Recently the company I work for (my day job) was looking for a T-shirt design for an upcoming event. Over the years of this annual event, a particular cartoon character appeared several times on the shirt designs. A co-worker suggested an idea involving the character, and I worked on a design.
Below is the result of our efforts.
I’m sure many who don’t know me very well have wondered at some point why I refer to myself as “RA” online.
The origin dates back nearly eight years ago.
(I can’t believe it’s been that long already)
Back in 2004, while the excitement surrounding J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy was still strong thanks to Peter Jackson’s films, Electronic Arts (a video game company) came out with a real time strategy game called the Battle for Middle Earth for the PC. Though it wasn’t quite what EA had advertised it to be prior to it’s release, the game was entertaining. The bonus was the fact that you could “mod” the game (modify various attributes, changing how the game plays). At the time there was an online community called RPG Plant/MeMw that discussed in depth the various ways you could modify the game. When I officially registered with MeMw’s forum, I had difficulty finding a screen name. I wanted a Tolkien based name, but it seemed like all the good ones had already been taken. After several attempts, I finally found a screen name that had not yet been taken: rangeraragorn.
Once I started contributing to the discussions, several members of the community would refer to me as “rangeraragorn” in their posts, which I thought was a little long for them to type each time they wanted to address me. I decided to encourage people to refer to me simply as “RA” (an abbreviation for RangerAragorn), just to make it easier on the community.
Despite the fact the screen name was developed for that one online community, I have decided to use it for all communities I took part in from that point on.
Now, I want to make it clear that I am not the only “rangeraragorn” on the internet – I have found one or two other individuals over the years using that screen name (or a close facsimile) on sites I’m not a part of, but it seems I have used the name more often than other individuals have.
For the first entry to the new blog section, I’ll address the reasoning behind the name Zzack Toons.
How did I come up with that name?
The origin of the name dates back over twenty years – when I was about 13 years old.
See, there was this girl at school. Why does it seem to always be about a girl? 
Anywho, I had a huge crush on this girl. My best friend knew, and one day while I was hanging out at his house, he wanted to call her on my behalf. I was super shy, so I agreed as long as she didn’t know I was there at his house.
While my friend was talking to her on the phone, she heard my not-so-quiet giggling in the background, and asked who was there with him. He responded, “oh, that is my cousin Zack Zimmerman.”
Enter the name Zack.
Around the same time, I was drawing cartoons all the time. On notebooks, textbook covers (the homemade brown paper bag kind), and even school desk tops (in ink no less)! I had a recurring character, a character that had these three long strands of hair that shot out over his eyes. To remember the moment when my friend called the girl I liked, this recurring character was given the name Zack Zimmerman, a reference to myself. Suddenly the character had far more meaning, as he became a representation of me in cartoon form.
Obviously Zack is a cartoon character I continue to use today, though his appearance has evolved over the years.
When I decided to create a cartoon series name, I chose the name Zzack Toons. The two Z’s are there on purpose – they represent the initials for Zack Zimmerman. I also liked the name, since I thought it was unique enough that I figured no one else would think up the same name.
So now you know the significance behind the name.
-RA
