POPEYE BOOK

Famed Popeye fanatic Fred Grandinetti has updated and expanded his McFarland book POPEYE: An Illustrated Cultural History into a slightly larger, 337 page revised edition. It’s a true improvement over his previous effort, with more illustrations, more details on each film (all Paramount cartoons, King and Hanna-Barbera TV incarnations are covered), more on the people behind the comic strip, the comic books, the voice actors, the merchandise, the commercials, censored scenes, the Robin Williams feature, the Fried Chicken chain, why the classic cartoons aren’t on video… everything you wanted to know about Popeye but were afraid to ask.My favorite part of the book is a chart of Popeye heads drawn in the style of each TV animator (now I can tell the difference between Rudy Larriva’s Popeye, Ed Friedman’s Popeye and Harvey Toombs Popeye!). A labor of love by a true Popeye maniac, Grandinetti’s new Popeye volume may not be the last word on Segar’s cartoon creation, but it’s certainly a thorough overview and worth having.