Elzie C. Segar Memorial Park

Elzie C. Segar was one of the most impressive and influential cartoonists of all time. As the creator of Popeye, he created one of the most iconic characters of pop culture in the 1930s. The son of a handyman, Segar felt inspired to be a cartoonist from the age of 18. He worked his way through cartooning classes and published his first comic, Charlie Chaplin’s Comic Capers, when he was only 21. He continued to make strides in cartoons, being the first cartoonist to merge the adventure and comedy cartoon styles. Unfortunately, he died at the young age of forty-three after a long illness.

Elzie C. Segar was born in Chester, Illinois, something that residents of the town are very proud of. After all, it is commonly accepted that he based many of the characters off of people that he knew from his hometown. There are many monuments to Popeye in Chester, including a character statue trail and murals; but perhaps the best memorialization is at Elzie C. Segar Memorial Park where a six-foot-tall bronze statue of Popeye stands tall and visitors can almost hear him say, “I yam what I yam.”