“Popeye the Sailor Man”, the famous cartoon was a real-life character that was crafted by Elzie Crisler Segar.
Elzie Crisler Segar was born in Chester Illinois in 1894 who turned into a newspaper cartoonist, which was his dream.
He used to bring the real-life characters that he met in his home town as cartoon. He was doing this because he wanted his characters to be realistic. In the similar way he met Frank Fiegel (Popeye Man).
Frank Fiegel was born in Poland who later migrated to America with his whole family. He was working in a saloon besides working as a private contract as cleaner and bouncer.
His Eyes were deformed due to punches he received in fights, so people used to call him as Pop-eye for this.
He used to always smoke, speak through one side of his mouth with cigar on other side, wear striped t-shirts along with his hat daily. He had strong chin and thin muscles. All his physical appearance in the show is not at all imagination rather it is real representation of Frank Fiegel, who was a retired sailor.
Fiegel used to tell lot of stories and play with children due to which Elzie inspired to create his cartoon. The first appearance of Popeye was in January 19th 1929 which was later appeared in cartoons, movies and TV shows.
Similar to other cartoons it was not an instant hit but he used to build the show regularly and it became a hit later. He never thought the carton would become a huge hit with most readers but it was Popeye who turned their interest in reading them.
The Popeye character saw several developments with adventures taking place in the show which was not done by Frank himself. The American government had given a stamp to this under “American Comic Classics” collection in 1995. This character was owned by everyone due to unique style which everyone wishes for and fearless as well.
Elzie segar died at the age of 43 years due to Leukaemia after several months of illness on 13th October 1938. He died at Santa Monica, California where his family moved due to his famous career
However, Frank Fiegel death has been a mystery till now with no proofs of causes. He died on 24th march 1947 at Chester Illinois, USA. Several sources claimed that he might have died due to Tuberculosis or Lung cancer, as he used to smoke a lot. His death was not published anywhere except in a local news paper named “Chester Herland Tribune”.
Even this newspaper has not revealed the cause of death which has been suspicious to the world and his fans.
