Greeting Loyal Airmen, last weekend the Air Chief was a guest at ComicFest down in Denver. This is one half of annual con that partners with sci-fi fandom called StarFest. It was held at the Mariott Tech Center and honestly was one of the best con experiences the Air Chief has ever had.  That was due in large part to our good pal and organizer Rio Herrera. As this year’s theme was “Robots in Comics,” we were invited because of our work on the Terminator comic.  Above was one of those issues and the Air Chief with one of the helpful volunteers, Arnie. The entire staff was so friendly and helpful, again, making this such a great experience.

Of course 50% of a good con experience is who your neighbors are at adjoining tables and we couldn’t have had better.  To our immediate right was artist Bob Hall, a good buddy. You can just see Valerie behind him…and our banner.  And here’s a straight up shot. This was Friday night. By Sunday afternoon most of the books you see on our table were sold.  We kid you not.

Also in this room were artists Steve Pulawa and Jeremiah Floyd. Both fun guys.

With Bob Hall on our right, to our immediate left was artist Robert Elrod…with his amazing fez hats. We sweare he had a different one on every day. Here we are with Steve all hamming it up.

Of course it wouldn’t be a con without cos-players and the show had plenty. One fellow was decked out like Hugh Jackman from the new movie musical, “The Greatest Showman,” which Val and the Air Chief love. Then along came the eerie Bride of Frankenstein, that we just had to get a picture with.

And how could we forget the Terminator who showed up, armed to the teeth and ready for action.

Of course StarFest had some recognizable celebrities on hand to include the affable Malcom Barrett who stars in the weekly sci-fi series, “Timeless.” Malcom went out of his way to visit all the artists rooms and picked up a few items here and there. He bought several of the Air Chief’s comics and two prints from our pal, Kevin Johnson, which he shows off above. Truly a fun guy.

Of course we comics folks also had some really cool guests at this show, among which joining the Air Chief and Bob Hall, were Tone Rodriguez and Gordon Purcell.  The four of us did a really wild panel on “Robots in Comics.”

We did our best to stay on topic, but with these guys, it was near impossible.

Meeting old friends and making new ones is what cons are all about in the first place.

Easily one of the highlights was our getting interview genre journalist Hayden Mears. Hayden was scheduled to do a one hour panel about his career and was nervous about being in front of the audience by himself. Seeing this, the Air Chief volunteered to join him as an interviewer and immediately dispelled his anxiety. The hour went by speedily and Hayden shared so many wonderful stories of his career with us and the audience.

And lastly, another great con moment. We had brought copies of our class comic FRONT RANGE TALES. As you’ll recall this was the comic completely written by the Air Chief’s students from his first ever comics writing class. Well one fan saw the cover and picked it up curious as to what it was all about. As we were explained our teaching class etc., who walks up to our table but none other than one of the five writers, Aaron Powers. At which point we introduced him to the fan and told the gentlemen if he bought the comic, Aaron would be only too glad to autograph his story for him. Which is exactly what happened and here’s a picture of writer Aaron Powers signing his very first ever autograph.  Trust me Loyal Airmen, these are the moments we all live for.

And there you have it. Val and the Air Chief came home Sunday exhausted but happy beyond words. Our super thanks to Rio, Sue, Arnie and all the great people who helped make the Denver ComicFest a con we will never forget.

Ron – Over & Out!