Popeye, America's most famous sailor man, made his first appearance as an incidental character in the January 17, 1929, installment of the Thimble Theatre comic strip. Created by cartoonist Elzie Crisler Segar (1894–1938), the one-eyed, craggy-faced sailor with bulging forearms and ever-present corncob pipe was an unlikely heroic figure. He was uneducated, uncouth, and spoke in a unique dialect peppered with curses and malapropisms (the use of words that sound similar to the intended words but ridiculously wrong). Despite these flaws, Popeye quickly emerged as one of the nation's favorite characters.

Segar created Thimble Theatre in 1919 at the urging of publisher William Randolph Hearst (1863–1951), who was looking for a new strip to feature in his many newspapers. The original premise of the strip involved the spoofing of current movies. Segar soon transformed the strip from a gag-a-day feature to an adventure series. His original cast consisted of the slightly seedy Oyl...