Popeye The Sailor (1948) 1

Popeye the Sailor Man is our choice to host National Spinach Day.

The journeyman sailor first appeared as part of King Features Syndicates stable of characters in 1929. Ironically it would take another 19 years for Elzie Crisler Segar’s creation to reach the comic book field.

Beginning in 1932 Popeye would moonlight in the cinemas after Fleischer Studios licensed the character for animated shorts. Paramount Pictures would feature Popeye for the next 25 years.

Popeye The Sailor (1948) 1

Not until 1948 would the mariner appear in comic books. Dell held the rights for the first 65 issues. Gold Key picked up the numbering where it left off at issue 66. King would publish next, printing issues 81 through 92.

For some reason issue 93 does not exist.

Charlton picked up printing chores beginning with issue 94 and continuing through 138. Gold Key/Whitman published the series for issues 139 through 171, though issues 160 and 161 are missing.

TV Comic, a British publishing company, published Popeye periodically beginning in 1960. Of the thousand-plus issues printed, Popeye appeared in 305 of them.

French Publisher SFPI began publishing the seafarer in 1964. The book lasted 234 issues.

Keeping his European presence known, Popeye was then licensed by Italian publisher Editoriale Metro beginning in 1975. The book went 549 issues.

Back in the states Popeye languished until 1988 when Ocean Comics published a special. A follow up was issued the same year.

Again, the sailor was drydocked until 2012. IDW printed a 12-issue mini-series then began reprinting the original 1940s and ‘50s comic books titled Classic Popeye.

Webcomics celebrated the aging seaman’s 90^th.

While the origins of today’s spokesman are easy to determine, the beginnings of National Spinach Day are not. Just remember to celebrate with a fresh spinach salad, spinach pizza, spinach dip, cream spinach, spinach lasagna or just by adding the leafy green vegetable to whatever dish you may have on the menu.