February 5th, 2019

Popeye’s Cartoon Club featuring “The Goils”

by Sandra Bell-Lundy

This year is Popeye’s 90th Birthday! One of the ways King Features is celebrating is by featuring a Popeye cartoon every Sunday by a different cartoonist.

I love the original E. C.  Segar style so I studied a variety of samples that my editor sent to me. (I asked for samples that included the female characters) I wanted to feature the old-style drawings of the female characters in a contemporary setting…and maintain the authentic voice of each character…or at least try to! So I decided to have the “goils” attend a book club meeting…each with a feminist book that somehow related to them. The only problem I had was with Bernice the Whiffle Hen. I couldn’t come up with a feminist author for her…so I gave her Dr. Doolittle by Hugh Lofting. I figured that was as close as I could come with a book that related to a Hen.

I also tried to stay true to the color palette of the original strips. The samples I studied had a lot of pale yellow and light blues. (Although I did give the Sea Hag and Olive nice, comfy, bright-colored sofa-chairs.) And of course…I threw in a couple of cappuccinos for the goils…what’s a book club meeting without coffee?

Check out all the Popeye art and animations and ephemera by visiting any of the following social media sites:

https://www.instagram.com/popeye/

https://www.facebook.com/Popeye/

Twitter: @popeyetweetsk