Following the attack of Pearl Harbor in 1941 by the Japanese which made the US take part in World War II, Popeye's design remained unchanged, however, in the cartoons he was now made a member of the U. S. Navy and given the appropriate naval attire, consisting of the standard white uniform with a black neckerchief, black shoes and a small Navy cap. He would continue to wear this outfit until the mid-1960s. During his Famous Studios run, Popeye's eyes were also slightly enlarged to look a bit more realistic rather than looking like black dots, and he was also portrayed as having two eyes in both Famous Studios and the 60s television series, which would occasionally be seen in several shorts.
When Bud Sagendorf began the Popeye comics in 1948, Popeye's design was changed to resemble his classic look but while still wearing his Navy cap from the war. His eyes were also changed back to their black dot appearance. His chin was also further enlarged with only a few minor changes due to Sagendorf's own unique art style. This design would continue to be used by Sagendorf's successors in Popeye comics, such as George Wildman, Bobby London and several others throughout the 70s, 80s and future newspaper comic strips depending on the artist, with Segar and Sagendorf's designs usually being interchanged. Sagendorf's design was also used in other 70s media and two cartoons, "The All-New Popeye Hour" and "Popeye and Son".
Since the end of "Popeye and Son," media and merchandise (outside the occasional comics) would continue to portray Popeye with his classic look or his Sagendorf design regularly, and only rarely using his Navy look.
Popeye's appearance is always the most difficult for cartoonists to duplicate because, as Sagendorf once pointed out, there is nothing normal about it. Sagendorf went on to admit that after approximately a year of attempting to do so as Segar's apprentice, he had to ask Segar to draw the character for him; he explained, "It turned out that if you didn't draw the eyebrows and eyes first, the nose second, the head third and the chin last, you were dead."
Popeye is a rough and tough sailor with a heart of gold who always does what he can for others and always doing what he thinks is best. He is brave and compassionate, as he will not back down against any foe and give them all he has got, but his compassionate nature makes it so he always tries to "defends the weakerist", as he cannot stand seeing the weak and helpless get abused. He also has a fondness for "poor dumb animals" and, similarly, cannot stand to see any animal being hurt for no reason. But he also has no patience for violent beasts who attack defenseless people or other animals for no justifiable reason, and he will be quick to turn them into mincemeat for their hotheadedness.
Being a sailor, he has a love for adventure and the sea, and will not pass up the chance to find new mysteries, lost treasures and grand adventures. While he is usually a treasure hunter of sorts, he is not greedy and always does his best to share with others and encourage others to do the same. Popeye has a dislike for things like monsters, ghosts and other such terrors, having faced several himself in his life time and would even pretend they do not exist, as seeing them terrifies him greatly, but he always manages to muster the courage to face off against any foe. Popeye's favorite food is spinach, and he always tries to encourage others to eat this healthy vegetable as it is a great source of "strength and vitality." He loves his sweetheart Olive Oyl dearly despite their rough start and will go to any lengths to keep her safe and make her happy, showing that he is a very chivalrous and romantic man, despite his rough, tough and gruff nature.
Popeye was born the son of Poopdeck Pappy and an unnamed woman in a typhoon in Santa Monica (with Popeye erroneously claiming to have been born at 2 or 3 years of age). Shortly after his birth, his father Poopdeck left home and was never seen again, and his mother's fate was unknown, leaving the young Popeye an "orphink" to be raised by an orphanage keeper who gave him the ID number of 185,764. As an infant, Popeye already had his signature pipe, presumably given to him by his father before leaving, and would only take it out of his mouth for his morning bottles of malted hardtack. As far as he could remember, little Popeye was impressed by early home training and exercised as soon as he was able, but avoided getting into serious fights until he was 4 years of age, where he had finally had enough of his orphanage keeper and let him have it. After this incident, it seemed as though Popeye's keeper became impressed with the child and decided to enter him in contests (similar to dog shows) where the young Popeye became a prize baby in many shows and always took great pride in his Bertillon measurements. Eventually, the orphan Popeye would fall on hard times upon leaving the orphanage, and was forced to wear flour sacks for clothes, but happily, the luckless lad was taken in by Whaler Joe at the docks, who even bought the young lad a new pipe and a fascinating straw hat with a radio antenna on it.
At six years of age, Popeye began to fulfill his promise of taking his exercising more seriously and started devoting himself to fights with the local bullies, easily laying his foes among the geranium flowerbeds, always promising to do so and never breaking his word. With Popeye around, the local bullies did not need the aid of any pliers or doorknobs to get rid of those useless bicuspids thanks to Popeye's left-right to the jaw. As Popeye's notoriety grew among the children, he inadvertently became a factor for good in discouraging his fellow rough-dock kids from crapshooting, doing so by being too good at the game himself, as he always got 18 straight passes when he rolled the dice. Despite his love of crapshooting, Popeye would be forced to sell his beloved dice for the lead in them after his guardian Whaler Joe fell on tough times. One day, Popeye set out on a boat with nothing but a bent pin and a spool of thread in hopes of helping his guardian by catching whales for him. Unfortunately, upon reaching the whale pod, Popeye realized he was grievously ill-prepared against the giant sea beasts who thrashed about his little vessel as they let out a loud horselaugh, which made Popeye respond with a quick tempered "Blow me down, you-!"-- but before he could finish, the whales suddenly stopped. It was then that the largest whale, deeply offended, got on little Popeye's vessel and sprayed him with a mighty jet of water. This action infuriated the young Popeye so heavily that his anger became pure strength; he quickly got back on his feet and punched whale with all his might, instantly killing the proud alpha and proceeded to take on the rest of the pod. A triumphant little Popeye then returned home with a nice string of whales for Whaler Joe that night.