Greetings Loyal Airmen, as we indicated last week, Valerie and the Air Chief spent the past weekend in Denver at this year’s Comicfest and once again we had a great time. Val whipped out her trusty cell-phone and took a whole bunch of pictures. While yours truly also clipped some from Facebook as posted by our friends. So sit back and enjoy this little look back at Comicfest 2019.

Naturally one of things we can always expect at any comic or sci-fi con these days are the fans dressed up in costumes from various movies and TV series. Known by the slang-term cosplayers.  From the start of the show we met the husband and wife team of Gary and Amy Nelson who showed up as Star Trek Klingons. Their outfits were simply fantastic and we had to snap these pictures. They are a wonderful couple and ended up buying lots of the Air Chief’s books and comics.

One of the more elaborate costumes was this young lady’s Hela, Goddess of Death from the Thor comics and movies. That head piece alone was simply amazing and you can well imagine she had to be very, very careful as she moved through the rooms and halls.

Other recognizable characters included Wonder Woman and Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. Then there was the madcap couple of the Joker and his beloved wacky Harley Quinn.

We had the Mad Hatter and the Rabbitt from Alice in Wonderland and via the good starship Enterprise, this two crew members, one a green colored girl.

The Air Chief was personally delighted with the not so common appearances by such characters at Atomic Robo, one of our favorite independent titles.

One of our all time favorite movies was the ground breaking “Who Framed Roger Rabbitt.” And when this lovely Jessica Rabbit entered the all, we had to get a picture with her.

Along side the Air Chief, another guest at the con was veteran comics artist Dave Ross. This was the first time we met this talented Canadian and we enjoyed sitting on two fun panels with him. By the end of the weekend the Air Chief was thrilled with having made a really great new friend.

Of course you can’t go to a con without something unexpected happening.  On the second day of the show a fellow walked past our table and he spotted our Mr. Jigsaw Special – How to Make a Comic Book. He stopped in his track, pointed down at it and asked, “Did you write this?” After replying we were guilty as charged, he came over and began shaking our hand enthusiastically. His name is Mike and for a long time he had wanted to learn how to write comics. A little over a year ago his wife went to a con where the Air Chief was a guest and picked up a copy of this how-to comic for their daughter who loves to draw. Mike was totally unaware of that until one night he saw his daughter with the comic sketching away on a new project. He picked up the comic and flipping through it saw where we actually have a ten page comic script printed with between the strip pages. Realizing this was exactly what he’d been after, something to show him the proper format for writing comic scripts. Using the comic as his guide he then began writing lots and lots of scripts; several of which he has now gotten a local artist to start drawing. Thus Mike, thanks to our little comic, is fulfilling his dream of becoming a comics writer. Which is as good a time as any to remind all you Loyal Airmen, that comic is available at Amazon.

One of the reasons Comicfest is always so much fun is due to the staff that co-ordinate the event. All of them are such wonderful people. Above is a terrific pix of Iron Man along side our amigo, Arnie-Davila Toro who made sure the con was following the allotted schedules and guests were where they needed to be on time. He always does such a great job and has a blast in the process.

But of course Arnie can’t do it alone and here is a truly awesome photo of the entire Comicfest staff, now the Air Chief is most likely going to forget somebody’s name here, so please do forgive me. Among this merry band are Shelby, Dave, Nikki, Arnie, Sue, Michael, Terr1 & Brett.  A greater bunch of people you would be hard pressed to find anywhere on the planted. From the Air Chief and Valerie, a heartfelt thanks for another awesome show!

On the comic front we have the following.  While Val and the Air Chief were in Denver enjoying Comicfest, down in Florida artist Cesar Feliciano was hard at work on pages for our new JIN & TONIK graphic novel project. Above is page two of chapter one which introduces Navajo shaman Eddie Nightsky. He plays a pivotal role in the story. We love Cesar’s attention to detail and are thrilled to see this going into production.

Finally as you are reading this, tomorrow is May 4th, and comic shops around the country will be celebrating Free Comic Book Day. The Air Chief will be spending most of the day at our favorite shop here in Fort Collins, Gryphons Games & Comics and we hope all you Loyal Airmen will be supporting your own local shops. Have a great day and we’ll see you next week.

Ron – Over & Out!