Brutus

Brutus is a cartoon character created for the 1960's popeye tv show. Taking the place of Bluto.

History
After the theatrical Popeye cartoon series went out of production in 1957, it was believed, mainly due to poor research, that Paramount Pictures, distributors of the Fleischer Studios (later Famous Studios) cartoons, owned the rights to the Character of Bluto. To avoid having to pay Paramount royalties King Features decided to make a similar, but legally different character to take Bluto’s place in the 1960 – 1962 Popeye TV show.

Brutus Characteristics
Brutus is usually portrayed as large, obese, bearded man. He mostly uses his physical brawn to accomplish what he is trying to do, but does display some ability for tactical planning. Neither Popeye and Olive Oyl, nor any other characters, think of him as anything more than a worthless scoundrel. Brutus and Bluto differ in many small ways, while Bluto was often portrayed as a fellow sailor who also sought to win the heart of Olive Oyl, Brutus was portrayed as a generic villain, or bank robber, who showed no romantic interest in Olive. Instead, he usually took her hostage, leaving Popeye to rescue her.

Relationship to Bluto
It is generally accepted that Bluto and Brutus are one and the same. However, Ocean Comics (which published a comic-book miniseries recounting Popeye's "life story" with realistic art), postulated that Bluto and Brutus are twin brothers. Bobby London, who did the Popeye daily strip for six years, wrote and illustrated the "Return of Bluto" story where the 1932 version of Bluto returns and discovers a number of fat, bearded bullies have taken his place, calling themselves "Brutus" (each one being a different version of Popeye's rival). On December 28, 2008 and April 5, 2009, the Popeye comic strip added Bluto in the capacity of twin brother of Brutus.