SEA SHANTY FUNNIES™ - Episode 156

 

SEA SHANTY FUNNIES™ - KEY MOMENT Episode 14

 

[Not as long as I usually write, but here is some commentary you don't have to read unless you want to dig deeper into my thoughts about The Sea Hag.]...

 

Some say that The Sea Hag is Popeye's greatest enemy. Even his arch-enemy. In various comics, she has been portrayed as scary and ultimately an evil force. In others, a buffoon for comedy effect. She's been portrayed with pale skin with a red scarf. In later cartoons she had green hued skin just like the Wicked Witch of the West. She's been portrayed with a hook nose and a single chin by Segar. In later years when Bud Sagendorf took over the comics, he gave her the double-jutting chin that looks exactly the same as Popeye's chin. She's been portray with boils. She's been portrayed as an old maid. She's been a shape shifter. She can use her magic and become a beauty.

 

With all that said, visually, I always liked the way E.C. Segar illustrated her with the nose and single pointed chin. And ominous when inked like something out of a Goya etching. However, as a kid, I watched the cartoons and to me she was always the silly cackling green sea witch with the purple scarf hood. When I finally got around to reading both Segar's and Sagendorf's comics when I was older, I remember scratching my head at how she was drawn and colored visually different than the later cartoons.

 

You may have your own favorite version of her. Maybe not the best analogy, but when I think about writing and drawing the Sea Hag, do I play her more like Bond's threatening arch-enemy Ernst Stavro Blofeld or more like Austin Power's arch-enemy Dr. Evil for comedy effect? How do I draw her... well... easy, she's a shapeshifter and changes her appearance as she's been shown to do in comics from Segar, Zaboly, and Sagendorf. For me, my instinct is to draw her like Segar but color her like the cartoons making her green with the purple neckerchief and head scarf bandana doodad thingy.

 

For characterization? Popeye is steeped in comedy and humor geared towards laughs, yet there are times in Popeye's comics by Segar where there could be darker humor and you can have some real menace from time-to-time. And that's how I think I want to portray The Sea Hah in my "Alternate Retro Universe" that she can cause real problems for Popeye and his friends while still making us chuckle.

 

I'm still keeping my cards close to my chest about the back story of my version of The Sea Hag which I will reveal in future comic stories.

 

The Sea Hag will return in SEA SHANTY FUNNIES. Soon.

SEA SHANTY FUNNIES™ - Episode 155

 

A Message

 

My weekend did not go as planned. True technical difficulties. Sorry about that. I'm working on a new comic strip tonight. Be back soon.

I'll be back soon

 

SEA SHANTY FUNNIES™ - KEY MOMENT Episode 13

 

 

Wait a minute. That's not the Whaler Joe you may know in the current official POPEYE comic strips if you're reading Randy Milholland's work.

 

And you would be correct. Mine is a different interpretation done out of both respect and not to trespass on his interpretation of this public domain character.

 

[Here's another long commentary you don't have to read unless you want to dig deeper "behind the story"]... 

 

"WHALER JOE" was an obscure character from the Popeye mythos that was created by E.C. Segar for a newspaper promotional piece in newspapers in the Spring of 1931 referenced in a series of prose-only written short stories with spot illustrations about the childhood of the still recently new character Popeye that had moved up and become the new star lead feature after his introduction in the THIMBLE THEATRE newspaper comic strip just two years earlier. The series was alternatively named "The Private Life of Popeye" or "Popeye's Life Story". This was also a time before Popeye became an animated cartoon and about five years before the introduction of his long lost missing father Poopdeck Pappy.

 

The notable point here is the character Whaler Joe was not visually depicted in these prose pieces by E.C. Segar about Popeye's origin and early childhood days before he lost his eye to a bloodthirsty cook onboard the ship "Josie Lee" who went by the nickname "The Ape". Just an obscure and nearly forgotten mention.

 

And here is where I give credit due. Current official POPEYE cartoonist Randy Milholland has reintroduced Whaler Joe into his comic strips of these past few years visually depicting him as a black man with a daughter that was a foster father for whom Popeye affectionately calls "Dad". You can read about the character over on comicskingdom.com where Randy's POPEYE comics are published online weekly. 

 

Randy has made Whaler Joe a fine character reinserted into the Popeye mythos and I do enjoy his portrayal of the character. He has uniquely stamped his re-imagining of this obscure character and uniquely made it his own. With that said, while I also want to reintroduce Whaler Joe into SEA SHANTY FUNNIES myself, I do not think it is ethically or legally proper for me to do Randy's version of Whaler Joe he reimagined with all of his characterizations and back story. 

 

Since my SEA SHANTY FUNNIES comic series has been since Day One an "Alternate Retro Timeline", I have established repeatedly that my stories are not official canon and thus I have the creative liberties to take and make my own versions separate from the various official Popeye stories and characterizations as well as differentiate my work from my fellow brothers and sisters doing their own "unofficial" versions of Popeye that entered the public domain.

 

I am reimagining the vague E.C. Segar written work by Segar to depict the SEA SHANTY FUNNIES version of Popeye's surrogate foster father Whaler Joe as being a Maori (the native people of New Zealand) mariner and whaler in the same vein of the fictional character Queequeg from MOBY DICK. The SEA SHANTY FUNNIES version of Whaler Joe is more mentor and guardian rather than the step/foster dad that Randy portrays him in his comics. Again this helps differentiate my work from the official version.

 

If Whaler Joe was a knight of the realm, then Popeye and Barnacle Bill were his squires in that sort of relationship. They served together on various working ships at sea and my version of the SEA SHANTY FUNNIES Popeye never had a land-based home to retreat to in his early life.

 

My "Whaler Joe" is named "Hona Kaumoana". The Maori name "Hona" is a translation of the name "Jonah".  Yes, as in the Biblical Jonah and The Whale. As in "Joe" is short for "Jonah". Along the ways in his life, Hona/Jonah was nicknamed "Whaler Joe" by his shipmates. This Maori "Hēramana" (sailor)'s last name is "Kaumoana" which roughly translates to someone who "journeys through the waters of the ocean".

Years ago, I did research on the Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman who was the first European to sail his crew to New Zealand and make first contact with the Maori people in what became known as "Murderer's Bay". I have TWO unrelated and unpublished comic stories about this true story. At one point, I was hired to write a biography about Tasman for an Indian comic company called Campfire that was unpublished. So, I did alot of research on the Maori. Also, "Hona Kaumoana" is a rhythmic name I think.

 

Other influences into my version of Whaler Joe include some of the following: 

 

Then film STAR WARS: ATTACK OF THE CLONES came out and the amazing Maori actor Temuera Morrision depicted Jango Fett and his clones. And later Boba Fett. I love this actor. Twenty years ago I had the fortune to meet Temura Morrison in person down in Florida with my son. I love how in the BOOK OF BOBA FETT Dinsey+ series, he injected Maori culture into Boba Fett's character as a Mandalorian who lived among the Tusken Raiders. I'm digressing. I just have a respectful love of the Maori culture and I hope my use of Whaler Joe will continue to give a respectful nod as well.

 

For my Whaler Joe character, I am taking inspiration then from MOBY DICK's Queequeg character, from Temuera Morrison's portrayals of both Jango and Boba Fett as well as the Mandalorian concept of taking in "foundlings" to raise and train as part of your own tribe.

 

Not to mention, I am taking a wee bit of inspiration from of all things, the film A KNIGHT'S TALE starring the late Heath Ledger with the brother-like relationship of the "Squire" characters William and Roland and imprinting that bit onto the earliest boyhood days of Popeye and Barnacle Bill (aka "Salty" Bill Barnacle) in my stories who were apprenticed to Whaler Joe. In my story, Popeye had already been with Whaler Joe when a slightly older William Barnacle became a shipmate and also took some tutelage under Whaler Joe. I'll leave it at that for now.

 

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention, there was a Popeye cartoon from 1945 called "Pop-Pie a la Mode". Even 40+ some-odd years ago, it was being taken off the air in re-runs for it's blatant racist depictions of "dark savages" depicted as cannibals. The leader of the tribe, a hotel owner trying to trick Popeye, wanted to eat him. The tribe were cannibals. And the leader villain orchestrating all of this wearing a top hat with a bone... his name was also "Joe".

 

So to borrow from U2 who did a cover of the song "Helter Skelter" by The Beatles and said in the intro, "Charles Manson stole this song from The Beatles and We're Stealing it Back"... well, I'm trying to do something similar with a nod to that part of Popeye's history by turning it on it's head. Slight Easter Island Egg in my comic for today in the visual representation that takes it's nod from that creepy cartoon. Hey, it was a different time. What can I say.

 

So, for me to use Whaler Joe in SEA SHANTY FUNNIES, I am respectfully staying away from Randy Milholland's version of Whaler Joe not as a rebuke of his character and depiction, but to do my own take for both legal and ethical reasons. If that makes any sense.

SEA SHANTY FUNNIES™ - Episode 154

 

SEA SHANTY FUNNIES™ - Episode 153

 

SEA SHANTY FUNNIES™ - KEY MOMENT Episode 12

 

 

In our current storyline, it appears that Boola the Giant had kidnapped Bernice the Whiffle Hen in which Popeye is setting sail to rescue her. However, Popeye has encountered Boola before earlier in his life "before the War" where the two-headed giant was an enslaved henchman for Sindbad the Sailor. And appears to still be at this point in our storyline. We will catch up with Boola, Sindbad, and the Sea Hag soon.

 

In the meantime, here is a "flashback" to a KEY MOMENT in Popeye's history where we see a snapshot of Boola and Popeye about to engage in a fight. This classic cartoon by the Fleischer Studios from 1936 is one of my favorites. If not a favorite with most fans of Popeye's cartoons. The character Boola has made some guest appearances in the comic strips in cameos but was a creation of Fleischer Studios. The cartoon "POPEYE THE SAILOR MEETS SINDBAD THE SAILOR" is in the public domain and can be found easily if you want to do a search on YouTube to watch it.

 

Boola is one of my favorite characters from the Popeye universe that comes to us from the cartoons and I knew that when I began writing and drawing SEA SHANTY FUNNIES, I wanted to include him.

In my SEA SHANTY FUNNIES "alternate retro timeline", this story pretty much happened "as is" in my version of Popeye's back story before "the War" earlier in his life. Olive and Wimpy accompanied him to the Isle of Sindbad where he fought the Bluto lookalike swashbuckling mariner. 

 

Where I feel that I can, I merge the stories, characters, and elements of the newspaper comic strips, cartoons, comic books, and even elements of the movie all together into this singular alternate retro history. It all just blends into the pot together for me as one big tale. It did when I was 10 year's old. It does for me now at 55 year's old.

 

More will be revealed in the storylines, so don't ask me to clarify at this point. Just go with the flow and watch the storyline unfold.

 

This drawing is my "re-interpretation" of that famous cartoon scene.