Editing Olive Oyl (section)

==Fictional character biography==
[[File:Olive Oyl 1919.jpg|thumb|left|Olive Oyl in her debut (strip printed December 19, 1919)]]
In the strip as written by Segar, Olive is a scrappy, headstrong young woman (her age varying between her late teens and 26) visually characterized by her exaggeratedly slim build (evolving from its previous more realistically proportioned form by the late 1920s) and her long black hair (usually presented as rolled in a neat bun, like her mother's). She is the youngest sibling of Castor Oyl and Crude Oyl. 
[[File:OliveOyl and Hamgravy.jpg|thumb|left|Olive Oyl and Hamgravy in a 1921 "Thimble Theatre" strip]] 
Debuting on December 19, 1919, Olive was the childhood sweetheart and more-or-less fiancée of original ''Thimble Theatre'' protagonist [[Harold Hamgravy|Harold Hamgravy (Ham Gravy)]], a "[[lounge lizard]]" or [[slacker]] type who did as little work as possible and was always borrowing money. His attraction to other women—particularly if they were rich—naturally incensed Olive, leading her to (in a storyline run in mid-1928) succumb to a fit of "lunaphobia" (a kind of angry madness) over one of his amours; when she recovered, she continued to pretend to have the disorder to win him back. She was not immune to flattery from other men, but remained committed to Hamgravy on-and-off until Popeye's appearance. Olive and Popeye initially greeted each other with animosity (her first words to him being "take your hooks offa me or I'll lay ya in a scupper"), leading them to fight bitterly for weeks before finally realizing that they had feelings for each other. Following a series of Sunday strips run in March 1930, Popeye would definitively supersede Ham as Olive's lover, a position he occupies within the comic into the present; Ham had largely vanished from the daily strip six months earlier, although Popeye and Olive's relationship would nonetheless not be emphasized within the daily strip's continuity until the height of the Clint Gore story arc in January 1931.
[[File:Olive Oyl threatens Popeye.png|thumb|right|An early comic panel, prior to Olive and Popeye being established as lovers, in which Olive demands Castor throw Popeye overboard]]
The version of Olive Oyl most widely familiar is the coyer and more nervous version from the theatrical [[animated cartoon]]s created by [[Fleischer Studios]] and continued by [[Famous Studios]]. Unlike most modern [[Damsel in distress|damsels in distress]], Olive Oyl is tall and skinny, with tightly wound hair and enormous feet (the latter sometimes used to comedic effect). Popeye's comment about her measurements is that she is a perfect 57... 19-19-19.

In the films and later television cartoons, Olive Oyl is usually Popeye's [[girlfriend]], although she could be extremely fickle, depending on who could woo her the best or had the flashier possessions, and she was prone to become angry with Popeye over seemingly minor issues. She constantly gets kidnapped by [[Bluto]] (aka Brutus), who is Popeye's arch-rival for her affections; when she gets angry with Popeye for whatever goes wrong, it's usually as a result of Bluto's trickery, but Popeye always rescues her and wins back her affection in the process.

In the cartoons, she helps take care of a baby named [[Swee'Pea]] or she usually asks Popeye to take care of him if she's too busy; it is unknown if Swee'Pea is Olive Oyl's biological or adopted son. In the comics, Swee'Pea is a [[Child abandonment|foundling]] under Popeye's care. Later sources (mostly in the cartoon series) say that Swee'Pea is Olive Oyl's cousin or nephew that she has to take care of from time to time.

Like Popeye, there are times where Olive gains superhuman strength from eating [[spinach]].