Greetings Loyal Airmen, as Valerie and the Air Chief prepare to fly off to Florida for our long overdue vacation, we’ve a few things to wrap up at Hangar 27.

BEYOND THE STARS # 2

LAUNCHES IN APRIL

As all you Loyal Airmen know last year we were thrilled to join forces with two of the best talents in comics today, Andrea Bormida (above left) and Mike Belcher (above right) to produce a new sci-series called BEYOND THE STARS.  The Air Chief penned the script, Andrea did art and colors and Mike the great lettering and logo design. And first issue was Kickstarted successfully by Silverline Comics under the direction of Managing Editor Roland Mann.

And now we are happy to announce book # 2 has been completed by Andrea and is now currently being lettered by Mike. Silverline has made the decision to begin the new Kickstarter Campaign in April. Trust that we will keep all you Loyal Airmen. Take our word for it, the art in issue two is just as amazing as it was in book one, and the story is picking steam. Thanks always for your continued support.

THE BOSTON BOMBERS Vol 2

Meanwhile artist Rob Davis nears the completion of issue # 1 of THE BOSTON BOMBERS Vol 2 – taking to the skies as the action nears it surprise climax. Gorgeous artwork as always.

PULP FACTORY AWARD OFFICIAL BALLOT

Attention all New Pulp fans out there.  The voting has begun for this year’s Pulp Factory Awards and is, as ever, open to you the public. We are thrilled to announce two of our Airship 27 titles are on this year’s ballot.

CAPE NOIRE – A Beest & Beauty tale by Ron Fortier for is up for Best Novel.

THE ADVENTURES OF RADIO RITA – Is up for three awards.  Best Anthology, Best Short Story – by Teel James Glenn and Best Cover by Ted Hammond.

To vote go to ( https://forms.gle/mdpccvVD4Wp6uhdQ7) Please vote and share this link with all your friends and family. Get them to vote as well. We thank you sincerely for you continued support.

HAPPY 100th AUNT BLANCHE

Yesterday, March 2nd, our beloved Aunt Blanche Fortier turned 100!!!  Above she’s with her two great grandchildren, Natalie Fortier and Blake Fortier.  Happy Birthday Aunt Blanche. We love you so much, God bless.

FORTY YEARS TOGETHER

And while on the subject of number celebration, in two days, Sunday 5th March, the Air Chief and Valerie celebrate our 40th Wedding anniversary. Hard to believe. Time has flown by. Above is the one picture of that ceremony at the church, it being our second wedding. Seen is our daughter Heather who was ring bearer, and standing behind Val is her best friend Linda. God bless us that day, in more ways than we could ever dream and our journey through this life has ever since been so beautiful and filled with love.

AIR CHIEF ON VACATION

Finally, this coming week-end the Air Chief and Valerie will be packing up for our vacation trip to Florida where we will be staying with family for almost the entire month of March. You heard right, Loyal Airmen, we are gone until the 29th. A long overdue three weeks of fun, sun and just plain relaxation.

There you have it, Loyal Airmen. Thanks for dropping by.  We’ll have something up here next Friday, but just as a cup holder till we return. Take and God bless.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, we the start of Lent this past week, Spring is now within sight. Now there’s a cause for celebration. Meanwhile lots of things happening at Hangar 27 so let’s get cracking.

AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTION

We are thrilled to announce the release of our third Bulldog Drummond title, “Baited Hook” by writer I. A. Watson. This is of course his re-imagining the classic British pulp hero from the 1920 into today’s world and the stories of action packed from start to finish. This volume contains three such. Artist Howard Simpson not only returns to provide all the beautiful black and white interior illustrations, but he also turned in his first ever cover for us with this project. (above left) It is fantastic. The book now available at Amazon in both paperback on Kindle. As always, Loyal Airmen, thanks for your support.

BACK IN PRINT

Recently a reader wrote asking if we’d ever bring “The Mark of Terror” back in print. It was one of our early entries in our new adventures of Jim Anthony Super-Detective series. This was a novel length adventure by Joshua Reynolds, and for the past ten years had only been available in Kindle. Considering we had re-issue several other titles in print last year, the Air Chief & Rob talked it over and in the end Rob put together a new print edition, which is formatted slightly smaller than the original and thus cheaper on the price tag. We here at Hangar 27 aim to please. It is now up at Amazon, along with the Kindle version.

BEYOND THE STARS # 2

Artist Andrea Bormida finishes Pg # 19 of the second issue of our “Beyond the Stars” series. Meaning he has only three more to go and the issue is completed. Whereas this will be the last sneak peek, as the last three pages are something special as all you Loyal Airmen will see when the book arrives. Stay tuned.

THE NEW GREEN GHOST COVER

We do love giving you Loyal Airmen sneak peeks when possible. So feast your eyes on the forthcoming cover to our second volume of “George Chance – The Green Ghost.” Several weeks ago artist Warren Montgomery wrote asking if he could do this cover. We’ve a new collection of stories waiting in the files. We’ve yet to find an artist to do the needed 12 interior illustrations. Still, the Air Chief saw no reason not to at least have a cover ready when we do. So we gave Warren the thumbs up. Above is the progress of that cover from composition to pencils to ink. Next will come the coloring and then Art Director Rob Davis will add the title logo etc. It should looks fantastic when completed. But first we’ve still got to find an artist to do the illustrations. Wish us luck.

ASH WED KICKED OFF LENT

Finally the season of Lent began this past Wed. Remember you are dust and unto dust you shall return. Ecclesiastes 3:20 Wishing all our brothers and sisters in Christ a beautiful prayerful Lent.

Take care and we’ll see you next week.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, looks like we once again have lots of things to share with you so let’s jump right in, okay.

Last week we gave you a heads up that the latest issue of “MR. JIGSAW, Man of a Thousand Parts” had been completed was off to Indy Planet for printing. Whereas it will be at least a month before the good folks at Ka-Blam printing have it ready for ordering as a single issue. Now as many of you know, every time we put out three issues of the comic, when then collect them in a larger format we call “THE ADVENTURES OF MR. JIGSAW” and we publish this series from Amazon. Okay, so this being issue # 18, it mean we could do a new collection and Editor Rob Davis went ahead and assembled Vol 6 of this series and it is NOW available at Amazon. (See cover to upper right.) It contains all of issues 16 – 17 & 18 and those of you old enough to remember golden age titles, artist Gary Kato’s cover is our homage to the classic first ever cover of DC’s Justice Society of America. So whether you want to wait for the single issue # 18 (and we will let you know when it is out and available) or pick up this new volume of “Adventures” from Amazon, thanks so much for your continued support. We are still wowed by the longevity of this character/series. Gary and the Air Chief created Jiggy well over forty years ago. Wow. That’s a long time.

BACK TO THE BLACK BAT

A few years ago, before Covid times, artist Mike Belcher and the Air Chief announced we would be doing a full length graphic novel telling the story of the classic pulp hero, The Black Bat. This would be the first time his origin would be done in comic format. After we wrote the script, Mike began doing all kinds of great sketches of the characters.

Above left to right are Tony Quinn, Silk, Butch & Carol Baldwin, the cast. Mike even penciled and inked several pages from the opening sequence. Sadly Covid hit and pretty much derailed the projects, as all of us found ourselves having to deal with shots, social distancing and everything else what went with that awful time. Happily Mike’s family and our own were touched by that plague and now it looks we’re about to re-launch the project. Last week Mike made the announcement on Facebook along with the image below.

Here’s Mike Press Release. “A delayed project due to having way too many other things going on. A brilliant and moving script by  Ron Fortier, it bridges the classic pulp origin to comics. My hope is to get production back on track this year. When published, it will be magazine sized like graphic novels of the 80s.”  This is news we are so happy and thrilled to be bringing along with that new cover piece by Mike. Will it be the official cover? Don’t know. Still a long while before Mike finishes this thing. But in the meantime we’ll be sure to keep you posted.

A NEW PULP ACTION FIGURE

As all you Loyal Airmen are aware, Airship 27 publishes a showcase anthology series called. “MYSTERY MEN (& Women) and in every issue we introduce brand new pulp heroes to the our fans. Back in Vol 8 which we released last year (cover up at left by Rob Davis) writer Mark Allen Van gave us the story of a mob hitman named Stephen Killdare who was rescued from death by none other than Satan. The Master of Hell now commands Stephen, as KILLDEVIL, to do his bidding.  Above center is the sketch Rob did for that story. Now the writer, using the on-line site, Forge, has put together a Killdevil action figure at upper right. Forge allows customers to assemble various elements, ala shoes, clothes, weapons, hats etc. to custom create their own figures. We think Mark did a pretty decent job of capturing Killdevil and has himself a really nifty new toy.

THE WOODEN BLADE # 3

Artist Olivia DeGaine is hard at work on the third issue of “The Wooden Blade.” She is doing a truly awesome job as we continue to the adventures of Raizee the Ram and is pal, Orai the Vulture. Olivia is truly doing an amazing job with this comic series and with fingers crossed we may have this issue done in time for the Wicked West Comic Expo.

BEYOND THE STARS # 2

After Silverline Comics successful Kickstarter to release “Beyond the Stars” issue # 1, artist Andrea Bormida turned to focusing his efforts on several of his other of his on-going projects. Most professional artists work on several series at the same time. It helps them be more creative and by always focusing on the same story or characters daily. So now, after that brief hiatus, Andrea is nearing the completion of issue # 2. Above at left are his pencils for Pg # 19. Meaning there are only three more pages and the issue wraps. At the same time he began toying with a cover idea, center and to right above. We love the composition and can’t wait to reveal it in its entirety when the book is finished. Stay tuned Loyal Airmen.

COVER SNEAK PEEK

Finally we’re going to leave you with a really awesome sneak peek. A few weeks ago we mentioned the fact that we had a brand new “Mark Justice’s The Dead Sheriff” novel in the works. This one was written by Phillip Pan and features our zombie lawman in the Canadian Rockies where he encounters the legendary Sasquatch better known as Bigfoot. Art Director Rob Davis is drawing the 9 black and white interior illustrations with artist Michael Youngblood doing the cover. Michael just turned in the rough pencil sketch above and both Rob and the Air Chief were bowled over. This is going to be make a truly awesome cover. Stay tuned, Loyal Airmen, it should be coming you way very soon now.

And that’s a wrap for this week. Thanks as ever for stopping by and God Bless.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, we’re really excited to announce that the 18th issue of Mr. Jigsaw, Man of a Thousand Parts has been completed and hopefully will be published by the start of March. In this one we chose to start the story at our friend Rick Lowell’s great comic book shop in Portland, Maine.

And of course it wouldn’t be right to do this story without having Rick and his lovely wife Laura, appear as well. For those of you who follow the series, this one is follow up on a story we did way back in Issue # 15 where Jiggy’s friend, Dan Miller, got a job writing Mr. Jigsaw comics for Last Ember Press. Well that first issue is out and so Rick has invited Dan and Jiggy to his store to debut the first issue with a personal appearance. With fingers out the actual comic will be out by early March. We’ll keep you posted.

THE WOODEN BLADE # 1

Meanwhile back on the comics front, artist Olivia DeGaine is plowing ahead with her pencils for out latest story of Raizee the Ram and his vulture sidekick, Orai.  Above are the first two features of a story called “Flatlands” which will be featured in issue # 3.

BEYOND THE STARS Book # 2

Truly happy to announce, after a lengthy hiatus (working on other projects) Italian artist Andrea Bormida has completed the roughs for Pg #19 of our series BEYOND THE STARS # 2.  All that remains is three more pages and that issue will be completed.  Wahoo!!!  Andrea’s work constantly amazes me.

JIN & TONIK

And now we offer up the first page of JIN & TONIK completed.  After Matt Webb did such an amazing job with his colors, artist Cesar Feliciano sat down and add the lettering.  And as we’ve always said, the letters are what merge the script with the art. So now we have a comic book in production. WAHOOO!

And that’s it for this week, Loyal Airmen. Pretty much a comics only entry, though we do have several new Airship 27 pulp titles nearing completion and hopefully we’ll be able to announce those soon. Till then take care, stay safe and God Bless.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, it sure looks like 2023 is speeding along. We’re already in February and the Air Chief not only has tons of projects keeping us busy, but a long three week vacation coming next month followed by the Wicked West Comic Expo here in our neck of the woods followed by the Windy City Pulp & Paper Con in Chicago after that. Busy, busy, busy. So let’s get to what’s happening with both comics and pulps.

THE BOSTON BOMBERS Vol 2

With the completion of Pg 20 from Issue # 1 of Vol 2, artist Rob Davis is rapidly nearing the end of that premier issue. Ten more to go. This second volume will, as the first one, be published first as a single issues mini-series from Redbud Studio. Once completed, it will be collected as a graphic novel. Stay tuned.

AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTIONS

One of the biggest challenges we face as the publisher of Airship 27 is finding super talented artists to illustrate our great books. And then again, every so often we get blessed with artists like Chris Nye ( above at left illustrating a Teel James Glenn book) and Guy Davis ( above at right) illustrating a Nancy Hansen title). Oh yeah, some days there are rewards.

Nearing completion is our third Bulldog Drummond title, “Baited Hook” by writer Ian Watson. This series re-imagines the classic pulp heroes from the 1920s who the first gentleman adventurer in a pulp series. In this volume, as the previous two, artist Howard Simpson delivered all the black and white interior illustrations (one example at top left) and is for the first time doing the cover for us. Meanwhile yours truly and Art Director Rob Davis designed the back cover and text. (above right). This promises to be another great entry in our series and hopefully will be out within the next few weeks.

JIN & TONIK

Meanwhile colorist Matt Webb adds his special magic to Pg # 15 of “Jin & Tonik” by yours truly and the amazing art of Cesar Feliciano.

As you can see, things continue hopping at Hangar 27 with both comics and pulps. Thanks ever dropping by Loyal Airmen and we’ll see you back here next Friday.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, as you can see above, the Air Chief got in his copies of “The Adventures of Radio Rita” this past week and couldn’t be more delighted. From an kooky idea, to a 1940s pin-up picture and ultimately a grand old pulp hero, Rita’s road to her debut was anything but usual. Now that the book is finally out, with four amazing stories by Mel Odom, Gene Moyers, Samantha Lienhard and Teel James Glenn, we really hope you Loyal Airmen will give it a look. It is of course available now at Amazon in both paperback and on Kindle.  And yes, we are happy to say, there will be a second volume. Clear the runway, Loyal Airmen, here comes Radio Rita!

COMMISSION ORIGINAL ARTWORK

As so many of you Loyal Airmen know, our professional comics writing career was launched when artist Jeff Butler and the Air Chief produced The Green Hornet comic series for the now defunct Now Comics. Well these days, Jeff keeps super busy teaching art at a local college near his home. But he also finds time to do private commissions for fans who, like us, love his work and would love to own an original Jeff Butler drawing. You can cut find him on line at this link.Just cut and paste it to your search engine and off you go. (https://jeff-butler.com/gallery-commissions/) The piece of above is one he did for a good friend of our back in New Hampshire.

JIN & TONIK

Two more colored pages from issue # 1 of “Jin & Tonik” by the amazing Matt Webb over artist Cesar Feliciano’s beautiful drawings. Really, really getting excited about this comic project.

And that’s our abbreviated Flight Log for this week, Loyal Airmen. Thanks ever for stopping by and we’ll see you back here next Friday.

Ron – Over & Out

Greetings Loyal Airmen, we’ve got a bunch of stuff to share with you this week. So here we go.

THE DEAD SHERIFF # 5

We at Airship 27 are happy to announce we are preparing to do another volume of “Mark Justice’s The Dead Sheriff.” As many of you already know, Mark was a fellow writer and radio DJ (above right) who created the zombie lawman shortly before he passed away seven years ago. Since then, working with his wonderful wife, Norma Kay, we’ve put out four Dead Sheriff novel. The first being the original written by Mark. The second based on his unfinished manuscript which we completed. This was followed by volume three by writer Fred Adams Jr. and volume four by Michael Housel. Now California based writer Phillip Pan has completed a fifth and we hope to have it out withing a month. Art Director Rob Davis is currently doing the interior illustrations and Michael Youngblood will do the cover. In this one the Dead Sheriff finds himself and his companions in Canada coming face to face with Bigfoot. Trust us, Loyal Airmen, this one is a hoot. Stay tuned. We’ll keep you posted. Meanwhile a reminder, the previous four volumes are still available from Amazon in both paperback and on Kindle.

THE WOODEN BLADE # 3

Artist Olivia DeGaine continues her work on our series about the traveling warrior Raizee the Ram. These pages are part of issue # 3 now in production and we love them. Olivia is a master storyteller.

A NEW SHERLOCK HOLMES FAN

Last week we sent our third cousin Blake Fortier copies of our Mr. Jigsaw comic. His older sister, Natalie, loves mysteries, ergo we sent her one of our Airship 27 Sherlock Holmes – Consulting Detectives anthologies. By that smile, we gather it was a big hit. You’re welcome, cousin.

ANOTHER SET-BACK FOR SATIN

Satin Wei is a character we created ages ago for the late Gary Reed and his Caliber Press. We wrote a 48 pg actioner introducing this love jewel thief from Hong Kong. Sadly, we could never find an artist willing to take that on. This morning the fourth artist to show any interest in the past twenty years dropped out. Sigh. And so it goes in the life of a comic book writer. One step forward, two steps back.

AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTION

And on a much happier note, we’re happy to announce the first new pulp release of 2023 from Airship 27 Production is THE PURPLE SCAR Vol 4 – A great anthology featuring the weirdest, scariest pulp avenger of them all, the Purple Scar. Above is the back cover (left) and the front cover (right) by artist Adam Shaw. Features four great chilling adventures by Gene Moyers, Felix Cruz, Michael Housel and Fred Adams Jr. with interior illustrations by Chuck Bordell. Art Director Rob Davis designed it all. Now available at Amazon in paperback and soon on Kindle. As ever, Loyal Airmen, thanks for your continued support.

JIN & TONIK Pg 11

And finally this week we are thrilled to have super comic colorist back at work on our spy action series JIN & TONIK, as written by the Air Chief and illustrated by the amazing Cesar Feliciano. Always a creator in demand, Matt is working on several projects simultaneously and so had to leave us for a while to meet his other obligations. But he’s back again (even for a little while) and as ever his work on Cesar’s pages is fantastic.

And there you have it, Loyal Airmen. Another busy, hectic week at Hangar 27. As ever thanks so much for stopping by and we’ll see you all back here next Friday.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, when the Air Chief was growing up in the little town of Somersworth, N.H. he lived near many of his Fortier relatives. A street away my cousin Richard lived; we called him Dickie. He grew up, married a wonderful girl from Canada and they had two children, a girl and a boy. His son, named Richard Jr. grew using the name Ricky. A few weeks again, Ricky, our second cousin, reached out to us on Facebook. Ricky is married and he himself has two beautiful children; daughter Natalie and son Blake. Ricky informed us both of them loved to read. Natalie loves mysteries whereas Blake enjoys drawing and comics.

We wasted no time picking out five issues of our Mr. Jigsaw comic book and mailed them to Blake. Above are photos dad Ricky snapped upon Blake getting his comics. He reported Blake liked the cover to the time travel issue (see image above to the left) and started with that one first. By the end of the day he had read three of the five and enjoyed them all. We were delighted to hear that and are now giving some thought to what we can send his sister, Natalie. More on that later.

SPECIAL EARRINGS

A couple of years ago we published writer George Tackes first ever novel, “The Great Chicago Fire Conspiracy.” Well this past Christmas, George had the wonderful idea of turning the cover to that book into earrings to give to both his wife and daughter. Now just how cool is that? Way to go, George!

THE WOODEN BLADE # 3

Artist Olivia DeGaine whips up pencils for another page to the forthcoming adventures of Raizee the Ram in our series The Wooden Blade. We so love her work in adapting our script our script.

BEYOND THE STARS # 2

Artist Andrea Bormida delivers Pg # 18 of issue # 2 of our BEYOND THE STARS sci-fi. Adventure, with our heroes caught in the swirling chaos of a space nebula. Stay tuned. Lots more to come. Oh, yeah.

BEN DUNN GUEST COMES TO COLORADO

We’d been waiting for months to make this announcement, and yet somehow it got out weeks ago without us being aware? Okay, so time to correct. The big guest, as announced by con promoter Todd Jones, of this year’s Wicked West Comic Expo is none other than indy comics creator/publisher, Ben Dunn. The same Ben Dunn who created the Netflix series “Warrior Nun.” Ben and the Air chief worked ages ago on a Popeye comic, but this will be the very first time we get to meet in person. So welcome to Colorado, Ben!!  See you in April.

REST IN PEACE LITTLE BROTHER

Finally, we end this week’s entry with bidding our younger brother Daniel Paul Fortier farewell. Paul, as he preferred to be known, passed away Wednesday morning after a two year battle with cancer. Paul was son number three, after yours truly and brother George. Our little brother. Then our sister Ann Marie came along and completed our loving family. Paul was smart, kind, vivacious. He had a pure love of life and lit up a room whenever he appeared. At the end, in a hospice facility in Vermont, David, his partner of thirty years was by his side. Above is a newspaper clipping printed when Paul was a student at Keene State College in New Hampshire. He so loved to travel. To the right is Paul and sister Annie. They, being the two youngest of our clan, were always close. We Fortiers are people of faith, we believe in God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Today, Paul is in heaven with our parents, getting basking in the pure love of his creator, where, with prayer, we will all join him one day. God bless you all.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, Valerie and the Air Chief celebrated a very quiet New Year’s Eve. First by attending evening mass and then home for Chinese take-out. All was going fine until we received a really sad e-mail as explained below.

Airship 27 writer Lou Mougin 27 Nov 1954- Dec 31 2022 passed away yesterday at the age of 68. Though we never met face to face, we became friends online and last year we published his first JOE COMPUTER Private Detective. Joe loved it, especially the art by Fer Calvi. Below is the bio he gave us for that publication. I loved Joe’s humor that came through all his e-mails. He will be sorry missed by the New Pulp community. God bless you, my friend and may you rest in peace.

LOU MOUGIN – despite rumors to the contrary, is a writer.  In prose, he’s written the Frankenstein novel, MONSTER IN THE MANSIONS, and several other items for ProSe Press.  His first Joe the Computer story debuted in Airship27’s LEGENDS OF NEW PULP FICTION.  SECONDARY SUPERHEROES OF GOLDEN AGE COMICS, a history of lesser-known 1940s comic heroes, has been published by McFarland Books.  In comics, his current gig is scripting horror stories for Warrant’s THE CREEPS, SHUDDER, and VAMPIRESS CARMILLA.  He’s also written stories for Marvel, Eclipse, AC Comics, InDellible, Claypool, Lucky, and others.  (What others?  At this point, he’s not sure himself!)  This is his first ever detective-type book.  If you buy it, he’ll be exceedingly happy.  If not, he’ll probably cry for a week.

THE MUSIC MAN

On a much happier note, while wishing all in the family a Happy New Year, our son Kevin sent along this new picture above doing what he loves best, playing one of his guitars. Kevin’s always had a gift for music and though he spends his days buy as the manage of a good sized supermarket in Massachusetts, his nights and free time are for his music. As some of you will recall, we even put Kevin on the cover of the new Sam Dunne novel by Fred Adams Jr. that we also released last year.

And so 2023 kicks of with both sad and happy moments as is typical in life. We cherish our loved ones and miss those who have passed. Amen.

BOSTON BOMBERS Vol Two

Setting aside time during the holidays, Rob Davis devoted his energy to get issue # 1 of the new Boston Bombers series wrapped.  Above are his just turned in Pages 17 & 18. With only a few more to go before the end, these will be our last sneak peeks. With fingers crossed we’ll have the comic out within the next few months. We are super thrilled with the work Rob has done here and think it is some of his best. Stay tune for updates.

BEYOND THE STARS  Issue # 2

Artist Andrea Bormida is now finished with Pg # 17 of Issue # 2 of our sci-fi comic book adventure “Beyond the Star.” Looking awesome. Our team of Science Warrior about to traverse an unstable Nebula.

PRAYING FOR INJURED FOOTBALL PLAYER

During Monday night’s football game between the Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals, Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered heart failure and collapsed. Medical staff rushed to the field to begin CPR and within minutes an ambulance was carrying him away to a nearby trauma center. As it drove off, his teammates fell to their knees in prayer to Our Lord Savior Jesus Christ and prayed. The Air Chief will remember this scene as long as  he lives. In minutes, a team, a stadium full of fans and millions watching on TV prayed. And we will continue to do so until this young man recovers. Amen.

THE WOODEN BLADE

With the release of “The Wooden Blade” issue # 2 last year, Olivia DeGaine and the Air Chief are now hard at work on issue # 3 of the adventures of Raizee the Ram and his vulture sidekick Orai. Above are Olivia’s first roughs and layouts. Wahooo!!

THE AIRSHIP 27 PODCAST

Was checking You Tube recently and discovered something great. Seems our last Podcast Episode # 89 has to date received over 100 views.  Wowser!! We generally get about 70 to 80 views. So whatever happened, we have no clue but still Rob and the Air Chief want to thank all of you Loyal Airmen for tuning in and obviously telling your friends about the show.

And that wraps up this Flight Log, Loyal Airmen. As ever thanks for dropping by and we’ll see you back here next Friday.

Ron Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, we hope your Christmas last weekend was the best one ever. As we look to jump into the New Year 2023, we’ve all kinds of hopes and wishes. But first let’s look at the some of our Santa goodies.

THE AIR CHIEF’S SUPER SIX

As we’ve said often enough here, family is everything to us. Val and the Air Chief have five amazing grown up children and six super grand kids. So Val went and had this custom made sweatshirt made for us. Pepere is French for grandfather…and here represented from left to right, according to their ages are our Six Super Grand Kids: Kristi, Cora, Chelsea, Alex, Taryn & Logan. We love them all so much and this shirt is something truly special to the Air Chief. Oh, yeah.

STAR WARS – THE MANDADOLIAN

Our family knows the Air Chief loves action figures and we’ve quite a collection doting the book shelves in our office. So it was a wonderful Santa surprise to unwrap a really awesome Madalorian action figure which you see above to left. But the funniest surprise was later opening a box with a Funko bobble head version of the character (above to the right) who also comes with the baby Grogu in his arms. They are both awesome toys.

THE GREAT ADVENTURE BIBLE

Over a year ago, while surfing You Tube, we discovered a daily podcast series from Ascension Press titled the Bible in a Year hosted/narrated by Father Mike Schmitz. Father Mike is such a wonderful, humorous soul devoted to his ministry and as we began to watch episodes daily, it didn’t take us long to get hooked. As we recall, we’d come in towards the end of that first year.  So…after we’d reached the end of the program, we simply went back to Day One on You Tube and started from the beginning. One of the marvels of this series is the accompanying Great Adventure Bible put together by the folks at Ascension under the guidance of bible expert Jeff Cavins. Their approach is to cross-reference books from the Old Testament with those from the New to ultimately reveal a linear narration that is God’s beautiful story of salvation history. From Adam and Eve’s original falling to sin to the miraculous incarnation of Jesus to save mankind…once and for all.  Thus, our kids, knowing of my affection for this video series, gifted me with a copy of the Great Adventure Bible. We are wicked excited as it will be a tremendous aid to our ongoing bible studies. As for Father Mike’s Bible in a Year series, if any of you have ever wanted to read the bible, we recommend it highly.

AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTION

Just before Christmas, we managed to release our 22nd (and last) title of the year. Kind of fitting that we’d do 22 books in 2022. Ha. This was of personal interest to the Air Chief as it features a fictional character we created as whim to announce our You Tube video podcast. We’d found an old classic 1940s pin-up picture on line (at right above) and called her Radio Rita, the manager of Hangar 27 where all the magic of Airship 27 happens. Eventually, several of our writers started asking if we’d ever do a book starring this lovely redhead. The idea sounded like fun and we came up with this concept wherein we’d write a very brief bible in regards to the Rita’s character…and let each writer who signed on to fill in the rest of just “who” she was. Of course this would immediately have each writer doing a “different” version of Rita and that’s exactly what transpired. Vol One features four Radio Ritas as envisioned by writers Mel Odom, Gene Moyers, Teel James Glenn & Samantha Lienhart. Rob Davis provided all the great interior illustrations and Ted Hammond that gorgeous front cover (to left above). The girl fliers collage is the back cover. “The Adventures of Radio Rita” is now available at Amazon in both paperback and on Kindle. We think it’s something special and we hope you’ll give a look.

NEW FRIENDS FROM FRANCE

Several days ago, the Air Chief received a surprise e-mail from a woman named Randa Hassan. She’s French and she and her husband, Sherif Negati, were in Fort Collins visiting her mother for the holidays. Sherif is a big comic book fan and they were hope to make contact with any comic book professionals while here. The Air Chief wrote back suggesting we all hook up at the local comic shop and they agreed. So on Wed afternoon, the Air Chief, along with our pal, pro letterer James Gaubatz, had the real pleasure of meeting and getting to know these truly wonderful people. Sherif recently gave up a good paying IT job for an oil company in France to start writing/drawing his own comics. So for an hour and a half  the four of us talked comics, pros and cons, those here in America and the French comics back where they live. It was a fun, informative meeting. Sherif promised to send us sample of his work when he gets home and asked the Air Chief to be totally honest in our critiques. Which we’ll gladly do. We snapped the picture above. (Left to right is James, Sherif, Randa and the Air Chief. Like to think we made two new friend today from way across the globe.

And that’s it for our last Flight of 2022 Loyal Airmen. Thanks ever for following this blog all year long, we truly appreciate your interest and support of our humble activities and ramblings. Here is wishing all you a truly wonderful and great New Year. God bless you all.

Ron – Over & Out!