Did Popeye really dislike spinach?

Originally Popeye did not hate spinach. In fact spinach was not even part of the story for the first several years.

At first Popeye was very tough, but not super human. He got stronger and tougher as he became more popular. In an early story his great toughness was explained because he rubbed the head of a whiffle hen (a magical bird).

In those early days Popeye was very rough and violent. He would "smack ya on the kisser" or "lay ya among the swee'peas" for no reason. Sometimes he would knock a total stranger out, just because he was standing in his way.

He was hard drinking and cussed and was a general bully. But somehow you could not help but love him and root for him.

Later as he became more popular EC Segar started toning the character down. The comic strip was very popular with small boys, so Segar wanted to give them a character that was more noble. Popeye stopped cursing, and he now only hit people "what deseverged it". Popeye also started telling children the benefits of eating healthy and exercize.

At first it was not spinach that that gave Popeye his strength it was "green vegigatables". He would claim that he was so strong because he ate all his vegetables. Over time spinach spinach became his vegetable of choice.

Then the animated stories came. Max Fleischer is the guy that came up with the idea of spinach giving Popeye a burst of strength. It was a brilliant plot device for the cartoons and has been used by all Popeye cartoon producers to this day.

Segar never used the spinach gag in the comic strip. After Segar died other artists (most notably Bud Sagendorf) incorporated it into the comic strip stories.