach and beating people up.Well, overprotective parents won't be buying this collection for their young uns and more fool them for not doing so. This is a collection of the seminal Thimble Theater strips in which E C Segar created Popeye and a number of other characters who would go on to greater fame through the Fleischer and (less so) Hanna Barbera cartoons.The drawing style is suprisingly similar to that of Krazy Kat and Mutt and Jeff, but no less charming for it. The gags are of the four panel variety for the most part. It takes a little time for Segar to warm up, but once Popeye turns up, the strip takes off like a sky rocket. There's a lot of punching, attempts to kill whiffle hens, ghosts, sea hags and criminals. Some of the strips are black and white, others are full colour sunday strips. All are pretty much essential.If you have even the slightest interest in comic strips of any kind, you owe it to yourself to buy this outsized hardcover collection.