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The Complete E.C. Segar Popeye #6
The Complete E.C. Segar Popeye Volume 6: Dailies - 1930-1931
- GenresGraphic Novels
160 pages, Paperback
First published December 12, 1989
9 people want to read
About the author
E.C. Segar
142 books34 followersElzie 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.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 11, 2022
January 1st 1930 -> June 9th 1931 (only 1.5 years)
*!* Be sure to use copyright page to ensure proper edition!
->(my) softcover has the hardcover ISBN on the back
This volume shows two changes in Segar's presentation of his dailies:
1.) The layout changes from three two-panel-wide rows vertically atop each other to completely horizontal six-panels-wide at the final strip of 1930.
2.) "THIMBLE THEATER" adds -Starring POPEYE" on March 17th 1931.
----------
The playful nature of Segar reverberates through this period. Witnessing a creator blatantly having fun -especially in his "giddy" type fashion- while doing his job absolutely delights me! Every so often it causes a bit of inconsistency in continuity but that never frustrated me.
That said, I had to take a star away for that because I enforce a measure of objectivity within my ratings to be "fair" to the overall "quality" of the work in general. I believe that ratings should be for the benefit of others who are using them to decide whether to read it or not just as much as to show them (and myself in the future) how much it pleased me personally.
----------
I usually dislike when strip-artists give a title to each day because they tend to be lame most of the time but Segar is good enough at it throughout this volume that I enjoyed reading them instead of plying my blind-eye treatment. That ignoring that I'm prone to caused me to need to look back and read them after-the-fact which actually added fun to the experience since it ended up giving an extra element of hindsight recognition to each day a clump at a time.
----------
Returning to subjectivity, I found Popeye too stupid to the point that it often annoyed me. Of course he did that on-purpose, but it was too much for my sensibilities. In the same fashion, as much as I enjoy a feisty fighter who constantly defeats guys bigger than him, the incessant repetition of it struck me as overboard.
That last word there reminds me of how, after reading two of these daily volumes and half of two different Sundays editions, I've come to desire to see the sailor part of "The Sailor Man". I have read stretches of him on boats but he has yet to do any "sailoring" on them. I want to see him "manning stuff" on a ship and getting out of "sea-bound scrapes" with his implied naval experience. He's always using the boating jargon as a fixture in his vocabulary anywhere he is which gives me a desire to see it all in action.
----------
I also grade the strip overall as "way too white" despite that being "a sign of the times". After getting through a certain amount of depth within any work, I get to thinking about the fact that other types of people DO exist and become a bit peeved about their complete absence.
Thus, I am compelled to refer to this as {≉->"A Jim Crow Strip"<-≉} BUT without branding Segar as a person negatively in any way since I am ignorant about his intentions and disposition.
Still, I must credit him with "inclusion points" because of two character attributes that are nearly singular- even to this day! Can you think of another title that has, as a integral character, a woman who is completely flat-chested or a (very) little person who isn't presented in a "sideshow" or "fantasy" manner?
----------
So what did I enjoy most?
1.) I got the most pleasure out of Olive Oyl because she is by far the most interesting character and I regard her actions and how she "carries herself" as the most entertaining part of the reading experience by far.
2.) I also "got great vibes" from witnessing the obscene generosity and loyalty of Popeye which gave me the "breath of fresh air" feeling from a sincere look at what humans are actually capable of humanitarianly. Sure, he's a moron about it, but it's the thought that counts and such goodwill serves to soften my disgust of the "real-world condition*".
----------
*Are humans not the worst thing ever created? That's rhetorical of course because we have no competition in the matter. Despite being a hopeless optimist in personal matters, as I progress in age, I lose more and more faith in "the homo-sapien condition" as I see how the world works and the way people treat each other with bad intentions. =Free-will= comes with such a potential of evil that is too prevalent to be balanced with the good-side of the human-coin.
... I see that I need to stop rambling now- thanks for reading this far!
*!* Be sure to use copyright page to ensure proper edition!
->(my) softcover has the hardcover ISBN on the back
This volume shows two changes in Segar's presentation of his dailies:
1.) The layout changes from three two-panel-wide rows vertically atop each other to completely horizontal six-panels-wide at the final strip of 1930.
2.) "THIMBLE THEATER" adds -Starring POPEYE" on March 17th 1931.
----------
The playful nature of Segar reverberates through this period. Witnessing a creator blatantly having fun -especially in his "giddy" type fashion- while doing his job absolutely delights me! Every so often it causes a bit of inconsistency in continuity but that never frustrated me.
That said, I had to take a star away for that because I enforce a measure of objectivity within my ratings to be "fair" to the overall "quality" of the work in general. I believe that ratings should be for the benefit of others who are using them to decide whether to read it or not just as much as to show them (and myself in the future) how much it pleased me personally.
----------
I usually dislike when strip-artists give a title to each day because they tend to be lame most of the time but Segar is good enough at it throughout this volume that I enjoyed reading them instead of plying my blind-eye treatment. That ignoring that I'm prone to caused me to need to look back and read them after-the-fact which actually added fun to the experience since it ended up giving an extra element of hindsight recognition to each day a clump at a time.
----------
Returning to subjectivity, I found Popeye too stupid to the point that it often annoyed me. Of course he did that on-purpose, but it was too much for my sensibilities. In the same fashion, as much as I enjoy a feisty fighter who constantly defeats guys bigger than him, the incessant repetition of it struck me as overboard.
That last word there reminds me of how, after reading two of these daily volumes and half of two different Sundays editions, I've come to desire to see the sailor part of "The Sailor Man". I have read stretches of him on boats but he has yet to do any "sailoring" on them. I want to see him "manning stuff" on a ship and getting out of "sea-bound scrapes" with his implied naval experience. He's always using the boating jargon as a fixture in his vocabulary anywhere he is which gives me a desire to see it all in action.
----------
I also grade the strip overall as "way too white" despite that being "a sign of the times". After getting through a certain amount of depth within any work, I get to thinking about the fact that other types of people DO exist and become a bit peeved about their complete absence.
Thus, I am compelled to refer to this as {≉->"A Jim Crow Strip"<-≉} BUT without branding Segar as a person negatively in any way since I am ignorant about his intentions and disposition.
Still, I must credit him with "inclusion points" because of two character attributes that are nearly singular- even to this day! Can you think of another title that has, as a integral character, a woman who is completely flat-chested or a (very) little person who isn't presented in a "sideshow" or "fantasy" manner?
----------
So what did I enjoy most?
1.) I got the most pleasure out of Olive Oyl because she is by far the most interesting character and I regard her actions and how she "carries herself" as the most entertaining part of the reading experience by far.
2.) I also "got great vibes" from witnessing the obscene generosity and loyalty of Popeye which gave me the "breath of fresh air" feeling from a sincere look at what humans are actually capable of humanitarianly. Sure, he's a moron about it, but it's the thought that counts and such goodwill serves to soften my disgust of the "real-world condition*".
----------
*Are humans not the worst thing ever created? That's rhetorical of course because we have no competition in the matter. Despite being a hopeless optimist in personal matters, as I progress in age, I lose more and more faith in "the homo-sapien condition" as I see how the world works and the way people treat each other with bad intentions. =Free-will= comes with such a potential of evil that is too prevalent to be balanced with the good-side of the human-coin.
... I see that I need to stop rambling now- thanks for reading this far!
January 28, 2020
These strips show American culture from the early 1930's - slam bang action. The Oyl family make a great early ensemble cast. In fact, they were part of Segar's Thimble Theatre before Popeye's entrance. Popeye loves punching which does grow repetitive. There is a lot of repetition because of the newspaper strip format. I would prefer comic frames printed larger, even if there were less of them in each volume. Also, the later compilation of these strips by Fantagraphics included the Sunday comics in color, creating a preferable package.
February 28, 2021
I probably bought this in the early 1990s and must have read it several times over the years though I did not record when. In the earlier adventures in this volume Castor Oyl is still the main character though Popeye becomes much more important by the end of this volume. Indeed by the end Popeye looks and talks pretty much as he will do for the next seven years. Even the layout of the strip changes from three tiers of two panels per instalment to one tier of six panels per instalment. There are some bizarre story lines as well as much humour but although Popeye cheats death many times he has not yet started eating spinach. The volume ends as Popeye goes to the Kingdom of Nazilia. It looks to me as if a few of the strips towards the end have been printed in the wrong order but this is a minor fault.
January 17, 2010
A delight from the past. The sequence about giving away money is especially rich, though the sequence about war near the end seems to be printed out of order.
December 10, 2024
Popeye can’t resisk brunecks.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews