From the Archive Journals... Popeye Joins the U.S. Navy
After
POPEYE creator E.C. Segar passed away in 1938, the THIMBLE THEATER
newspaper comic strip would continue under writer Tom Sims and artists
Doc Winner (for a short stint) and then for a long stretch with Bela
Zaboly. During the Second World War, Popeye enlisted in the U.S. Navy to
help the war effort in a storyline that ran in the newspaper comic
strips from December 13, 1943 to April 15, 1944 entitled "Popeye in the
Navy".
But
before joining the military in those newspaper comic strips, Max
Fleischer Studios already had Popeye join the U.S. Navy in a cartoon
released on November 14, 1941 (just three weeks before the Japanese
attacked Pearl Harbor that officially entered the U.S. into World War
Two) where for the first time he wore his classic all-white Navy
"Crackerjacks" uniform with "Dixie Cup" sailor hat and knotted tie with
the outfit that he would continue to wear in the Famous Studios cartoons
for the next few decades as his legacy uniform.
Interestingly,
the "enemy" in this cartoon was not portrayed with a national identity
and the "enemy" sailors were not shown. Just their ships and airplanes.
There is even a moment in the cartoon where a generic flag was shown
with the words, "Enemy (Name Your Own)" was shown on screen. After the
U.S. officially entered the war, the real world enemy was named. The
Japanese were negatively portrayed in typical racial stereotypes of that
era (i.e. "You're a Sap, Mr. Jap"). Later cartoons also took their
swipe at the Germans, too... including one with Adolf himself (i.e.
"Seein’ Red, White, ‘n’ Blue" from 1943).
In
the THIMBLE THEATER newspaper comic strips circa June 1942 in the
storyline "The Seagoosk", Popeye also entered the battlefield to fight
"The blastid Yaps" with a "Y".
The
scene in today's KEY MOMENT SPECIAL comic strip that I have illustrated
is inspired by that first cartoon with him in the U.S. Navy and is
taken from the animated short "The Mighty Navy". Popeye would continue
serving in the Navy afterwards in follow up animated cartoon features
during the Second World War. Popeye was used to help influence and
inspire a positive portrayal of the navy to help the war effort and
recruitment at that time.
(*Sidenote:
Before the war, Popeye also served in the U.S. Coast Guard in the 1930s
cartoons and was shown as a stationed Coast Guardsman (along with a
sailor uniformed Wimpy) in the 1937 animated short "Popeye the Sailor
Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves" where they were "out hunting bandits".)
For those that care about "Behind the Scenes" stuff for my independent self-published comic series that you are reading here:
For
continuity's sake in my "Alternate Retro Universe" that is SEA SHANTY
FUNNIES, both these newspaper and cartoon stories from the Second World
War era - for the most part in some way that makes sense to my head
canon - happened in this timeline inside my own stories in my unofficial
alternate universe take. I am absorbing them into the continuity. They
mesh together if you can be flexible open to the idea that timelines
merge. We're trying to keep this a retro timeline timeless in feel
without pinning down actual real dates and thus I'm just generically
referring to this time period in Popeye's life as "The War" where he is a
war veteran that served in the Pacific. I'm also inserting into my
timeline that he served in the U.S. Coast Guard for a brief stint (with
Wimpy!) before "The War". I've already portrayed Wimpy once in his
classic blue coast guardsman outfit in one previous comic strip earlier
this year and think of him perhaps as in the Coast Guard Reserves.
Don't
overthink it all. Maybe I'm overthinking myself and overwriting here an
explanation, but you get to witness my ramblin' mind work in how I am
"world building" Popeye's past history into my unofficial take in what I
call "Earth-24C".
In
my timeline for this unofficial Popeye comic strip that I am writing,
Popeye is now in the U.S. Navy Reserves holding the rank of Chief Petty
Officer currently where he could be called up if needed in the future.
Popeye is a Master Diver with legendary Deep Sea Diver experience
(partially thanks to his Uncle Davy Jones).
But this scene portrayed comes from a pivotal moment in one of by Max Fleischer Studios from 1941. Enjoy!
