The Library of American Comics’ Dean Mullaney, who edited the first volume of IDW Publishing's complete collection of Bobby London’s six years of Popeye strips releasing March 26th, has dropped a bit of a bombshell: the second volume will include the infamous unprinted storyline that led to London being fired from the strip in 1992.
 
In a blog post on the Library of American Comics website, Mullaney said, "(I)t's a good a time as any to spring our big surprise--when we say 'complete,' we mean COMPLETE!"
 
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Popeye: The Classic Newspaper Comics by Bobby London, Volume Two will include the story that was pulled by King Features Syndicate and led to London’s firing.  The storyline, an allegory about abortion, involves Olive buying a Baby Brutus mechanical doll from the Home Shopping Network, and an angry Popeye insisting she get rid of the "baby."  Two priests overhear, and mistakenly believe Olive’s baby is real and she’s going to terminate a pregnancy.  King Features pulled the final three weeks of the story and ran reprints.  The story was stopped in the middle and the rest never saw print (except in one newspaper that ran the original storyline).
 
What was also revealed is that despite the firing, London produced an additional six weeks of strips beyond the pulled work in order to fulfill his contract.  King Features sent these strips back to London, but he has provided them for inclusion in the book.  Which means a total of nine weeks of unpublished content will appear in Popeye: The Classic Newspaper Comics by Bobby London, Volume Two when it’s released in October.