Category: Popeye
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Langridge goes out of his way to give the feature a distinct look. He’s got a lot more lines–for backgrounds–than the other Popeye artists usually use and it gives the story an aged quality. Langridge is crossing Popeye over with another comic strip character, Barney Google, and he takes it seriously. Castor and Wimpy are…
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Bluto’s back in town, this time touring as a magician. Popeye and company go to the show, Wimpy gets a ventriloquist act going (show business means hamburgers) and general mayhem occurs. The issue’s as close to all-action as Langridge’s gotten on this series. There’s nothing else going on except Olive’s occasionally inappropriate comments about Bluto’s…
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Langridge continues the odd trend. This issue, in Sappo, there’s this incredibly awful moment and Langridge plays it for laughs. It’s downright disturbing. Lovely art from Ken Wheaton though; a lot of the strip is charming. The Popeye feature is excellent, with Toar having to box Popeye to get citizenship. Everyone finds out the motive…
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It’s a strange issue. Not the Sappo backup so much, but the feature is just… unpleasant. A new burger sensation has hit town and Alice (she’s Swee’Pea nanny) doesn’t like it. Turns out Bluto is exploiting people in a third world country (or island) to produce the burgers, which are mushroom-based. It’s kind of hard…
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It’s a full-length adventure–Langridge breaks it out into three acts and follows through. I was a little surprised how carefully he plotted the third act; the issue runs on jokes, not the narrative, but Langridge keeps both going. Popeye’s dad has fallen for a younger woman and Popeye’s suspicious (act one). It turns out she’s…
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Langridge drawing Popeye looks exactly like… Popeye. This issue’s the first Langridge does the art on too and I guess I was expecting something else. It’s great art, it’s just great Popeye art. Langridge never has ego problems so I don’t know why I’m surprised. The feature story has Popeye and Castor on a case…
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It’s a book length story. Langridge and artist Ken Wheaton do a great job of it too. Langridge probably could have rushed the story, but by taking the whole issue, he lets Wheaton’s art breath a little. The word balloons aren’t packed full of text. Wheaton is able to give conversations reaction shots, for example.…
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It’s a parenting issue. There are two stories concerning Popeye’s parenting abilities. The first is a babysitting adventure. Swee’Pea goes missing, ending up on the wrong side of town and joining a gang. Swee’Pea, it turns out, is really good at knocking the fleas off dogs. While Ozella does a fine job with the art,…
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The Popeye feature suffers a little from lack of intelligent characters. For a second, I thought Castor Oyl would prove smart; he does not. Wimpy does show intelligence… and never gets recognized for it. But Langridge never loses track of him, which is sort of a reward. Langridge loses track of everyone at some point…
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This issue just has the Popeye story and it’s really more of a Wimpy story. Wimpy’s hamburger lust goes too far and he finds himself challenged to a boxing match over it. Popeye steps in to train him, with Wimpy resisting one every page. The story’s got a great gag finish (though, surprisingly, Langridge doesn’t…
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Unexpectedly, the backup–John Sappo and Prof. O.G. Wotasnozzle and Sappo’s Wife Myrtle–is stronger than the lead Popeye story. While the lead story is quite good, it’s a small story about Popeye getting into it with one of Olive Oyl’s latest suitors. The backup is even smaller, but Langridge excels with the constraint. In Popeye, he’s…
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If I’d been paying more attention to the title page cast list, I suppose the story might have been ruined. Not having ever read Popeye (in memory… I may have read the comic strip as a kid), I was only familiar with the characters who were in the movie. Roger Langridge and Bruce Ozella have…
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