Written by Roger Landridge
Illustrated by Bruce OzellaPopeye the Sailor Man sails again! E.C Segar’s classic creation is back, with his first original comic in over 30 years! Written by the Eisner Award-winning Roger Landridge (The Muppets), with pitch-perfect art from rising star Bruce Ozella, it’s a new take on the classic character that’s true to its roots! With a rare incentive cover from legendary Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Jules Feiffer!
Popeye #1, out this week from IDW Publishing, is a loving homage to one of comics’ earliest characters by one of today’s most talented creators and a 53-year old newcomer.
Wimpy also eats an entire shark in this comic.
See you after the jump!
“Popeye” #1 is an odd comic book. The issue’s solicitation as “a new take on the classic character” feels all kinds of wrong, as nothing about this book feels new other than the fact that it has 2012 on the cover. This thing is “classic” from top to bottom and it’s not an accident. It’s a celebration of the work of Popeye creator E.C. Segar and later artist Bud Sagendorf by design, and is beautifully executed by Roger Landridge and artist Bruce Ozella. But as much as I enjoy the work of Landridge, and as much as I’d like to sing this book’s praise, it’s truly difficult to talk about it as anything other than an impenetrable nostalgia trip.
Bringing Popeye to a the modern comics audience is obviously a labor of love for Landridge and Ozella, and I applaud their efforts, but I’m just not sure what they accomplished with “Popeye” that couldn’t have been done with a reprint of Segar’s or Sagendorf’s work on the character. And if that seems harsh, I’m sorry. Sure, it’s not quite a straight riff on a Golden Age Popeye comic, but its reliance on the audience’s knowledge of characters and events unseen in over 30 years weakens it and keeps it from delivering on the publisher’s promise of a “new take”, and that’s what I was looking for.
The story involves Olive Oyl and her brother Castor chartering Olive’s boyfriend, Popeye, to take them to the Island of the Jeeps, where Castor plans on finding a mate for his own Jeep. He, of course, hopes to breed the two critters and sell the pups. Whimpy tags along, and offers some appropriate comic relief at sea, before the crew has a oceanic skirmish with bad boy Blutto and his weirdo sidekick Glurk. They eventually find the island, only to discover the whole thing’s a ploy by the Sea Hag, setting Popeye up for one major tussle with a monstrous Jeep that’s under the Sea Hag’s spell. Popeye swats the beast around a little, before getting his pals back on the boat and back into calmer waters. It’s a fun story, and true to all things Popeye, but it doesn’t feel like a first issue, and none of the characters are introduced. They all just kind of show up and BAM! off we go. And I’m more than willing to entertain the notion that I’m a little deficient in my knowledge of all things Popeye, but I don’t think it’s asking too much for the first issue to properly introduce the characters instead of just assuming we know who’s who and what they’re relationships are.
And yet, that same reliance on what we know plays against the issue as much as it works for it. Guys, Popeye doesn’t even down a can of spinach. How can you casually drop in the Jeep, the Sea Hag, and Alice the Goon, but not have Popeye eat Spinach?
Landridge’s Doctor Who work, and his “Thor, the Mighty Avenger”, and “The Muppets” have been some of my favorite comics of the last few years, and I bring those up because I feel like a few of those — “The Muppets”, especially — are similar projects in tone to “Popeye”. However, where something like “The Muppets” takes an beloved premise and plays with it just enough that it feels fresh, “Popeye” goes completely in the other direction, and sets out to make itself feel just like the source material that inspired it. I can’t help but feel like a lot of what I’m saying can be traced to Ozella’s artwork. “Popeye” is his first foray into comics, and he was hand picked to work on the project because of his ability to draw in a style reminiscent of Popeye’s most recognized artists, and I get it — he’s great. But from the art forward, there’s nothing about this book that feels like a “new take”, and if you’re anything like me, you’re left at the end of the issue feeling like you’ve just read a well-produced commercial for Fantagraphics’ collection of Popeye reprints. Which, oddly enough, there’s an ad for in the inside back cover of this very ish —
Hey, wait a minute…
Final Verdict: 6 – Recommended for only the staunchestks of Popeye fans
