Popeye the Sailor is a comic strip character, later featured in popular animated cartoons. He was created by Elzie Crisler Segarhttp://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9066592/Elzie-Segar Segar, Elzie (Crisler) - Encyclopædia Britannica Article (who would sign some of his early Popeye comic strips with a cigar because it sounded the same as his name) and first appeared in the King Features comic strip Thimble Theater on January 17, 1929.