I haven’t seen the cover of this comic in years so maybe this is right.
Popeye The Sailor #171
Western Publishing Company (1984)
“Blunder Road” and “Baseball Nuts”
WRITER: Nick Cuti
ARTIST: George Wildman
Professor OG Watasnozzle: “The Elephant Trunk”
WRITER: Nick Cuti
ARTIST: George Wildman
“Susprise Party”
WRITER/ARTIST: Bud Sagendorf
(reprinted from Popeye (Dell, 1948 series) #7 (June-July 1949) according to the Grand Comic Database)
The first story has Popeye and Wimpy going for explosives to help dig for coal for the island. However, they’re out of dynamite and only have a tanker of nitro available. Then they’re attacked by a supposed ghost car, the spirit of a miner killed in an explosion. Except it’s actually a remote controlled car Brutus is using to get rid of the competition. Also the nitro is really water and our heroes were scammed. A fun story.
The second features the professor and his pal Sappo (not named in the story so again that comes from the GCD) trying out his latest invention, a trunk that can shrink things as something goes into it, but returns to full size as they’re taken out. However, the weight is maintained and the professor falls into his own trunk while dealing with it. It was a neat story but I never heard of these characters before or after this. Also Sappo looks like he’s related to Wimpy.
Our third story has Olive convincing Popeye and Brutus to settle their differences through a “marathon baseball” game, where the loser is the one who gives up. Brutus’ team is filled with ringers thanks to the Sea Hag, who also uses her magic and some fake spinach to help him cheat. However, Popeye manages to get some real spinach and his team soon claims victory. While Olive claims the Hag’s backside with her foot when she learns of her meddling. I’m not sure how the Hag switched the spinach and there is a line of dialog that suggests she’s dating them both (so my usual complaint with Olive is in full effect here) but otherwise the trend continues.
There are also some one page gag strips involving Sweetpea that are reprints of comics from the Dell run as well as our final Popeye and Wimpy tale, in which Popeye is wondering if some of his rougher friends only pretend to be due to his strength. Wimpy comes up with the idea to test that theory by having Popeye pretend to be injured to see if anyone takes a shot at him, which a bunch of them do. So Popeye invites all his friends to a surprise party, but the surprise is on the roughnecks. So we also end on a good story.
Overall this was a fun comic, worth looking into.
BW Media Spotlight 
Was this 1984 comic a gift that you had gotten from your family when you were a kid? Western did publish a lot of reprint comics from earlier decades and sell them back in the 1970s and 1980s.
Good to see that you’re feeling back to normal again, Tronix. When you’re not posting articles and videos on this site for a few days, it’s definitely a sign that you’re not feeling well.
LikeLike
It wasn’t a gift as far as I remember but it might have been. It wasn’t part of the trio with Justice League, Batman, and Spider-Man that I’ve reviewed. It was part of a multipack along with Tom & Jerry and one other comic I can’t remember right now.
LikeLike
I see. Sometimes it is difficult to remember exactly how one got a particular comic book. I also know that Whitman published a lot of older reprint comics during the 1970s and 1980s (comics from the early 70s, 1960s and even 1950s).
LikeLike