| E. C. Segar | |
|---|---|
 Illustration of Segar, 1928 | |
| Born | Elzie Crisler Segar (1894-12-08)December 8, 1894 Chester, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | October 13, 1938(1938-10-13) (aged 43) Santa Monica, California, U.S. |
| Area(s) | Cartoonist |
Notable works | Popeye (1929–1938) |
Elzie Crisler Segar (/ˈsiːɡɑːr/;[1] December 8, 1894 – October 13, 1938), known by thepen nameE. C. Segar, was an American cartoonist. He createdPopeye in 1929, introducing the character in his comic stripThimble Theatre.[2][3]
Charles M. Schulz said of Segar's work: "I thinkPopeye was a perfect comic strip, consistent in drawing and humor".[4]Carl Barks described Segar as "the unbridled genius as far as I was concerned".[5]
Segar was born on December 8, 1894, and raised inChester, Illinois, a small town near theMississippi River.[2][6][7] The son of Jewish parents Erma Irene (Crisler) and Amzi Andrews Segar, ahandyman,[8] his earliest work experiences included assisting his father inhouse painting andpaper hanging.[9] Skilled at playing drums, he also provided musical accompaniment to films andvaudeville acts in the local theater, where he was eventually given the job of filmprojectionist[10] at the Chester Opera House, where he also did live performances.[6] At age 18, he decided to become acartoonist. He took acorrespondence course in cartooning from W. L. Evans ofCleveland,Ohio.[10] He said that after work he "lit up theoil lamps about midnight and worked on the course until 3 a.m." During this time, Segar also began studying the work of cartoonists that he would later cite as influences on his work, includingRube Goldberg,George McManus andGeorge Herriman (especially Herriman's stripStumble Inn).[2][3][7][11]
Asked how to say his name, he toldThe Literary Digest it was "SEE-gar".[1] He commonly signed his work simplySegar orE. Segar above a drawing of a cigar.
Segar moved toChicago, Illinois, where he metRichard F. Outcault, the creator ofThe Yellow Kid andBuster Brown. Outcault encouraged him and introduced him at theChicago Herald.[2] On March 12, 1916, theHerald published Segar's first comic,Charlie Chaplin's Comic Capers, which ran for a little over a year. In 1917, Segar createdBarry the Boob, about an incompetent soldier. Segar also originated two other, short-lived comics for theHerald's Sunday magazine. These wereThe Mistakes of Mr. Muddle and the Rube Goldberg-inspiredAnd They Get By With It.[3] In 1918, he moved on toWilliam Randolph Hearst'sChicago Evening American, for which he createdLooping the Loop and worked as a second-string drama critic.[7][12]Looping the Loop was a comic strip that gave a whimsical take on the events in Chicago's "Loop" district. "Looping the Loop" made jokes about such issues as silent movies, plays, and the changing seasons; it proved popular with theHerald's readers.[7] Segar married Myrtle Johnson that year; they had two children. In October 1919, Segar coveredthat year's World Series, creating eight cartoons for the sports pages.[13][14]
Evening Americanmanaging editor William Curley thought Segar could succeed in New York, so he sent him toKing Features Syndicate, where Segar worked for many years. King Features asked Segar to create a comic strip to replaceMidget Movies byEd Wheelan, who had recently resigned from the syndicate.[15] Segar createdThimble Theatre for theNew York Journal, as the replacement for Wheelan's strip. TheThimble Theatre strip made its debut on December 19, 1919, featuring the charactersOlive Oyl,Castor Oyl and Harold Hamgravy, whose name was quickly shortened in the strip to simply "Ham Gravy". They were the strip's leads for about a decade.[2] Segar began writing long storylines or "continuities" forThimble Theatre in 1922. In these, the characters would have lengthy adventures in Africa and the Wild West.[16] In one storyline, the characters encountered a superhuman "tough guy" named Harry Hardegg, who was able to break a moving buzz saw with his head. Comics historianBill Blackbeard has described Harry Hardegg as a "prototype" for Popeye.[16]
Segar also createdThe Five-Fifteen for King Features in 1920; it was retitledSappo in 1926, although numerous newspapers had already retitled the strip 'Sappo the Commuter' by 1924.The Five-Fifteen started its run as a Monday-through-Saturday strip, concluding its initial daily run in February 1925. In 1926, the strip, now officially retitled, was revived as a Sunday-onlytopper to theThimble Theatre Sunday pages. Initially, this strip revolved about the exploits of suburban couple John and Myrtle Sappo. In May 1932, however, Segar introduced the eccentric scientist and inventor (and self-proclaimed "genius") O.G. Wotasnozzle into the strip as a regular. Wotasnozzle's bizarre machines soon became the focus of the strip, with John Sappo frequently cast as his test subject and straight man.[2][17]
On January 17, 1929, when Castor Oyl needed amariner to navigate his ship to Dice Island, Castor picked up a weatherbeaten sailor named Popeye in the docks. Popeye's first line in the strip, upon being asked if he was a sailor, was "'Ja think I'm a cowboy?"[18] It is believed Segar remembered a tough laborer named Frank "Rocky" Fiegel who was always getting in fights but also gave out candy and treats to children,[19] including a young Segar.[20] At first Segar intended Popeye to be a once-off character, but after large numbers of newspaper readers wrote in requesting the character's return, Segar reintroduced Popeye as a full-time regular in August 1929, eventually enabling the sailor to become the focal point of the strip.[3] Segar initially depicted Popeye as a quarrelling antihero.[2] Segar's storylines for the Popeye-focusedThimble Theatre drew on several fictional genres, includingWesterns, pirateswashbucklers,Sports stories, andfantasy stories.[2][3] Some of the other notable characters Segar created includeJ. Wellington Wimpy andEugene the Jeep.[2]
In 1929, Segar and his friend, screenwriterNorton S. Parker, began work onThe Sea Hag, a prose novel for adults that would have featured both Popeye and the villainess theSea Hag. However, King Features refused to grant Segar and Parker permission to publish the novel.The Sea Hag has never been put into print.[16]
In 1934, King Features (noting the increasing popularity of the Popeye character with children) ordered Segar to tone down Popeye's swearing and brawling.[16] Although irritated by the order, Segar complied, and made Popeye more of a straightforward hero, more ubiquitously emphasizing his already-established affinity for aiding children and animals rather than his more violent and irascible tendencies, which persisted in a somewhat reduced form.[2][16]Segar continued to produceThimble Theatre, published in five hundred newspapers globally by 1938, until his death. Beginning in 1933, Popeye was adapted into a series ofcartoons by theFleischer Studios, which increased the character's already-ascendant popularity even further.[2] Popeye was also licensed by King Features for hundreds of toys, games and other products.[2] The commercial success of these products ensured King Features paid Segar highly for his work; by 1938, the syndicate was giving Segar a salary of $100,000 a year.[2]
Segar later moved toSanta Monica,California. According toBud Sagendorf, he lived near George Herriman. Although they admired each other's work, they never visited each other in this period.[2]After a prolonged illness, Segar died ofleukemia on October 13, 1938, aged 43 years old.[21]
Segar was among the first cartoonists to combine humorous situations with long-running adventures.[2]
Comics creators who cited E.C. Segar's work as an influence includedJerry Siegel andJoe Shuster,Boody Rogers,Charles M. Schulz,Carl Barks,Robert Crumb, andStephen Hillenburg.[22][23][24]
A revival of interest in Segar's creations began withWoody Gelman's Nostalgia Press.Robert Altman's live-action filmPopeye (1980) is adapted from E. C. Segar'sThimble Theatre comic strip. The screenplay byJules Feiffer was based directly on Gelman'sThimble Theatre Starring Popeye the Sailor, a hardcover reprint collection of 1936–37 Segar strips published in 1971 by Nostalgia Press.[25] In 2006,Fantagraphics published the first of a six-volume book set reprinting allThimble Theatre daily and Sunday strips from 1928 to 1938, beginning with the adventure that introduced Popeye.
In 1971, theNational Cartoonists Society created the Elzie Segar Award in his honor. According to the Society's website, the award was "presented to a person who has made a unique and outstanding contribution to the profession of cartooning." The NCS board of directors chose the first winners, while King Features selected recipients in later years. Honorees have includedCharles Schulz,Bil Keane,Al Capp,Bill Gallo andMort Walker. The award was discontinued in 1999.[26]
In 2012, cartoonistsRoger Langridge andBruce Ozella teamed to revive the spirit of Segar in a 12-issuelimited series,Popeye, published byIDW.
In 2018, Sunday Press Books publishedThimble Theatre & The Pre-Popeye Comics of E.C. Segar, collecting Segar's early comic strip work,[27] primarily theThimble Theatre Sunday pages published between 1925 and 1930.
| Title | Start date | End date |
|---|---|---|
| Charlie Chaplin's Comic Capers | March 1916 | April 1917 |
| The Mistakes of Mr. Muddle | March 1917 ? | April 1918 |
| And They Get By With It | March 1917 ? | April 1918 |
| Barry the Boob | April 1917 | April 1918 |
| Looping the Loop | June 1918 | December 1919 |
| Thimble Theatre (Popeye) | December 1919 | October 1938 |
| The Five-Fifteen (Sappo) | December 1920 | October 1938 |
In 1977, Segar's hometown of Chester, Illinois, named a park in his honor. The park contains a six-foot-tall bronze statue of Popeye. The annual Popeye Picnic, a weekend-long event that celebrates the character with a parade, film festival and other activities, is held the first weekend after Labor Day.[28] In 2006, Chester launched the "Popeye & Friends Character Trail", which links a series of statues of Segar's characters located throughout town.[29] Each stands on a base inscribed with the names of donors who contributed to its cost and is unveiled and dedicated during the Popeye Picnic. The 2006 debut sculpture of hamburger-loving Wimpy stands in Gazebo Park. A statue of Olive Oyl, Swee'Pea and the Jeep, located near the Randolph County Courthouse, followed in 2007. In 2008, aBluto statue was dedicated at the corner of Swanwick and W. Holmes Streets, in front of Buena Vista Bank. The 2009 statue of Castor Oyl and Bernice the Whiffle Hen stands in front of Chester Memorial Hospital. One additional statue has been unveiled each year.
| Year | Character(s) | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | SeaHag/Bernard | McDonald's/Walmart |
| 2011 | Cole Oyl | Chester Public Library |
| 2012 | Alice the Goon | Chester Center |
| 2013 | Poopdeck Pappy | Cohen Complex |
| 2014 | Prof. Watasnozzle | Chester High School |
| 2015 | RoughHouse | Reids' Harvest House |
| 2016 | Nephews-Peepeye/Poopeye/Pipeye/Pupeye | Chester Grade School |
| 2017 | King Blozo | Chester City Hall |
| 2018 | Nana Oyl | Manor at Craig's Farm |
| 2019 | Popeye's Pups | Chester Firehouse |
| 2019 | Sherlock & Segar | Baskerville Hall on Swanwick Street |
| 2020 | Toar | St Nicholas Landmark |
| 2021 | Harold Hamgravy | Randolph County Courthouse |
Spinach Can Collectibles/Popeye Museum is located in the center of the city (Opera House).[30]
On December 8, 2009, Google celebrated Segar's 115th birthday with aGoogle Doodle of Popeye. The doodle used Popeye's body as the 'g', had 'oogl', drawn to resemble Segar's drawing style, and a spinach can as the 'e', and featured Popeye punching the 'oogl' to cause the spinach to fly at him through the air.
Media related toE. C. Segar at Wikimedia Commons
