The most influential manga in Japan isn’t Japanese

Without Popeye, manga, anime, and video games wouldn’t exist as we know them.

Happy belated New Year! On January 1, 2025, Popeye the Sailorman entered the public domain. He is a quintessential all-American character, one of the nation’s very first cartoon superstars. Charles Schultz, of Peanuts fame, called Popeye “a perfect comic strip.” But you might be surprised to hear that Popeye had an equal, and arguably even greater, cult…