Bluto

Bluto
	;
Real name	Bluto The Terrible
First appearance	The Thimble Theatre (September 12, 1932)
Original publisher	King Features Syndicate
Created by	E. C. Segar

Origin[]

Bluto is a cartoon and comics character created in 1932 by Elzie Crisler Segar as a one-time character, named "Bluto the Terrible", in his Thimble Theatre comic strip (later renamed Popeye). Bluto made his first appearance on September 12 of that year. Fleischer Studios adapted him the next year (1933) to be the main antagonist of their theatrical Popeye animated cartoon series.

In his first appearance, Bluto is the leader of a group of pirates that have stowed away on the same ship as Popeye and are going for the same treasure he is seeking that is located on the Eight Sea.

Bluto finds Oolong the Parrot and the treasure map, and plans to kill Popeye at dawn. When the time comes, both men engage in a notedly epic fight, and the scene devolves into a scribbled mess. They keep fighting for hours, and, despite their clothes being ripped apart, they never desire to take a rest. Eventually, Popeye unleashes his "Twisker Sock" and beats Bluto unconscious. The pirates are sent away on a lifeboat, and King Blozo gives Bluto a Pezozee as an insult reward.

As Popeye's popularity greatly grew, he would be given his own animated adaptation by Fleischer Studios. However, the short length and relatively sparse dialogue endemic to theatrical animation of the period meant that the sagas of Thimble Theatre could not be completely replicated, necessitating a more concise and action-oriented format. Possibly owing to both his physically-oriented characterization and the recentness of "The Eighth Sea" at the time of the adaptation's development, Fleischer Studios opted to repurpose Bluto the Terrible (now simply "Bluto") as the main antagonist for their first Popeye cartoon Popeye the Sailor, albeit casting him more as an imposing small-time thug while reducing his monstrous "otherness" relative to his comic incarnation.

Bluto also occasionally played other characters to serve as a more fearsome foil to Popeye (mostly in the longer length features), such as Sindbad the Sailor and Abu Hassan.

Public Domain Appearances[]

Public Domain Comic Strip Appearances[]

Thimble Theater Comic Strip (September 1932-November 1932)

Public Domain Animated Appearances[]

Let's Sing With Popeye (Fleischer, 1934)
I'm in the Army Now (Fleischer, 1936)
Popeye meets Sinbad the Sailor (Fleischer, 1936)
I Never Changes My Altitude (Fleischer, 1937)
The Paneless Window Washer (Fleischer, 1937)
Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves (Fleischer, 1937)
Customers Wanted (Fleischer, 1939)
Big Bad Sindbad (Famous, 1952) (archived footage)
Ancient Fistory (Famous, 1953)
Floor Flusher (Famous, 1954)
Fright to the Finish (Famous, 1954)
Popeye's 20th Anniversary (Famous, 1954)
Taxi-Turvy (Famous, 1954)
Greek Mirthology (1954)
Cookin' with Gags (Famous, 1955)
Assault and Flattery (Famous, 1956) (archived footage)
A Haul in One (Famous, 1956)
I Don't Scare (Famous, 1956)
Out to Punch (Famous, 1956)
Parlez Vous Woo (Famous, 1956)
Popeye for President (Famous, 1956)
The Crystal Brawl (Famous, 1957)
Nearlyweds (Famous, 1957)
Spree Lunch (1957)

Notes[]

It was discovered that the copyright to Bluto's first appearance in the September 12, 1932 comic strip was not renewed 28 years later in 1959 or 1960.
King Features Syndicate owns the trademark for the name Bluto, so his name can only appear in the interior of any story.
Despite many Popeye cartoons being in the public domain, some elements of the shorts will remain under copyright until 95 full years after their original publication.
After the theatrical Popeye cartoon series ceased production in 1957, Bluto's name was changed to Brutus because at the time it was believed by King Features that Paramount Pictures, distributors of the Fleischer Studios (later Famous Studios) cartoons, owned the rights to the name "Bluto".
It was long accepted that Bluto and Brutus were one and the same. However, a 1988 Popeye comic book, published by Ocean Comics, presented the two characters as twin brothers. The Popeye comic strip, at the time written and drawn by Hy Eisman, generally featured only Brutus, but added Bluto as Brutus' twin brother in several 2008 and 2009 strips.
In addition to Brutus and Junior, other similar characters emerged, such as Sonny Boy, son of the Sea Hag, created by Bud Sagendorf in 1958. Although a 1975 story depicts Brutus calling her "maw," in later stories Sonny Boy was treated as a distinct character.