Developing Popeye for mister CUJO

One of the unexpected great things about doing "mister Cujo Explains it All," is drawing and in some ways redesigning some of my all time favorite pop culture characters.  I'm usually not a fan of drawing someone else's character, not because it's another person's creation, because of the limited amount of time I usually get to draw overall.  I draw "fan art" during pencil sketching warm ups and some of that stuff I take to completion, but very rarely.  Doing a weekly web series that's littered with pop culture references has given me the opportunity to tackle characters I may have never thought about illustrating, as is the case with Popeye.

Popeye, has been around since the 1930's, so there have been countless iterations of him.  Above are some of the pencil sketches I did trying to nail down a version that I would use.  I tried to incorporate "my style" into the character from the start, not only because that would be my natural drawing preference, but for obvious copyright reasons.  "Mister CUJO Explains it All" is a comedy series poking fun at pop culture stuff, not a literal translation.  One has to make sure you aren't saying "THIS IS POPEYE" with the design.  So if you're wondering why he doesn't have anchor forearm tatts, that's why.

I decided to go with the white Navy uniform because it's more streamlined than the black shirt and blue jeans tough guy look Popeye is far more famous for.  And, I just like it.  I probably like just because he's rarely drawn that way.

Throwing some shorts and shoes on him for his backyard brawlin' wasn't too difficult as I used the same model.  Again, I kept the look streamlined with little to no details in the footwear or shorts.

And finally a 'JACKED' sailor ready to do some damaged.  I've already had conversations about Popeye (and Kimbo Slice, for that matter) doing battle with other figures in pop culture.  This juiced up version of the character may get some more use.

Take all that and you get "mister CUJO Explains Popeye V Kimbo Slice..."

Thanks for checking it out and stayed tuned for mo' shite!