As I write this, the time is about four hours or so to midnight. I just wanted to say a quick hello and introduce myself. My name is Scott McCullar and I am the bloke who is presenting SEA SHANTY FUNNIES™ just one minute after midnight when Popeye enters the public domain for fair use.
I'm a Gen Xer about to turn 54 and I've been a lifelong fan of Popeye the Sailor since I was a wee lad. I grew up on watching all the Popeye cartoons and read the comic strips by E.C. Segar and Bud Sagendorf. I was in third grade when the late Robin Williams portrayed our favorite sailor in the famous film.
Popeye inspired me to draw as a child. I spent many many hours drawing him and Olive Oyl in my school notebooks. I dreamed of one day drawing the Popeye newspaper strip. Well, I figure that this might be as close as I get to achieving that dream.
For those that don't know me, outside my day job these last 25 years, I've done some freelancing for various comic book publishers including DC Comics where I've either written and/or illustrated some comic books. Currently, I write and illustrate my own independent comic series THRILL SEEKER COMICS with my own self-publishing company Bandito Entertainment. When I was much younger, I went to art school at Illinois State University where I earned my Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree. Working in comics was my dream, but life threw me curve balls these past three decades and so I create comics for fun and myself on my own time.
SEA SHANTY FUNNIES™ featuring our favorite cast of characters who have entered the public domain from Thimble Theatre after 95 years is a respectful "nod'n wink" to the original comics and cartoons. There won't be any Rated-R slasher style stories. No twisted takes to titillate or cause any controversy. I just want to do my ode to the works of E.C. Segar, Bud Sagendorf, Tom Sims, Bela Zaboly, Ralph Stein, Bobby London, and Hy Eisman. As well as the classic animated shorts by Max and Dave Fleischer. Not to mention all the great voice actors and movie actors over the past century. (At some point, perhaps I will do my own little tribute to each here).
Let me also say that I highly recommend you follow the current Popeye strip written and illustrated by Randy Milholland that you can subscribe and read at https://comicskingdom.com/popeye/ . I am a subscriber myself at Comics Kingdom and love Randy's take as well as the classics that are reprinted.
Well, that's it for now. I will occasionally pop up here to post thoughts. I'm not sure how this will go and/or will be received. I'm doing this out of love for the comic. I'm going to attempt to post a strip about once a week as I can. Depends on what is going on in my life and my schedule, but this will be my sandbox to play and hopefully entertain.
Thanks for stopping by here!
Scott McCullar