Last Night's Interview with Me is Now Available to Watch on YouTube

I'd like to thank Mathew D. Rhys and Michael Hutchison for inviting me to "Monitor Duty" podcast video chat for an interview about my work on my Public Domain-based POPEYE comic strip SEA SHANTY FUNNIES last night. The interview and chat is available to watch now over on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMrEATcl5ok

I'd also like to thank the other guests in the chat and those that stopped by in the audience like Popeye expert Ryan M. Maxwell and all-around good guy, comic writer, and pal John Morgan 'Bat' Neal. Also, to those with the screen names "Cartoonicus" and "Twitless" who came into the conversation to ask me questions.

If I missed anyone last night, it is because I sometimes have difficulties with keeping track of online screen nicknames and who they are connected to with real people names. . . so sorry if I missed recognizing you if you were there. Plus, it was a flurry for me that I couldn't read all the chat on the side screen at the time.

Also thanks to my wife Jennifer McCullar who also makes a few on screen cameo appearances in the video chat with our puppy Lulu to talk about the original comic character Caldonia Kindheart that was introduced into the SEA SHANTY FUNNIES comic strip as Wimpy's new girlfriend in the current storyline.

The interview goes pretty in-depth about my creative processes and choices, public domain and legal hurdle issues, and other Popeye and comic stuff that goes into making SEA SHANTY FUNNIES. If you wanted to get a little "inside baseball" behind the scenes, there were a few other golden nugget tidbits there in the chat last night.

Fair warning, this chat runs about 2 HOURS. I re-watched it and enjoyed the replay from a third person perspective. It is kind of strange watching yourself be interviewed. I tend to ramble in my thoughts. I just realized that if I ever do another video chat for a video podcast like this again in the future, I need to lift my head up and look more into the camera next time while making eye contact. Arf! Arf!

I'm tend to fall into deep thought a lot trying to formulate my words as I wrestle with my stutter. And as my wife points out, I tend to ramble and be verbose at times. So apologies in advance.

However, I hope you'll enjoy watching the chat.

Thanks again for those that turned out last night

p.s. I also gave some brief shout outs during the chat to my pals Troy Vilayhong and Joshua Garrett in the course of discussion.

I also recognized Chuck Dixon for encouraging me to write more of these Popeye stories that led me to continuing on with SEA SHANTY FUNNIES where I've now written and illustrated over 100 episodic comic strips at this point. I had stopped at 4 "test" comic strips in February 2025 thinking this wasn't going to work and then started back up in November 2025 making more. Here I am still doing it.

FILMS: Band of Brothers 20th Anniversary

 

I just re-watched BAND OF BROTHERS for the umpteenth time. Each year, I find myself annually revisiting this 10-part HBO original series based on Stephen E. Ambrose's best-seller, and executive produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. This landmark series recounts the story of "Easy" Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, of the 101st Airborne Division, starting with their jump training at Camp Toccoa, Georgia, while following the unit through their airborne landings in Normandy, Operation Market Garden, the Siege of Bastogne, and on to the war's end at the Eagle's Nest.

This week, HBO has released as special 10-week long 20th Anniversary Podcast that revisits the series. The prologue included an interview with Tom Hanks, and while I type this, I'm listening to the podcast for episode one "Currahee" that features an interview with Ron Livingston who portrayed Captain Lewis Nixon.

For those of you like me who love this series, I highly recommend the free podcast. You can learn more at https://www.hbo.com/band-of-brothers/podcast.