Thimble Theatre Starring Popeye

Elzie Crisler Segar’s Thimble Theatre Starring Popeye (1931–1932) collects the earliest solo adventures of the one-eyed sailor who had already taken over Segar’s long-running newspaper strip. Published by Sonnet Publishing, this brief two-issue series captures Popeye’s rough-and-tumble humor and Segar’s distinctive, expressive cartooning at the dawn of the character’s pop-culture dominance. Though the run was short, it preserves a pivotal moment when Popeye was still finding his voice—just before he became a household name.