Toot! Toot! It’s Popeye the Sailor Man Day! Why? Because on Jan. 17, 1929, he made his first appearance in E.C. Segar’s newspaper strip Thimble Theatre. Popeye caught on quickly and became the lead character, with cartoons, toys, books, comic books, you name it, to follow. Since we’re in a colorful mood, here are 13 COVERS from Dell’s midcentury series. These are from the first 50 issues, from 1948 to 1959, all by Bud Sagendorf. Swell! — MORE — POPEYE AND HIS PAPA: A Birthday Tribute to the Great E.C. SEGAR. Click here. — Dig These 13 Eye-Poppin’ Classic POPEYE Toys. Click...
A BIRTHDAY TRIBUTE: The screen siren turns 77! Every year on Jan. 16, we run our birthday tribute to actress Caroline Munro who, to our way of thinking, would have been the perfect Talia in a 1970s Batman movie. Here it is again, in fact. (She’s turning 77.) The whole reasoning is based on her role as Margiana in 1973’s Ray Harryhausen-infused The Golden Voyage of Sinbad: But now we have something new to add to the mix: a phenomenal commission by artist Frank Cho, showcasing Munro in the movie. Check out what he posted online: “Took a break from my regular work and finished a commission that I started months ago,” Cho wrote on Facebook. “The commission was of Caroline Munro, but since I’m a huge Ray Harryhausen fan, I had to add the centaur-cyclops from The Golden Voyage of Sinbad.” Naturally, I showed this to our pal and 13th Dimension house colorist Walt Grogan, and he promptly whipped up this magazine-y cover: See, that just reinforces that she would have made a great Talia too. (Here’s Cho’s website, by the way.) For history’s sake, this is how Margiana was portrayed in Marvel’s groovy, two-part Golden Voyage of Sinbad adaptation in 1974’s Worlds Unknown #7-8, by Len Wein, with art by George Tuska and Vince Colletta: Oddly, she has blonde hair on the cover of Issue #8: Now, if I could only go back to the ’70s to get that Batman movie made. — MORE — CAROLINE MUNRO — The Greatest TALIA That Never Was. Click here. — The Kitschy Greatness of THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD. Click...
