Forrest Cowles Sagendorf (March 22, 1915 – September 22, 1994), better known as Bud Sagendorf, was an American cartoonist, notable for his work on King Features Syndicate's '' Thimble Theatre Starring Popeye'' comic strip.

Personal life

Born in

Wenatchee, Washington Wenatchee ( ) is the county seat and largest city of Chelan County, Washington, United States. The population within the city limits in 2010 was 31,925, and was estimated to have increased to 34,360 as of 2019. Located in the north-central part ...

, Sagendorf was three years old when his father died. He arrived at age three in

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing t ...

with his sister Helen and his mother, who opened a beauty parlor. It was Helen who gave him the nickname "Bud". His first job was as a newsboy, selling the ''Los Angeles Herald-Express'' on the street. In 1940, he married his high school sweetheart, Nadia Crandall, and they eventually moved to rural Connecticut.

Career

He began his cartoon career while a teenager, working for $50 a week as the assistant of cartoonist

E. C. Segar Elzie Crisler Segar (; December 8, 1894 – October 13, 1938), known by the pen name E. C. Segar, was an American cartoonist best known as the creator of Popeye, a pop culture character who first appeared in 1929 in Segar's comic strip ''Thimble ...

on his ''Thimble Theatre'' and ''Sappo'' comic strips. Following Segar's death in 1938, Sagendorf moved to New York and began illustrating marketing materials for King Features, while also developing Popeye toys and games.

''Thimble Theatre''

From 1948 to 1967, Sagendorf was the writer-artist of Dell's, Gold Key's, and King Comic's ''Popeye''

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

. In 1959, he finally assumed command of the ''Thimble Theatre'' comic strip. In 1964, he explained his working methods: :Any part of my work can be interrupted for something important like golf or bowling. There are about 20 syndicated cartoonists living in my area, and they all enjoy dragging a fellow comic artist away from his drawing board. I hate to admit it, but I’m a deadline worker and do my best when my back is against the wall. In respect to ideas, I don’t buy gags; I do them myself… with the help of my family. My son, Brad, is developing into a great idea man. I made the mistake of paying him for an idea once, and he quickly lost his amateur standing. I do not like to write out a complete daily continuity too far in advance. When I have a continuity idea, I blab an outline into a small tape recorder and file it away until I’m ready for it. The day-to-day strips are done on a weekly basis. I feel that too-tight writing holds me down, and I lose the spontaneous ideas that always pop up when I’m working. As for my background, I started drawing at an early age because it was easier to make pictures than to learn to spell. I was born in Wenatchee, Washington. While I was still in high school I went to work for the late E. C. Segar, the creator of ''Popeye''. I saw the birth of many wonderful characters: Swee’-pea, Eugene the Jeep, Alice the Goon and Poop-deck Pappy. In recent years I have added Granny and Betty Beasky. After Segar’s death in 1938, I was asked by King Features to continue the strip. Except for a period as an assistant comic editor, I have been doing the daily and Sunday ''Popeye'' ever since. A year after those remarks, he talked on television about ''Popeye'' when he appeared on ''

What's My Line? ''What's My Line?'' is a panel game show that originally ran in the United States on the CBS Television Network from 1950 to 1967, originally in black and white and later in color, with subsequent U.S. revivals. The game uses celebrity panelis ...

'' (December 5, 1965).IMDb
/ref> He continued the strip until 1986. Wanting to spend more time with his family and confronted with failing eyesight, Sagendorf reduced his output to Sunday strips while Bobby London continued with the ''Popeye'' dailies. Sagendorf wrote and drew the ''Popeye'' Sunday strips until his death. King Features continues to run reprints of Sagendorf's daily strips, while artist

Hy Eisman Hy Eisman (born March 27, 1927) is an American cartoonist. Comic Strips He entered the comic strip field in 1950 and worked on several strips, including '' Kerry Drake'', '' Little Iodine'' and ''Bunny''. In comic books he was the last art ...

writes and draws new Sunday strips.

Death

Sagendorf was 79 years old when he died in Sun City, Florida on September 22, 1994 from brain cancer. He was survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter. In 2011, Craig Yoe wrote a biographical profile of Sagendorf and collected a selection of his outstanding comic book stories in ''Popeye: The Great Comic Book Tales by Bud Sagendorf''.

Bibliography

*Sagendorf, Bud. ''Popeye''. Treasure Books, 1955. *Sagendorf, Bud. ''Popeye: The First Fifty Years''. Workman, 1979.

References

External links

*Markstein, Don.
Toonopedia: Popeye the Sailor
. Retrieved August 26, 2007. {{DEFAULTSORT:Sagendorf, Bud 1915 births 1994 deaths American comics artists American comic strip cartoonists American comics writers People from Wenatchee, Washington Popeye