Popeye And The Great Spinach Conspiracy

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As a lifelong fan of Popeye cartoons, it took a long time to realize that the idea of his strength coming from spinach consumption was utter garbage. The idea of strength inducing spinach for the barely coherent pipe smoke tobacco addicted mariner was stupid from the outset. The basic concept was hijacked as a marketing exercise to encourage youngsters to eat more vegetables and greens. Though I dislike cabbage, peas, etc., I actually quite like spinach. I was however disappointed on finding out in my pre-teen years, that my arms did not turn into pistons, anvils or nuclear fuelled pile-drivers. I’d been had. I began to wonder what would happen in the comics if others tasted the spinach. If bully boy Bluto tried it and liked it, Popeye would have been just about stuffed. It was as if Popeye was the only man in the entire World who ate spinach. It would have been fun to see Olive Oyl crack open a tin and develop biceps over her matchstick thin frame too. Who knows – we could have had Popeye taking on Superman, Batman and even the Hulk, who despite being green, never eats spinach. My money’s on the sailor man. Arthur Chappell