In early 20th Century theater and film, the “sissy” was the dreaded antithesis of two-fisted pulp hyper-masculinity, at best, and at worst was a stereotypical euphemism for what was unspoken in general culture, homosexuality. Wimpy, the dandyish, appetite-driven counterpoint to Popeye’s principled violence, is of course Popeye’s best tutor for all things “sissy.” To make this sexual dynamic even weirder we have Popeye’s Pappy bewildered by his prancing progeny. It reads like an unintended burlesque of Popeye “coming out”. Per a previous post, These dailies precede Popeye deceiving the underground demons to come up and fight.

It is important to note that this gender-bending sequence was followed immediately by another adventure cycle involving Popeye getting the crap beaten out of him in a land of highly muscled women. And this is all happening right after E.C. Segar’s death in October 1938. The strip was being continued unsigned by assistants for the time being.

• Radical Physics: Milt Gross In MotionSeptember 23, 2026
  One of the basic joys of comics is every artist inventing their own physics. The distinctive cartoonists, at least, use line weight and figure shapes, action and reaction to create physical rules to govern their… Read more: Radical Physics: Milt Gross In Motion
• “Gin-Guzzling Females” Play Catch With Baby: The Police Gazette’s Victorian LeerSeptember 21, 2026
  It was a kind of Victorian soft porn. For over a century, The National Police Gazette was ubiquitous at men’s clubs, barber shops, saloons, general store backrooms. The Gazette was the 19th Century forerunner of… Read more: “Gin-Guzzling Females” Play Catch With Baby: The Police Gazette’s Victorian Leer
• The Obsessive American: Fixations, Tics and Mania in Early ComicdomSeptember 13, 2026
  Early newspaper cartoonists had a fixation on fixations. From the relentless politeness of Alphonse and Gaston to the ravenous Hungry Henrietta to Mr. Jack’s apparent sex addiction, the comedy of dysfunction was central to the… Read more: The Obsessive American: Fixations, Tics and Mania in Early Comicdom
• McDougall’s Trolley Launches the Sunday ComicsSeptember 6, 2026
  This Walt McDougall comic should be more famous than it seems to be. On May 21, 1893, Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World published the first true color comics supplement of the modern era. It was… Read more: McDougall’s Trolley Launches the Sunday Comics
• Thimble Theatre Before Popeye: E.C. Segar, American HumoristAugust 27, 2026
  Popeye’s impact on E.C. Segar’s Thimble Theatre in 1929 was so enormous that the previous decade of the strip’s life soon became a footnote to comics history. But, of course, Segar’s legendary storytelling skills in… Read more: Thimble Theatre Before Popeye: E.C. Segar, American Humorist