King Features Syndicate will debut a new series of online comic strips entitled “Popeye’s Cartoon Club” in 2019. The announcement, via The New York Times, revealed that the new Popeye strips will feature rotating creative teams that change each week, including cartoonists and comics authors like Erica Henderson (“The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl”), Alex Hallatt (“Arctic Circle”), and Tom Neely (IDW’s “Popeye” series).
Popeye originally began life in a 1929 installment of King Features’s “Thimble Theater” by cartoonist Elzie Crisler Segar. Following Segar’s death in 1938, various writers and artists crafted “Thimble Theater” strips as the character grew in popularity, with the strip eventually being renamed “Popeye” to reflect this. Popeye’s place as a cultural mainstay was solidified when pioneering animation producer Max Fleischer (of the renowned Superman shorts) adapted the “Thimble Theater” strip in “Popeye the Sailor” theatrical cartoons for Paramount Pictures in 1933.
The article also discussed the new cartoon on YouTube, which are meant to appeal to an international audience by featuring only sound effects with no vocal cast. Both “Popeye’s Cartoon Club” and the new YouTube shorts have been made to commemorate Popeye’s 90th anniversary. The new “Popeye” content will feature a rejuvenated sailor, described by King Features President C.J. Kettler as “not an old guy, he’s not a young guy, he’s somewhere in between.”
