Popeye facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Popeye
Author(s)	E. C. Segar (creator, 1929–1937, 1938) Doc Winner (1937, 1938) Tom Sims & Bela Zaboly (1938–1955) Ralph Stein & Bela Zaboly (1954–1959) Bud Sagendorf (1959–1994) Bobby London (1986–1992) Hy Eisman (1994–present) Portrayed by Robin Williams Voiced by English William Costello (1933–1935) Detmar Poppen (1935–1936, radio only) Floyd Buckley (Be Kind To Aminals, 1936–1937 radio appearances) Jack Mercer (1935–1945 and 1947–1984) Mae Questel (Shape Ahoy) Harry Foster Welch (1945–1947) Maurice LaMarche (1985–present) Billy West (Popeye's Voyage: The Quest for Pappy, Drawn Together, Minute Maid commercials) Keith Scott (Popeye and Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges) Scott Innes (commercials) Tom Kenny (2014 animation test) Japanese Kōichi Yamadera
Current status/schedule	New strips on Sundays, reprints Monday through Saturday
Launch date	December 19, 1919
End date	July 30, 1994 (date of last first-run daily strip, Sunday strips continue)
Syndicate(s)	King Features Syndicate
Publisher(s)	King Features Syndicate
Genre(s)	Humor, adventure

Popeye the Sailor is a famous cartoon character. He was created by Elzie Crisler Segar. Popeye is one of the most popular cartoon characters ever!

He first showed up in a comic strip called Thimble Theatre in 1929. Popeye is a sailor who often mumbles and smokes a pipe. He has only one eye and is a bit short. But when his girlfriend, Olive Oyl, is in trouble, especially from his enemy Bluto, he eats spinach! This gives him amazing super-strength to save the day. Popeye also starred in many cartoon movies shown in theaters.

The Creators of Popeye

After Segar became sick and passed away in 1938, many people continued his work. Tom Sims started writing the Thimble Theatre comic strip in 1938. He also helped create the Popeye the Sailorman spin-off.

Doc Winner and Bela Zaboly were some of the artists who drew the comic. Later, Ralph Stein took over the writing duties. In 1959, Bud Sagendorf began writing and drawing both the daily and Sunday comic strips.

Sagendorf had been Segar's helper. He worked hard to keep Popeye's classic style. He drew the daily strip until 1986 and the Sunday strip until he passed away in 1994.

From 1986 to 1992, Bobby London wrote and drew the daily comic strip. Hy Eisman drew the Sunday comic strip from 1994 to 2022. After Eisman retired, R.K. Milholland took over the Sunday strip. The daily strip now shows older comics by Sagendorf.

Some of the first Thimble Theatre comic strips, including Popeye, became available for everyone to use on January 1, 2025. This means they are now in the public domain.

Fun Facts About Popeye

• Popeye was a very early type of superhero. He appeared before many of the famous superheroes we know today in comic books.
• In medicine, when a bicep muscle tears and bulges, doctors sometimes call it the "Popeye sign".
• The famous 1981 Nintendo video game Donkey Kong was almost a Popeye game! Mario (who was called Jumpman then) was supposed to be Popeye. Donkey Kong was going to be Bluto, and Pauline was going to be Olive Oyl. But Nintendo couldn't get the rights to use Popeye's characters, so they made their own.
• The "Popeye" was a popular dance in the early 1960s. It started in New Orleans around 1962. Dancers would shuffle their feet and move their arms like Popeye smoking his pipe.
• Every year, a "Popeye Picnic" is held in Chester, Illinois. This is the town where E. C. Segar, Popeye's creator, was born. Fans come from all over the world to celebrate Popeye.
• To celebrate Popeye's 75th anniversary in 2004, the Empire State Building in New York City lit up its tower lights green. This was a special tribute to Popeye's love for spinach. It was the only time the building ever celebrated a comic strip character's birthday!

Popeye and Spinach

Popeye's popularity really helped boost spinach sales! Studies have shown that children ate more vegetables after watching Popeye cartoons. This shows that Popeye can be a good role model for healthy eating.

The town of Crystal City, Texas, which grows a lot of spinach, even put up a statue of Popeye. They did this to thank him for helping the spinach industry. There are also Popeye statues in Springdale, Arkansas and Alma, Arkansas. Alma even calls itself "The Spinach Capital of the World"! These statues are at canning plants that sell Popeye-branded spinach. You can also find fresh spinach with Popeye characters on the package.

Words We Got From Popeye

The comic strip also helped make some words more popular.

• The word "goon" means a tough person or a helper who does bad things. In Popeye's world, goons were big, strong characters with unclear faces. They often worked for Popeye's enemy, the Sea Hag.
• Eugene the Jeep was a character introduced in the comic strip in 1936. Two years later, people started calling certain vehicles "jeep wagons." This was later shortened to just "jeep". The word became very common during World War II and was later trademarked by a company called Willys-Overland.

Images for kids

• 

  The original cast of "Thimble Theatre" in 1925. Left to right: Castor Oyl, Harold Hamgravy and Olive Oyl

• 

  Tom Sims and Bill Zaboly's Thimble Theatre (December 2, 1951)

• 

  Popeye Village in Malta, built as a location set for the feature film

• 

  Popeye on a Spanish Republican Air Force Polikarpov I-16. Museo del Aire

See also

In Spanish: Popeye para niños