Today would have been the birthday of the most unsung hero of American animation and voice acting - C Martin Croker, who was born on 10th January 1962.
Growing up, Croker swiftly clung to things of which are also rad, such as Godzilla movies, dinosaurs, old cartoons, campy b-movies, and punk rock, all of which would shine through in his later works in some way or another. Forever the artist, he landed his first ever animation gig in 1988 for the Laser Show at Stone Mountain. Quickly moving on from there however, by the following decade he would be in charge of animating numerous shorts and bumps for TNT and then Cartoon Network, which would see him be brought onto the team for CN's new show Space Ghost Coast to Coast in 1994.
Space Ghost was the perfect springboard for Croker's abilities, as he had total freedom along with his co-workers to perfectly realise a show that was so weird and outlandish it would go on to spawn an entire new frontier of adult American animation, most notably with the founding of Adult Swim. Working not only as an animator on SGCTC, Croker was also the voice behind fan favourites Moltar and Zorak, the latter of which Croker claims was his favourite character to portray.
Following the success of Space Ghost, Croker was then brought on board for Adult Swim's next big hit, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, where he played a huge part in the designing of Frylock, Shake, and Meatwad, as well as providing voices for Dr Weird and Steve, as well as a few other supporting characters.
Sadly however, Croker's story came to an abrupt close on the 17th December 2015, when he was suddenly overcome by fever and vomiting. Croker's girlfriend had gone out to quickly fetch him some medication, but when she returned Croker was unresponsive, and despite performing CPR and help from paramedics, Croker was pronounced dead. He was 54.
It's always a bummer when someone involved in some of your favourite things passes, but in the case of Croker things are an astronomical bummer given that despite all his hard work and passion for animation he isn't quite the household name you'd expect him to be, especially given shows that air on the channel he helped build such as Rick and Morty are very much that.
In fact Croker was much more than just a dude who made cool shit, he was also one of the kindest dudes going, with many co-workers who had the pleasure of working with him posting what a great guy he was following news of his death, with all manner of stories coming out about him, such as taking in orphaned friends at Christmas time, taking his own rare collection of old cartoons to movie houses in Atlanta for people to see, and how he was always so humble and stoked when meeting fans at the many conventions he attended.
So rest easy Clay Martin Croker, and thanks for making the world of animation just a little bit weirder.
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