News Around Texas

Cartoonist Elzie Crisler Segar may have been born in Illinois, but Popeye the Sailor, the hero of his comic strip “Thimble Theater,” was born in Victoria, Texas when the Victoria Advocate became the first newspaper to run the strip on January 17, 1929. Segar acknowledged the Victoria Advocate as Popeye’s “hometown” in a special cartoon he contributed for the Advocate’s 1934 anniversary issue. According to the TSHA Handbook of Texas Online, Segar wrote (as Popeye) to the newspaper’s editor saying, “Please assept me hearties bes’ wishes an’ felitcitations on account of yer paper’s 88th Anniversity….Victoria is me ol’ home town on account of tha’s where I got born’d at.”