The PopCult Bookshelf

Image1Popeye Volume 1
ISBN-13: 978-1613774236
Popeye Volume 2
ISBN-13: 978-1613775875
Popeye Volume 3
ISBN-13: 978-1613776858

Written by Roger Landridge
Illustrated by Vince Musacchia, Tom Neely, Bruce Ozella, Ken Wheaton, Luke McDonnell and others
Edited by Craig Yoe,Ted Adams and Clizia Gussoni
Published by IDW Publishing/Yoe Books
Image1a$17.99 each

Back in 2012 I raved about the wonderful new Popeye comic books that IDW was publishing, put together for them by Craig Yoe. Sadly, that series ended after twelve issues, but now you can get the entire series collected in three softcover graphic novels, along with a cover gallery that reprints all the covers and the rare alternate covers by name artists.

The cover gallery includes work by Mitch O’Connell, Image4John Byrne, Jules Feiffer, Dave Sim and others, and is a real bonus because the meat of these books is so good.

The revived Popeye comic book from IDW was astounding in the way that it captured the magic of the original E.C. Segar Popeye comics in the Thimble Theater comic strip. Writer, Roger Langridge and his team of artists have aunthentically and respectfuly recreated the style of E.C. Segar in a way that was completely entertaining in its own right.

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Langridge has perfectly captured Segar’s writing style, while the art, from a rotating cast of pencil-pushers, was consistently excellent, and quite often evoked the work of Segar and his assistant, Bud Sagendorf.

A variant cover by superstar artist John Byrne

A variant cover by superstar artist John Byrne

This was a real gem of a series that started off selling very well, but then got lost in the marketplace. The quality never dipped, and at the end Landridge really seemed to be getting more at home with the characters than when he started.

These new adventures of Popeye were a breath of fresh air in a world where most comic reboots are total train wrecks. These three volumes will leave you wanting more.