Budleigh Past and Present

Budleigh Salterton’s Brook Gallery is featuring pictures of a cinematic icon beloved by generations of film goers on both sides of the Atlantic. The world's most famous fictional sailor has just broken free of copyright restrictions and to mark his newfound freedom, screenprinter John Patrick Reynolds has made a series of screenprints featuring Popeye images To launch the screenprints, the Brook Gallery is exhibiting the work in May. This will be the first time since the character arrived in the public domain that a collection of Popeye screenprints has been printed or exhibited. Reynolds has produced a series of eight screenprints, featuring some of the landmark events in Popeye's career. These include the very first panels in which Popeye appears, on January 17, 1929. Popeye is making his entrance some ten years into the history of the strip in which he appears: Thimble Theatre. He arrives fully formed, complete with pipe, tattoos and sarcasm. Reynolds has also screenprinted...