Popeye / Bobby London

Bobby London was born in Brooklyn, and started his career as part of the underground comix movement. If the informal credo of the Air Pirates group of underground artists was to emulate the early newspaper comic strips, then Bobby London was an ideal member. He was inspired by several masters of the medium, like E.C. Segar, Cliff Sterrett, Bud Fisher, Billy DeBeck and George Herriman. Herriman leaps to mind when viewing London's 'Dirty Duck' pages of the early 1970s, but only for style, not for content. Besides 'Dirty Duck', he also contributed to 'Air Pirates' # 1 and 2, 'The Tortoise and the Hare', 'Left Field Funnies', 'Manhunt' # 1, 'San Francisco Comic Book' # 4 and his autobiographic comic 'Merton of the Movement'. 'Dirty Duck' got mainstream attention when it moved to National Lampoon in 1972 and then to Playboy in 1976. By then, he was also an illustrator for The New York Times, which he continued until 1982. London's historic cartoon art interest, sharp sense of humor and skillful drawing led him to being tapped by King Features Syndicate to write and draw the 'Popeye' daily newspaper strip from April 1986 to August 1992. Now a freelancer, London has worked as a storyboarder on the Cartoon Network series 'Dexter's Laboratory' and 'The Powerpuff Girls' in 2004. He also developed an off-and-on strip called 'Cody', about a pre-school boy and his W.C.