Popeye sails into his own DVD collection

He’s almost 80 years old, but Popeye the sailor man is still strong to the finish.

Strong enough, it turns out, to carry into video stores a four-disc DVD set from Warner Home Video and King Features Syndicate, “Popeye the Sailor, 1933-1938, Vol. 1.”

So start arranging for medical care for Bluto and get ready for plenty of wham, blam and kapow – not to mention a few “I yam what I yams” and “Well blow me downs.”

Not that the little sailor with the gravelly voice and the massive forearms, who sprang to life in King’s Thimble Theater comic strip in 1929, ever really left the public consciousness.

“Every generation grew up with him. My dad saw him in the movies, we grew up with him during the TV boom and the comic strip was always there,” says 44-year-old animator Frank Caruso, who spent a year tweaking the DVD release.

The result is 60 of the classic Max and Dave Fleischer black-and-white cartoons, plus bonus shorts and interviews.

Later volumes will include the more recent color cartoons and other features, Caruso says.

“To this day parents get their kids to eat spinach by saying that’s what Popeye ate,” he laughs. “I say it to my kids. My parents said it to me.”