• by Dana Blankenhorn , March 27, 2003

Popeye is planning a comeback, starting with a bread aisle.

The veteran Hearst-owned cartoon character has been licensed to a Long Island food distributor, Animated Foods, as Popeye Bread. The bread launches this weekend in Kroger-owned stores and goes on sale in New York next month. The launch will be supported by in-store collateral and, as volumes permit, some TV ads, said Joe Schramm, president of Schramm Sports & Entertainment in New York, who helped put the deal together.

Schramm, who is not related to former Dallas Cowboys general manager Tex Schramm, said he has been retained by Hearst to spur licensing deals. "We hope bread does as much for Popeye as Popeye does for Popeye Bread," he said.

Hearst employee D.C. Segar created the cartoon character in 1929, Schramm said. The bread is the first shot in a 75th birthday campaign, said Hearst spokesman Amy Jane Finnerty.

The company has many licenses attached to it Finnerty said, including two for spinach - one fresh, one canned. Schramm said Popeyes Chicken restaurants are the largest licensee of the Popeye name, and Finnerty said this is true.

But AFC Restaurants Inc. of Atlanta, which owns the chain, says on its Web site the stores were named for the Popeye Doyle character in the movie "The French Connection," played by Gene Hackman.

Its 25th anniversary celebration ad campaign, which ran last year, also made no mention of the Popeye cartoon, instead concentrating on the company's New Orleans heritage.

AFC did not return calls seeking a clarification.