SEA SHANTY FUNNIES™ A Key Moment - Mini-Episode #4

 

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!