Chopper Read

I'm Mark Brandon Read, but most characters like to call me Chopper.

There are a few obscure theories as to how I got my nickname, some reckon it is from an old cartoon, some say it is because I use to cut off the toes of others, while there are those that say it is because I had someone cut my ears off in jail.

For the record, it is from the Hanna-Barbera cartoon "Yakky Doodle".

 

Chopper was the big dog who looked after Yakky the little duck. Well I used to go to school with a little kid called Laurie Whitaker and they used to call him Yakky, so naturally they called me Chopper. So my old man called me little Chopper or "Chop Chop" from when I was in grade 3. Wherever I went, he'd say "Come on Chop Chop".

And the name fit well with my later career.

 

Imagine if the dog had been called Fluffy.