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Sixty Years Ago, Popeye's Enemy Lost His Name!

By Fred M. Grandinetti

It was sixty years ago, in the comic book pages, a famous villain lost his name!

In Popeye#40 (1957) The Sea Hag was featured in Bud Sagendorf's lead story The Mystery of the Magic Flute! In one panel she orders her spy to find "The Big Guy That Hates Popeye". A bearded brute appears and confronts the ol' witch. He looked like the villainous Bluto who appeared in Popeye cartoons shown on movie screens and later television. Why didn't The Sea Hag ask for him by name? Because by this time in Popeye's comic book career the name Bluto was taboo!

Bluto first appeared in the Popeye comic strip in 1932 when it was called Thimble Theatre. He only appeared in one adventure by the sailor man's creator E.C. Segar. Animation pioneer Max Fleischer decided to use Popeye, Olive Oyl and Bluto for one of his Betty Boop entries in 1933. The cartoon, Popeye the Sailor, was a hit and the sailor went on to star in 234 animated films. These were produced by both Fleischer and Famous Studios for Paramount Pictures. Bluto appeared in a number of the films causing problems for the one-eyed sailor man.

Popeye's theatrical adventures premiered on television in September 1956. They were a tremendous hit with audiences. New Popeye products lined store shelves featuring all of his crew; Olive Oyl, Swee'pea, Wimpy and Bluto. In 1957 the bearded bully was used in Colorform's Popeye Cartoon Kit, Jack Built's Popeye Color and Re-Color book, Transogram's Adventures of Popeye game, Toy Life's Popeye Strength Tester Toy, Marx Toy's Bluto's Fun on Wheels and in the pages of Samuel Lowe's Popeye coloring books.

By the time Popeye#40 (1957) hit newsstands the name Bluto was dropped. A 1957 Popeye Printing Set by M. Shimmel Sons, Inc. included a bearded bully on a stamp but called him Mean Man. This descriptive name appeared on a wind up figure by Linemar. The same company also manufactured Popeye and Mean Man Fighting Figures. The Mean Man depicted on this toy looked exactly like Bluto. He was wearing his Navy uniform seen in several of Paramount's color animated cartoons. Samuel Gabriel Sons and Company included a Mean Man barrel in their Popeye Barrel of Fun set.

Paramount Pictures believed Bluto was a creation of The Fleischer Studios used in their animated films. Jackson Beck, who voiced the muscleman in several of the cartoons, stated, "Bluto was a late character in Popeye and I think owned by Fleischer or Paramount. When King Features took back the property and kept the character, they had to change the name. This is my understanding of the situation and I could be mistaken." While Beck's explanation makes sense Paramount Pictures was incorrect. Bud Sagendorf told Lum and Abner cartoonist, Donald Pitchford, several years ago; That was a copyright conflict. When King Features bought back all of the early animated things, Paramount Studios claimed that they owned the name Bluto. If King had been a little bit smarter, they would have seen that Segar used it long before the animation."

By the time the theatrical cartoons were enjoying success on television Bluto's debut in the Thimble Theatre comic strip was forgotten. King Features Syndicate did not dispute Paramount's claim of ownership.

In subsequent issues of the Popeye comic book the former Bluto's moniker's included Olive's New Boyfriend (Popeye#41, 1957), Sonny Boy (Popeye#43, 1958)….

…the new owner of Mike's Place (Popeye#47, 1959)…

…The Strong Man (Popeye#48, 1959), The Duke of Crust (Popeye#49, 1959), Black Jack (Popeye#50) and Big Swab (Popeye# 60)…

Bud Sagendorf eventually settled on Sonny Boy who was The Sea Hag's son.

Oddly enough from 1957 through May of 1959 Popeye was battling a bearded enemy named Bluto in the daily Thimble Theatre comic strip. The strip, at this time, was written by Ralph Stein and illustrated by Bill Zaboly. Why was it alright to call him Bluto in the strip? A definitive answer has yet to be explained but I would surmise the comic strips were produced in advance of Paramount's claim of ownership. Another theory could possibly be Paramount felt the newspaper strip did not have the wider audience of both the comic books and merchandise. In the December 27, 1954 issue of Newsweek it was reported the daily strip was syndicated to 300 newspapers.

This led to Bluto's name being changed to Brutus when King Features Syndicate decided to produce new Popeye cartoons for television syndication beginning in 1960. The Brutus' name was eventually used in the comic books beginning with Popeye#64 (1962). This issue also featured an unidentified bearded brute, known as Boss, in another story.

Sonny Boy returned, alongside The Sea Hag in Popeye#66 (1962). The name Brutus seemed to stick with his appearance in Popeye#67 (1963) although his character design would fluctuate for a while.

When Bud Sagendorf took over the Thimble Theatre comic strip in 1958 (although his work was not published until the latter half of 1959), Popeye encountered several brutes resembling Bluto. Additionally, he faced The Sea Hag's Sonny Boy who was identified by Olive, as Brutus in the Sunday strip (September 30, 1962) and daily (January 29, 1963). After a long absence, from both the daily and Sunday strip, Brutus appeared regularly beginning in 1965. His relationship to The Sea Hag was subsequently dropped from the strip. Sagendorf's successor on the daily strip was Bobby London. London used both names for the character before creating "The Return of Bluto" storyline in 1991. In this humorous adventure, Segar's villainous Bluto returns and vowing to get rid all of the "goofy-lookin' clowns imitatin' me. I mean how could anybody be scared of a guy named Brutus!" This story featured several versions of the bully each declaring they're the real Brutus. As of this writing, the daily strip consists of Sagendorf reprints and a new Sunday page by Hy Eisman. Eisman has continued using the name Brutus who often teams up with The Sea Hag to battle Popeye.

On merchandise, either name is used for the character. In recent years artists and writers have claimed Bluto and Brutus are actually twin brothers. If they're indeed brothers where does that leave the lineage of Sonny Boy, The Strong Man, The new owner of Mike's Place, The Duke of Crust, Black Jack and Big Swab? Popeye will need a lot of spinach to figure out these family trees.

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