#Thimble theater

[browsethestacks]

Popeye

Art by...

1) Zombie Goon

2) E.C. Segar And "Son"

3) E.C. Segar

4) Kelley Jones

5) Otto Schmidt

6) Roger Langridge

7) Marcus Williams

8) Tom Fowler

9) Chris Wahl

10) Steve Mannion

[fashioninpaper]

“Popeye Thimble Theatre" with Bisque Dolls,in Original Box. The characters are Jack Snork, Ham Gravy, The Bandit, Mr. Kelp, Castor Oyl, Tim Eard, Olive Oyl and Popeye.

[prismcreative]

Primordial Sailor

Happy 95th anniversary, Popeye!

[bobauthorman]

Even the octopus looks shocked!

[rubbrcat]

[owlsounds]

Popeye is a magical girl.

[naidje]

popeye dysphoric moment

[arkholt]

Thimble Theater, December 24, 1921

I don't know a lot about how radiators work, but I'm confused as to why you would have a chimney if you didn't have a fireplace. If there's no fire to create smoke, then there's no need for a chimney for the smoke to go out of. Perhaps I'm wrong about this and a radiator expert will set me straight, but this seems like an odd premise. Still, it shows why Olive Oyl eventually left Harold Hamgravy and stayed with Popeye. Popeye would never do anything this silly. Or perhaps he would, but he would be strong enough to punch his way out of the radiator.

[that-theaven]

I was inspired to make this after seeing Lilly-Rose Depp in Nosferatu, but Olive Oyl ended up looking like Mia Goth in Pearl instead

[pulpsandcomics2]

Thimble Theater

[kamenwriter]

[ifelllikeastar]

On January 17, 1929, Popeye the Sailor Man, makes his first appearance in the comic strip 'Thimble Theater'. Popeye was created by Elzie Crisler Segar. The Thimble Theatre strip was in its 10th year when Popeye made his debut, but the one-eyed (left) sailor quickly became the main focus of the strip, and Thimble Theatre became one of King Features' most popular properties during the 1930s.

[autisticsupervillain]

It's Fictional Throwdown Friday!

This Week's Fighters...

Popeye vs Spongebob!

Conditions:

No restrictions.

Scenario:

While going out to buy ingredients for the Krusty Krab, Mr. Krabs convinces Spongebob not to buy any of Popeye's spinach to save money. This prompts Popeye to pop out of the spinach can and attack the duo.

Analysis: Popeye

Popeye the Sailor Man is many things. An ever faithful boyfriend to his beloved Olive Oil, a combat hardened member of the navy, and the amphibious nonbinary sailor man icon we all deserve. No really, that happened. Look it up. But above all, he is one of classic cartoons all time heavyweight champions, on par with Bugs Bunny himself.

This little sailor had quite humble beginnings. After being born to the horribly named Poopdeck Pappy, Popeye was born horrifically ugly and deformed, prompting his father to run away in horror of what he had created. This caused Popeye to be adopted by the loving Whaler Joe, whom he'd look up for all of his boyhood years. Seeking to emulate his father, Popeye would join the navy, where he would learn to embrace his gift for violence.

Popeye had always been adept at beating the shit out of people, but it's only upon getting embroiled in World War 2, and competing with the loathsome bully Bruto for the fair Olive Oil's affections, that Popeye's skills would truly come into their own. This is because of the mythical miracle herb that Popeye had spent all of his life consuming known only as spinnach. Thanks to that, Popeye has an absurd level of superhuman strength, speed, and power that makes him among the toughest fighters in cartoon history.

Being a rubberhose animation icon, Popeye can freely morph and stretch his body like, well, rubber. He can inflate his muscles to huge proportions, stretch and bounce back at will to absorb blows, and inspire Monkey D Luffy with his cartoon antics. Again, look it up. Furthermore, he can completely break the laws of physics in the palm of his hand with ease. Whether by painting a battleship into existence, shooting fire out of his pipe to fly, flying normally anyways, or by turning completely invisible, Popeye is always capable of throwing out something you won't expect.

For example, one of Popeye's signature abilities is his power to punch so hard, whatever he hits is broken down into smaller elements. An anchor becomes a bunch of fish hooks, an animal becomes a steak stand, and racial stereotypes become even worse racial stereotypes. Use your imagination. That's another benefit to being from a rubberhose cartoon, Popeye's world is even more cartoonishly rascist than ours. Ah, 1940's America, how I loathe thee.

Moreover, Popeye's power may come from spinnach, but he certainly doesn't need it. He's eaten so much over the years, that he can still operate at a baseline superhuman level without it. Like that time God himself turned off the universe to kill Popeye and Popeye just... stood there and took it without blinking. Furthermore, the spinnach has proven to be so powerful that it once made a rocket fly so fast that it traveled backwards in time. And even if Popeye does need spinach for a boost, he can just will some into exist, either by waving his hand, drawing it, threatening the animator to give him some, or just letting the audience in the real world hand him some spinnach when he's in a tight spot.

And if you think you can just kill Popeye before he eats any, you're dreaming. Because even after being completely erased from existence, Popeye's nothingness was able to eat a can of spinnach and come back good as new. Popeye's power is so great, not even his animator is safe, as Popeye is able to not only tear and break his own animation frames, but also beat the hell out of his own animator. Meaning he's more or less beat the shit out of two different versions of God.

So, if you dare choose to mess with Popeye, always remember who you're dealing with. You're fighting one of cartoon's all time heavyweight champions, truly a Sailor Man to be feared.

Analysis: Spongebob

Tell me.... WHO LIVES IN A PINEAPPLE UNDER THE SEA! OOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!

Ah, yes, Spongebob SquarePants. We love him, we meme him, and we remember him as the purest essence of childhood cartoon nostalgia. This goofy goober, nautical nincompoop, and asexual icon may seem like a harmless wimp on the surface... and to an extent, he kinda is. His life long dream is to work as a fry cook at a dead end fast food restaurant, he once struggled to lift a glass of water, and he's easily small enough to fit in your hand, regularly getting overpowered by ordinary humans. You'd be forgiven for mistaking Bikini Bottom's best fry cook for a harmless goofball, wing nut, or knucklehead mcspazatron. But just you wait, this fry cook has a lot more up his virtually nonexistent sleeves.

There are three acronyms that one must always remember when discussing Spongebob. E.V.I.L, P.O.O.P., and T.F.I.B. Don't recognize that last one? It stands for Toon Force Is Bullshit.

When Spongebob isn't struggling to lift Teddy Bears, he's effortlessly rotating the entire planet, sucking up the entirety of Earth's oceans, and absorbing enough water to replace the moon in the sky. We're in for some shit now.

As a sea sponge, or, really more of a kitchen sponge I guess, Spongebob is remarkably durable and flexible. He can freely shspeshift into nearly any form he can imagine, regenerate from getting reduced to dust, duplicate himself millions of times, and absorb any liquid or physical attack thrown at him. Like the time he was able to walk around getting punched all week without feeling any of it, or the time he literally laughed off being erased from existence.

Moreover, he's a master of nearly any hobby or job he picks up. He's so good at cooking Krabby Patties that they can become sentient, cancel mind control, and make people romantically attracted to them, while his bubble blowing skills let him create torpedoes, create sentient life, and create entire fuctioning societies out of bubbles. He's such a Rockstar that his music can physically assault you and free you from mind control and one timd he was able to rock out so hard he transformed into the sun.

On top of that, Spongebob can create anything he can conceivably need in any situation, either by drawing it with the magic pencil (which, yes, later seasons show he still has), blowing bubbles, letting his tears come to life to revive him from the dead, or just by willing it into existence with his imagination. And bot only can the pencil's eraser erasing things from reality, but he can even erase reality itself by pulling on a string and unraveling the entire universe.

And then... there's his ability... to break the fourth wall.

Not only can he ride on the scene transitions, not only can he exit the comic book he's in, but he can also rewrite the plot of his own story as it's happening. And that's without the magic book from the second movie. He can just... do that. On his own.

He's strong enough to fuse together with Patrick down to the level of his DNA by hugging him really hard, fast enough to watch Patrick run to the sun in back in seconds, and strong enough to defeat and capture everyone else in Bikini Bottom within a single night (albiet with Patrick's help). This includes Squidward Tentacles, who is not only fast enough to move in a void where time does not exist, but also travel back in time out of that void into a point in time where is time machine still work by smashing a hole through said timeless void. Let me repeat... time did not exist and Squidward could still move.

While this all may sound unbeatable, there is one major issue for Mr. SquarePants. He can only survive out of water for so long and if exposed to extreme heats outside the water for too long, he risks drying up and suffocating to death. But, that's okay, because if that does happen, his tears will come to life and resurrect him from the dead anyways.

So next time you think to underestimate your childhood icon, you'd do well to remember... he's ready.

Throwdown Theme:

Throwdown Breakdown:

I'm gonna be perfectly honest with you... Spongebob pretty handily takes this.

While Popeye should be generally smarter and more experienced and arguably faster depending on how you quantify both of them traveling through time, that's about it. His time in the navy and fighting Bluto should give him more experience fighting Toon Force characters on his own level and military training should beat amateur karate.

Spongebob can match Popeye's regeneration, can easily surpass his shapeshifting, and can just... shapeshift back from Popeye's attempts to transform him into stuff. That alone counters a lot of Popeye's arsenal. And while Popeye can ask the writer for help, Spongebob can leave the fight completely and just politely ask the writer not to do that.

Granted, neither of them can exactly kill each other, but Spongebob does have ways of incapacitating Popeye, either by making him fall in love with a Krabby Patty, or by drawing up something Popeye can't escape from. While Popeye could likely deduce Spongebob's weakness to drying up, given he is a sea creature and Popeye in an experienced sailor, that would require him to not only keep Spongebob on dry land long enough to dry out but also keep him from reviving somehow. Which is easier said than done when Spongebob can just... absorb the ocean. And if Spongebob's cooking is good enough to get Popeye to swear of spinach forever, which it probably is, than, well, there you go. That's most of Popeye's power gone.

While Popeye's toon force shenanigans can let him beat all but the mightiest, he just wasn't ready for this Goofy Goober's Sweet Victory.

This Throwdown's Winner is...

Spongebob SquarePants!

[hazblackslick]

Page 4

[bobauthorman]

[owlsounds]

something something Popeye commemorative Tiananmen Square tin toy.