Wash Tubbs, Captain Easy, & Popeye the Sailor Man.

Two daily newspaper strips, beginning as gag-a-day comics centering on the romantic foibles of their central characters, would feel the irresistible call of adventure: Popeye would step into E. C. Segar’s meandering Thimble Theater and transform it into something more like Treasure Island, with pirates, lost treasure and hamburgers. Wash Tubbs, a short, bespeckled, girl-crazy lead character of Roy Crane’s strip, would eventually meet Captain Easy and follow him on one thrilling adventure after another, pushing them both to the limits of endurance. In selections from the Smithsonian collection of newspaper comics, we find both of these strips caught up in adventure on the high seas: Popeye in comedic fashion, Wash Tubbs and Captain Easy in a harrowing tale aboard the doomed whaler “Jonah”. We're reading through The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics by Bill Blackbeard and Martin Williams.   If you're listening to this episode, we recommend viewing the video on YouTube to follow along as we read though the comic pages: https://youtu.be/wAFk5R_sf_s   Read along with us here: https://www.amazon.com/Smithsonian-Collection-Newspaper-Comics/dp/0874741726/