Elzie Crisler Segar (December 8, 1894-October 13, 1938) was the creator of Popeye the Sailor. He was born in Chester, Illinois on the east bank of the Mississippi River approximately sixty miles south of St. Louis, Missouri. He was the youngest of eight children but was technically an only child. His seven siblings were all half brothers and sisters. His parents were Amzi Andrews Segar and Erma Irene Crisler Segar. Amzi Segar was born in 1849 to Tom Segar of New York and Mary Jane Walker of Virginia. Tom Segar had at one time been partners in a Castor oil business with a friend named Amzi which is apparently where his son, Elzie's father got his name. In 1870 Amzi married Miss Hinda Wise and had seven children, four sons and three daughters. Hinda passed away and Amzi married Erma Irene Crisler. In 1894 their only child, Elzie, was born.

    Amzi was a house painter and paper hanger of modest means. He also tried his hand at cartooning on at least one occasion as can be seen by the example below.

    Many of the Chester locations which played a significant role in Segar's childhood are still extant. Obviously the Mississippi River is still there, just as it was when Chester rated a small mention in Mark Twain's book,"Life on the Mississippi". Segar's birthplace still stands, as does a later childhood home, both of which have been extensively remodeled over the years. One of Segar's schoolhouses, The Union School, is there also, albeit in pathetic condition, now used as a barn.

    Segar's family's modest means evoked in him an early desire for making money. According to Bud Sagendorf (1915-1994), Segar's only assistant and eventually the heir to his comic strip, in 1905 a U.S. navy ship docked in the Mississippi River below Chester. The locals were being ferried out for tours and charged 25 cents a head. Ten year old Elzie found a dilapidated rowboat, patched it to make it sufficiently river worthy and spent the day rowing passengers out to the warship for 5 cents apiece. This story of Segar spending a day manning the oars against the Mississippi's current contradicts other claims that Segar was a weak and sickly child.

    Segar reportedly did not like his given name of Elzie and shunned it whenever possible. As a boy in Chester he was known as "Chig" which was supposedly short for "Chigger" given him due to his diminutive stature.

     In 1907 when Segar was approximately 12 years old he began his first real job, in a building which also still stands today. It was the Chester Opera house, built in 1875, owned and operated at that time by J. William, "Windy Bill," Schuchert (1857-1941).The opera house may have never hosted an actual opera. It was more of a playhouse, the first floor contained shops with the stage and seating occupying the second floor. By the time of Segar's employ it was mainly used for motion pictures. Segar's jobs were many. He hung movie posters around town and drew showbills for the front of the theater. He played drums as accompaniment for the films and allegedly created glass slides as advertisements for local businesses to be projected on the screen while film reels were changed. It is said that Mr. Schuchert gave Elzie a camera as a gift. Elzie would photograph the townsfolk then draw caricatures of them on the glass slides to be shown along with the advertisements. Supposedly this became the highlight of the evening's entertainment. Rumor has it that during a later remodel of the opera house, some of these glass slides were found, If this is true none of them has ever surfaced. Segar eventually worked his way up to operating the projector itself. He was reportedly so proud of this position that he had the letters "M.P.O." tattooed on his arm which, according to Mr. Sagendorf, stood for "Motion Picture Operator." Hopefully he wasn't 12 years old when he got this tattoo.

    Apparently Segar developed a love for drawing at an early age, but in all candor, enthusiasm, confidence and persistence were traits he may have possessed. Talent was much less in evidence. He was not a natural artist.  Segar kept trying, however, supposedly with the support of his family and the people of the town.

    An early attempt by Segar is shown below. It appears to be dated 1915 which would make Elzie 20 or 21 years old. It shows Bill Schuchert (spelled phoentically as "Suggert") ice fishing with a jug of "patience" by his side.

   The lettering (from top to bottom) reads "Well, I swan, just look at that guy", "Some people can't catch `em in summer time" and "Danger don't fall into Suggert's fish hole."

    Segar's employer, Bill Schuchert was a mentor as well as a boss. He encouraged Segar in pursuing an artistic career. Elzie had read of the phenominal salaries comic strip artists were makng and made his career choice accordingly. He sent some sample cartoons to several publications, always with the same negative result. He decided some professional training was in order and enrolled in the W. L. Evans Correspondence Course in Cartooning based in Cleveland, Ohio. Most sources say Mr. Schuchert paid the fee of $20 which at that time was a not insignificant sum. Considering Segar was reportedly making fifty cents a day this amounted to two months wages, Windy Bill was indeed a benevolent employer but the twenty-dollar investment would later make him indirectly famous. There are other sources where Segar himself claims to have paid a fee of $100. Where an 18 year old boy would raise $100 for a correspondence course in 1913 is a mystery.

     Mr. Schuchert also allowed Elzie to turn the stage of the opera house into his personal art studio. Since the opera house was by then devoted almost entirely to films the stage was seldom in use. Elzie would occasionally have to clear out his equipment to make room for a vaudeville performer who needed the stage for his act but supposedly such occurances were rare.

Chicago
    In 1916 Segar took his art school diploma (figuratively speaking since Evans didn't issue diplomas) and headed for Chicago to seek his fortune. Whether or not his training had properly prepared him for drawing comic strips is open to debate. The Evans course had taught him political cartooning for the newspaper's editorial page. There were no lessons in the drawing of comic strips. Segar first located his half brother, Norris, who introduced him to Richard Felton (R.F.) Outcault (1863-1928). Norris knew Outcault and told him his younger brother was an artist. Outcault told Norris to send for his brother and if he could draw freehand he would help find him a job. At least one account says that Elzie later gave his half brother a new car for having helped start him on his career. Outcault was the creator of The Yellow Kid and Buster Brown. It's possible Outcault's salary was one of those which had inspired Elzie to become a comic strip artist. Apparently Outcault saw something in the young Segar because he referred him to the editor of the Chicago Herald, Mr. James Keeley. Mr. Keeley decided to give the young artist a chance. He must not have had a need for a political cartoonist. Instead he assigned Segar to a comic strip called "Charlie Chaplin's Comic Capers". This was a strip which was intended to capitalize on the original Chaplin, then in only the second year of his motion picture career working for Essanay Studios, but who was already becoming a national phenomenon. At least two other unlicensed strips were appearing in other U.S. newspapers but the Herald's version was drawn with Chaplin's permission.

     Segar's first strip was published March 12, 1916. He was barely 21 years old. It would be impossible to say it was a well-drawn strip. On the contrary, it was abysmal. The humor may have been acceptable but the artwork was poor. Still Segar was allowed to continue for 13 months, until April 16. 1917. At this time Chaplin changed film studios. Permission to use his name and likeness in the comic strip was withdrawn and "Charlie Chaplin's Comic Capers" was shut down.

    World War I was then in full swing with The United States having become involved less than two weeks earlier (April 6, 1917). Segar began to draw a strip called "Barry the Boob" about a hapless soldier in an unnamed army on the fields of Europe. Segar drew this strip from April 23rd, 1917 until June 1st, 1918. Again, the humor was there but the artwork left something to be desired. Still, there were definite Segar traits beginning to appear, such as the "Krazy Kat" style sparse backgrounds and characters "plopping" out of the final panel in shock. In mid-1918 the Herald either folded or was bought out by William Randolph Hearst the famous newspaper publisher. In either case "Barry the Boob" was no more. To see a rare sample of Barry the Boob, click on the LINK.

Segar now went to work for Hearst's "Chicago American" and was given another assignment. He began drawing a feature called "Looping the Loop" a reference to the famous Chicago Loop. The feature was not so much a comic strip as an illustrated article containing film reviews and commentary on life in the city. Segar's first "Looping the Loop" strip ran on June 1, 1918. It was a modest success and even helped increase the newspaper's circulation. The executives of Hearst's New York office made note of this and summoned Segar to the east coast. While living in Chicago Segar met and married Myrtle Johnson.

To hear more about Segar's life and career click on the LINK.

Many of the photos in this section and the W.L. Evans advertisment were kindly contributed by Mrs. Cathy Rinne. We appreciate her time and effort.

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