Crate of Thunder?

[Khruangbin33]

@Zero

I’ve been meaning to ask what became of The Crate.  I learned quite a bit from your stories and drawings back in my cadet days - the Sandy upgrade ones were some of my favorites.

[Zero]

Look what happens when you actually log in and make a comment rather than just lurking all the time!  

The Crate died in 2009 when it got hacked and I just didn't have the time to try to get it off of life support and back in the air.  

I restarted another blogsite over at Thunder and 30mm via wordpress (because any spare money goes to one kid in college and my young 'un in softball, so it's free and that's for me)

https://thunderand30millimeter.wordpress.com/ There's a facebook mirror for all things A-10 and CAS specific under the same name as well.  

The Sandy stories are there, plus a Walking Dead fan-fiction I started (and am trying to get going again) that walks through the initial zombie apocalypse via a group stationed at DM when it all goes down-- there's a small Facebook page for it that has some of the art I did for the story as well.  

On the Facebook, I've kept some cartoons going via a couple of pages: my personal stuff is over at Crate of Thunder Productions-- some youth sports cartoons and caricatures, and starting to compile my nose art / A-10 ladder door collections.  With eDodo going the way of the bird it was named for in 2009 also, I've kind of putzed around with a Dodo heritage idea on Facebook as well (The Dodo Campaign: Underground Commentary, Extinction and Resurrection); some cartoons occasionally going in there, including another hair-brained idea to revisit Stract Wars... as if I've got time for that! 

So, in short, once the Crate's own site fell apart, I scattered all over the place.  

But it's free, so there's that. 

Cheers,

Zero

 

[Khruangbin33]

Awesome, thank you for keeping it alive!  I will absolutely be digging in to the new material.

[Hacker]

Zero, you're still one of my favorite military/aviation cartoonists. You always reminded me of the great Bob Stevens (whose most famous collection of aviation cartoons is "If You Read Me, Rock The Tower"), whom I read a lot of growing up in a mil aviation family.

Hope life is treating you well.

[Zero]

Appreciate the good words-- it's always been about trying to make sense of this crazy ride. whether it's barbs and spears I'm throwing, or making reflections of, or commentary on, things I've seen--the artwork (and sometimes the writing) serves, for me at least, as the medium through which I'm exploring, coping, and sometimes trying to shape.  There's more that's never seen the light of day (sometimes that's a good thing), and I'm working on (yet another) side project that puts everything together-- from the first days of the Dodo as a SMACK at the zoo, through eDodo and anything in between.  There's a lot of started-but-never-finished projects in there... alot of things that started as good ideas but just ran out of time or inspiration... 

One of the projects that I still consider one of the greatest missed opportunity was an attempted collaboration with other mil cartoonists around the 2009 timeframe.  Air Force Blues was at its heyday... the B-52 toon kicked ass, and there were mil cartoonists that were just killing it left and right.  I had the idea that we could all get together on a collaboration that took our characters to a Red Flag-- the audience would see the same scene from multiple perspectives such as the initial mass brief-- each artist would tell a part of the story (and you'd see the others in the background or silhouetted to keep the continuity... it'd progress through the flying and culminate in an absolute riot of a Friday night that I envisioned would be like the hotel scene in the Reno 911 movie... and then we'd all retreat to our individual comics again with a slight walk-of-shame cloud hanging over us all in a "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" moment.  

Never even made it past the idea stage... and then we all just seemed to grow up overnight and our works were overcome by events. It is funny how things come full circle... and now being on the backside of the power curve, I feel like I've got a little more time to get back to the works.   

Man, it was so much easier when eDodo was around.

Times have changed though... social media eclipsed most websites, and humor has been pushed into sound-byte clips that can be quickly digested by instagram users;  I wonder how eDodo would even be received by the current generation, though I suspect that. like most cult-followings, it would take root again and flap its fat little wings to make waves... just like always.  

Cheers,

Zero

[EvilEagle]

That would've been epic (the RF bit).  Great ideas!

[Zero]

Returning soon to the not-so-sensical skies... heroes, villains... and all that makes the Force what it is.  

Cheers,

Zero

[Zero]

Preview of what’s to come in the first panels... dark ideas bubbling up late at night from the dark corners of a HQ building...

[Zero]

Since Baseops provided the inspiration to get the pen flowing again, here's the first two panels of what hopefully is not another example of "the shortest offensive of all time..."  As I mess with the options, the quality should improve-- taking from Procreate on the iPad through Powerpoint to make the panels dropped quite a bit of quality that I need to fix.  

I'm always looking for ideas, so if you've got an opinion on the way a situation (not just the current crisis that provides the backdrop here) was handled, maybe it can become a cartoon-- feel free to shotgun ideas.  I'll mine the "What's Wrong with the AF" thread too-- always great stuff.  

Before we fully reveal what General Roteleks' plan is to get through quarantined flight ops, we'll see how the LPA took squadron direction to make their own masks, after which Ed will solicit sponsored face-masks from "animal companies" in Las Vegas.  

They'll be posted on Facebook over at Thunder and 30 Millimeter from here on out.  I oughta do a character panel to reintroduce all of the personalities again. 

Feedback and ideas welcome-- thanks for the inspiration. 

Cheers,

Zero

[FUSEPLUG]

I'm triggered by the General's hairline.  As an O-4, I find this offensive and indicative of my future (well, not the star).

[M2]

 

[Hacker]

I can almost read the nametag....General Liquid.

[Zero]

A better app gets better quality toons...