Well, people, I searched around on the Net, and found several Popeye sites which have enough info on them to fully satisfy the premise of this thread. Shoulda known...

Apparently most of the Popeye characters were based directly on real people that the writer of the comic was acquainted with! That was a surprise. He modeled Wimpy on his boss, and Popeye on a local tough guy who was small and wiry, but a very formidable fighter even against much bigger opponents. How about that!

- LH