Review by Woodrow Phoenix
Volume three of The E. C. Segar Popeye Sundays is 27 months of strips from December 1933 to February 1936. The cover features the villainous, witchy Sea Hag and her disturbing-looking henchwoman Alice the Goon, their grim expressions and dark backgrounds giving this image a sombre feel completely unlike the brightly funny pictures introducing the first two books. This pair are the antagonists in ‘Plunder Island,’ the adventure occupying the first quarter of this collection. It’s a change of pace for what up till now has been largely domestic comedy and slapstick situations that frequently collapse into massive brawls, with Popeye invariably coming out on top thanks to his superhuman strength. ‘Salty’ Bill Barnacle, one of Popeye’s old shipmates drops by to tell him of an island rich in “pirate’s gold, rubies and pearls the size o’ eggs,” which sounds great to our hero: “I yam sick of this restrunt bizness – I hankers for the sea – I loves danger – so le’s go”, he declares.
Most of this sea-faring adventure takes place in the daytime, but what you will remember are the inky black panels of mystery and menace that begin this story, so brilliantly effective in selling the scary qualities of the Sea Hag, prepared to murder anyone who tries to take what is hers. More black ink covers the night time sequence where the Sea Hag sends out her Goon to board Popeye’s ship and kill the entire crew while they sleep, Segar combining suspense and silliness in expertly timed panels. ‘Plunder Island’ has a big reputation as a high point in newspaper comics of the period. It may only be thirty pages long and over fairly quickly, but published week by week those thirty episodes would have been an eight-month odyssey, pushing the comic strip form forward in a style unlike anything readers had ever seen before. After this challenging experiment in storytelling, Segar returns to his usual much shorter stories, including the varied ways Popeye, Wimpy and the others lose the fortunes they acquired. Another extended twenty-page romp called ‘Slither Creek’ sees Popeye, Olive, Wimpy and friends head out West to join a gold rush.
It’s all nearly a hundred years old, but still ridiculously funny, the oddly beautiful caricatures selling the action and the comedy. What’s less delightful are the racist depictions of Black and Chinese characters that pop up in places. Thankfully it’s not often enough to completely derail the pleasure of this collection, but a cold reminder of the real world outside the sunny confines of Segar’s creation. The introduction in this volume is a six-page strip by Bong Redila giving us his homage to the Sea Hag and Alice. There is one more collection of Popeye, this one named after the last two characters to join the iconic cast: Popeye Volume 4: Swee’pea & Eugene the Jeep.
