More on Popeye.

Model sheets for the 1939 Popeye short, Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp.

Of the three Popeye Color Specials by the Fleischer Studios, Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp made the biggest impression on me as a kid. It was actually one of the first things I looked for when I discovered YouTube. There’s a wonderful balance between the funny and the creepy–the sinister–and the music hits all the right notes. I love the vibrant cel paint colors, even though they faded long ago. The backdrops are all little pieces of art, and atmospheric, the sight gags are nifty.

I was such a Popeye fan as a little kid really. On St. Maarten, the Dutch version of Hallowe’en, I always dressed up as Popeye (photographic evidence exists of this). And I was always drawing him–these are from when I was 4 or 5:

I was mighty proud of those creations. Then one day my grandfather came along, and he said, “Can I draw Popeye in your sketchbook?” “Sure!” So he took his pen and:

I just couldn’t believe my eyes. To me that drawing looked so perfect, so professional. Man, that was Popeye alright. And my own stuff? Deformed Chernobyl victims. Sorry mutants from Mars. The brick of complete demotivation hit me in the face hard that day, and it took me a while to get over that.

(There’s no funny clue or point to this story. I did just that: I got over it one day, soon after.)

Anyway–here are Eugene the Jeep and a Goon: