Don't Miss on Segar's Popeye

[Gordan]

:sailor:For those of you who might not be aware: The first volume of a complete run of Segar's "Thimble Theatre", starring Popeye, was published this Monday. What a great addition to the complete Fleischer and Famous Studios Popeye that will (hopefully) be coming out on DVD in the next couple of years. Don't miss on this brilliant book. Amazon has it for $19.77 (ships the same day). Here's the link:sailor: :

http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/1560977795/ref=pd_rvi_gw_3/002-7044376-9444828

[The Budman]

I received my copy this week. What a beautiful volume!!!! My wife had to remind me that it was supposed to be a Christmas present and that I should put it away until then. Christmas can't come soon enough for me! Nothing beats Segar's Popeye!

[rodney]

I'll be ordering mine soon!

[MF TOON]

I completely forgot about this!

I pre-ordered through Amazon in early May, and had forgotten all about it... until a large package arrived at my doorstep from Amazon this afternoon. I had no idea what it could be as I didn't remember ordering anything. What a surprise!!! It is indeed a truly beautiful book. I've only had time to admire the outside and skim through a couple of pages, but Fantagraphics really did an amazing job. This will look beautiful next to my box sets of the Fleischer Popeye cartoons from Warner Bros. later this year!!!

Everyone should go out and pick up a copy, it's highly recomended!!!


Edit: Only criticism so far, is how the forward attempts to completely discredit the Paramount cartoons.

[MF TOON]

Also just found out from that Amazon link that the first volume of Chester Gould's Dick Tracy anthology books has been pubished and released this week.

I need a second job!

[Leviathan]

Edit: Only criticism so far, is how the forward attempts to completely discredit the Paramount cartoons.

Really? Sure, the Paramount cartoons departed considerably from Segar's strip, but, come on. How's that foreward like, MF Toon?

This is going on my list to Santy Claus, since right now there are a couple of "special purchases" i still need to fufill.

[Jack G.]

I went to order this at my local bookstore and it turned out they already had a copy!
The red back page mention the next volume (of the six-volume set) is slated to come out in the fall of 2007.

Question:
My Fantagraphics catalog mentions that they're planning to republish Walt Kelly's Pogo sometime in the future.
Has anybody heard anything?

[Gordan]

Really? Sure, the Paramount cartoons departed considerably from Segar's strip, but, come on. How's that foreward like, MF Toon?

This is going on my list to Santy Claus, since right now there are a couple of "special purchases" i still need to fufill.

The direct quote is (from Jules Feiffer's prologue):

"The animated Popeye didn't bother with character, wit, or nuance. There was but one story, repeated thousands of times in endless versions: Popeye fighting Bluto over Olive Oyl and able to win in the end only because he was lucky enough to find a can of spinach. Jeez! It was a wildly successful animated series, moving from Paramount to Famous Studios to TV, and most of it, sixty years' worth, dates badly."


What a ridiculous paragraph. I am not sure whether it is purposefully mean-spirited or simply plain ignorant.
"The animated Popeye didn't bother with with character or wit" ???? Hello, Mr. Feiffer??? Jack Mercer's Popeye from the classic black and white era was extremely witty. The character grew increasingly complex in great part thanks to the Fleischer brothers' cartoons. This was even reflected in subsequent changes in Popeye's personality in Segar's comic strip itself.
As for "one repeated story"...Cartoons at the time were 6-7 minutes in length. How, in the world, could one translate continuous episodes of Segar's brilliant, adventurous comic strip, which used to run for months in newspapers, into mere 7 minutes on screen??? The Fleischers went for a more slapstick / vaudevillian approach that involved variations and improvisations on the same idea (often with great self-reflexive, cartoony charm, which was also strengthened by the voice actors' humorous ad-libbing). The Fleischers' sailorman was and still is one of the best cartoon adaptations of a popular comic strip character. Even the Fleischers themselves subsequently failed to adapt successfully other popular comic strip characters for their cartoons (Little King, Henry, the Funniest Living American, etc.)
What about Popeye cartoons moving from "Paramount to Famous Studios"? Mr. Feiffer seems to know very little about the history of the cartoons which he criticizes so condescendingly.
And how about the astonishing insight that these films made 60 years ago "date badly"? Fleischer and early Famous Popeyes are still among the best Golden Age cartoons (also among the best cartoons ever made). Fleischer Popeyes, in particular, are still as charming, as witty, as inventive, as visually breathtaking today as they were 70 years ago. They date better than 95% of the cr*p that's being produced today.

OK,...I got it out of my system...It's a shame that this beautiful book starts with a prologue that contains such a ridiculous paragraph....BLOW ME DOWN!:sailor:

[kaneda]

Despite all that critics say, the real measure of a cartoon is if it survives, and along with a few others, Popeye has survived the decades amazingly well.


As to books, a good spread but lots of early stuff in: Popeye, the 60th Anniversary Collection. Which is an english collection by Mike Higgs (1929-1989).

[rodney]

Of course the Popeye cartoons are very good, but I don't see too many similarities between them and Segar's amazing strip. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, just that there are basically two different characters named Popeye.

[Gordan]

Of course the Popeye cartoons are very good, but I don't see too many similarities between them and Segar's amazing strip. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, just that there are basically two different characters named Popeye.

I thought the early Fleischer Popeye was very close in nature to the early Segar's Popeye.