[2][3] Charles M. Schulz said of Segar's work: "I think Popeye was a perfect comic strip, consistent in drawing and humor".

[2][6][7] The son of Jewish parents Erma Irene (Crisler) and Amzi Andrews Segar, a handyman,[8] his earliest work experiences included assisting his father in house painting and paper hanging.

Segar moved to Chicago, Illinois, where he met Richard F. Outcault, the creator of The Yellow Kid and Buster Brown.

King Features asked Segar to create a comic strip to replace Midget Movies by Ed Wheelan, who had recently resigned from the syndicate.

[16] In one storyline, the characters encountered a superhuman "tough guy" named Harry Hardegg, who was able to break a moving buzz saw with his head.

Wotasnozzle's bizarre machines soon became the focus of the strip, with John Sappo frequently cast as his test subject and straight man.

[16] Although irritated by the order, Segar complied, and made Popeye more of a straightforward hero, more ubiquitously emphasizing his already-established affinity for aiding children and animals rather than his more violent and irascible tendencies, which persisted in a somewhat reduced form.

Beginning in 1933, Popeye was adapted into a series of cartoons by the Fleischer Studios, which increased the character's already-ascendant popularity even further.

Segar's work as an influence included Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Boody Rogers, Charles M. Schulz, Carl Barks, Robert Crumb, and Stephen Hillenburg.

The screenplay by Jules Feiffer was based directly on Gelman's Thimble Theatre Starring Popeye the Sailor, a hardcover reprint collection of 1936–37 Segar strips published in 1971 by Nostalgia Press.

[25] In 2006, Fantagraphics published the first of a six-volume book set reprinting all Thimble Theatre daily and Sunday strips from 1928 to 1938, beginning with the adventure that introduced Popeye.

According to the Society's website, the award was "presented to a person who has made a unique and outstanding contribution to the profession of cartooning."

Honorees have included Charles Schulz, Bil Keane, Al Capp, Bill Gallo and Mort Walker.

[26] In 2012, cartoonists Roger Langridge and Bruce Ozella teamed to revive the spirit of Segar in a 12-issue limited series, Popeye, published by IDW.

The annual Popeye Picnic, a weekend-long event that celebrates the character with a parade, film festival and other activities, is held the first weekend after Labor Day.

In 2008, a Bluto statue was dedicated at the corner of Swanwick and W. Holmes Streets, in front of Buena Vista Bank.

The 2009 statue of Castor Oyl and Bernice the Whiffle Hen stands in front of Chester Memorial Hospital.