Popeye Volume 3: The Sea Hag & Alice the Goon

by E.C. Segar, Bong Redila (Introduction)

In the third volume of the E.C. Segar Popeye Sundays, Popeye and company embark on a gothic adventure on the high seas! Volume three centers around the epic Popeye adventure, “Plunder Island,” in which our endearing cast of characters takes to the high seas in search of buried treasure ― but must contend with the ruthless Sea Hag and her strange sidekick, Alice the Goon. Steeped in shadow and gothic imagery, this tale is an atmospheric and suspenseful departure from the typical Popeye aesthetic ― with a little screwball comedy thrown in for good measure. Also in this volume, Popeye proves to be a one-man wrecking crew on the gridiron, Wimpy tries his unsteady hand at duck shooting (uh-oh!), and the crew ride out to the Wild West town of Slither Creek on a rip-roaring gold-hunting expedition. Plus, contemporary Filipino cartoonist Bong Redila pens a lighthearted comic homage to the iconic, eerie duo headlining this volume. An irresistible alchemy of slapstick humor, tender romance, and rags-to-riches fantasy, Elsie Crisler Segar’s newspaper comic strip, starring Popeye the sailor man, captivated readers of the Roaring Twenties and beyond. Fantagraphics is thrilled to bring Segar’s whimsical world back into print, collecting the complete Popeye Sunday stories in four gorgeous full-color volumes, each packaged in a die-cut slipcase. Full-color illustrations throughout

Genres: Comics, Comic Strips

128 pages, Hardcover

Published December 19, 2023

About the author

Elzie Crisler Segar was a cartoonist, best known as the creator of Popeye, a pop culture character who first appeared in 1929 in Segar's comic strip Thimble Theatre.

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this volume of Sunday Thimble Theater comics from 1934 and 1935, Popeye goes up against Sea Hag and Alice the Goon for the first time, as the title indicates, but the character who gets the most space is J. Wellington Wimpy. Wimpy spends a lot of his time screwing the local restaurateurs out of hamburgers but also has time to go gold prospecting with Popeye and opening his own restaurant. He also finds time to make out with both Sea Hag and Alice the Goon.

Early Popeye is great stuff. The art really pops and Segar really knows how to make use of the space Sunday comics allowed back in the day. Each strip is a page in the book but has between nine and twenty panels. The Sea Hag strips are pretty moody at the beginning and Segar draws a decent variety of animals. Popeye goes from one predicament to another, beating the shit out of people and inevitably giving his money away to the orphinks.

Great stuff. When the hell does Bluto/Brutus get introduced?

[Rick Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

The third volume in the Fantagraphics collections of E.C. Segar's Popeye Sunday strips centers primarily on the "Plunder Island" epic which positions the cast of characters in a more familiar setting. Popeye and co. find themselves aboard a ship in search for treasure but are matched up against the Sea Hag and her sidekick, Alice the Goon. Though the story is much more serialized here, Segar still sticks with the classic strip format to bounce from one gag to the next. The oddball comedy remains just as potent in this collection as the past two volumes, but here we get a bit more atmospheric tension as the crew hunts for treasure across the oceans.

The latter portion of this volume pits Popeye against J. Wellington Wimpy, with Popeye and Wimpy going at it for several strips. Though this part is fairly repetitive, Segar does manage to switch up the formula enough to keep things from getting too stale. Though, as these are strips - one might have a better time of reading this by spreading out the reading experience.

Overall, the slapstick humor is still laid on thick but Segar's ability to weave in the whimsical elements makes for a charming read.

[Nolan Buro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best volume of the series so far. Has a better mix of stories and gags than the previous Sunday collections. Wimpy is hilarious and insane and I cannot stop thinking about him.

[Norman Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection from December 1933 - February 1936 starts off with a terrific story that puts Popeye back in his natural setting: onboard a ship looking for treasure. Of course, Segar contrives to have the regular cast of characters tag along, but the real standouts are the Sea Hag and Alice the Goon who give Popeye some real competition. The remainder of the book has Popeye back at home, a fish out of water constantly at odds with J. Wellington Wimpy, a selfish glutton and moocher. There is a lot of repetitiveness in this conflict, emphasized by reading the strips back to back instead of spread out over weekly installments as originally published. Still, there is humor to be found, especially when Popeye takes to the boxing ring or goes prospecting for gold. Later in the book we are introduced to Sweetpea, Popeye's adopted infant son, who seems to be just as ornery and strong as Popeye. Segar's artwork is both crude and visually stimulating. Be warned that there are some depictions of domestic violence and ethnic stereotypes that have not aged well, but not enough to make it unreadable.

[Aidan Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Plunder Island: The Best Popeye storyline?
I think so, yes.
For once, Popeye the Sailor is actually out SAILING and facing off against the Sea Hag and her Goon. The story actually got me laughing at Wimpy's antics again after tiring of him in the previous volume. After that storyline ends it's mostly back to business as usual. For a moment it seemed like the Gold Rush arc was going somewhere and would be fun and interesting, but it didn't reach the highs of Plunder Island for me.
If I were going to recommend one Popeye story to read, it would be this one, though his early boxing days are a lot of fun as well. When I was reading through Plunder Island, I honestly thought it was five stars, but some of the later comics brought it down to a 4.

[Ashley Lambert-Maberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a nutshell: love the Sea Hag and Alice the Goon, but I am tired of Wimpy and his appetite, so a lowish-four stars in this case.

(Note: I'm a writer, so I suffer when I offer fewer than five stars. But these aren't ratings of quality, they're a subjective account of how much I liked the book: 5* = an unalloyed pleasure from start to finish, 4* = really enjoyed it, 3* = readable but not thrilling, 2* = disappointing, and 1* = hated it.)

[Jack Silbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious as always -- especially Wimpy, who is much better rounded in the comics than in the cartoons. But the early segments with Sea Hag were genuinely scary! I really appreciated this brief tone shift.