Statue of Stinger the Yellow Jacket
Chester, Illinois
This fearsome bug, the anthropomorphized mascot of the Chester High School's sports teams, stands among the granite "Popeye Character Trail" statues in Chester. It looks so similar that at first we thought it was an obscure member of the Popeye menagerie.
According to Debbie Brooks, president of the Popeye Picnic Committee, the high school was so impressed by the granite Popeye characters that it approached the committee about getting its own statue of "Stinger" the Yellow Jacket, and found the price acceptable. The snarling insect was sculpted in China by the same anonymous artists who have carved Bluto, Olive Oyl, Wimpy, etc.