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Camera-ready comic art drawing for Popeye

National Museum of American History

Object Details

graphic artist
Sagendorf, Bud
publisher
King Features Syndicate
Description (Brief)
This pen-and-ink drawing was prepared for the comic strip Thimble Theatre, Starring Popeye. Popeye is shown talking about his move to his new house, which has everything he could ever need. The last panel reveals the house to be next to a spinach factory.
Forrest Cowles "Bud" Sagendorf (1915-1994) started his cartoonist career in 1931 as an assistant to E. C. Segar for the comic strips Thimble Theatre and Sappo. After Segar’s death in 1938, Sagendorf was asked to continue drawing any material that featured the character Popeye, who had been a part of the Thimble Theatre cast since 1929. Over the next few decades, Sagendorf wrote and drew Popeye for Dell Comic Books, and eventually took over the entire Thimble Theatre strip in 1959. In the mid-1980s Sagendorf’s eyesight began to fail and he left the daily strip, but continued to draw the Sunday strip until his death in 1994.
Popeye (1929-1994, dailies, continuing Sundays) was originally a component of E. C. Segar’s Thimble Theatre comic strip. The character Popeye was first introduced when Castor Oyl and Ham Gravy were traveling overseas, and happened upon the sailor while they were lost. The character Popeye became popular and eventually a regular cast member. Later, in the 1970s, the strip was renamed for him. One of the biggest turning points in the strip was Ham Gravy's replacement by Popeye as a love interest for Castor Oyl’s sister, Olive. Gradually, other characters such as Wimpy and Swee’Pea were made more central to the cast. The Popeye character was adapted to films in the 1930s. Newspapers have been publishing reprints of Sagendorf’s dailies since 1994, but the Sunday Popeye strip is still drawn regularly.
Location
Currently not on view
Credit Line
Newspaper Comics Council, Inc., New York, NY
1965-01-10
ID Number
GA.22425
catalog number
22425
accession number
277502
Object Name
drawing
Other Terms
drawing; Pen and Ink
Physical Description
paper (overall material)
ink (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 41.5 cm x 58.9 cm; 16 5/16 in x 23 3/16 in
See more items in
Work and Industry: Graphic Arts
Cultures & Communities
Comic Art
Communications
National Museum of American History
Record ID
nmah_799639
Metadata Usage (text)
CC0
GUID (Link to Original Record)
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746ac-7be7-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

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Comic art by Bud Sagendorf, Popeye (Copyright King Features Syndicate)
There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page .
International media Interoperability Framework
IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more.
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