Forrest Cowles Sagendorf (March 22, 1915 – September 22, 1994), better known as Bud Sagendorf, was an American cartoonist, notable for his work on King Features Syndicate's Thimble Theatre Starring Popeye comic strip.

Personal life

Born in Wenatchee, Washington, Sagendorf was three years old when his father died. He arrived at age three in Santa Monica, California, with his sister Helen and his mother, who opened a beauty parlor. It was Helen who gave him the nickname "Bud". His first job was as a newsboy, selling the Los Angeles Herald-Express on the street. In 1940, he married his high school sweetheart, Nadia Crandall, and they eventually moved to rural Connecticut.

Career

He began his cartoon career while a teenager, working for $50 a week as the assistant of cartoonist E. C. Segar on his Thimble Theatre and Sappo comic strips. Following Segar's death in 1938, Sagendorf moved to New York and began illustrating marketing materials for King Features, while also developing Popeye toys and games.

Thimble Theatre

From 1948 to 1967, Sagendorf was the writer-artist of the ongoing Popeye comic book across three different publishers (Dell, Gold Key, and King Comics). In 1959, he finally assumed command of the Thimble Theatre comic strip. In 1964, he explained his working methods: A year after those remarks, he talked on television about Popeye when he appeared on What's My Line? (December 5, 1965). He continued the strip until 1986. Wanting to spend more time with his family and confronted with failing eyesight, Sagendorf reduced his output to Sunday strips while Bobby London continued with the Popeye dailies. Sagendorf wrote and drew the Popeye Sunday strips until his death. King Features continues to run reprints of Sagendorf's daily strips, while R. K. Milholland writes and draws new Sunday strips.

Death

Sagendorf was 79 years old when he died in Sun City, Florida, on September 22, 1994, from brain cancer. He was survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter. In 2011, Craig Yoe wrote a biographical profile of Sagendorf and collected a selection of his outstanding comic book stories in Popeye: The Great Comic Book Tales by Bud Sagendorf.