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.