Popeye - Langridge and Minhinnick

The Roger Langridge written and occasionally drawn Popeye series for IDW concludes with it's twelfth issue this year. Below is another New Zealand cartoonist's rendition of Popeye from 71 years prior, an editorial cartoon by Sir Gordon Minhinnick from The New Zealand Herald, 9 July 1941.

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Minhinnick used Popeye to represent the might of 40,000 American troops stationed to Iceland to replace the occupying English forces two days prior to this cartoon's publication. Iceland intially declared themselves neutral during the war but found themselves occupied by German forces by 1940. After failed attempts to persuade the Icelandic government to join the Allies against the Axis forces, British Marines invaded Iceland on 10 May 1940.  The defence of Iceland by 25,000 British troops was transferred to 40,000 American troops on 7 July 1941, with American troops outnumbering Icelandic males at the time. (Iceland's population numbered around 120,000).

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceland_during_World_War_II