Modernizing Popeye the sailor man
I know a lot of people roll their eyes whenever they hear about modernizing things from the past, especially things like Popeye, and immediately say it’s unnecessary or a bad idea, but I disagree. A lot of people assume modernizing Popeye means stripping away everything that made him who he is and stuffing the series full of modern trends and nonsense, aka the dread smartphone. For example, for the cancelled movie, Sony wanted to remove the sailor aspect because they thought kids would not know what a sailor is anymore. But that is not what modernization has to mean.
Modernizing can simply mean making the comic strip contemporary to our world. Technology, slang, and fashion from our era can exist in the setting without the characters themselves being warped by it or the entire plot revolving around it. For example, TVs exist in Thimble Theatre even though the strip originally took place in the early 1900s, long before televisions were common/invented. On principle, it should feel jarring seeing those characters watching TV, but it doesn’t, because it is treated as a normal part of their world instead of being shoved in the audience’s face like "ohhh look there watching TV isn't that wacky." Nobody complains about those characters using televisions, and I think the same logic can apply to things like computers. And yes, even smartphones.
When E. C. Segar first wrote Thimble Theatre, it is safe to assume it took place around the year it was created in 1919. Segar continued writing the strip until 1938, and the world changed a lot during that period. The idea that he never incorporated contemporary elements from his own time is unrealistic. The reason it does not stand out or feel noticeable is that he incorporated those changes naturally and seamlessly instead of constantly drawing attention to them.
This is something that nearly every cartoonist after Segar continued doing. Bobby London’s run incorporated a lot of 1980s iconography, making it clear the strip takes place in that era. It wasn't always perfect, but overall, the characters still felt true to themselves despite no longer taking place in the early 1900s. That is the kind of modernization I am fine with. It doesn't have to be a bad thing.