Popeye and Business and Office Careers #1 (2026 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

Writer Joe Gill and artist Tony Tallarico led the young readers of 1973 through the growing field of office management. Your guides are Popeye the Sailor Man and his infant ward, Swee'Pea. 

Many jobs explored, such as office manager, secretary, and stenographer, had been around for decades. But with the growing use of computers to compute complex algorithms, data processing and scheduling and payroll, new positions and roles were being added to office setting. 

The argument has always been that computers are going to take human jobs. We see this more today with the controversial role of artificial intelligence. But in 1973, the job field was actually growing thanks to computers. That's because of how primitive they were back then!

The average computer used in offices in the 1970s were the size of several of our current xerox machines put together. They could fill an entire room, based on the size of the business. The standard personal computer is several years away from being offered to businesses. These computers also lacked the internal data processing features like spreadsheets. Yes, this is a world without Microsoft Office.

Popeye explains that to program a computer, you would need a team of employees; from technicians who would fine tool the machine on a regular, almost daily basis to punch card operators who tabulated the cardstock paper inserts that fed data into the computer for analysis.

Published by King Features Syndicate, the art and distribution studio that put Popeye and friends in dozens of newspapers nationwide, Popeye and Business and Office Careers was one of 15 other educational comic books starring the sailor. Other career pathways explored by Popeye and friends were in healthcare, communications, transportation and agri-business as part of King's Career Educational Series.

Cover by George Wildman.

Completing this review completes Task #5 (An educational comic) of the 2026 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Popeye Halloween Mini-Comic: Popeye Vs. the Ghosk

This 2009 mini-comic might say Popeye on the cover. But the story that occurs in this book was originally published as part of E C. Segar's Thimble Theater before the spinach loving sailor eventually became the title character of the long-running comic strip.

This Halloween Comic Fest freebie not only provided a classic haunt for comic book collectors but it also advertised a 4-volume collected set of the earliest adventures of Olive Oyl, her brother Castor and hamburger loving pal Wimpy to appear in newsprint. It might surprise you but Popeye didn't appear in the strip in 1929, a nearly full decade after Thimble Theater debuted! Until then, pencil thin Olive Oyl was the main character. 

With that information established and Popeye taking the lead role, this story was first published in the 1930s. As this adventure occurs during Popeye's expedition to find his long lost father, a further Google search reveals that this episode first saw print around the late summer/early autumn of 1936. 

The search for Popeye's pop is just the framing device. Set on the fearless sailor's ship, the Elsie, Popeye reveals to a crew member that legend has it that his boat is haunted. At first, everyone, including Popeye, laugh this rumor off. However, as more and more sailors report at having seen a ghost aboard, including the helmsman who is constantly ordered by the spook to drift off course, Popeye and Olive Oyl seeks to get to the bottom of things. 

Naturally, this results in Popeye getting into fisticuffs with the 'ghosk'. But what I didn't expect was for the story to involve a floating head that hops around the boat and even talks! At first I thought that character might be Popeye's father. But the sailor man doesn't recognize the head. While there's no a cliffhanger at mini comic's end, the book closes without revealing who this dude was. And now I'm obsessed with finding out his identity!

I guess this Halloween time promo comic did it's job. It just took 16 years to attract me. I entered into my reading not really caring about reading more Popeye related work. But now I'm interested in reading more. Though conventional wisdom would argue that I start with volume 1, I don't think I can wait to get to volume 3 or 4 before finding out what happens next. I've read other series out of order. What's one more on my reading resume...

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.