The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 6 letter word POPEYE
I've seen this crossword clue in The Guardian
P
O
P
E
Y
E
More clues leading to the result POPEYE
- Animated sailor, Leo, perhaps, meeting you
- Animated character dad and I listened to
- Old man and I picked up tar on the box
- Religious leader you once made into cartoon character
- Sailor‘s father setter listened to
- Father, look at the funny sailor!
- He wrote the Ancient Mariner
- Try and see cartoon character
- Holy man’s archaic pronoun for literary sailor
- Dad! Look at muscular mariner!
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "tar on the box" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case tar on the box = popeye.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.