His arms? The size of tree trunks. His diet? Spinach, of course. His love life? An endless tug of war with Olive Oyl, a woman so skinny she could be the descendent of a single spaghetti noodle. We’re talking about the infallible curmudgeon Popeye, obviously.
The mumbling, bumbling, hysterically resilient sailor stepped into the limelight 96 years ago today in a New York comic strip named Thimble Theater. Although the strip had been running for ten years, the invention of Popeye gave King Features the boost it needed, eventually turning Popeye into an international pop culture icon nearly a century later.
In his first appearance on the comic strip, Popeye is a minor character—merely an employee to Castor Oyl, Olive Oyl’s brother, aboard the crew’s voyage to Dice Island. At the end of the story, he disappeared from the strip for five weeks until he was brought back as the main character a year later as a result of growing public sentiment.
Following the death of Popeye’s creator, Elzie Crisler Segar, the character was picked up by his assistant, Bud Sagendorf, who recruited a team of writers and illustrators to bring the sailor’s adventures to life.
In the original storyline, Popeye’s superhuman strength derives from the luck he acquired by stroking the feathers on the head of Bernice, the “whiffle hen,” which naturally guarantees his immunity from dozens of gunshot wounds. Starting in 1932, spinach becomes the key to Popeye’s brawn, whether sucked up through his pipe or eaten straight.
Taking to the screen in 1933, Popeye proved to be a smart adaptation for cartoon shorts, which were published by Paramount Pictures. Throughout the ‘30s, the cartoons gained a loyal audience, all the while being coveted by several different studios.
With each episode acting as its own micro universe, Popeye’s capabilities are put to the test, often in clashes with his towering rival, Bruto. Whether fighting for Olive Oyl’s affection or overcoming Bruto’s sabotage, Popeye’s outsider status and quick thinking drive much of the humor. Just when you think he’s some gruff, clueless sailor, he tackles his challenges with the shrewdness of Sherlock Holmes.
Over the span of his lifetime, Popeye has been featured across several mediums, like video games, television, comic books, and even advertisements for candy cigarettes and spinach, which supposedly made his forearms disproportionately massive.
Popeye’s legacy has been revived in multiple films including Robert Altman’s 1980 live-action starring Robin Williams as Popeye and the iconic Shelley Duvall as Olive Oyl and in 2002, TV Guide ranked Popeye #20 on its “50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time” list.
After being copyrighted for 95 years, Popeye, like other famous characters like Tintin entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2025. In the EU, however, Popeye has been public domain for over a decade, meaning anybody is free to alter the storyline for their own use.