In 1937 the American cartoonist E.C. Segar introduced a creature called Eugene the Jeep into his popular Popeye cartoon strip. Jeeps, according to the strip, were tough little animals who lived on orchids and could become invisible. When, a few years later, the Willys company of Ohio won a U.S. Army transport contract with a powerful open-topped four-seater vehicle that was just 11 feet long and could go anywhere, soldiers gave the rugged little machine the same name. The car's achievements became as legendary as its namesake's.