- Popeye the Sailor turns 90 on Thursday, January 17.
- In honor of his birthday, artists are creating their own Popeye comic strips, which will be featured on ComicsKingdom.com all year long.
- INSIDER is exclusively debuting five comic strips from artists including Liniers and Erica Henderson ("The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl").
Popeye is turning 90 and to celebrate comic artists are coming together to draw their own fan strips of the spinach-loving sailor.
Before Popeye was a cartoon on TV or portrayed by Robin Williams in the 1980 movie, the character first appeared in King Features' "The Thimble Theatre" strip in 1929. At the end of each comic, Popeye creator E.C. Segar started sharing fan art from readers in what was called, "Popeye’s Cartoon Club."
In honor of Popeye's 90th birthday (January 17), King Features is bringing the cartoon club back with cartoonists all over the world creating strips of their own featuring the tattooed sailor and his friends. Starting Thursday (Popeye's Birthday), new comics will appear each Sunday on ComicsKingdom.com here.
INSIDER is exclusively debuting five of the new Popeye-inspired comic strips from Argentine cartoonist Liniers, Eisner-winning artist Erica Henderson, and more.
Netflix's "Queer Eye" gang come in to give Popeye a makeover in Lar deSouza's strip, but things take an unexpected turn.
Why you should know Lar deSouza: DeSouza is an online cartoonist known for daily webcomic "Least I Could Do" that he does with Ryan Sohmer, which you can read here, and "Looking For Group.'
You can check out more of deSouza's work here and follow him on Twitter here.
Argentine cartoonist Ricardo Siri, aka Liniers, used Popeye's burger-loving pal Wimpy to introduce the character to the world of emojis.
Why you should know Liniers: The artist is known for the South American strip Macanudo, which roughly translates to "everything's fine." He has also had his work on the cover of the New Yorker, including this 2014 item on Obama.
Why Liniers wanted to make a Popeye strip:"I'm a big fan of Segar’s world and felt I was a garage band covering The Beatles. Hanging around with those characters for a couple of days was a dream come true."
You can check out more of Linier's work here and follow him on Instagram here.
It's not just Popeye's birthday. His girlfriend, Olive Oyl, is turning 100 this year. Artist Erica Henderson brings back Olive's first love, Ham Gravy.
Why you should know Henderson: The Eisner-winning artist rebooted Marvel's "The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl," which she worked on for three years. In 2018, Henderson left to focus on other projects and will be releasing an action-comedy, "Assassin Nation," with writer Kyle Starks in March with Image and Skybound.
Henderson on the inspiration behind her strip: "Like anything this old, Popeye has had many incarnations and since this is a celebration of all of it, I really wanted to reach back and remind people of the crazy origin of Popeye where Popeye didn't even exist yet," Henderson told INSIDER.
You can learn about more of Henderson's work here and follow her on Instagram here.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider