Feature Book #5
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeFeature Book #5 (1937) sits at a genuine crossroads in American comics history: it is part of the David McKay Feature Book series, which stands as the first U.S. comic book line to dedicate complete issues to a single character — a format that would define the medium for generations. Within the issue, the strip reprints spotlight the supernatural oddity Eugene the Jeep being put to work in Popeye's quest to find his long-lost father, Poopdeck Pappy, showcasing E.C. Segar's remarkable range as a storyteller who could blend surreal fantasy and genuine emotional drama in the same continuity. The Jeep himself became one of comics' most culturally resonant supporting characters: the name of Segar's fictional creature is widely credited with helping popularize — or even directly inspire — the nickname attached to the U.S. Army's all-purpose WWII vehicle, making this a book whose ripples extended well beyond the funny pages.
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David McKay Publications, a Philadelphia book house, had recognized the commercial potential of the comics medium by 1935, initially offering collected newspaper strips featuring characters like Henry and Popeye. The Feature Book series proper launched in early 1937, sequentially reprinting King Features Syndicate dailies in a large-format (9-by-12-inch), black-and-white, single-character booklet — a structure with no real domestic precedent. Feature Book #5, subtitled 'Popeye and His Poppa,' reprints E.C. Segar's Thimble Theatre daily strips from 1936, with all story, art, and cover work by Segar himself, placing the volume squarely in the final creative years of Segar's life before his death in 1938.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published in 1937 by David McKay Publications; subtitled 'Popeye and His Poppa'; all story, art, and cover by E.C. Segar.
- Part of the David McKay Feature Book line, recognized as the first U.S. comic book series to devote complete individual issues to a single character.
- Reprints Thimble Theatre daily newspaper strips from 1936, formatted in black-and-white at 9 by 12 inches across 72 pages.
- The issue's narrative centers on Popeye enlisting Eugene the Jeep's supernatural abilities to locate his long-lost father, Poopdeck Pappy.
- Eugene the Jeep had debuted in the Thimble Theatre newspaper strip on March 16, 1936 — making the strips collected here among the earliest Eugene material to appear in comic-book form.
- Eugene the Jeep is depicted as a small yellow creature with bear-like features who walks upright, communicates only by saying 'jeep,' eats exclusively orchids, can foretell the future, and possesses a form of teleportation allowing him to pass through walls.
- In the strip's continuity, Eugene was brought from Africa by Olive Oyl's Uncle Ben and given to Olive as a gift.
- The name 'jeep' as applied to the U.S. Army's WWII all-terrain vehicle is widely attributed — at least in popular culture — to Segar's character, whose magical ability to navigate any terrain mirrored the vehicle's capabilities.
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