Who created the cartoon character 'Popeye the Sailor'?

Elzie Crisler Segar (December 8, 1894 – October 13, 1938), known by the pen name E. C. Segar, was an American cartoonist, best known as the creator of Popeye, a pop culture character who first appeared in 1929 in Segar's comic strip "Thimble Theatre".

He began by drawing "Thimble Theatre" for the "New York Journal". The strip made its debut on December 19, 1919, featuring the characters Olive Oyl, Castor Oyl and Harold Hamgravy, whose name was quickly shortened in the strip to simply "Ham Gravy". They were the strip's leads for about a decade.

On January 17, 1929, when Castor Oyl needed a mariner to navigate his ship to Dice Island, Castor picked up an old sailor in the docks named Popeye. Popeye's first line in the strip, upon being asked if he was a sailor, was "'Ja think I'm a cowboy?" The character stole the show and became the permanent star. Some of the other notable characters Segar created include J. Wellington Wimpy and Eugene the Jeep.