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On October 8th, 1916, seven months after his first comic strip debuted in the
Chicago Herald, 24-year-old cartoonist
Elzie Segar took out a sheet of his employers' letterhead and wrote and illustrated the following love letter to then-girlfriend, Myrtle Johnson. Three years later, by which point he had married his sweetheart, his third comic strip - Thimble Theatre - appeared for the first time in the
New York Journal. Eventually, as a result of the well-received introduction of a certain spinach-swilling sailor to the strip in 1929, Segar's creation evolved to become
Popeye.
Transcript follows. Image courtesy of
Rob Stolzer.
Recommended reading:
Popeye, Vol. 1: I Yam What I Yam.
Transcript
CHICAGO HERALD
Over 200,000 Daily
GEE!! I WISH MYRT WAS HERE
CHESTER, ILL.
OCT. 8.—16
DEAREST MYRTLE:-
I SURE AM THINKING OF YOU, AND I'M DOGGONE LONESOME. THINK I'LL JUMP OFF THE CLIFF AND END IT ALL. "LOVE SICK EH?"
ALL I GOTTA DO DOWN HERE IS SHAKE HANDS AND TELL 'EM HOW I MAKE A COMIC.
HOPE YOU'RE WELL. ALSO HOPE YOU'RE THINKING OF ME.
GOO BI
LOTSALOVE
YOUR "LIL" BOOB
DICK
