"Who knew Sith Lords could be so darn cute?!"

Reportedly, it's impossible to walk more than a few feet at the San Diego Comic-Con without running into a fan dressed in character: superheroes, supervillains, video game characters, horror film creatures, pirates, vampires, werewolves, comic book-manga-anime characters, and lots of SF icons . . . especially from Star Wars.

We like the little pretty-in-pink-princess-turned-to-the-dark-side at left. You can see a nice selection of Star Wars-themed costumes at Star Wars Blog.

Of course, these folks are dressed up at a special occasion. For a look at people all dressed up and situated eerily within their home environments, we suggest a look at The Land of the Free gallery from Steven Schofield.

In the British Journal of Photography, Schofield explains his project:

Land of The Free explores the fascination the British public has with American popular culture and the sub-cultural world of fandom. I have shown people in their own homes and environments in costumes they wear to attend events with other like-minded individuals. I made the work in response to Bush's involvement in Iraq as I wanted to make a political reference to globalisation and America's ongoing ability to infiltrate all cultures via various channels of popular media. By working in the individuals' homes and personal spaces, I have sought to present my sitters in a their very British 'found' environments and to allow the viewer to evaluate the juxtaposition of cultures and how neither appear to sit comfortably with each other.

"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.