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Created to commemorate six decades of Popeye the Sailor's screen legacy, this limited edition hand-painted cel captures Popeye and Olive Oyl sharing a slice of "Spinach 60th Anniversary" cake, a jubilant tribute to one of animation's most enduring icons.
Issued in 1993 by King Features Syndicate in collaboration with Toon Art Inc., the edition was based on original art by Myron Waldman, one of the Fleischer Studio's most celebrated animators and a driving creative force behind Popeye and Betty Boop during the 1930s and '40s.
Waldman's signature appears boldly beneath the image, marking this as both of course a collectible artwork, but also a direct link to the artist who helped define the elasticity, timing, and expressive personality of Fleischer animation. Having begun his career in 1930 at the Fleischer Studios in New York, Waldman rose to become a supervising animator, contributing to landmark shorts such as Popeye Meets Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1937), Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor (1936), and numerous Betty Boop and Superman cartoons.
By the early 1990s, studio production cels from the classic era had become nearly impossible to obtain, most having been destroyed or discarded as industrial by-products rather than preserved as art. This anniversary edition was created in response to that loss: each cel hand-inked and hand-painted using traditional techniques, restoring the craftsmanship of pre-war animation and celebrating Popeye's 1933 debut in Popeye the Sailor (a Fleischer short that forever changed the medium's tone and physicality).
Edition number 38/60, bearing the official King Features Syndicate seal and accompanied by its original Certificate of Authenticity, this cel represents both a rare tribute to Popeye's six-decade journey and a testament to Myron Waldman's artistic legacy, one of the last living links to the Fleischer era. Dimensions: 34.25 cm x 38 cm (13.5" x 15")
Sold without copyright; see copyright notice in the Terms and Conditions.
Estimate: £250 - 500 US
View all lots from POPEYE 60TH (1989)