Behind the Spinach – How Eye Lie Popeye Reimagines a Legend

What happens when you take one of the most iconic characters in comic history and drop him into a high-stakes, dimension-hopping adventure filled with mystery, magic, and manga-style mayhem? You get Eye Lie Popeye—a bold new miniseries from acclaimed artist and writer Marcus Williams (Marvel’s Captain America, DC’s Nubia & the Amazons), now debuting on Comics Kingdom.

In 2023, Williams posted a fan art crossover that shook the comic world: Popeye and Goku, training together in a fictional Dragon Ball x Popeye: World Breakers universe. His high-energy rendering of Popeye as a grizzled, muscle-bound warrior caught fire online, resonating with fans who saw untapped potential in the sailor man’s strength, heart, and grit.

Alex Garcia, Director of Direct-to-Consumer Comics at King Features, saw something more than fan art—he saw a future. “We’d been exploring ways to bring Popeye into a modern storytelling format—something manga-inspired, high-concept, and emotionally grounded,” says Garcia. “When I saw Marcus’s piece, it clicked instantly. That was the tone. That was the artist.”

From that spark, Eye Lie Popeye was born.

Rather than retell old sea tales, Williams and Garcia leaned into the mythology, asking a new question:

“What if Popeye’s famous missing eye wasn’t just a punchline… but a mystery?”

The result is a fresh canon: a younger, scrappier Popeye navigating multiversal threats with a new crew—Olive Oyl, Wimpy, and Judy P’Tooty—guided by the enigmatic Eugene the Jeep. With nods to classic lore and the kinetic pacing of shonen manga, the series has already made waves since debuting during Free Comic Book Day, praised for its emotional depth, cinematic action, and bold character reworkings (including a morally gray Bluto).

The project first gained attention during Free Comic Book Day, where preview issues generated buzz for their dynamic artwork and surprising emotional depth. Behind the scenes, Williams—already well known for combining Black culture, superhero aesthetics, and deep character work—crafted the series to act as a standalone entry point for younger readers while planting seeds that honor the original Popeye mythos.

Season 1 of Eye Lie Popeye debuts on May 9th with the first two episodes, and continues with new episodes released weekly on Comics Kingdom.

**Update** Wimpy’s Burger Sauce seems to have jammed things up a bit, and Eye Lie Popeye will now debut on 5/13

Whether you’re a lifelong fan or a newcomer raised on anime and Marvel movies, Eye Lie Popeye offers something rare: a reboot that respects the past but punches boldly into the future—with spinach-fueled fists.