#castor oyl

[chernobog13]

January 17, 2025 marks when the character Popeye enters the public domain.

I love the original character, but I shudder to think what might be coming our way. How long before we get a low-budget horror film with him as a slasher?

[fredandrieu]

Elzie Crisler Segar traduit par Sidonie Van den Dries Popeye Sundays 1930-1933 Futuropolis, novembre 2024 Publication originale : 18 mai 1930

[kollectorsrus]

[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.

[princesssarisa]

"Faerie Tale Theatre" Role Association: Seasons 1 through 3

To honor Shelley Duvall in a silly yet fun way, I decided to finally do what I've been meaning to for some time: play a complete game of Role Association for the characters of Faerie Tale Theatre.

That is, describing the story using the names of the actors' more famous characters. @thealmightyemprex and I once did this together, long ago. I thought I would try doing it myself now, starting with the show's first few seasons.

The Tale of the Frog Prince

The Genie is turned into a frog, and only a kiss from Inga can break the spell. Odo is Inga’s father, while Debbie Dunham and Kramer are Genie’s parents. Brave Sir Robin narrates.

Rumpelstiltskin

Wendy Torrence is ordered to spin straw into gold for Lots-O’-Huggin Bear after her father Sarge lies that she can. Tattoo agrees to spin it for her, but at a price.

Rapunzel

Olive Oyle is hidden away in a tower by her abusive foster mother Gloria Swenson, until she meets and falls in love with Prince Lir. Cornelius narrates.

The Nightingale

Ned Kelly is the Emperor of China, who learns the value of friendship from Hillary Whitney and a bird with the voice of Wendy Torrence. Commander Adama is the Prime Minister, while Harold, Iroh, and Mr. Wing are other members of the court.

Sleeping Beauty

Rita the Cat is cursed to die by Ellen Griswold, but Grandmama Addams softens the curse to a 100-year sleep, from which Superman’s kiss will wake her. Father Mulcahy and “Hot Lips” Houlihan are Rita’s parents.

Jack and the Beanstalk

Dave Stohler lives in poverty with his mother Jessica Tate, until Blinkin gives him magic beans that grow into a beanstalk, which leads him to the castle of gigantic couple Ted and Edith.

Little Red Riding Hood

Emily Hobbs goes into the forest to visit Grandma Gilmore and encounters Alex DeLarge, who sets out to prey on them both. The Mayor of San Francisco and Ida Sessions are Emily’s parents.

Hansel and Gretel

T.J. and Savannah are the children of poor woodcutter Wimpy, who get lost in the woods and are nearly cooked and eaten by Mrs. Potiphar.

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Addie Loggins intrudes into the house of papa Mongo, mama Alma Cox, and their son Paco. Dick Solomon and Rosie are Addie’s parents and Randall Peltzer is a forest ranger.

The Princess and the Pea

Stephen Waltham falls in love with Sally Bowles, but to test her worthiness, his mother Dr. Lesh has her sleep on twenty mattresses with a pea beneath them. Dr. Jack Bardofsky is a court jester and Chris Hargensen is a mean-girl princess.

Pinocchio

Pee-Wee Herman is a puppet carved by Saul Bloom and brought to life by Maria Portokalos. Kramer and Rocko are two con artists who lead him astray, and Waternoose turns him into a donkey.

Thumbelina

Two-inch tall Princess Leia is stolen from her mother Berta and nearly forced to marry first Castor Oyle, then the Penguin, before finding true love with Tommy Ross.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Cora Crawley is taken in by seven dwarfs after fleeing from Julia, who wants to kill her because Nicholas Medina claims that Cora is more beautiful than she is. Eventually Julia poisons her, but in the end, she revives and marries Frederic.

Beauty and the Beast

Janet Weiss becomes the prisoner of Count Dracula and eventually learns to love him. Chief Hubbard is her father, while Morticia Addams and Helen Henny are her sisters.

The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About the Shivers

John Cage isn’t afraid of anything, so he spends three nights in Count Dooku’s haunted castle with the promise of marriage to Dooku’s daughter Max. Bob Cratchit is an innkeeper, Stu Pickles is a clergyman, and Frank Zappa is a hunchbacked servant.

[tomoleary]

Bud Sagendorf - Limited Edition Comics Art Limited Edition Print (Abrams Original Editions, 1978) Thimble Theatre characters: Popeye the Sailor Man, Swee'pea, the Jeep, Olive Oyl, Castor Oyl, Cole Oyl, Nana Oyl, Bluto, Roughhouse, Wimpy, Alice the Goon.

Source

[the-unspeakable-tsar]

American Splendor Chapter 3

A journalist and an ex-navy man investigate a murder in the woods of Indiana while helping aid in building flood walls. But will they be able to solve it before the local militia can and before the flood waters set in?

Chapter 2

Notes: *Dorothy is Dorothy Gale. **Elly-Mei is Elly May from The Beverly Hillbillies (the first few episodes of which are public domain) ***Oliver is of course Olive Oyl. ****Marian is the public domain superhero, The Butterfly.

The floodwater was up to his ankles. Tintin and eight other volunteers were stationed on Braxton Street. The local Lick Creek had risen a few inches since the previous day, so the walls had to come up that day, or the entire section near the Hoosier Uplands would be gone. Tintin and the eight others only had one language in common, but he couldn’t say he was especially close to any of them. 

“Everyone on three!” shouted Rolf in his heavily accented English.

Everyone braced their shoulders against the wall as the man shouted down from three in his loudest tone. On the count of three, they began to heft it up, their feet struggling to find purchase in the mud as they brought the fence up. 

When they got it stable, Tintin spotted Popeye across the muddy field erecting a barrier by himself. The man’s hands were balled into fists and his entire body strained, but sure enough, he was able to push the fence until it was up and straight. He must have been one of those powered folks, but that was hardly the point. Gradually the pump siphoned the water out of the fenced-off area and it was break time.

Tintin sloshed across the muddy neighborhood towards Popeye. The man was seated on a concrete bench and was eating a salad sandwich. Green leaves fell out and onto his lap and the man swore with each lost leaf. Tintin sat down beside him and watched him eat.

“Have you thought about last night at all?” he asked.

“Been tryin’ not to,” said Popeye. 

“Well bully for you, but I can’t keep thoughts of corpses out of my head,” said Tintin. 

“And what do you suspect I’m t’do about it?” asked Popeye.

“I need some help here,” said Tintin. “I’d like to solve this thing before the flooding gets worse. There’s a story here and the whole thing stinks.”

“That it does, lad,” agreed Popeye. “What would you have me do?”

“You’re American and you’re ex-military,” said Tintin. “You can get into places I can’t. The militia here doesn’t seem to have a whole lot of respect for the foreign press.” 

“Might be they don’t like yer bosses,” said Popeye, taking another bite of the sandwich. “I’m game though. I’d like’ta see this game through.”

“That’s tops,” said Tintin. “I think our first stop should be the militia safehouse.”

Tintin dug a map out of his back pocket, it was drenched, but still legible. “They transported the body there last night and if they’ve learned anything of public interest they’ll be looking to release it so they can field for civilian help.” 

“Civilians like us?” asked Popeye

“Exactly,” said Tintin. “They’re based out of an old library. I say we hit there after work and make some inquiries.” 

“That works fer me,” said Popeye. “I’ll ask around some’a the boys and see if they’ve noticed anybody missin’.”

“Right,” said Tintin. “If it was someone from the town odds are they would have put up a notice right now.”

“That’s my thoughts ex-accly,” said Popeye.

Popeye bit into the sandwich and it made a loud, almost dry crunch. Now that he was able to look closer, Tintin could see that this salad sandwich didn’t have dressing on it.

“Is that just lettuce?”

“Nah,” said Popeye. “There’s also tomato and carrots.” 

“But no dressing?” asked Tintin.

“I don’t like dressing, interrupts the flavor of the veggies,” said Popeye.

---

Popeye did his rounds to the group that was supposed to be helping him. A grim group of bastards; Dorothy and her gal pal, Elly-Mei Clampett, and the brothers Oyl. The brothers Oyl were subject to intense contrast. The older brother, Castor was a short little fat man with a mouth that ran like a machine gun. By contrast, his younger brother, Oliver was tall and rail thin. 

“Fellas, Elly May,” said Popeye as he approached the group. “Soakin’ in the sun?” 

“Well there’s little else for us to do,” said Castor. “You seem to have the walls handled.” 

“That’s no excuse for being layabouts, boy,” said Popeye, though he didn’t know how old Castor actually was. “Listen, I need you to be doin’ some real work.” 

“What do you need, Popeye?” asked Elly-Mei in an overly enthusiastic tone.

Dorothy didn’t say anything, her mind was always focused on the oncoming storm. 

“I need you to go ‘round all the motel rooms tonight at the hotel. Figure out if anyone’s gone missing,” said Popeye.

“What’s this about?” asked Oliver. 

Popeye gave him a soft smile, but it quickly vanished beneath a harsher look, “Listen…Oliver. Somebody’s dead and I wanna find out who did it. Thing is…Nobody knows who is dead. You feel me?”

“I feel you, Popeye,” said Oliver. “We’re on it, right, Castor?” 

Castor scowled, his mind racing as he tried to work out an angle to approach this, “Fine. We can do that. But we won’t be getting into it. Beyond this, I need to know more if we’re to help out.” 

“I appreciate it, fellas. I really do,” said Popeye. 

---

The old library was a glass structure located on the edge of another one of Paoli’s many creeks. It also had the second oldest set of flood walls, second only to those that surrounded the courthouse. 

Tintin and Popeye once more trotted through ankle-deep floodwater to get to it, becoming muddy in the process. When they arrived at the door, they were greeted by a sign on the door that read, “Please take off shoes at the door.” 

They did, leaving muddy boots beside several others before stepping inside. The front desk was occupied by one of the militiamen, a black woman wearing a weird pilot’s helmet and a set of goggles that made her eyes seem dark and insect-like. 

“My name is Marian,” she said, smiling. “How can we help you today?” 

Tintin combed his hair back with his fingers and took the lead here, walking up to the front desk, “We reported a murder last night and I work for Le Vingtième Siècle. I was wondering if there have been any developments made in the case.” 

The smile quickly vanished and Marian dug out a cellphone, and locked eyes with him as she placed a call, “I have a journalist here and he’s bugging me about the body that got dragged in last night.” 

She fell silent and listened to whoever was on the other end. If Popeye were to guess it was that cyclops, Captain Battle. 

She concluded the call and placed it down on the table. She then refocused on the pair, “The body still has yet to be identified and we are not ready to release the cause of death to the public just yet.”

“Marian,” said Tintin. “I’m not trying to release it to the public just yet. I’m just asking for a bit of insight. The story as we know it is still developing, right?” 

She was unmoved by this. He decided to shift and refocus his tactics a bit.

“I’m a journalist. My job is to reveal the truth in places where it might otherwise be hidden. You’re big on complying with the new government's laws on transparency, right? Surely you can spare us a few more details.” 

She inflated one of her cheeks and breathed out the side of her mouth, “Look. I cannot tell you much. The thing is we don’t have a whole lot to go off of. As far as we can tell the man…if they were a man. Was murdered by some sort of machine.” 

“You’re a gem, Marian,” said Tintin, smiling. 

He happily smacked the top of the desk and the two prepared to make it to the door. 

Standing in the doorway was the man himself, Captain Battle. He was a lot taller up close. And a lot angrier up close.

[foreveralittlefaster]

Linux & Recent(ish) News

I know next to nothing about Linux, so in preparation for my Linux-heavy courses, I'm brushing up on its history. I admire its open source nature, even more so given its longevity. Apparently most IT work is done in the kernel, so the sooner i get good the sooner I can acquire Currency™️.

In the news, the second birthday of the DLARC came and went without much fanfare, something I find comforting after the recent slough of incidents the Internet Archive has been going through. I suppose no news is good news sometimes, huh?

On the topic of the Archive, they will be celebrating Public Domain Day 2025 with "Singin' in the Public Domain" on January 22nd, celebrating the media that became completely allowed for public use this year! These works include;

-Singin' In The Rain (The song, not the film. You'll have to wait until 2048 for that.)

-A Farewell To Arms (Novel)

-All Quiet on the Western Front (Novel)

-Salvador Dalí's paintings The Great Masturbator and The Accommodations of Desire

-Popeye (Sailorman)

(Olive Oyl and her brother Castor are already public domain. Bluto will remain under copyright until 2028 because he debuted in 1932.)

And, last but not least,

-The First Disney Silly Symphony Cartoon "The Skeleton Dance" (also known as "Spooky Scary Skeletons"!)

Have an excellent week!

[arkholt]

#inktober / #Vectober day 11: Castor Oyl, brother of Olive Oyl, from Thimble Theater created by E.C. Segar.

[disneyweirdness]

I love her.

[fredandrieu]

Bobby London 15 juillet 1987

[bobauthorman]

[detrixsta]

Thanksgiving letter from Popeye (November 23, 1935) (Great content; possibly from E.C. Segar himself!?) Can you name all of these Thimble Theatre Characters?

[kawaiibarbariansublime]

Popeye by Randy Milholland

Strip for Sunday 29 January 2003.

[bobauthorman]

It’s so nice to see Castor Oyl and Bernice the Whiffle Hen (Bottom left image) getting their due.

Great designs!

[thewebcomicsreview]

Questionable Content kind reminds me of some of those really old newspaper comics like that. Thimble Theatre, for instance, was a originally dysfunctional sitcom about Olive Oyl and her slacker boyfriend, Harold Hamgravy, before it shifted focus to being a comedy adventure more centered around Olive’s con-man brother, Castor. About ten years into it’s run, E. C. Segar introduced a sailor called “Popeye” as a supporting character, after which Castor and Harold just kinda disappeared.

Oh yeah, lots of newspaper comics are like that. Martin's closest newspaper analogue is probably Shermy, though.

Like Martin, Shermy was originally one of the core cast of Peanuts, alongside (OG) Patty and Violet, and like Shermy, Martin was less interesting than the characters who came along to replace him and slowly faded out of the comic. Patty and Violet outlast him but only as background characters and an excuse for Peppermint Patty to need a nickname. Even QC hasn't gotten rid of three of the original core cast yet, and it's coming up on twenty years old. It happens to these geriatric comics sometimes.