Recently Read: Popeye: the 60th Anniversary, Edited by Mike Higgs

This book is an oddly edited but very entertaining collection and overview of the Popeye comic strip. Even the name of the book is in question. Online copies are described as "Popeye: the 60th Anniversary", but nowhere is that written on the cover or copyright page (it looks to be just called "Popeye"). It seems to have been originally published in the '80s, but the copyright page only states, "This edition published 1995". It appears to have been a British book but, again, the copyright page gives no indication of that. I'd love to know the history behind this strange publication.

The meat of the book is reprints of creator E.C. Segar's work (the color panels not particularly well scanned). One of the greatest cartoonists of the 20th century, Segar's work is impeccably timed, hilarious, whimsical and sharply satirical. The collection also presents work by later Popeye writers and artists Bela Zaboly, "Doc" Winner, Bud Sagendorf and Bobby London. The essayists include Bill Blackbeard, who compares Segar to Dickens and Smollett, Denis Gifford on Popeye comic book history (including little-known British Popeye comics never printed in the states), and Glenn Mitchell on Popeye on film.

This collection has, arguably, been superseded by later collections, but as a sampler of Segar's work, it still does the trick.

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