Popeye, crossdresser with a cause
Jul. 26th, 2009 11:36 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
dr_hermes.insanejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
scans_dailyTHIMBLE THEATRE by EC Segar is so one of the greatest comics strips ever to hit print. The humor, pathos, action and suspense remain amazingly effective almost a century later. The art and dialogue work perfectly. And the Fleischer Brothers cartoons from the 1930s (even though not quite as good as the strip) show much of this magic.
This Sunday page from June 1932 is a good example. Popeye has taken in an desperate orphan*(for a rough weathered old sailor, he has a heart like a big marshmallow). Trying to make her feel at home, he puts on a skirt and plays at being her grandmother. Popeye is so confident in himself that he's not embarassed at all to go out in public like this. When the abusive "Big Butch" comes to claim the little girl, he has no idea what he's confronting and Popeye thrashes him. It's interesting too that the cop not only doesn't try to stop the "woman" beating her husband unconscious, he encourages it ("Knock him around all you please, Grandma.")
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*(1932, no Department of Child Services or anything like that, no Welfare, millions out of work and going hungry. There were plenty of homeless children on the streets.
This Sunday page from June 1932 is a good example. Popeye has taken in an desperate orphan*(for a rough weathered old sailor, he has a heart like a big marshmallow). Trying to make her feel at home, he puts on a skirt and plays at being her grandmother. Popeye is so confident in himself that he's not embarassed at all to go out in public like this. When the abusive "Big Butch" comes to claim the little girl, he has no idea what he's confronting and Popeye thrashes him. It's interesting too that the cop not only doesn't try to stop the "woman" beating her husband unconscious, he encourages it ("Knock him around all you please, Grandma.")
_________
*(1932, no Department of Child Services or anything like that, no Welfare, millions out of work and going hungry. There were plenty of homeless children on the streets.
