Happy Birthday Popeye!

Popeye first appeared in E.C. Segar's comic strip Thimble Theatre ninety years ago today. The strip had already been running for a decade by that point, so 2019 is in fact the 100th anniversary of the strip (and of Olive Oyl, who was there from Day One).

I thought it would be appropriate to share this story which I wrote for IDW's Popeye title a few years back but which was never published (mainly because the book was cancelled with #12). It was based on an idea suggested to me by that fine writer, editor, cartoonist and all-round good egg, Chris Duffy. I didn't get a chance to complete it at the time, and the script had been sitting on my hard drive doing nothing in particular for a couple of years when Chris commissioned me to draw it (as a graduation present for his son, if memory serves – hence the "Peter Duffy" character). So here it is.

Happy Birthday, you one-eyed bum!