I’m not exactly sure where the myth of the steely-eyed, cool and collected airline pilot comes from, but after reading this novel I know that The Crash Pad is where it ends. The Crash Pad is a subversive, captivating look at five airline pilots navigating a tumultuous time in their lives…

This photograph was taken on Hill 190, 17 miles northwest of Da Nang, in 1970. I was with my scout-team, made up of three Marines, and two South Vietnamese scouts. These two men had been captured by the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) during the 1968 Tet Offensive.

In high school, I wasn’t a particularly industrious student, being easily distracted by activities far more enjoyable than opening an algebra book. I spent an inordinate amount of time sketching cartoons in class, and would occasionally get sent to the housemaster’s office.

My journey into the world of cartooning began at the tender age of ten. Way back in the early sixties, my mother made a wise investment of a few hundred bucks in a correspondence course called “The Famous Artist Cartoon Course.”

Decades ago, magazine cartoons were very popular, and could make a freelance cartoonist a nice chunk of change. Like many freelancers of the time, I submitted my work to a variety of magazines.