"I Yam What I Yam"

"View the early 'Popeye' strips from a distance, and you notice that they're almost all about class stratification: the WASP-y, middle-class turned nouveau-riche Oyl family exploiting the determinedly lower-class Popeye, with his immigrant's tortured English and willingness to undergo incredible suffering in the hopes of catching a break. Which he never will . . .."

Fantagraphics Books has brought out the first volume of E.C. Segar's Popeye comic strip. With five more volumes projected, the books will chart the progress of Popeye from his early appearances in "Thimble Theatre" to his becoming a huge franchise and an American icon.

In this first volume (up to 1930), there's no spinach, no "Swee'Pea, no Alice the Goon, no Jeep, barely any of the Sea Hag and, most regrettably, no J. Wellington Wimpy." But there is the full cast of Olive Oyl's family (including Castor Oyl, Nana Oyl, Cole Oyl, and Cylinda Oyl).

As Salon.com points out, these early strips show Segar learning his craft, but Popeye appears as "an independent-minded brawler whose good humor masked the effects of a life as rough as anyone on the funny pages has ever endured."

• For more on this topic, see Cartoon America, a Library of Congress exhibit.