Bud Sagendorf has mentioned on more than one occasion that Bluto was born at the specific request of Max and Dave Fleischer. According to Mr. Sagendorf, when the Fleischer brothers were in the early stages of developing their Popeye animated films, they decided that they needed a villain to play against Popeye and Olive in an ongoing 'triangle'. They sent Segar a telegram, requesting he supply such a character. Segar accommodated them by giving his assistant, a very young Sagendorf, the task of researching the old strip proofs and making up a list of all Popeye's previous opponents. Segar then apparently used this information to create a formidable composite' character, one big enough to supply Popeye with a continuing rival for Olive's affection. Who the prototype characters were is easy enough to see from strip reprints. But what particular trait, either in temperament or physical appearance each contributed to the new character can only be assumed.The result was 'Bluto the Terrible', a tall, massive and totally ruthless pirate. Where the name 'Bluto' came from and whether it has any special significance isn't clear. But with other character creations such as Jabbo', 'Bunzo', 'Limbo' and 'Bolo' to his credit, it's fairly safe to speculate that Bluto was named by Segar.
Although he was created for the use of the animators, Bluto's first appearance before the public was in the 'Thimble Theatre' comic strip. It must have been too much of a temptation for Segar to create such a terrible foe for Popeye and then not make use of him himself. And that's exactly what he did in June of 1932.
Segar wrote a high seas adventure for his strip the first ship-based story since POPEYE and CASTOR OYL met the Sea Hag aboard the 'Black Barnacle' nearly two and a half years earlier. He titled it 'The Eighth Sea'. In it, Popeye learns of a black Chinese parrot named 'Oolong' who knows the location of a vast treasure. With Castor's help, he locates the parrot and buys it from the previous owner, an old Asian friend named Woo Fong. Woo Fong warns Popeye that a terrible pirate named Bluto is also after the parrot and the treasure. Popeye is obviously familiar with the name because he replies, "If I meets BLUTO they'll be a fight like wich they never was before."He also comments that Bluto is the only man on Earth who might possibly beat him in a fight. Woo Fong also sells Popeye a ship called the 'Blue Squid' and tries to warn his friend that there's a secret to the ship. But a strange voice from nowhere warns Woo Fong to not divulge the secret, and the old man is too terrified to defy it. Popeye is unfazed and takes his parrot and ship to sea.
The sailor and his crew soon discover that Woo Fong was correct about the ship's secret. She was once called the "Jenny V", and had been constructed specifically for smuggling. All her walls had double sides with room in between for cargo or men. This by itself wasn't so bad. What made it deadly was that Bluto and his gang had stowed away in these hollow walls and were waiting until Popeye found the treasure. Bluto would then emerge from hiding and take all the goods for himself. Eventually his plan is uncovered, and Bluto drops all pretense, announcing that he will come out of hiding at dawn and kill Popeye.
Some of Popeye's crew desert the ship in terror. One attempts suicide. Others prepare themselves for their early demise. Only Popeye is uncowed. When told he should pray, he does just that but prays for Bluto instead.
The next morning Bluto appears on deck as promised, ready to murder Popeye with his bare hands. The fight lasts for several strips with neither opponent appearing to have an edge. Bluto hangs Popeye by his neck from a yardarm. He wraps him around a mast like a pretzel, all to no effect. Popeye knocks Bluto overboard, then rescues him so they can continue the fight. He even allows his opponent to take a lunch break and rest. The fight goes on for hours.
Unlike his later iterations who can't take a punch, the original Bluto was almost impervious to Popeye's fists. Popeye finally tires of the scrap and warns Bluto that he will end it by using his ultimate weapon, the twister punch. The tremendous force of the blow renders Bluto completely unconscious and close to death. Popeye spends the next few strips worrying that Bluto might not survive, saying, "If I can't lick me foe without killin' him, then I ain,t much of a man."
At last Bluto is revived, and Popeye puts him and his gang in a lifeboat with provisions and directions to the nearest port. The pirate sails away and is forgotten by Popeye who continues on his treasure hunt. Apparently, Bluto was also forgotten by his creator, because he never again appeared in a comic strip drawn by Segar.
But Bluto wasn't finished yet. A few months later, in the spring of 1933, the Fleischers released their first Popeye cartoon, titled appropriately enough, "Popeye the Sailor." In it, Popeye and Bluto are crewman on the same ship and come ashore on leave. Olive is there to meet her sweet patootie but must endure the flirtations of every crewman who leaves the ship, including Bluto. She succeeds in fending him off until Popeye arrives and escorts her away. Bluto decides to follow.
Popeye takes Olive to a carnival. What follows is the usual Popeye cartoon staple of having Bluto show off with feats of strength and skill while Popeye constantly outdoes him. They first go to the test of strength, where the subject must hit a lever with a mallet and attempt to ring the bell and win a cigar. Bluto rings the bell (but just barely) then bullies the operator by taking all of his cigars given as prizes. Popeye is next and first grinds the huge mallet into toothpicks with his bare hands. He then hits the lever with his naked fist, driving the weight with such force that it completely dislodges the bell and continues on until it hits the sun.
The contestants next go to the pitching booth where a man's head protrudes through the back wall. The barbaric (and in hindsight racist) purpose of this game is obviously to hit the man with a baseball. Bluto throws and hits him, but the ball ricochets back to hit Bluto in the mouth. Popeye then takes a dozen balls and by casually tossing them up and flexing his bicep, he bounces them at the man and connects with every ball. Next the trio take in the side show where the barker is just introducing the hula dancer, none other than Betty Boop, performing a cameo in her own film. Popeye climbs on stage and dances with Betty, making a grass skirt from the bearded lady's whiskers. Bluto decides that this is the propitious time to grab the bull by the horns. He picks up Olive and says his one and only line, "Marry me!" Olive refuses vehemently, but is carried away regardless. What follows is a cross-country chase scene with Popeye in hot pursuit.
Bluto crosses a deep gorge by the available footbridge and destroys the bridge, supposedly stranding Popeye on the other side. Popeye instead, grabs a nearby rope, lassos a stump on the opposite side and draws the chasm closed. He then. crosses easily and continues the chase.
Bluto apparently decides that if he can't have Olive no one can and ties her to the railroad tracks in typical melodrama fashion, but instead of using a rope he uses the actual rails to secure her. Popeye must fight Bluto and beat him in time to save Olive from an approaching train. Naturally, with the help of his spinach, he does. Bluto is beaten, (nailed into a coffin with only his head protruding) and Olive is saved.
Although Bluto would have steady work in the cartoons through the thirties, forties and fifdes, he wasn't exactly treated with respect by his animators. His appearance changed drastically over the years. In the period during WWII, his character was reduced from the strong, aggressive personality of the thirties to an overweight, flabby sailor who was sneaky, devious and decidedly unattractive as a cartoon character (a personal opinion). In the late forties and throughout the fifties he was given back his personality (thanks to Jackson Beck's voice characterization). and a much better physique than he would ever enjoyed before. But by then the storylines of the films became obsessed with Bluto's competition with Popeye over Olive and his comic potential was largely wasted.
Popeye's fame in the comic strips and animated films could only lead to his eventually branching out into other forms of entertainment including comic books, but Bluto would take several more years to make the transiton.
The first Popeye comic books, beginning in 1941, were actually reprints of Sunday strips by Segar, Wnner and Zaboly and were taken directly from the newspapers. And since Bluto never appeared in a later Segar Sunday strip, he would naturally be omitted from the comic reprints. The first comic book with all new material was drawn by Bud Sagendarf in 1946. He would continue to draw the comics for over twenty years but for some strange reason Bluto would be completely ignored for half that period, and his initial comic book appearance would be understated to say the least.
Dell #40 dated April of 1957 actually features a character who resembles Bluto on the cover. He's tall, muscular and bearded. But that's where the similarity ends. This Bluto is bowlegged, wears a Dixie cup sailor's cap and looks almost juvenile. Finally, we must assume that its Bluto, because he's never called by name. And his role in the comic book is a virtual cameo, only a single panel in the whole book, excluding the cover.
The title of the story is 'The Mystery of the Magic Flute' and involves the Sea Hag's attempts to get back her flute which Popeye has taken and buried in his yard for safe keeping. The Hag sends her army of spies to locate the flute, but after several tries they still can't find it. Finally, one of the spies approaches Poopdeck Pappy and tells him that if they don't get the flute, the Hag will put a spell on him. Pappy sees no harm in giving up what he refers to as a "silly toot stick". He promptly digs up the flute and delivers it to the Hag.
The Hag immediately uses the instrument to play a tune which paralyzes Popeye and floats him out of his house and into hers. She then drops him through a trap door into her cellar.
On page 14, (of the same comic) the Sea Hag orders one of her spys to "Bring in the big guy who hates Popeye!" In the next panel Bluto enters (at least we think he's Bluto) and asks the Hag, "Why did you send for me?" The Hag replies, "A friend of yours is waiting for you!" and drops Bluto through the trap door too.
And that's it! The sounds of a fight issue from the trap door, but no more Bluto is to be seen. The Hag then drops a lion, a box of poison snakes, a bear and a gorilla through the hole. Finally, she lights a bomb and puts it in with Popeye. After a tremendous explosion Popeye sticks his head out of the hole and asks, "Did someone knock at me trap door?" The Hag is so frightened and unnerved - that she flees her own home without even taking the flute. What becomes of Bluto is not known. It's a cinch the Hag wasn't very concerned about him.
In the final panel, apparently back at his house, Popeye is asked by Pappy, "But how did you lick all of them beasts!" Popeye replies, "it was simple. Haggy didn't know it, but one of her boys stored some spinach in that basement pit."
A bit of a cop out as plot lines go. The story itself is an obvious copy of Segar's 1937 story, 'The Mystery Melody'. But we can forgive Mr. Sagendorf for paying homage to his mentor by copying a twenty-year-old story. The point is that unlike the comic strip and cartoon debuts, Bluto's first shot at comic books was less than epic. It makes you wonder why they even bothered.
Bluto's comic book appearances would become more numerous from then on, but he wouldn't recover his name for several more years. According to Mr. Sagendorf, with the popularity of the films by the Fleischers and Paramount (who acquired the Fleischer organization) it was decided to bring Bluto into the comic books and draw upon his popularity. But Paramount protested that the name "Bluto" was owned by them. In all fairness, except for his one short appearance in the Thimble Theatre in 1932, the animators used the character exclusively for almost 25 years. So their claim carried some weight.
Rather than put their lawyers to work researching Bluto's origins, King Features relented and used a similar looking character but without his proper name. Poor Bluto was called 'The Mean Man', 'Sonny Boy', 'Junior, 'The Brute' or nothing at all. A curious excepton to this rule was a 1959 Bela Zaboly comic strip story, in which Bluto made a short appearance and was called by his proper name. Apparenly, Paramount either didn't notice these strips or didn't have a problem with them. In 1960, when King Features commissioned 220 animated films for television, they had to give the heavy a name and chose Brutus. In Dell comic #66 in 1962, Bud Sagendarf followed suit and Bluto became Brutus. It wasn't until the Hanna Barbera cartoons of the late '70's that he finally got his name back and once again became Bluto.
Bobby London used this naming controversy for a 1991 Thimble Theatre story called 'The Return of Bluto'. In the satiric piece, Bluto returns to Sweethaven bent on revenge. The Sea Hag helps him by forging a note from Popeye on the Internet, challenging 'Brutus' to meet him outside of town. Popeye sees the note and goes to investigate. What he finds are hundreds of Brutuses who have answered his alleged challenge. All shapes and sizes of Brutus are present including a female version. They all get into a confusing fight over who's the real 'Brutus' and wipe each other out, leaving Popeye with nobody to sock. Wth Popeye unable to fight, Sweethaven's tourism industry disappears, the town's economy crumbles and Bluto maneuvers himself into the position of Mayor of Sweethaven. He promptly has Popeye jailed for uttering the name "Brutus." If you have access to these strips they're well worth reading.
So after all his trials and travails, its safe to say that Bluto owes his fame to the Fleischer Brothers. After all, he was created at their request. But what's more important is that they put him to much better use in their animated films than he'd ever been in the strip and comic books. Wth the syndicated release to television of these theatrical cartoons in the 1950's, Bluto's fame was assured by the legions of baby boomers who were seeing him for the first time. From that point on, the number of his comic strip, comic book and animation appearances would swell dramatically. And if we can complain today about the alleged drop in the quality of some of his work, especially in the animated version, at least his place in history is assured. And if ever Popeye makes a comeback, we can be sure that Bluto will be waiting in the wings to grab his share of the limelight. .
This essay is reprinted from the official Popeye Fan Club News magazine. To learn more about the club click on the LINK.
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