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Post by mhberest on Nov 7, 2005 19:59:37 GMT -5
For those comic book aficionados out there, I wanted to start a thread about Captain Strong.
As some of you might remember from my scandalous expose on Popeye's family secrets, he is a kind of one shot opponent of Superman. His appearance (Greek fisherman cap, big chin, sinuous forearms with anchor tattoos, pugnacious attitude, use of a food for superhuman strength) is clearly inspired by our hero.
Popeye, of course, would never try to beat up Superman unless the Man of Steel had started it (see the 1950's Mad Magazine Satire "Poopeye" for proof).
What is your opinion of this homage/rip off of the sailorman and his being cast as a villain?
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Post by bluto on Nov 8, 2005 7:36:53 GMT -5
I don't think I have those "Captain Strong" issues in my collection. But I read one of them long, long ago. I thought CS was a clever homage. It didn't bother me that he and Supes started out as antagonists, because I seem to remember that they later teamed up and became friends. Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong.
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Post by mhberest on Nov 8, 2005 15:26:41 GMT -5
Of course, it was all jusk a big miskunderstanding.
The other post concerning Popeye's skeletons in the closest, of course, is metaphorically true. One can indeed claim Sinbad, Jr., Captain Strong, and maybe even perhaps Archie are inspired in one way or another by the sailorman. There are, of course, more remote incarnations, such as Eighthman, Underdog, and Roger Ramjet on the using something to gain incredible strength side, and maybe a Daffy Duck or Woody Woodpecker cartoon or two on the romance side.
The three that I've mentioned as Popeye's blood relations (SJ, CS, and AA) are direct connects whose whole reason for being seems to revolve around Popeye-esque (or is it "esk"?) things. No one ever acknowledges the influence. People regard Popeye as a dead end, that you can't do anything similar without producing a rank imitation, but that's far from true, and I've pointed out the examples.
Now the mothers of these characters are not as easily determinable. Certainly one person whose parentage I've never been able to figure out is Poopdeck Pappy. The only person around to be his mother would be the Sea Hag, and I believe the two of them were engaged at one point. I don't think I want to go there....
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doc
Swabbie
Posts: 96
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Post by doc on Nov 8, 2005 21:47:19 GMT -5
Believe it or not, Pappy actually DOES have a mother in the strip. She was created, I think, during the Sagendorf run and is rarely seen anymore, but she WAS there. of course, she looked just like her son and grandson.
A bit too much chlorine in that gene pool......
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Post by mhberest on Nov 9, 2005 1:30:54 GMT -5
Wasn't her name Butterfly Poopdeck? I seems to remember this from a post in the Yahoo forum.
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