Elzie Crisler Segar, otherwise known as E.C. Segar and the creator of the famous Popeye cartoon, would have been 115 years old today. And Google decided to celebrate his birthday with a custom Google logo.
Segar was born in Illinois on December 8th in 1894. He showed a strong talent for drawing at a young age, and of course continued to develop that skill to where he’d eventually move to Chicago to pursue his career.
Here’s more from The Guardian:
“Popeye originally appeared as a supporting character in Thimble Theatre, which had already been running for ten years with a certain Olive Oyl as its heroine.
Popeye, as Segar had always intended, was written out of the strip once his character’s sequence ended, but returned as the main character following complaints from readers. Olive Oyl became the plucky sailor’s girlfriend, and has remained so ever since – despite her head occasionally being turned by love rival Bluto.
Spinach is the source of Popeye’s muscular prowess – upon eating it, his biceps immediately swell to three times their normal size. Segar chose the vegetable due to an 1870 German study which claimed itcontained the same amount of iron as red meat.”
Google’s Recent Celebrations
It seems that Google is very fond of celebrating children’s cartoons and shows that have stood the test of time.
A recent example was the 7 day run of Google celebrating Sesame Street’s 40th Anniversary with Google logos.
You can see all 7 days of Google’s Sesame Street logos here.
