I Yam What I Yam (in print, anyway)

Fantagraphics will be reprinting the complete E.C. Segar Popeye from the Thimble Theater comic strip. In the past, they reprinted it with separate volumes for Sunday and daily strips, and the Sundays were black and white. This time, the Sundays and dailies will be combined into six hardcover volumes and the Sundays will be printed in color.

The first volume is currently listed on Amazon.com here. The cover is not the final one.

If you are not familiar with Segar's strip, you're in for a treat. Thimble Theater was full of long, comic narratives populated by a group of very eccentric characters. The strip is quite different from any version of the animated Popeye.

Those of us who love the animated Popeye are still waiting for King Features and Time-Warner to hammer out a deal to release the Popeye cartoons on DVD. Some of the Fleischer Popeye cartoons are in the public domain and this DVD not only features good prints of them but also an excellent selection of interviews and behind the scenes materials.