Greetings Loyal Airmen, by the time you read this, the Air Chief and his partner, Rob Davis, will be in Chicago attending the annual Windy City Pulp & Paper convention, which is one of the highlights of pulp fandom every year. We hope to see many of our Loyal Airmen on hand, as we’ve tons of great new titles to showcase.  So if you are attending the show, please do stop by and say hi.

On a sadder note, today, April 15th, we just learned of the passing of a really wonderful guy, a friend who was instrumental in helping the Air Chief attain his dream of becoming a comic book writer. When we came home from the army in 1968, we wanted to get back into comic collecting with the idea of learning the business.  We found several fanzines, amateur magazines made by young writers and artists with similar goals as ours.  The best of these was called THE COMIC CRUSADER and it was published by Massachusetts native, Martin Greim.  We sent away for it and became enthusiastic fans.  We soon were corresponding with Martin on a regular basis and he ended up publishing our interview with the then new pro artist Joe Staton. It was our first published comic related piece. A few years later, with Martin’s support, we attend a Boston comic con, met personally and cemented our friendship. Martin’s passing saddens us greatly. Rest in peace, old friend. God bless you for your kindness, friendship and encouragement along the way. Our deepest condolences to your family and legion of friends.  The photo above was taken long ago, about the time we knew each other.

As a comic book writer, the Air Chief has had the pleasure of working with some of the best graphic artists in the world, including our Airship 27 Productions Art Director Rob Davis.  At present, Rob’s been working on a new, one shot comic project we put together a few years ago.  At the time we had another artist on board, but he had to bow out and Rob graciously opted to take on the drawing chores. The Air Chief couldn’t have been happier.  Of course with all his other responsibilities, Rob is chipping away at the project whenever he can and this past weekend turned in as yet another stellar completed page.  Thought showing it to you wouldn’t be giving away too much.  We will say its an action packed adventure featuring a classic pulp hero from the 30s.  When finished we will publish it via Rob’s Redbud Studio.  Enjoy the sneak peek.

For all of you who stop by every week, you know we’ve been doing our best to keep you updated on the Brother Bones movie now in pre-production from Franklin & Husser Entertainment LLC.  Several weeks ago we displayed several pencil sketches turned in by movie sculpture Josh Tavena of Beardless Props.  Josh took his inspiration from the various pieces of published Brother Bones artwork including the above beauty by artist Pat Carbajal.  Well, as you can see via the image beside the drawing, Josh has completed work on the mask sculpture and all of us are terribly excited. He totally captured the true essence of Brother Bones. Next he will be molding the actual mask and painting it. This will be the mask worn by the yet cast actor who will portray our Undead Avenger in the film. We will continue to keep you all posted.

Finally, in the hustle and bustle of the past few weeks, we totally forgot to tell you about this fantastic book that was just released two weeks ago. Last year writer Billie Rae Bates contacted the Air Chief to tell us she was writing what would be the most definitive book about the 1960s Green Hornet television. Her book would contain the history of the character from his radio start back at WXYZ in Detroit, to the two Universal Serials and then ultimately the TV show. Then the remainder of the book would deal with the affects that one season series had on fans, thus reaching out to creation of the 1990s Green Hornet comic series from Now Comics which we wrote. Billie and the Air Chief spoke on the phone for nearly two hours at the end of which, she promised that once the book was finished, we’d be getting a copy as thanks for our assistance. Well that book is now out, called, “LET’S ROLL, KATO, A Guide to TV’s The Green Hornet,” it is a whopping 481 pages and does everything Billie said it would. There is absolutely no facet of this wonderful television series left untouched, from the plots each episode, the bios of the producers and actors, it’s all here, in this truly amazing tome. Along with almost all our two hour conversation, whereas the Air Chief’s thoughts are scattered throughout the second half of the book.  Honestly, Loyal Airmen, if you are a real fan of the Green Hornet and Kato, we recommend you go out and buy a copy. It is something you will pick up time and time again.

And there you have it for this week, Loyal Airmen.  Hopefully once back from Chicago, we’ll have pix fro the con. Take care and as ever thanks for stopping by.

Ron – Over & Out!