MYTHCOMICS: "LONG LIVE THE KING" (POPEYE, 1932-33)

Though the popularity of Popeye had already hit new heights three years after his introduction in E.C. Segar's THIMBLE THEATER, 1932 also provided the one-eyed salt with a new venue, as he made the transition to animated theatrical shorts. As many before me have mentioned, the mere fact that Popeye had just had a week-long battle with a pirate named Bluto resulted in this one-shot comics villain becoming ensconced as the go-to evildoer for the cartoons.

The Bluto arc and the one after it were just business as usual for Segar, wherein he would generate some loose concept and use it as an excuse for an assortment of gags. However, the arc after the arc that followed Bluto's managed to form the gags into a spoofy satire of politics. 

The post-Bluto arc involved Popeye and various other characters rendering aid to King Blozo as he sought to harvest gold from a sunken city in order to solve the economic problems of his postage-stamp kingdom Nazilia. (Whatever the origin of the name, I think it's unlikely that Segar derived the country from a notorious German political party.) However, in Blozo's absence his foremost general Bunzo tries to take over the throne. After being ejected, Bunzo forms a new scheme, hiring a hot young foreign woman to vamp Blozo. Her name is "Dinah Mow," eventually explained by her ability to "spark." 

Bunzo only wants Dinah to trick Blozo with the idea that she'll become his queen later (despite the fact that Bunzo is married). But Dinah pitches some woo in Popeye's direction as well. Despite his intention to remain true to his sweetie-pie Olive Oyl, Popeye does yield to the "vampirate's" blandishments. "I thought I could resisk ya by bein' a man of steel, and here ya happing to be a woman fulla magnetism. Arf! Arf!" Olive rails against Popeye, who makes no excuses for his waywardness, though to be sure the sailor's idea of "sparking" is to sit holding the vamp's hand. Dinah conveniently decides she's really in love with Popeye but leaves Nazilia of her own accord.

Blozo's own citizens are still not very impressed with his kingship, so Popeye suggests that Blozo hand out a big nugget of gold to each of his subjects. However, in the tradition of welfare states everywhere, Blozo then finds that no one in Nazilia wants to work for a living. At first Blozo thinks he'll simply tax everyone heavily, but Popeye has a quicker solution: using his skill with dice to turn everyone back into paupers.

But Bunzo challenges Blozo in an election. This is one of the funniest sections, in that Popeye, despite his notorious intregrity (intekrity?), cheerfully tampers with the ballot-box as much as Bunzo's agents do. 

Despite all this perfidy, Bunzo appears to win the election, and he demotes Blozo to office-boy. Bunzo's wife then decides to exert her queenly powers, bringing "dance boys" into the palace. However, Popeye finds a bunch of uncounted votes and Blozo returns to the throne. Bunzo threatens revolution, but Popeye buys off the rebels by tossing gold nuggets at them, so that they fight one another over the gold. In other news, Olive copies Dinah Mow by dolling herself so that both Popeye and Blozo don't recognize her but still pitch woo to her. When she removes her false face, Popeye is duly ashamed of his faithlessness-- for a while, at least.

The master-thread of this arc comes down to "everyone's a dick," but Segar puts across the moral failings of all the characters with such joie de vivre that KING remains a sprightly comedy rather than a depressing irony. In contrast to some of Segar's other arcs, Popeye doesn't perform any marvelous feats, though he's seen to be strong enough, even without gimmicks, to hit a guy hard enough to send him flying out a window.