The day was October 10th of 2014. The location: Lansing, MI. It had been 20 years to the day that Dozerfleet Productions got its humble official beginning, as an unnamed "collection" back in 1994.
Where it all began
The founder was in the school hallway of Holy Trinity Lutheran School in Wyoming, MI in October of 1994. He was reading The Illyrian Adventure by Lloyd Alexander, following a controversy at the school at the time about whether or not The Giver was appropriate reading material for 5th graders. The dream to create something the likes of Dozerfleet went all the way back to 1987, however, as he was inspired by watching The Empire Strikes Back on VHS. However, starting an actual collection officially of self-created works was a new step. There had been works created before this, such as Defenders of Stick-Man Village and The 2-Headed Turtle in 1993; but there were no serious efforts back then to keep a collection.
The "Collection," now retroactively dubbed "Way Early Comics," quickly grew into "Flamingo Entertainment" by 1996. It was renamed "Cormorant Entertainment" in August of 1997. The inspiration for its current name came in December of 1998, at a skating party in Holt, MI.
Turning 10
However, the brand would not receive its name officially until May 10th of 2006. The brand turned 10 years old on October 10th of 2004, when The Meshalutian Trilogy was still being pursued and Proto Gerosha was on its way to being defined. School busy work compiled with everything else kept the Dozerfleet founder from doing anything serious to celebrate the 10th anniversary, leading to a desire to make up for it with the 20th.
Turning 20
On October 10th of 2014, the 20th Anniversary Celebration commenced. It was only a small celebration, given the work schedule. But a cake was made and enjoyed. Notes were sent to The Dozerfleet Blog of the time, concerning the occasion. Not all news related to the event was good news. Dozerfleet Auto Mk. II, which was a dark blue 1997 Chevrolet Lumina LS, finally became too old and broken to be repaired. It was sent to a scrap yard a few days before the 20th Anniversary Celebration. Around 5:30 PM on October 10th, a farewell to the vehicle was posted on the blog.
Cake
The cake used was a Betty Crocker Extra Moist chocolate cake recipe. It was covered with chocolate frosting that contained several gel dyes that created an extremely-dark, not-quite-black appearance. Gold sugar was sprinkled on meticulously to produce the Dozerfleet logo.
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