Scott McCullar: Bringing the Thrills
Scott McCullar is a Professional Graphic Designer, Writer, and Visual Artist currently working for the Illinois State Board of Education as a Principal Consultant (Graphic Designer) in the Software Solutions Department. Outside of his day job, Scott is also the creator-owner of THRILL SEEKER COMICS™ ANTHOLOGY Pulp Action & Adventure Series featuring The Yellow Jacket: Man of Mystery™ that he writes and illustrates under his independent publishing banner named Bandito Entertainment™.
Tell us a bit about your latest work.
I just recently released THRILL SEEKER COMICS ANTHOLOGY #1 through my label BANDITO ENTERTAINMENT. This creator-owned, self-published independent comic book series was decades in the making after many false starts and stops due to roadblocks in my personal life that are now overcome.
THRILL SEEKER COMICS is a pulp action and adventure series featuring various interrelated stories told in a non-linear manner jumping around in different time periods about a ragtag group of heroes fighting evil in globe-spanning adventures on Earth-24 (as seen recently in INDIEVERISTY – A guidebook to the varied worlds of the independent comics multiverse). At the center of these two-fisted tales is the Dust Bowl-era vigilante known as THE YELLOW JACKET: MAN OF MYSTERY, who pursued by lawmen, is conscripted into THE STAR-SPANGLED SQUADRON to battle Axis Powers during the outbreak of World War II. Alongside THE EMERALD MANTIS and other colorful characters encountered, their enduring mission to fight crime, crush tyranny, and protect the world is carried on by a generation of successors.
It was just over 20 years ago my series first appeared as a cornerstone feature in each and every one of the six issues of SHOOTING STAR COMICS ANTHOLOGY and a few other sister titles. Now rebooted, THRILL SEEKER COMICS returns in this relaunch with all-new stories alongside reprints of the original tales that have newly remastered and restored artwork in full color in printed comic book anthology format. New heroes also join the fray in the first issue that includes several short stories in this same shared universe.
This series was inspired by Golden Age, Silver Age, and Bronze Age classic comic books and newspaper comic strips. The films of Quentin Tarantino. The Coen Brothers, and a touch of Akira Kurosawa also influence the stories. The genres in this anthology include superheroes, pulp detective and mystery, martial arts, and war stories with dashes of romance and humor to be injected in the tales.
Spinning out of the comic book, I’m also currently co-writing and illustrating a related online comic strip web series based on one of the brand-new characters from the anthology comic. She is a rookie private investigator in the early 1940’s. The webcomics series is called THRILL SEEKER COMICS PRESENTS MS. TITTENHURST: FINDER OF LOST THINGS about the divorced, red-headed Dame Detective from Texas who is also a college student. This feature and the comic strip were co-created and co-written with my wife Jennifer McCullar.
What are the themes and subjects you tend to revisit in your work?
Personal struggles. Family. Friendship. Pushing boundaries. Sly humor. Combative violence. Repentance. Revenge. Adventure. Trying to escape from personal matters. Interweaving fiction with history.
What happened in your life that prompted you to become a writer?
I don’t view myself as a traditional writer though I’ve dabbled and written some fictional prose short stories here and there. Instead, I mainly moonlight on the side on and off as a comic book writer and comic artist. I don’t feel comfortable calling myself a professional writer as I would rather use the term ‘storyteller’ to identify myself as I combine writing and drawing together to tell stories. Plus, I like the term “Storyteller” and it is the title of a damn good Rod Stewart song collection. Every picture tells a story and for me it isn’t always words.
Read the full interview:
https://seanhtaylor.blogspot.com/2024/02/scott-mccullar-bringing-thrills.html
