Popeye Vol. 1: "I Yam What I Yam" by E.C. Segar

From the Publisher

Fantagraphics' Popeye will collect the complete run of Segar's Thimble Theatre comic strip (dailies and color Sundays) featuring Popeye, re-establishing Segar as one of the first rank of cartoonists who have elevated the comic strip to art. He was the most popular cartoonist of his day, his sense of humor coming straight out of Mark Twain, who also balanced exaggerated tall tales and a perfect ear for everyday speech with dark themes that undercut his laugh-out-loud stories. In this first volume, covering 1928-1930, Popeye's initial courtship of Olive Oyl takes center stage while Olive's brother Castor Oyl discovers the mysterious Whiffle Hen. Also, the entire cast meets the Sea Hag for the first time in their pursuit of the "Mystery House" (Popeye's first extended daily narrative), and Castor Oyl attempts to turn Popeye into a boxing champion in a series of hilarious Sunday strips. These strips are masterpieces of comic invention. Popeye's omnipotence pre-figures the rise of superheroes in the 1930s and 1940s, though Popeye is a much more sympathetic character, and his very name announces his vibrant personality. His mangled English pulsated with the vital spirit of immigrant America, its rhythm poetic in its own vulgar way: "I yam what I yam and tha's all I yam."




2007 Eisner Award nominee: Best Archival Collection/Project: Strips; and Best Publication Design (Jacob Covey);
2007 Harvey Award nominee: Best Domestic Reprint Project; Special Award for Excellence in Presentation;
Winner: HOW Magazine Design Merit Awards: Covers

The New York Times - John Hodgman

What Castor doesn’t seem to notice is that Popeye eventually stops going back to the docks. Suddenly he’s living with the Oyls, moving in on Olive’s affection and taking over the whole strip. Within a year, the sheer force of his “personaliky” would cast the decade’s worth of “Thimble Theatre” strips that preceded him so thoroughly into the realm of trivia that they aren’t even collected here. In some ways this is precisely the bit of lost history Deitch hopes to preserve: scanned from original newspaper clippings that otherwise had been yellowing somewhere or another, this book documents not only the birth of a great American comic character, but also, in a smaller measure, the death of a great straight man.

Steve Raiteri - Library Journal

In 1929, Segar introduced into his ten-year-old newspaper strip Thimble Theatrea character who became one of the most popular figures ever to emerge from comics: Popeye the sailor man. Then, after a five-month adventure that saw Popeye shrug off 16 bullet wounds, Segar wrote the sailor out of the story. But the public would have none of it, so Popeye was quickly reinstated and has remained ever since. This is the first volume in a set of six oversized hardcovers reprinting every Thimble Theatrestrip from Popeye's introduction until Segar's death in 1938. Segar's Popeye, a rough and ready strongman, is a wonderfully colorful character: tempestuous, loyal, superstitious, and clueless about women, throwing punches at every opportunity and busting out of jail repeatedly. His distinctive speech pattern is a joy. But the only mention here of a certain leafy green plant is in the name of a minor character, Miss Spinich (sic). Fantagraphics previously collected these strips in an out-of-print ten-volume series, but this new edition prints the Sunday strips in color. Segar was a remarkble cartoonist and an inventive storyteller, and these classic adventures are strongly recommended for all libraries.

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