Popeye and Pals Set Sail From Santa Monica

His girlfriend once compared his face to a shipwreck.

It was easy to see why: He was square of jaw and true of heart, with a single eye, a jutting chin and a corncob pipe jammed between toothless gums. But the spinach-fueled seafarer called Popeye the Sailor sailed off a Santa Monica cartoonist’s drawing board and into world fame.

By the time his character was fully launched, artist Elzie Crisler Segar’s seaman would help to increase the nation’s spinach consumption by 33% in the early 1930s, and to put two words--”goon” and “jeep”--into Webster’s dictionary. Pop psychologists even latched onto the sailor’s comfortable credo:

“I yam what I yam and tha’s all what I yam.”

Segar populated Popeye’s world with whimsical and offbeat characters with a flair for the absurd: the obese, burger-loving mooch Wimpy; Popeye’s scrawny “best goil,” Olive Oyl; cueball-headed adopted son Swee’pea; villain Bluto (later changed to Brutus after pressure from Walt Disney, who reportedly said it sounded too much like Pluto) and a cast of villains and buffoons.

Segar always insisted that he used characters from his Midwestern hometown as the models for many of his creations, but Angelenos believed--and not without reason--that Popeye was based on the popular local angler Olaf “Cap” Olsen, a Norwegian sailor who operated a small fleet of fishing barges from the Santa Monica Pier.

If Olsen was in fact the prototype for Popeye, Segar brilliantly captured his best and offbeat assets: barrel chest, bulging biceps, merchant sailor’s peaked cap, a pipe (which he smoked upside down in the rain) and a personality that was as salty as the waters he sailed.

Although there is no record of Segar’s being fond of spinach, he shared Popeye’s love of sailing.

The slight, bespectacled cartoonist was born in Chester, Ill. on Dec. 8, 1894. His artistic talent began to bloom after a stint as a house painter and paper hanger, during which he completed a mail-order course on cartooning. At age 22, he landed a job at the Chicago Herald, where he drew a comic strip known as “Comic Capers.”

By 1919, he had moved to New York and created “Thimble Theater,” centering on the Oyl family, including children Castor and Olive. The cartoon first appeared in the New York Journal.

Heading west, he and his wife, Myrtle, lived in Hollywood for a few years before moving to Santa Monica in 1928, where he took up billiards, skeet shooting--he taught Clark Gable to shoot--and painting. Segar became an active member of the Santa Monica Rod and Reel Club.

Sea angling from the pier often spawned new friendships and new ideas for his comic strip.

He braved chilly mornings in winter and crowded pier railings in summer to refine his fishing technique. While shooting the breeze with locals, the quiet Segar found himself drawn to a gruff, expert angler, “Santa Monica Olsen.”

Intrigued by Olsen’s tall fishing tales, delivered in a heavy Norwegian accent, Segar soon struck up a friendship with him. The colorful old sea dog’s undeniable rugged charm not only endeared him to five wives, but to Segar as well.

Drawing inspiration from Olsen’s rough language, ruby skin, swagger and the twinkle in his sometimes reddened eyes, Segar tackled the first sketch of Popeye in his Santa Monica studio, at 4th Street and Broadway.

It’s no wonder that Popeye’s 1929 comic strip debut came with little fanfare. Contrary to popular belief, the sailor’s super strength, which always got him out of a jam, originated from rubbing the head of the magic whiffle hen, not spinach. Readers were soon attracted to the friend of orphaned babes and scrawny gals after the vegetable was inserted in the strip.

A master storyteller, Segar wove Olsen’s character into funny stories, often taking Popeye and his gang on sea adventures. Popeye’s strength grew to a new level with his first film cartoon appearance in the regular feature “Betty Boop,” and then the character’s first solo film cartoon, “I Yam What I Yam,” on Sept. 29, 1933.

But Segar’s boss, newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, soon ordered him to make the sailor more respectable by toning down the rough language and killing the crap games.

Segar never liked social events or learned to handle uncomfortable situations, which included strangers asking his occupation. Nothing annoyed him more than people who laughed and seemed surprised that anyone could make a living drawing funny pictures.

He would walk away, filled with indignation and anger, but he was too polite and modest to tell them he was making six figures during the Depression.

After almost 20 years of producing a daily comic strip, Segar died of leukemia in 1938, at age 44. That same year, Popeye beat Mickey Mouse in popularity in a nationwide poll.

For two decades, several artists took on the job of drawing Popeye, including one underground cartoonist who was fired after drawing a controversial segment in which Olive Oyl was mistakenly believed to be considering an abortion.

But it was Segar’s longtime assistant and fishing buddy, Forrest Cowles “Bud” Sagendorf, who finally stepped into his former boss’ shoes from 1958 to 1986 and introduced new characters, including Granny and Dufus.

“Segar was like a father to me, a fine boss and kind teacher,” Sagendorf once said.

Popeye’s fighting spirit has thrived for more than seven decades, with only one image change, making him less brutal and sexist and more liberated.

Santa Monica does not memorialize Popeye’s birthplace, but no fewer than three statues have been erected in other states to honor the comic strip hero, and there is a park named for his creator back home in Chester.