STORY DETAILS
Storyline Creation Date:
Idea: circa 1980s
First known writing: circa 1980s
Stories:
The Thunderbirds
CONTENT WARNINGS
Generic warnings: None.
DISCLAIMERS
None.
STORYLINE HISTORY/INSPIRATION
This storyline's character list will have to wait for a while as, while I do know where the list (possibly the only writing created for this) is, it's stored away for now. I can say that the main character's name is Blue Thunder--so there you have a peek at what to expect.
I'm unsure if anything specific prompted the creation of this story. The Thunderbirds--who are actually pterodactyl-type creatures--are another example of my childhood tendency of creating groups of characters from categories like weather events, colors, natural phenomena, things like that; I often anthropomorphized lists of things this way. The best, still-existing example is the Trench Rats, who started out all named after colors, something I've never entirely retconned an explanation for aside from these being "codenames." The Thunderbirds are similar, except with them I made use of TWO categories: colors combined with weather/natural phenomena. Blue Thunder is the only one I remember off the top of my head but other examples would be similar to, say, Red Rain, Green Grass, Purple Wind, Silver Lightning, things like that. And there's one other trait that deals with physical appearance: Each "Bird" had a unique-shaped crest. While I'd like to say the crest shape was related to the Bird's name, this unfortunately occurred only a few times, if at all, as I started out just drawing them as random unrelated shapes. Result is I have some seriously goofy-looking character designs.
I'm sure there was some kind of general plot for this storyline, regarding what exactly the Birds did, but I didn't get to develop it much and I can't remember it. I think it was some sort of protective role; maybe they were some kind of "weather/nature guardians" or something. Kind of flimsy, but well, lots of my ideas were, you surely see that by now.
The Thunderbirds had a decent amount of development put into them, but the storyline never really went anywhere. Considering the effort spent on character design--which, like Horsey and the Wind, was simplified--it makes me think I intended this to be a comic, or at least a heavily illustrated story. It's pretty self-contained, and as far as I know played no part in inspiring any other series.
RANDOM OBSERVATIONS
The power of natural forces. Teamwork. Resilience. Dedication. Perseverance.
Character InformationCharacter profiles and brainstorming infodumps.
Storyline InformationEssays and info.