More than a decade before he created the world's most famous cartoon sailor, Elzie Crisler Segar began his comics career in the movies. He drew cartoons for silent movie theater slides, the Charlie Chaplin comic strip, and a daily strip about Chicago's movies and entertainment. Then, in 1919, he penned his own 'small screen' creation for the newspapers, Thimble Theatre, where Popeye was to be born a decade later. This comprehensive volume features examples of all of E.C. Segar's early comics and illustrations, with over 100 pre-Popeye Thimble Theatre Sunday pages including the complete run of the famed Western desert saga, a series that rivals his later work in superb art, storytelling, and humour. Newly revised and expanded, this new printing contains ten additional pages plus a 1920s-style Sunday comics section insert paying tribute to Segar and his comic creations featuring Charlie Chaplin's Comic Capers and Popeye's 'The Jeep.' Text and illustrations offer an in-depth history and commentary on the life and work of E. C. Segar by historians Paul C. Tumey and Jeet Heer, and best-selling author and journalist Michael Tisserand. Thimble Theatre is an essential part of any comics lover's library.

Well, blow me down! This new four-volume series collects the complete run of the original Popeye Sunday newspaper page adventures in an accessible and affordable slipcased paperback format!

An irresistible alchemy of screwball comedy, tender romance, and rags-to-riches fantasy, Elsie Crisler Segar's newspaper comic strip, starring Popeye the sailor man, captivated readers of the Roaring Twenties and beyond. Fantagraphics is thrilled to bring Segar's whimsical world back into print, collecting the complete Popeye Sunday stories in four gorgeous full-color volumes, each packaged in a deluxe vertical slipcase. Volume one highlighted the mercurial relationship between Popeye and Olive Oyl, while volume two shifts the focus to an even more dynamic connection, between that of J. Wellington Wimpy and his one true object of desire: a delectable hamburger. A notorious chiseler without a penny to his name, Wimpy is forever scheming new ways to bamboozle the local diner out of a mouth-watering morsel of his favourite meal. And the audacious chicaneries Wimpy employs in pursuit of his greatest love are as riotous today as they were when these strips first appeared in the '30s. Featuring laugh-out-loud gags, sensational slugfests, and an endearing cast of characters, this Wimpy-centric volume of classic Popeye adventures emphatically answers the question: Where's the beef? Plus, an illustrated appreciation/deconstruction of this legendary comic character by acclaimed cartoonist Kevin Huizenga!

Volume three centres around the epic Popeye adventure, 'Plunder Island,' in which our endearing cast of characters takes to the high seas in search of buried treasure - but must contend with the ruthless Sea Hag and her strange sidekick, Alice the Goon. Steeped in shadow and gothic imagery, this tale is an atmospheric and suspenseful departure from the typical Popeye aesthetic - with a little screwball comedy thrown in for good measure. Also in this volume, Popeye proves to be a one-man wrecking crew on the gridiron, Wimpy tries his unsteady hand at duck shooting (uh-oh!), and the crew ride out to the Wild West town of Slither Creek on a rip-roaring gold-hunting expedition. Plus, contemporary Filipino cartoonist Bong Redila pens a light-hearted comic homage to the iconic, eerie duo headlining this volume. An irresistible alchemy of slapstick humour, tender romance, and rags-to-riches fantasy, Elsie Crisler Segar's newspaper comic strip, starring Popeye the sailor man, captivated readers of the Roaring Twenties and beyond. Fantagraphics is thrilled to bring Segar's whimsical world back into print, collecting the complete Popeye Sunday stories in four gorgeous full-colour volumes, each packaged in a die-cut slipcase.

More than a decade before he created the world's most famous cartoon sailor, Elzie Crisler Segar began his comics career in the movies. He drew cartoons for silent movie theater slides, the Charlie Chaplin comic strip, and a daily strip about Chicago's movies and entertainment. Then, in 1919, he penned his own 'small screen' creation for the newspapers, Thimble Theatre, where Popeye was to be born a decade later. This comprehensive volume features examples of all of E.C. Segar's early comics and illustrations, with over 100 pre-Popeye Thimble Theatre Sunday pages including the complete run of the famed Western desert saga, a series that rivals his later work in superb art, storytelling, and humour. Newly revised and expanded, this new printing contains ten additional pages plus a 1920s-style Sunday comics section insert paying tribute to Segar and his comic creations featuring Charlie Chaplin's Comic Capers and Popeye's 'The Jeep.' Text and illustrations offer an in-depth history and commentary on the life and work of E. C. Segar by historians Paul C. Tumey and Jeet Heer, and best-selling author and journalist Michael Tisserand. Thimble Theatre is an essential part of any comics lover's library.

Well, blow me down! This new four-volume series collects the complete run of the original Popeye Sunday newspaper page adventures in an accessible and affordable slipcased paperback format!

An irresistible alchemy of screwball comedy, tender romance, and rags-to-riches fantasy, Elsie Crisler Segar's newspaper comic strip, starring Popeye the sailor man, captivated readers of the Roaring Twenties and beyond. Fantagraphics is thrilled to bring Segar's whimsical world back into print, collecting the complete Popeye Sunday stories in four gorgeous full-color volumes, each packaged in a deluxe vertical slipcase. Volume one highlighted the mercurial relationship between Popeye and Olive Oyl, while volume two shifts the focus to an even more dynamic connection, between that of J. Wellington Wimpy and his one true object of desire: a delectable hamburger. A notorious chiseler without a penny to his name, Wimpy is forever scheming new ways to bamboozle the local diner out of a mouth-watering morsel of his favourite meal. And the audacious chicaneries Wimpy employs in pursuit of his greatest love are as riotous today as they were when these strips first appeared in the '30s. Featuring laugh-out-loud gags, sensational slugfests, and an endearing cast of characters, this Wimpy-centric volume of classic Popeye adventures emphatically answers the question: Where's the beef? Plus, an illustrated appreciation/deconstruction of this legendary comic character by acclaimed cartoonist Kevin Huizenga!

Volume three centres around the epic Popeye adventure, 'Plunder Island,' in which our endearing cast of characters takes to the high seas in search of buried treasure - but must contend with the ruthless Sea Hag and her strange sidekick, Alice the Goon. Steeped in shadow and gothic imagery, this tale is an atmospheric and suspenseful departure from the typical Popeye aesthetic - with a little screwball comedy thrown in for good measure. Also in this volume, Popeye proves to be a one-man wrecking crew on the gridiron, Wimpy tries his unsteady hand at duck shooting (uh-oh!), and the crew ride out to the Wild West town of Slither Creek on a rip-roaring gold-hunting expedition. Plus, contemporary Filipino cartoonist Bong Redila pens a light-hearted comic homage to the iconic, eerie duo headlining this volume. An irresistible alchemy of slapstick humour, tender romance, and rags-to-riches fantasy, Elsie Crisler Segar's newspaper comic strip, starring Popeye the sailor man, captivated readers of the Roaring Twenties and beyond. Fantagraphics is thrilled to bring Segar's whimsical world back into print, collecting the complete Popeye Sunday stories in four gorgeous full-colour volumes, each packaged in a die-cut slipcase.