Tag: comics

# 240 (VOL. 2 #12): WIMPY IN LOVE

In his introduction to one of Fantagraphics Books’ earlier set of volumes reprinting E. C. Segar’s Popeye comic strips, comics historian Rick Marschall argues that Popeye’s supporting player J. Wellington Wimpy is a “scoundrel” with a “lack of conscience” who can and does “betray” everyone. But in reviewing the Sunday strips in Volume 3 of Fantagraphics’ current series of Segar Popeye reprints, I’ve discovered that Wimpy is more complex than that. He does indeed have a conscience, though it is repeatedly overwhelmed by his animalistic appetite for hamburgers.

There are a month of 1933 Sunday strips about Popeye’s boxing match with the enormous Bullo Oxheart, in which Wimpy acts as referee, though he keeps being distracted from the fight by his efforts to mooch a meal off a friend, Eddie, who is sitting in the audience off-panel. But Popeye is the central character of this sequence of Sundays, each of which Segar uses to underline how “the well known weed called spinach” boosts his strength. Indeed, at this point Popeye’s strength has clearly reached superhuman levels. At the end of the June 18, 1933 strip Popeye, with apparent ease, lifts an entire house up from its foundation. “”˜Sa good thing I been eatin’ spinach lately,” Popeye comments, laughing. In the June 25, 1933 strip Popeye commends a boy who yells “I want spinach!” so Segar may be emphasizing spinach to induce his younger readers to follow their hero’s example. Popeye has become a role model, whereas Wimpy decidedly has not.

After winning the fight, Popeye tells Wimpy in the July 16, 1933 strip that he intends to donate half of the prize money “to a institution wich’ll buy spinach and cod liver oil for poor kids.” Wimpy asks him “Pardon me for being so personal, but how does it feel to give away money like that?” Note Wimpy’s unusual level of politeness here. He seems genuinely intrigued by Popeye’s generous nature, and has enough insight to recognize that this is a very personal matter to the sailor. Wimpy’s politeness may also be another sign that he genuinely regards Popeye as his friend.

When Popeye asks him, Wimpy implies that he has never given away anything himself. (For the purposes of this particular Sunday strip Segar has intentionally or not ignored the earlier sequence in which Wimpy selflessly gave his mother thousands of dollars.)

Though he isn’t articulate in a conventional manner, Popeye’s way with language has its own sort of vivid poetry. Popeye tells Wimpy that “Givin’ charity makes ya feel swell inside. . .It’s hard to explain, but right now I got tickles in me chest wich tells me I done sumpin wort’ while, see?”

Surprisingly, Wimpy decides to experiment: he says he has a dime (an unusual occurrence for him) and will use it to buy a hamburger for an impoverished man sitting at the counter in Rough-House’s diner. (Now there’s a sign of how much inflation there has been since 1933!) There is no reason to doubt Wimpy’s sincerity: he could easily buy a hamburger for himself instead. Moreover, Wimpy’s portly build is evidence of his continual success in feeding himself. In contrast, the thin stranger sitting at the counter has his tongue hanging out; Wimpy notes that this is a symptom of starvation. Indeed, the stranger seems genuinely to be in a sad state: “I have no money and no friends,” he tells Wimpy, and “I haven’t had a bite for days.” Keep in mind that this is 1933, so the stranger may very well be intended as a victim of the Great Depression.

Wimpy puts his hand on the stranger’s shoulder, tells him, “You may not have money, but you have a friend. J. Wellington Wimpy is your friend,” and orders a hamburger for him. Again, there is no reason to doubt Wimpy’s sincerity at this point.

But matters change when the hamburger arrives. Holding the burger, Wimpy begins snapping his teeth furiously, like a wild animal. Yet he simultaneously speaks in a calm tone, as if he were dispassionately observing his own behavior: “Isn’t it odd how my teeth snap at it? I have to hold it with both hands to keep it from going into my mouth.” He speaks as if the hamburger would force itself into his mouth if he didn’t stop it.

It’s also as if Wimpy’s appetite, his animal nature, is at odds with his conscious mind and better nature, as if he has a kind of split personality. Since Wimpy is a variation on the archetype of the glutton, it should be no surprise which side of his personality wins. The surprise lies in how quickly and completely that battle is won. Distraught, his tongue hanging out once more in hunger, the stranger asks his newfound friend, “Didn’t you buy that hamburger for me?”

Expressionless as usual, Wimpy replies, “I beg pardon? What’s the name, please?” It sees that Wimpy is pretending not to know his new supposed friend in order to keep the burger for himself. But is it possible that the gluttonous side of Wimpy’s personality has submerged his weaker, charitable side, and that Wimpy has to some extent actually forgotten about his promise to feed his starving acquaintance? Wimpy’s conscience had briefly awakened, but once he is exposed to the presence of a hamburger, his hunger proves dominant. Wimpy’s id overrules his superego.

Then Wimpy begins licking the hamburger with his tongue. In part this may be to partially satisfy his hunger, but it may also be that the trickster aspect of Wimpy is surfacing. Now he has an excuse for not giving the hamburger to the stranger, but the starving stranger says he still wants it. “What kind of fellow are you, anyway?” Wimpy asks, acting shocked at what he clearly considers the starving man’s loose attitude towards hygiene.

Once again putting his hand on the stranger’s shoulder, as if reverting to his former attitude of friendliness, Wimpy says he will just take one bite of the burger and then give it to him. Perhaps Wimpy still means to be generous, by his own standards, but then he opens his mouth wide, devours virtually the whole burger in a single bite, and hands the stranger what amounts to a mere scrap.

This wouldn’t be funny if the stranger were left to starve, but the genuinely generous Popeye gives him some money. Popeye scowls disapprovingly at Wimpy, who says, as if nothing had gone wrong, “I don’t know whether it was the bite of the hamburger or the charity–but I feel very lovely inside.”

I like Wimpy’s use of the word “lovely.” Popeye says two Sundays later about Wimpy that “No use gettin’ mad at him–he jus’ don’t know no better.”

When his mother came to visit, Wimpy’s conscience and sense of shame did overrule his usual greed for food. But ordinarily Wimpy doesn’t have an ordinary kind of conscience; he sees nothing wrong in mooching food from his friends, or starving strangers, or anyone else. He idealizes food, especially hamburgers, so satisfying his hunger is to him “lovely.” Perhaps Wimpy also finds it “lovely” to exercise his trickster skills in procuring food; mooching is his talent, his vocation, and perhaps even his artform.

In the July 23, 1933 strip Wimpy goes to the aquarium “for some relaxation,” and Popeye comes along. While Wimpy distracts a guard with chitchat, he surreptitiously hooks a fish in a tank behind his back; Wimpy then smuggles the fish out of the aquarium in the back of his pants. Was Wimpy lying to Popeye when he said his goal at the aquarium was “relaxation”? Maybe Wimpy does find employing his trickster skills in this way relaxing, just as other people do fishing where it’s legal to do so. It’s notable, too, that Wimpy ends this strip by inviting Popeye to dine on the fish with him. After all, Wimpy does indeed seem to regard Popeye as his friend, although he also wants Popeye to supply the tartar sauce for dinner himself.

So far Popeye feels both disgust and amusement at Wimpy’s mooching ways. But now Wimpy, surprisingly, becomes an antagonist to Popeye. Just as Wimpy does not allow friendship to get in the way of his quest for burgers, it is no barrier to his sex drive, either. You might have thought that Wimpy had sublimated his libido into his lust for hamburgers, but no. In the July 30, 1933 strip Rough-House has hired a pretty new waitress, who, we learn the following Sunday, is named Lucy Brown. Popeye immediately starts flirting with her, whereupon Wimpy literally comes between them and starts chatting with her himself.

In my research on tricksters, I’ve learned that the trickster is typically himself susceptible to being tricked. That may seem unlikely, since tricksters are so clever, but it appears to be true. For example, Superman traditionally thwarts his own trickster nemesis, Mr. Mxyzptlk, by tricking him into saying his name backwards. Perhaps the point is that the trickster can be so confident of his own cleverness that he underestimates his target’s ability to best him at his own game. So here Popeye tells Wimpy he’s wanted on the phone, and Wimpy not only believes him, but says hello into the phone over and over again before finally giving up. Apparently it never occurred to Wimpy that he hadn’t heard the phone ring.

So Wimpy returns to Popeye and Lucy the waitress. Popeye in effect tells Wimpy to go away, Wimpy turns his back, as if in defeat, and then Popeye proposes marriage to this woman he just met!

In the Fleischer and Famous Studios Popeye animated cartoons, it is Olive Oyl who often comes off as fickle, switching her affections between Popeye and Bluto. So it is quite a surprise to see from the original Segar comic strips that, early on, at least, it is Popeye who is the fickle one.

Hearing Popeye propose, Wimpy immediately sees his opportunity, turns around, and simply asks, “How’s Olive Oyl?”, shocking Popeye. Wimpy may not be able to fight the super-strong Popeye physically, but Wimpy can fight effectively with words. Wimpy quickly moves in, bending over the startled Lucy, as if enacting a love scene out of a movie, although Wimpy’s idea of romantic dialogue is distorted by his usual preoccupation: he invites her to duck dinner, adding “You bring the ducks.”

Then Popeye plays trickster again, advising Wimpy that he has forgotten to put on his pants, and wrapping a tablecloth around Wimpy’s waist. The trusting Wimpy believes Popeye, feels too embarrassed even to look down to see if Popeye is right, and rushes out of the diner. Once again, Popeye’s amusement supplants any anger he may have felt at Wimpy: laughing, he tells Lucy, “I was go’ner ast ya to marry me, but I kin not get serious on account of laughin’ at ol’ Wimpy.” It would seem that Popeye’s attraction to Lucy wasn’t that serious since his amusement at Wimpy proves the stronger emotion.

At the beginning of the following Sunday strip, August 6, 1933, Wimpy asks Popeye why he won’t let him talk with Lucy Brown. “Is this not a free country?” By Wimpy’s lights, it seems he thinks he merely wants a fair chance to compete for Lucy’s attentions. Alpha male Popeye declares “she’s gon’er be my sweety” and tells Wimpy to “beat it.” (Since this is 1933, neither man considers Lucy’s opinion about this.)

So Wimpy seeks out Olive Oyl and tells her that Popeye has a “new sweetheart,” Lucy Brown. You might think that Wimpy intends to get Lucy for himself. But no: sticking his nose literally in Olive’s face, Wimpy declares, “If he don’t want you, I want you.” Having decided “it is time I should take unto myself a wife,” Wimpy is determined to get one, and it doesn’t seem to matter whom. (It does appear as if Wimpy is only going after women whom Popeye has already picked out, as if he considers Popeye a guide in such matters.) But the comics Olive is considerably less fickle than her animated counterpart, and far from being as passive as Lucy: she knocks Wimpy down (So that’s why she’s such a good match for Popeye!) and declares, “I want Popeye and nobody but.”

Olive races to the diner and angrily confronts Popeye, who, shaken, resorts to the Wimpyesque tactic of denial: “What girl?” Popeye asks, though Lucy is standing right there. Seemingly guilt-ridden, Popeye pleads the Fifth Amendment, but Wimpy urges Olive, “Let’s you and her fight”: maybe Wimpy considers two women fighting to be a turn-on. He soon gets his wish, and Popeye, seemingly forgetting his rivalry with Wimpy, asks him to help break the fight up but each taking hold of one of the women. Perhaps showing his true loyalty, Popeye grabs Olive, and advises her not to start fights; Olive looks bewildered and distraught, now that she’s coming out of her fit of rage. And then both Popeye and Olive discover that Wimpy not only took hold of Lucy but now has clasped her in his loving embrace, as he radiates cartoon hearts. He’s back to fixating on Lucy as his sweetheart. (Lucy looks somewhat annoyed.)

But on the following Sunday, August 13, 1933, we learn that Popeye is now conducting a clandestine romance with Lucy. Back to treating Wimpy as his friend, Popeye asks him to act as if Lucy is Wimpy’s girlfriend if Olive Oyl turns up. This is a big mistake. Olive does indeed turn up at the home of Lucy and her father, whereupon Wimpy, radiating more cartoon hearts, begins cuddling Lucy. But whenever Olive attempts to leave, Wimpy persuades her to stay. So Wimpy gets to cuddle Lucy for hours, until Olive finally leaves at midnight. “Popeye, you are, indeed, a fine fellow,” says Wimpy. “There aren’t any men who’d allow me to pet their sweeties.” Possibly Wimpy is just trying to placate Popeye. But it also seems quite possible that Wimpy sees nothing wrong with manipulating the situation with Lucy and Olive and that he genuinely considers Popeye to have shown generosity in letting him hug Lucy for hours. (Again, Lucy’s own opinions are not consulted.) But this time Popeye erupts in rage, punches Wimpy in the jaw, and throws him out the window. And thus begins a series of Sundays in which Segar physically punishes Wimpy for his trickery.

But in the following Sunday strip, for August 20, 1933, Wimpy is back to mooching food from Popeye. Wimpy keeps calling him. “Old pal of mine,” but Popeye, perhaps reacting to the last few Sunday strips, angrily refuses to give him any food. But then Popeye holds up a potato, which appears to have two eyes and a nose, and Wimpy claims it is the image of his late Uncle Hymie. Breaking down in tears, Wimpy goes on and on about what a wonderful man Uncle Hymie was. “Surely you would not eat that potato,” Wimpy says. Popeye, now in tears himself, agrees to give Wimpy the potato as a memento of his uncle. The final panel finds Wimpy sitting under a tree, eating the potato: “‘Tis a pity that I have no gravy to put upon Uncle Hymie.”

The simplest interpretation of this episode is that Wimpy was simply conning Popeye out of the potato and made up the whole Uncle Hymie story. But I’ve come to think of Wimpy as a complex, ambiguous figure. I think it is entirely possible that Wimpy did have a beloved Uncle Hymie and was genuinely moved to tears by his memory, but that still would not stop Wimpy from devouring a potato that looked like his dead uncle. As usual, Wimpy’s appetite overrules his emotions.

Wimpy referees Popeye’s next prize fight in the Sunday strips, which is noteworthy for the way that Popeye’s opponent literally twists Popeye’s body out of shape, but without causing him any real harm, in a further display of Popeye’s superhuman power.

In the September 17, 1933 Sunday strip, Wimpy returns to the aquarium, having accepted Rough-House’s bet that he can’t catch another fish there. This time Wimpy has overreached, perhaps because he is trying to win a wager. He hooks an eel, which slithers in and out of his pants, in a weirdly phallic gag (which is shown on the cover of Popeye Vol. 3). The guards see this, and they start kicking Wimpy. It’s as if Segar now feels that Wimpy can’t always get away with his trickery, even though these punishments don’t deter Wimpy at all.

Just how far will Wimpy go in the service of his appetite? In the September 24, 1933 strip Wimpy tries his usual mooching tricks on Popeye, Rough-House, Geezil and other diner customers, who all furiously refuse. Unperturbed, Wimpy starts reading the paper and then, uncharacteristically, his eyes go wide. Then, even more uncharacteristically, he punches Geezil in the face. As a policeman arrives, Geezil reacts with his usual angry bluster (“Could he smush me in the schnozzle? Could he? Could he? COULD HE?). But after Wimpy hits the policeman too, Wimpy is taken to jail. And then Rough-House, Popeye and Geezil see what Wimpy read in the newspaper: hamburgers are now on the jailhouse menu. Wimpy has exchanged his own freedom for a steady supply of burgers!

By the following Sunday, October 1, 1933, Wimpy has regained his freedom. So how can his appetite drive him still further? Wimpy has just inherited a cow, and attempts to trade it to Popeye, who is substituting for Rough-House at running the diner for a day, for hamburgers. But Popeye keeps saying no, even as Wimpy whittles down his request from ten burgers down to one, and keeps calling Popeye, with increasing emphasis, “old pal of mine.” Nothing works, and for once Wimpy, despite his deadpan demeanor, seems desperate. Finally Popeye agrees to lend Wimpy some bread, an axe and some kitchen utensils. After Wimpy leaves Popeye says, “I kin not help feelin’ sorry for ol’ Wimpy” and leaves to invite him to have a hamburger. But it is too late. In the final panel Popeye is so surprised, perhaps shocked, that he levitates off the ground. Wimpy has killed and butchered the cow, whose head lies grotesquely on the ground, and turned its body into a tall mound of hamburgers! Of course we all know that hamburgers are made from dead cattle, but it’s still startling, and even macabre, that Wimpy would kill the cow himself and grind it up into food.

Segar must have liked the idea of Popeye running Rough-House’s diner in this Sunday strip, because on the following Sunday strip he and Olive open their own cafe. But after the first month of this new storyline, Wimpy reclaims center stage. When Olive gets sick, Popeye hires Wimpy to fill in for her as a waiter. Initially, Wimpy resolves to do the right thing, even when serving a hamburger steak to a customer: “Get behind me, Satan. . . it is my duty to deliver this bit of beef to our patron.” But once again, the id of Wimpy’s appetite overwhelms the superego of his conscience. He talks the customer into thinking the hamburger is infected with bugs, and after the shaken patron leaves, Popeye lets Wimpy eat the steak. “He is, no doubt, a peculiar person,” Wimpy tells Popeye about their lost customer. In this case Wimpy is clearly, consciously deceiving his “old pal of mine.”

Popeye’s charitable feelings towards Wimpy have resurfaced, and the following Sunday, November 12, 1933, Popeye gives Wimpy a tryout for a job as a waiter, but this time carefully keeps an eye on him. Wimpy again tries to do the right thing, repeating his “Get thee behind me, Satan” mantra while bringing a hamburger to a customer. But once again, when one side of Wimpy consciously resists his hunger, his unconscious forcefully emerges, and he finds himself instinctively snapping his teeth at the burger and then devouring it, seemingly in one gulp. “Sorry, sir, I’m indeed sorry this had to happen,” Wimpy says, and he may indeed mean it. Wimpy tries to bring him another burger, but says, “Heavens! I feel that great desire again–the urge to gobble it down!” Is Wimpy putting on an act, or is he in the grip of a comedic but real addiction to food? He gobbles this burger, too. Finally, the disgruntled customer fetches his own burger, whereupon Wimpy hurls a pot at him, knocking him out. “A hundred percent,” says Wimpy, holding the burger; “Not a single one got away from me.” Watching all of this, Popeye confesses, “I kin not bawl “˜im out on account of laughin’.”

But by the following Sunday, Popeye has grown so angry at Wimpy’s mooching that he pays a policeman to put him in jail. “It isn’t right to treat poor old Wimpy that way,” says Olive. “Shame on you, Popeye.” But Popeye goes down to the prison to literally laugh in Wimpy’s face.

Then Wimpy begins weeping: “You laugh at my sorrow. You hurt me.” As Wimpy goes on, talking about his mother, and about how “life hasn’t been very kind to me,” Popeye finds himself weeping in sympathy, and finally bails Wimpy out of jail. Wimpy expresses his gratitude to “my friend” and then resumes trying to mooch a hamburger from him. Once again the reader may wonder to what extent Wimpy is consciously manipulating Popeye’s emotions and to what extent Wimpy’s sadness at being “hurt” by a friend is real. My hypothesis is that both possibilities are true and that they coexist. I suspect that Wimpy’s stoic, expressionless demeanor covers real pain over his poverty and loneliness. Popeye may be Wimpy’s dupe, but he also really is Wimpy’s only friend.

Segar’s exploration of Wimpy’s character reaches a climax with the November 26, 1933 Sunday strip, the last in this volume. Popeye’s friend Bill Squid bets Popeye that Wimpy would “choke his grandmother for a hamburger.” Despite Popeye’s disgust and even cruelty towards Wimpy in past strips, Popeye seems more naturally to look on the bright side, and contends that Wimpy has “good qualities, too.” Popeye even tells Wimpy, “ever’body seems to be down on ya an’ tha’s why I got sympthity for ya–I yam always for the underdog.”

Popeye goes so far as to dress up as an old lady and pose as Wimpy’s grandmother, whom Wimpy hasn’t seen in thirty years. Bill is amazed that Wimpy cannot see through Popeye’s obvious disguise (“Is he dumb?”), but Wimpy is a trickster who is easily susceptible to being tricked.

As Wimpy’s grandma, Popeye sits down to eat a hamburger. Wimpy flatters her and asks for a “bite” of the burger but “she” says no. Then Wimpy begins snapping his teeth at the burger, and “Grandmother” is outraged that Wimpy has “absolukely no self-control.” Thwarted again, Wimpy goes further than we’ve seen before in this book and, yes, actually begins choking his “grandmother.” His id is in full control: Dark Wimpy is unleashed. “Grandmother” rebukes Wimpy, who begins weeping with shame: “I’m sorry! Heavens! What did I almost do?” But his dark side overwhelms Wimpy again: he snaps at the burger, jumps on “grandmother,” demanding the burger: “Curse you, grandmother!” The disguised and disgusted Popeye finally stops Wimpy by hitting him.

However rough and violent in his manners, Popeye is an idealist and a true hero who adheres to and enforces his code of morality. Wimpy is neither hero nor idealist, but a flawed man driven by his natural drives, notably his appetite. Yet somehow they belong together as a team, like the similar pairings of Cervantes’ Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, or Tamino and Papageno in Mozart’s The Magic Flute.

And in the grand finale to my Wimpython, I will turn to the renowned “Plunder Island” storyline in Fantagraphics’ Popeye Vol. 4, in which the team of Popeye and Wimpy faces its ultimate test when both confront the strip’s archvillainess, the Sea Hag.

Warning to my faithful readers: I am in the process of moving from New York City back to my home town near Boston. So there may be a week or two when I won’t be posting a new “Comics in Context.” But rest assured that once I have Internet access set up at my new home, “Comics in Context” will be back!

–Copyright 2010 Peter Sanderson

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# 238 (VOL. 2 #10): POPEYE VS. WIMPY

In his newspaper strip Thimble Theatre, which starred his creation Popeye, E.C. Segar realized that the comedy would work better if his own trickster, J. Wellington Wimpy, had formidable opponents to overcome. As I mentioned weeks ago, one of my problems with Hanna-Barbera’s Top Cat as a trickster is that his schemes often seem too transparent, and his targets too gullible, to be convincing.

Lately I have been exploring the Sunday strips in Fantagraphics Books’ Popeye Volume 3 collection, most of which center on Wimpy and his continuing efforts to mooch hamburgers from his friends and neighbors.

Typically Wimpy uses his trademark lines in mooching food, like “I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today,” or inviting someone to a duck dinner, adding “you bring the ducks.” Moreover, Wimpy repeatedly goes after the same targets–Popeye, Rough-House, George W. Geezil–who are to different degrees exasperated with his mooching, and determined to resist it. But Wimpy nevertheless succeeds in eating every day. Segar indicates that Wimpy actually has an inexhaustible bag of tricks.

In the Sunday March 19, 1933 strip cafe owner Rough-House convinces Popeye that “you’re wasting your time trying to reform Wimpy.” As they complain about Wimpy, in comes a stranger with glasses and a thick black mustache, as well as a familiar build and outfit, who orders a porterhouse steak. He agrees with Popeye and Rough-House about Wimpy (“”˜Tis a pity they did not drown him when a pup.”). Rough-House is delighted with his new customer and boasts, “Here’s one guy he [Wimpy] can’t work.” Popeye likewise overreaches, becoming egotistical: “It’s the bad eggs which makes us real folks shine.” But when the new customer says he forgot his wallet and will pay Rough-House Tuesday, Popeye and Rough-House finally see through Wimpy’s disguise, and Popeye has to restrain Rough-House, who seems to be in a berserker rage, from severing Wimpy’s head with a cleaver!

But on the following Sunday, March 26, 1933, Rough-House’s customers are laughing at how Wimpy fooled Rough-House and Popeye with his disguise. Rough-House says if Wimpy tries that stunt again, “I’ll half-murder him.” The angered Popeye, who says he hates “gettin’ hoomiliated,” says he’ll help Rough-House. In comes a man with glasses, a long white beard, and a build and outfit like Wimpy’s, and Popeye and Rough-House grab him. Again losing control of his temper, Rough-House even tries to use the cleaver on him. Then in walks Wimpy, who asks, simply, “My friend, why are you pulling the old man’s whiskers?” To his credit, Popeye erupts into laughter and says, “Aw, forget it, Rough-House. Ain’t ya got no sense o’hoomer?” But today Rough-House doesn’t, and he grimaces in fury. Wimpy meanwhile maintains his usual deadpan calm. Wimpy’s control of his emotions and usual calm contrast favorably with Rough-House’s inability to keep his cool and murderous but infantile rages. It is a point in Popeye’s favor that his resentment of Wimpy and self-centered sense of humiliation are outweighed by his appreciation of the humorous side of life. He simply can’t stay angry at Wimpy.

So in the Sunday, April 2, 1933 strip Popeye takes his revenge on Wimpy in a humorous way, giving Wimpy a fake hamburger made of rubber. Popeye, Rough-House, and other cafe customers burst into laughter. But Wimpy remains dignified and serious throughout. When Popeye gives him the “burger,” Wimpy says, “I am very. very hungry. You have saved my life.” Surely Wimpy wasn’t literally on the point of death, but he has just reminded Popeye and us that he does need to eat to live. Oddly, Wimpy does not notice that he is eating rubber, not meat: “Again, I have lived. . .again, I have tasted of heaven.” It’s not just that Wimpy needs to eat hamburgers to survive; he is a kind of connoisseur of hamburgers, who likens them to “tasting” of “heaven.” It’s as if his idea of hamburgers–his idealization of them–is more important than the reality. Rough-House, Geezil, and the other customers are disgusted that the prank failed and that Wimpy “didn’t even know the difference” between a real burger and the fake. “Where’s the joke?” asks one customer, and he has a point. The strip ends with Wimpy profusely praising Popeye, telling him that out of millions of people, “you are the only one who buys for me hamburgers,” and that is true. Popeye looks angry and uncomfortable, and perhaps feels guilty over playing this misfired prank on someone who actually does regard him as his only friend.

This Sunday strip also suggests that Wimpy has a certain degree of obliviousness to the bad side of life. As I’ve noted before, Wimpy is very much an optimist, living in hope, and seemingly it does not occur to him that Popeye, whom he considers a friend, would play a prank on him. It is tradition that a trickster is himself capable of being tricked. But Wimpy’s obliviousness serves him as a shield. Even when he is fed the rubber burger, he seemingly doesn’t realize he has been tricked.

Arguably, Rough-House is a much bigger problem than Wimpy. The April 9, 1933 Sunday strip opens with a close-up of Rough-House, his teeth bared, perspiring, growling in rage as if he were a wild animal. Popeye’s concern over Rough-House (“he’s almost crazy”) again shifts his sympathies against Wimpy. Rough-House really needs psychiatric help at this point, but Popeye lets himself be persuaded by Wimpy’s foremost nemesis, George W. Geezil, that “What he [Wimpy] needs should be chasing from town.” And so, amazingly, Popeye leas a mob, with Rough-House and Geezil in front, that literally chases Wimpy out of town. Significantly, Wimpy cannot believe that this is happening to him: “They must think I’m somebody else!” One of the mob gloats, “We scared him plenty.” But Wimpy, with his usual deadpan dignity, simply follows them back to town, unobserved until they get back to Rough-House’s cafe and he orders a burger. He’s like a loyal dog that returns to its master even after being mistreated. This is Wimpy’s way of not giving up: he simply refuses to acknowledge defeat, or even that people dislike him.

By the following Sunday, April 16, 1933, Rough-House has suffered a nervous breakdown. So obsessed is he with Wimpy, that Rough-House furiously repeats Wimpy’s catchphrases. Popeye and others visit the hospital and bring Rough-House flowers. “When a man gets sick,” Rough-House observes, “he soon learns who his real friends are.” But then Wimpy comes in, offering a wild flower, “with all good wishes.” Rough-House faints, and, perhaps shockingly, Popeye and Rough-House’s other visitors beat Wimpy up off-panel. Wimpy, needing to recuperate, commands Rough-House to “move over” but then becomes is concerned for his antagonist (“Why, the poor man has fainted.”) and lies next to him in bed, comforting him. It is very revealing that Wimpy cares more about Rough-House’s state than his own pain. Perhaps this is partly another side of his characteristic obliviousness to misfortune: he is ignoring his own pain. But Wimpy is genuinely concerned for Rough-House. This can’t be an attempt to con Rough-House, because Rough-House is unconscious. It seems that Wimpy regards even Rough-House as a friend, or at least as a potential friend, and is consciously or unconsciously ignoring the fact that Rough-House hates him. There’s a sort of innocence to Wimpy, as if he can’t believe that the victims of his mooching resent him.

The following Sunday strip, April 23, 1933, addresses the question of just how unconscious Wimpy is of opposition towards him. Still in the hospital and still seething, Rough-House complains that Wimpy “ain’t got sense enough to know that he’s the cause of my nervous breakdown.” So Popeye confronts Wimpy, who is bringing another flower to the man Wimpy calls “my old friend Rough-House.” Popeye threatens to hit Wimpy if he doesn’t stop, and then turns his back on Wimpy, not expecting what happens next. Neither, probably, do the readers. Wimpy hits Popeye from behind with a boulder, actually knocking the superhuman sailor down. Then, though Wimpy retains his calm, deadpan look, he points his finger, as if instructing Popeye, and speaks words that are lettered larger and darker than usual, suggesting that he is speaking with more emphasis, and more loudly, than usual. “And now, my friend,” Wimpy states, “I am going to the hospital.” Wimpy is clearly aware that Popeye is opposing him, and has proved he will take violent measures to get his way. Wimpy is insistent on carrying out his mission of charity. It’s also important that Wimpy, though speaking emphatically, remains civil in what he tells Popeye, and even calls him “my friend.” I believe that Wimpy is indicating that although he had to employ violence, he would prefer that he and Popeye stay at peace, and that he even continues to regard Popeye as a friend. Indeed, Wimpy even seems to be trying to will Popeye to remain his friend, despite their dispute. It doesn’t work, and Popeye beats Wimpy, on panel, so badly that Wimpy is hospitalized. But Wimpy nonetheless triumphs; he is put in the bed next to Rough-House’s and offers the flower to Rough-House, who growls in frustrated anger. Again, Wimpy simply does not give up. He will treat Popeye and Rough-House as his friends despite their resentment of him–and despite the fact that he continually mooches from them. Wimpy doesn’t have contempt for the people he tricks into feeding him, but seems to like them–at least Popeye and Rough-House. It’s a little like the way that Bugs Bunny kisses Elmer Fudd: Bugs is another trickster who is fond of the person he tricks. But arguably Bugs is also mocking Elmer with the kiss; Wimpy, in contrast, seems sincere in bringing Rough-House flowers.

Popeye seems the embodiment of the virtue of charity when he gives away his money to the needy. But even though Wimpy usually takes rather than gives, he is arguably even more purely a figure of charity since Wimpy will treat an adversary like Rough-House with such kindness.

It seems shocking that the April 30, 1933 strip opens with Popeye, Geezil and others planning to beat up Wimpy so badly as to hospitalize him “for a week.” Rough-House, out of the hospital, urges them on. Wimpy may not be so oblivious to enmity that he comes unprepared. Popeye and the others are charmed by hearing beautiful violin music. When Wimpy walks in, playing the violin, Geezil erupts in rage. But Popeye prefers the music to his own resentment of Wimpy, and beats up Rough-House and the others to keep them from laying a finger on Wimpy. Not only does Wimpy seemingly lack the rages that overcome Popeye, Rough-House, Geezil and the others, but Wimpy is even capable of creating beauty through music.

In responding to beautiful music, Popeye shows what separates him from other cafe regulars, even though Popeye can be just as violent as they. As Olive Oyl observes in the April 30, 1933 strip, “If music affects you, it shows you have fine sensibilities.”

In a previous strip Popeye said Rough-House, who so quickly flies into rages at Wimpy, was “too sensitive.” Popeye may be too sensitive in his own way. In the April 30 strip Wimpy is able to change Popeye’s moods and behavior by playing different kinds of music. When Wimpy plays love music, Popeye kisses Olive repeatedly, saying “I kin not help it”; when Wimpy plays dance music, Popeye “got to do that dance.” It’s as if Popeye has become Wimpy’s puppet. But when Wimpy plays “Song of War,” Popeye starts growling, hits Olive, and chases Wimpy to the edge of a cliff. Wimpy turns and saves himself by playing “Hearts and Flowers,” which makes Popeye weep, and then a lullaby to put him to sleep.

This could be seen as a metaphor for Wimpy’s trickster ability to manipulate other people. But it also demonstrates Wimpy’s command of his own emotions. Rough-House has anger management problems so severe that they risk his sanity. Geezil goes into angry tirades against Wimpy if he merely thinks of him. Popeye proves so susceptible to his emotions that he cannot resist the effects music has on them. But Wimpy remains calm and deadpan, even as he plays the music that affects Popeye so strongly. Again, I’m reminded of Chuck Jones’ cartoons like Rabbit Fire, in which Bugs Bunny, maintaining his cool and calm, easily manipulates not only the violent but stupid Elmer Fudd but also the angry, egotistical Daffy Duck, who so quickly falls prey to his own emotions.

In the May 14, 1933 strip Segar has Popeye revert to his previous appreciation of Wimpy as a comedic figure. Rough-House has taken a business partner, Mr. Soppy, and goes on vacation, leaving him in charge of the cafe. In fact, this time Popeye even helped Wimpy out by telling Mr. Soppy that Wimpy was “Prince Wellington of Nazilia.” Wimpy was surprised when Mr. Soppy addressed him as “Prince,” but took full advantage of it, conning Mr. Soppy out of a free meal, while Popeye and other customers go into gales of laughter. Popeye is now siding with Wimpy so much that he aids in Wimpy’s con without even being asked! But, as we shall see, Popeye seems more interested in staging comedic situations than in helping Wimpy.

Wimpy is not only a trickster but a variation on another traditional comedy archetype, the glutton. In the May 21, 1933 strip Wimpy has proved so easily able to con meals out of Mr. Soppy that Wimpy has grown too fat to be able to walk unassisted, so Popeye equips him with a wheelbarrow for supporting his enormous tummy!

In the May 28, 1933 strip Rough-House returns from vacation, and Popeye encourages him in thinking that the cafe has a prince as a new customer: again, Popeye seems interested in setting up situations for comedy and watching what results, and he laughs in expectation. His face buried in a menu, Wimpy overreaches by not taking a look at who is serving at the counter. When Wimpy finally sees that it’s the angry Rough-House, Wimpy’s eyes widen in surprise and perhaps disbelief. As Rough-House readies to punch him, Wimpy realizes this time he’s caught and puts his hands together in prayer: “Now I lay me down to sleep.” Wimpy tries to talk his way out of the fix, denying his identity, but taken by surprise and flustered, the trickster fails this time, and Rough-House beats him up off-panel, as Popeye seems amused.

Segar has already shown us that there are limits to Wimpy’s usual psychological and emotional balance. In the June 4, 1933 Sunday strip Rough-House needs to drum up more customers, and Popeye suggests hiring a scientist to devise a formula to increase someone’s appetite so much “a man’ll steal the spinach off’n his own kid’s plate.” Just from that description Popeye and Rough-House should have noticed they were overreaching. Not knowing what it is, Popeye drinks the formula, which pushes Wimpy’s constant hunger beyond his ability to manage it. Wimpy becomes a more frenetic version of himself, shouting, “I’m starving!” With no hamburger available, Wimpy eats fish out of a fish bowl; when Wimpy is on the brink of devouring a cat, Rough-House gives up and gives him food instead. This soothes Wimpy’s inner demons, though eating gets in the way of his ability to talk, as Segar suggests by dropping letters from his dialogue. Wimpy invites Rough-House to a duck dinner, adding, “You ing e ucks,” which looks suspiciously like Wimpy getting something past the censors.

In the June 11, 1933 strip a man named Rex Bicker arrives to try to get Popeye to fight the boxer he manages, Bullo Oxheart. Spotting a new target, Wimpy introduces himself to Bicker and proceeds to deluge him with a nonstop flood of words. Significantly, one of Wimpy’s tactics is to keep getting Bicker’s name wrong, until finally, Bicker is so dazed and confused by Wimpy’s verbal assault that he forgets his own name, and calls himself “Mr. Jones.” Popeye and Rough-House recognize that Wimpy is setting Bicker up to mooch a hamburger off him and burst into laughter when Wimpy delivers the coup de grace (“Come have a hamburger WITH ME on you.”). Since this time they’re not Wimpy’s targets, Popeye and, surprisingly, Rough-House can laugh at Wimpy’s con artistry, betraying a certain appreciation of his trickster abilities.

–Copyright 2010 Peter Sanderson

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