Wednesday, March 17, 2010

WHEN SUPERMAN FAILS (Talking of booths)











See the Man of Steel bested by a thinly disguised analog of Popeye The Sailorman. (I guess he yam what he yam.)
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2 comments:

hcb said...

Popeye was the first superhero--he predates Philip Wylie's 1930 novel Gladiator, which provided about 60% of Superman's literary DNA, by one year more or less. Don't know if there's anything to be made of the fact that the superhero as such was born at about the same time that Science Fiction became commercial and the economy crashed. The Shadow also debuted in 1930.

The three volumes of Max and Dave Fleischer Popeye cartoons are just fucking wonderful, and the Fantagraphics oversized hardback editions of E.C. Seger's Popeye strips are funny and weird in the absolute best sense. Man, people can argue over which art forms are most intrinsically American, but Weird is out front.

In the third volume of the Fantagraphic books, Popeye is protecting Swee'pea from thugs who want to return him to his native country cause he has a magic set of birthmarks, and they hit Popeye with such force that they drive his head through a plaster wall, giving him "bonkus of the konkus," which is usually fatal.

In Popeye's case, the blow convinces him he is a "lonely cowboy" and he sets off with Swee'pea on a walkabout, going in and out of people's houses, making himself at home, traveling thousands of miles as a kind of amnesiac Lone Wolf and Cub. This is really funny stuff, but it's also great American Weird, and really violent. You can't overpraise this material, but I wouldn't expect a lot of people to get it.

This volume also reprints for the first time since 1933 Popeye's extended visit to the Chicago World's Fair where he's drawn to a number of comely showgirls on his way to a performance by my aunt, Sally Rand, who does her fan dance for Popeye, Wimpy, and Swee'pea.

Later on Olive Oyl takes a crack at her own version of the fan dance, and, well, no point in spoiling it but I will say she appears to be naked.

9:30 AM
bluto said...

sherwinnnng!!!!!

3:15 PM

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