More than a decade before he created the world's most famous cartoon sailor, Elzie Crisler Segar began his comics career in the movies. He drew cartoons for silent movie theater slides, the Charlie Chaplin comic strip, and a daily strip about Chicago's movies and entertainment. Then, in 1919, he penned his own "small screen" creation for the newspapers, Thimble Theatre, where Popeye was to be born a decade later.

This comprehensive volume features examples of all of E.C. Segar's early comics and illustrations, with over 100 pre-Popeye Thimble Theatre Sunday pages including the complete run of the famed Western desert saga, a series that rivals his later work in superb art, storytelling, and humor.

Newly revised and expanded, this new printing contains ten additional pages plus a 1920s-style Sunday comics section insert paying tribute to Segar and his comic creations featuring Charlie Chaplin's Comic Capers and Popeye's "The Jeep."

Text and illustrations offer an in-depth history and commentary on the life and work of E. C. Segar by historians Paul C. Tumey and Jeet Heer, and best-selling author and journalist Michael Tisserand. Thimble Theatre is an essential part of any comics lover's library.