the world's most famous cartoon sailor, Elzie Crisler Segar began his comics career in the movies. He drew cartoons for silent movie theater slides, the Charlie Chaplin comic strip, and a daily strip about Chicago's movies and entertainment. Then, in 1919, he penned his own "small screen" creation for the newspapers, Thimble Theatre, where Popeye was to be born a decade later.

This comprehensive volume features examples of all of E.C. Segar's early comics and illustrations, with over 100 pre-Popeye Thimble Theatre Sunday pages including the complete run of the famed Western desert saga, a series that rivals his later work in superb art, storytelling, and humor.

Newly revised and expanded, this new printing contains ten additional pages plus a 1920s-style Sunday comics section insert paying tribute to Segar and his comic creations featuring Charlie Chaplin's Comic Capers and Popeye's "The Jeep."

Text and illustrations offer an in-depth history and commentary on the life and work of E. C. Segar by historians Paul C. Tumey and Jeet Heer, and best-selling author and journalist Michael Tisserand. Thimble Theatre is an essential part of any comics lover's library.