Elzie Crisler Segar (born December 8, 1894 - died October 13, 1938) was an American cartoonist, born and raised in Chester, Illinois, who created the famous comic-strip character Popeye in 1929.
At age 18, he decided to become a cartoonist. He worked hard on a correspondence course in cartooning from W.L. Evans, of Cleveland, which he had invested $100 in. He had been working at house painting and paper hanging in the daytime, and playing drums for dances in the evening. He also found work as a movie theater film projectionist. He said that after work he "lit up the oil lamps about midnight and worked on the course until 3 a.m."
Interestingly, it was the comedy movies of Charlot that inspired him to create a few comics copying the same situations. These met with no success. Then Segar met Richard Felton Outcault, creator of "The Yellow Kid" and "Buster Brown," and Outcault encouraged him and introduced him at the Chicago Herald . The Herald published Segar's first comic, "Charlie Chaplin's Comedy Capers." Two years later, he moved on to the Chicago Evening American where he created "Looping the Loop."
Two years after that the managing editor, William Curley, thought Segar could succeed in New York, so he sent him to King Features Syndicate, where Segar worked for many years. He began drawing "Thimble Theatre" for the New York Journal, right when he started. The characters were Olive Oyl, Castor Oyl, and Ham Gravy, who for about a decade were the leads. In 1929, when Castor Oyl needed a mariner to navigate his ship to Dice Island, Castor picked up an old salt down by the docks named Popeye. The Popeye character "stole the show."
Segar was married to a woman named Myrtle and they had two children.
