BREAKING MOVIE/TV NEWS

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Jules Feiffer Sails With IDW's "Popeye"

IDW Publishing reports that writer Roger Langridge and illustrator Bruce Ozella are the creative team behind IDW's new "Popeye" comic book series, debuting April 2012.
"Popeye" #1 will feature a cover from Ozella, as well as a special variant edition, with a cover by Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Jules Feiffer.
The monthly series will be co-edited by IDW's co-founder, chief executive officer, Ted Adams and Craig Yoe.
"Ever since I was a kid, the two cartoonists who have had the biggest influence on me have been Carl Barks ("Donald Duck") and E.C. Segar," said Langridge, "so getting a chance to write Popeye is quite a thrill. I'm especially pleased that IDW have decided to go with a Segar-flavored interpretation. As much as I like some of the later versions of the character, for me, it's those early strips where the magic really happened." 'Popeye the Sailor' was created by Elzie Crisler (E.C.) Segar, debuting in the daily King Features comic strip 'Thimble Theatre', January 17, 1929. Thimble Theatre was carried on after Segar's death in 1938 by several writers and artists, most notably Segar's assistant Bud Sagendorf.
In 1933, Max and Dave Fleischer's Fleischer Studios adapted the Thimble Theatre characters into a series of "Popeye the Sailor" theatrical cartoon shorts for Paramount Pictures. The Fleischers and Paramount's Famous Studios, continued production through 1957. Since then, Popeye has appeared in comic books, television cartoons, arcade/video games, advertisements and peripheral products.
January 1, 2009, 70 years after the death of his creator, the Popeye character became public domain in most countries (but remains under copyright in the US.)
Born in a typhoon off Santa Monica, California, Popeye is a 34-year old, mumbling, squinty-eyed, pipe-smoking sailor with muscular forearms sporting two anchor tattoos.
Ongoing characters include his father 'Poopdeck Pappy', who does not share his son's moral righteousness, sweetheart 'Olive Oyl', 'Swee'Pea', an infant left on his doorstep, look-alike nephews 'Peepeye', 'Pupeye', 'Pipeye' and 'Poopeye', hamburger craving 'J. Wellington Wimpy', the magical, orchid-eating pet 'Eugene The Jeep', the villain 'Sea Hag' and 'Alice The Goon'.
From early 1932 onward, Popeye was depicted as eating spinach to become stronger. He would either squeeze a spinach can until the top opened, or sucked the spinach through his pipe, infusing him with extraordinary strength and making him invulnerable.
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