Shakespearian Spinach (1940), poster, US

Artist: Max Fleischer (1883-1972)

Unframed: 41 x 27 in. (104 x 69 cm)

Posters on this six minute short animation are incredibly rare and hardly ever surface.

In the 1920s and 30s, Walt Disney's main competitor was New York based Fleischer Studios. The studio offered a sharper, more satirical alternative to Disney. Instead of using animal characters, they specialised in punchy human caricatures, and thereby tapped into a more adult audience. They were well known for the saucy flapper image of Betty Boop. E. C. Segar was the creator of Popeye, who first appeared in Sega's comic strip in 1929. In 1933 Fleischer Studios adapted Segar's characters into a series of Popeye the Sailor for Paramount Pictures. Paramount took over Fleischer Studios in 1942 and continued to produce Popeye cartoons until 1957.