Greetings Loyal Airmen and welcome to this week’s Flight Log.  As ever, things are always hopping at Hangar 27 and our first piece of news is the fact that we’ve just signed on to write a Zorro story.

Created by pulp writer Johnston McCulley, Zorro has been a favorite of ours since we first saw him on the Disney’s Wonderful World of Color TV show starring the handsome Guy Williams. That was the launching pad into his own series which lasted several years and we never missed an episode. As time went on we learned of his origin in the pulps and of the many amazing film portrayals. First by the super athletic Douglas Fairbanks in the silent movies followed then by the classic “Mark of Zorro” with Tyrone Powers and the dastardly Basis Rathbone which featured one of the best sword duels in cinema. Of course there were lots more TV series, both here in the US and overseas until finally James Bond director Martin Campbell’s wonderful “Mask of Zorro” with Antonio Bandera and Catherine Zeta Jones.

In the past few years pulp publisher Bold Venture Press, guided by Audrey Parente and Rich Harvey have reprinted all the original McCulley Zorro stories in great 5 Vol series. Then they took a step further in offering brand new Zorry novels and anthologies by some of today’s finest New Pulp scribes. In fact writer John French’s own story from “Zorro – The Daring Escapes” won this year’s Pulp Factory Award for Best Short Story. All of which leads to Ms Parente inviting the Air Chief to write a new adventure of The Fox for another planned anthology coming 2022. We’ve agreed, with a great deal of anxiety. We really don’t want to mess this one up, Loyal Airmen. Wish us lots of luck.

JIN & TONIK

Artist Cesar Feliciano continues to produce new pages and thrill us to no end. Above to left is an early sketch of Darya Tonikova done back in 2018. Next to it is the newly completed Pg 18 of the script wherein she is attending a security conference along with her sergeant and division commander. As unaware of the danger they all face. Trust me, Loyal Airmen, the action is about explode in the coming pages.

A few weeks ago we mentioned having finished our latest novel, “Cape Noire : A Beest & Beauty Tale.” It is the prequel to our Brother Bones pulp stories that have appeared in five books. So we the other day we handed off the manuscript to our pal and Airship 27 Art Director as he will be doing the art for the book from the interior illustrations to the cover. Well apparently Rob’s enthusiasm is fired up as last night he surprised us with whipping up the cover logo for the book (see above) and we love it. We doubt seriously the book itself will be completed by year’s end, but then again we’re totally okay with it becoming our first new Airship 27 release for 2022. Onwards and upwards, Loyal Airmen.

Last year we were thrilled to publish our first Jon Shadows action/adventure novel by Pulp Factory Award winning writer Teel James Glenn, “Killing Shadows.” Rob Davis did the cover (above left) and the amazing Tedd Lehman did the interior illustrations. All of us were really proud of this book. Then happily Glenn sent us a second book in the series, “Deadly Shadows” and we eagerly began assembling it. Rob did up a cover and Tedd signed on again to do the illustrations.  (Above center is the first of two he did.) Then after sending in his second illo, he and his family were hit with health issues which forced him to stop drawing and we had to book the production on hold. All the while we kept Tedd in our prayers and thoughts. So time moves on and then the other night, much to our delight, up pops a letter from Tedd and a cell pix of illo # 3. (Above to right). We realize it’s not very visible here, but trust us, the piece is beautiful and Tedd reports he’ll have it finished and # 4 on the way shortly. As excited as we are about this, we are even more delighted that he is well again.  Welcome back Tedd. We really missed you. At the same time a reminder, “Killing Shadows” is still available at Amazon in both paperback and on Kindle.

BEYOND THE STARS

And finally we want bring all you Loyal Airmen up to speed with our new comics series project we are doing with the super talented Andrea Bormida. As you’ll recall, it was just about a month ago that we saw six pages of art that Andrea had posted on his Link-In site. (The first of these is above to the left.) We were so taken with them that we wrote him and began a correspondence. Which in turn led to Andrea inviting us to join him on making those six pages the start of an actual sci-fi comic series. Our next step was taking his original outline and developing it further. Then we were blessed to have Publisher Roland Mann of Silverline Comics to accept it for publication. The Air Chief immediately got to work and write the first 22 pg issue # 1. This past week, Andrea took that script and has begun to illustrate it.  At above center is his progress on Pg # 1 and to the right is his preliminary break down of  Pg # 2. And we couldn’t be happier. The layouts on both pages are exactly as we imagined the scenes when writing the script. Honestly, we are so excited. This is going to be something truly special. As ever we’ll keep you posted.

Finally Amazon Prime has started airing the 6th and Final Season of the best sci-fi on television today, The Expanse. It began on the Sci-Fi Channel and then jumped ship after its 4th Season. The show is terrific with great writing, directing, special FX and an amazing cast. Well certainly enjoy these last episodes but are really going to miss it when it wraps.

And that’s it for this week, Loyal Airmen. As ever, thanks so much for joining us…and more importantly sharing this link with your friends. Are viewing numbers are starting to grow, all because of you. Till next week.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, we’re kicking off this week talking about a project we couldn’t make happen but we’re only to happy to see achieved by others. All of which is bout the real life western lawman, Bass Reeves.

Many years ago we first heard about the most successful western lawman ever to patrol the frontier after the Civil War. His name was Bass Reeves and he was a U.S. Deputy Marshal riding for Federal Judge Isaac Parker out of Ft. Smith, Arkansas. In a 30 yr career he brought in over 3,000 outlaws, was involved in 14 gun battles and never wounded once. Shortly after learning about this man, we read Art. T. Burton’s biography and got the idea to do a graphic novel depicting the life and times of Bass Reeves.

To that end we recruited our good pal, artist Rob Davis who was only too happy to be a part of such a project. We wrote a ten page script and Rob illustrated all ten pages. Above you have the first three. With this, we wrote an outline for what would be a five issue mini-series. We then sent out a proposal package to various comic companies. Not a one accepted the idea. After a year of these rejections, we gave up on the idea of a Bass Reeves comic book. But we we’re not about to quit on Bass.

Instead we launched a brand new anthology series from Airship 27 Production called “Bass Reeves – Frontier Marshal” and to date have published four volumes with a fifth in production. The books are big sellers for us as the audience awareness of this great man is growing.

Then a little over a year ago we heard a new comic company named Allegiance was coming on the scene and they were going to offer a Bass Reeves comic. No one was more surprise than the Air Chief. And of course a wee bit jealous. But only for brief while as we then heard an old acquaintance, actor/writer Kevin Grevioux would be writing the series. We knew then it would be a quality offering story wise but we were unfamiliar with the artist, David Williams. We picked up the first issue and became an instant fan. Williams work is stylized, a bit on the cartoony side, but it works with this fast pace, gritty western story. Above to right is the cover to issue # 3, the latest. Our only complaint is how long it takes for these comic to come out. Allegiance’s “Bass Reeves” is a winner and we recommend it highly. You can find it at your local Walmart.  And to Kevin and David, congratulations. It’s an awesome comic about an awesome man.

Was talking with Mr. Jigsaw artist Gary Kato recently. Above left is an early color-guide Gary did when we launched the character. Truth is it wasn’t till years later that the Air Chief realized he’d created a character who could control every part/molecule of his body and then hooked him up with a character who had a part missing. Now that’s how a writer’s subconscious works. Truly weird. And while on the subject of our beloved Jiggy, allow to remind you of the giant sized full color Christmas Special we released last year in which Jiggy saves Santa Clause. It’s still available at Amazon and we think you and your kids and grand-kids would love to see it under the Christmas tree come Christmas morning.

JIN & TONIK

Cesar Feliciano turns in Pg # 17 of JIN & TONIK wherein Captain Darya Tonikova and her Sergeant accompany their commander to an important Kremlin meeting concerning terrorists. Cesar’s use of Point-of-View, from wide to close up shots is wonderful throughout. It sets the scene for the wild and crazy action sequence about to explode at this gathering. Stay tuned, Loyal Airmen.

And that’s all for this week, Loyal Airmen.  As ever thanks for stopping by. Hope to see you here next Friday for lots more fun things to report.

Ron Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen and thanks for stopping by. This week we want to put the spotlight on another creative partner, artist Cesar Feliciano.

Formerly from Massachusetts, Cesar now hangs in hat in sunny Florida. As you may know, Cesar was the artist who came up with the idea for the multi-graphic novel saga of JIN & TONIK; the story of two deadly assassins, one Chinese and the other Russian, masters at their death-dealing professions, who in a truly strange way both experience a similar spiritual epiphany that ultimately changes the course of their lives and leads them to salvation.

Intrigued by the concept, the Air Chief wasted no time in signing on to script this tale. This was well over a year ago and we spent almost two months writing up 85 pgs of script. All the while Cesar was busy finishing up another graphic novel project called CHANGO. Then last year and Covid struck and put lots of things on hold. Once this year rolled around, all of us started playing catch up and for Cesar that was doing up tons of great sketches for our characters, Sammy Jin and Darya Tonikova, both alone and together as is evidence by the beautiful pieces above.

Then a short time ago Cesar began in earnest bringing my script to life. Above are samples from the first 16 pages, starting at left with Pg # 1 that introduces Navajo Shaman Eddie Nightsky, then we have Pg # 8 with introduces Sammy Jin and finally Pg # 16 which he turned in a few days ago finally debuting Darya Tonikova’s arrival on the stage. This is going to be a truly amazing adventure and Cesar and the Air Chief hope, after we wrangle a publisher, you Loyal Airmen will join us on the journey.

On other news, the first Brother Bones Grave Tales hardbacks from Amazon arrived this week. Overall we’re are happy with the printing itself. The cover reproduction, both front and back is excellent, the interior quality is also top-notch and the books are easy to open and read…with pages complete and far enough from center. Our only criticism is Amazon did not protect them when packaging. They were simply put in a small box without any stuffing material, bubble-wrap or such. Thus two of the three seen above had the top cover corners slightly mashed. Which has us scratching our heads. Whenever we order paperback books, they come totally wrapped in protective paper or bubble-wrap. So why not with these more expensive items? Go figure mega-companies? We certainly cannot.

Now for something truly important, updates on our wonderful children. Between us, Valerie and the Air Chief have five, three boys and two girls. They are the greatest loves of our lives, them, and of course our six amazing grand kids. What with Thanksgiving last week, we heard from all of them and that included some new pictures. Wahoo. Son Kevin above to left, manages a very successful supermarket in Massachusetts, while at the same time continuing his love of music and guitar. He was recently taking night lessons to play classical guitar. Just as writing feeds our soul, for son Kevin it has always been music and we so envy him that talent. To upper right, the young lady at far left is daughter Heather with two of her friends braving a rather chilly night in Chicago where they life. Heather is a social butterfly and has a close knit group of friends in the Windy City all of who love theater. She recently saw a new production of the Sound of Music and said it was great. Her birthday is Aug 27th, for those of you Loyal Airmen who always wondered why that number when creating our Airship 27 Production company…and now you know. It’s the Air Chief’s lucky number for sure.

Airship 27 Production is thrilled to announce our latest New Pulp novel release, “Dragonthroat” by award winning writer Teel James Glenn. This is an other-world fantasy adventure much like the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Great action, exciting new worlds in a great story. Art Director Rob Davis provided the cover (above left) and artist Chris Nye the black and white interior illustrations (above right). The book is up at Amazon now in both paperback and on Kindle. As ever we thank you Loyal Airmen for your continued support.

And that’s it for this week, Loyal Airmen. Thanks again and see you back here next Friday.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen. We’re delighted to see our viewing numbers are going up steadily per week and are truly appreciative so many of you Loyal Airmen have been opted to follow us every Friday. Now we want to you meet Andrea Bormida, the Italian artist who pulled me into working with him on this new sci-fi fantasy comic series we are calling BEYOND THE STARS.

 Andrea is a 30 years professional comic artist. His love for comics started with American superheroes, and Disney’s adventures. He began his professional walk on Graziano Origa’s Videomax; a tribute to old daily strips. He then collaborated with Sergio Bonelli Editore for almost 25 years, mainly on the sci-fi series, including Legs Weaver, Nathan Never, Agenzia Alfa, Asteroide Argo. With a couple of digressions into the fantasy worlds of Jonathan Steele and Dragonero. Since 2018 he began an artist for hire journey, that led him to three numbers of Drew Eash’s Captain Luv; meanwhile he also did three numbers of Jason Barrett’s Heru. A collaboration that still goes on. At 54, he lives in Stresa, Italy. The character on the right is The All Mother, the governing ruler of the Haven Empire.

The first thing we love to do when working with a new comic partner, is hopefully see if we mesh as a team. In his first early drafts to the Air Chief, Andrea send along several sketches of characters he envisioned for the story. One being the mysterious Arqua’Ht. Whereas, after reading his bare bones outline, we thought it might be advantageous to introduce an actual alien character to the mix and we suggested he use her. Within a day, Andrea had morphed her into the Alien Arqua’Ht. We couldn’t be more more delighted.

ArNal was another character we introduced to the plot. Andrea immediately did up the sketch (upper top left) then to give us another option, drew the same character only older. In the end we settled for him being in-between, middle age with graying hair. (lower colored version). This is why the Air Chief loves doing comics, the opportunity co-create with another talented soul. We will continue to keep you posted on the development of this project and ultimately what comic company has accepted it for publication.

RAIZEE THE RAM & The Wooden Blace

Another on-going comic series we are involved was kicked off several years ago when the Air Chief had the good fortune to meet artist Olivia DeGaine. Both Olivia and her husband Zane are graduates of the Joe Kubert School of Graphic Art in New Jersey who moved to Fort Collins years ago. Becoming friends with them, one day we mentioned a fantasy style script we’d written with animal characters. Olivia has a fondness for anthropomorphic characters (she’s also a huge animation fan) and we shared our script with here. She decided the protagonist should be a ram and thus was born the warrior Raizee who travels the land with his Vulture side-kick Jones.  He also wields a magic wooden blade that makes it impossible for him to be defeated in battle. To date Olivia published one issue of the series via their Pulp Fission imprint. See above.

At present she is hard at work on Issue # 3 and above are the first three pages. All that remains to be added are the captions and dialog. In this adventure, Raizee crosses path with an old love. We love Olivia’s work and can’t wait to this new issue completed. As ever, Loyal Airmen, we’ll keep you posted.

JIN & TONIK

Although busy with his day job and holiday madness, artist Cesar Feliciano did begin work on Pg # 16 which finally introduces Russian Captain Darya Tonikova to our story. He was most gracious to send along the panel above for all you Loyal Airmen. Trust me what happens next kicks butt. Oh, yeah.

Finally well over 15 yrs ago we created the Brother Bones pulp series, starring the Undead Avenger and his exploits in the dark brooding Northwest port metropolis of Cape Noire. One of the most popular denizens of that place was Harry Beest, the mobster whose brain was removed from his body and put into that of a silverback gorilla. Since his debut, Beest has been the one character fans can’t get enough of. Which got the Air Chief thinking about a year ago as to how Beest’s full story had really never been told. His origin, in that first collection (see cover above) was told in just two paragraph. In and out and off to the races we went. Whereas there was indeed a whole lot more to the tale and we’ve always wanted to correct that by writing it all out. Thus six months ago we began writing “Cape Noire – A Beest & Beauty Tale,” a prequel novel to the Bones series. As of today we are 60,000 words done and should have the book wrapped up by the end of the weekend. Oh yeah, this has been a story a long time in coming and we really hope all our Brother Bones fans are going to enjoy it. More later for sure.

Till then, we truly hope all you Loyal Airmen had a fantastic, blessed Thanksgiving.  As ever thanks for stopping by and we’ll see you back here next Friday.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, this week we want to kick off our entry with the news that, after having parted company with Facebook, at the suggestion of our pal Rob Davis, the Air Chief joined the Link-In platform. Should any of you Loyal Airmen wish to join me there, simply go to the site and hook up with Ron Fortier. We’re slowly expanding our network there and would be thrilled to have you be a part of it.

Speaking of joining things, this week we’ll be talking about how many of our comic projects get started. While Link-In one day we connected with a very talented artist from Italy named Andrea Bormita. After a few message exchanges, Andrea said he’d like to work with us on a project and sent along one page outline for a fantasy/science fiction idea he had.

He also sent along five pages he’d completed based on his idea. We’ve put three above here. The second we saw these, we knew he had to work with this truly gifted artist. Whereas upon reading his outline, we found it a bit undeveloped and suggested to Andrea that we might want to tighten it up. Much to our delight he was all for that and gave us the okay to edit and alter the concept any way we thought would work better. Which he have now done.  At present we’ve found a publisher to take on the project and Andrea is now doing sketches of the principle characters.

Such as Kal and Ehrmet, two of the Science Warriors recruited to combat an intergalatic threat. Once these are done, we’ll begin writing the first issue. We’ll reveal the publisher in future updates. Hope to title it…BEYOND THE STARS. We will feature more previews in coming weeks.

JIN & TONIK

In this week’s update on JIN & TONIK, artist Cesar Feliciano previews panels from pg 14 of our script in which a character dies. Cesar’s art beautiful captures the emotional impact of the scene, even without the captions. He is a master story teller.

The panel above left is how Cesar ends pg # 14. No words necessary. What excites me is the story now shifts gears and we go to the Arizona desert and an Indian Shaman. Story shifts gears next to Moscow and the introduction of Darya Tonikova.

BLACK BAT GRAPHIC NOVEL PREVIEW –

THE PARAGON BOXING ARENA – Boxing arena owned by Crime Boss Oliver Snate. Although a legitimate enterprise, it is still a front for all of Snate’s illegal activities in the city. Also where he crosses path with Butch O’Leary. Once again artist Mike Belcher offers up these preview pieces as he works tirelessly on this 103 pg graphic novel.

On the pulp side of things, Airship 27 Production’s latest release as a straight up western, “Marshal Horne of Talon’s Crossings,” by writer Tyler Auffhammer. It features four stories of a tough as nails Nevada lawman. Maine artist Jeff Cram did the black and white interiors (one of them above at right) and the ever fantastic Adam Shaw painted the cover (above to left). Now available at Amazon in paperback and soon on Kindle. As ever, thanks for your continued support.

Finally we want to wish all of Loyal Airmen a truly Happy Thanksgiving. We live in the greatest country in the world, with so many blessings. It is the Air Chief’s wish for safety, good health and countless blessings to all of you and your loved ones. Don’t eat too much turkey. See you back here next Friday morning.

Ron (Over & Out!)

Greetings Loyal Airmen,  there are about to be some major changes in this weekly Flight Log. Why you ask? Well, as of last week, in fact on his 75th birthday, the Air Chief was for the third time in as many months expelled from posting to Facebook. We won’t bore you with the details, but suffice to say we’ve had enough of their childish, mercenary little games and will not longer participate on that platform. Thus we are shifting the main thrust of our internet presence to this weekly Flight Log. How is that going to change things? Well for the most part, it is going to expand the topics we’ll be discussing. The Air Chief has tons of great comics and pulp projects in the works, either solo or as Managing Editor of Airship 27 Production, so rest assured you’ll be learning all about every one of them right here, every Friday morning. Some on a weekly basis. Oh yeah, lots of stuff coming way. So what say we can started with our look back on this year’s Rocky Mountain Con held in Denver last weekend.

First of all we have to give giant thanks to producer Tim Moret who puts on the show every year, along with his lovely wife Nicole and their staff of super friendly helpers. That’s Tim above in the red shirt standing with Colorado based artist, Guy Davis. Guy is a fun dude who is so into Star Trek and also happens the fellow illustrating writer Nancy Hansen’s new fantasy series, The Silver Pentacle for Airship 27 Production. Guy is currently illustrating the second volume now in production.

Here’s Valerie and the Air Chief at our table. We met so many wonderful people and sold tons of books both pulps and comics. The two of us love this show and the chance to get together with so many friends.

First of which was the Air Chief’s Official Protege writer/editor Todd Jones. He had copies of his latest two Wicked Awesome Tales comic anthology, including the issue with our character Space Smuggler Captain Jain Marlee on the cover by artist Jolyon Yates. Jolyon was scheduled to be a guest at the show but had to cancel out at the last minute.

The irascible, one and only Mike Baron was also on hand. Mike’s the Eisner winning writer who created and wrote two of comicdom’s most memorable characters, Nexus and the Badger. We’ve become good buddies over the years (as we both live in Fort Collins now) and we even did an hour gab-fest panel on writing comics that was lots of fun.

And then we have the comic dynamic duo of husband and wife team, Zane & Olivia DeGaine. Both professional graphic artist creators who operate Pulp Fission. Two of our dearest friends.

Here’s another pal, artist Jeff Slemons, who does hot-rods and dinosaurs better than any other artist we know. Jeff and the Air Chief recently did a six page comic strip for CARtoons magazine featuring an Alabama redneck named Buck Hokum. While at the show we kicked around an idea for a second story featuring the ex-racing car turned bus driver. Stay tuned for more news as that develops further.

And then we have the lovely, energetic super talented Ms Gabriella Saenz. We first met Gaby when she took our course on how to write comics. She was still in grade school. Now she’s a high school senior whose art had evolved into something truly beautiful. In fact she recently did the interior illustrations for writer Peggy Chamber’s book, Flitiron Death Grip and is now in talks with Peggy about adapting it as a graphic novel. That is something we hope happens.

Of course one of the real joys of attending cons is to meet new talented folks like artist creator Dylan Bloomfield who came over to our table with his wife and showed us his brand new children’s book. Dylan’s a really great guy eager to get into publishing and do lots more. We exchanged contact information and the Air Chief is going to do what he can to get Dylan’s career moving forward.

And all this was a small sampling of the good time Valerie and the Air Chief had at this year’s Rocky Mountain Con. Thank you Tim Moret & Company.

THE BLACK BAT GRAPHIC NOVEL

THE MORTON SCHOOL OF THE BLIND – As many of your Loyal Airmen are aware, earlier in the year we wrote a graphic novel telling the origin of the classic pulp character, the Black Bat which is now being illustrated by Mike Belcher, with his son Aiden doing the lettering and coloring. When completed, Mike will self-publish it via Ka-Blam. We had a great time writing the tale and Mike is doing such an amazing job with the art. Early on Mike had the idea of our previewing sketches by him once a week to hype up the project with all our fans and we created what we called Black Bat Saturday. For the past 22 weeks every Sat Mike would post a sketch of character from the script, or a locale, and we’d do a short write up to accompany. Well, no long on Facebook, Black Bat Saturday has now come to an end to be replaced by this new segment which will appear here in every Flight Log from now until the project is completed and we can announce the release of the book. Our first entry is the Morton School of Blind where former District Attorney Anthony Quinn goes after he is blinded by a criminal who threw acid in his face.

JIN & TONIK

A second comics project we are deeply involved with currently is a huge graphic novel saga called JIN & TONIK. First envisioned by artist Cesar Felciano and further developed by the Air Chief. This is a modern day thriller about two deadly assassins both born at the same minute on the same day; Chinese martial artist Sammy Jin and scientifically enhanced Russian agent Darya Tonikova. As beautifully rendered in Cesar’s sketch above. He’s currently drawing the first opening chapters and the pages are stunning. No definitive plan as to how we’ll get this publish, but it is still early and we have lots of options. For now we plan on keeping all you Loyal Airmen up to date with lots of great artwork.

And lastly in regards to pulps, Airship 27 Productions just released its first every hardcopy book. BROTHER BONES – Grave Tales collects the first two Brother Bones anthologies, “The Undead Avenger” and “Tapestry of Blood.” All 12 stories in this one volume, containing all of artist Rob Davis’ interior illustrations and the above gorgeous cover by the amazing Adam Shaw. The book retails at Amazon for $24.95 with over 300 pgs of bizarre pulp action. We hope you’ll check it out.

That’s it Loyal Airmen, as ever thanks for stopping by and hope you’ll make it a regular weekly visit.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, this week the Air Chief wants to talk comics. In the past few decades we’ve stopped collecting as we did back when we were still in our 20s and 30s. Honestly, ever since comics became “accepted” by the masses and then bought out by major corporations, they’ve become way less fun. The success of the big-budget movies only told these corporations that there was lots of money to be made from these characters and so let’s keep doing the way we always have…and not change a single thing about how we tell these stories. Ergo, all we fans have gotten from both Marvel and DC the past twenty years are the same stories simply done over and over and over again. Which is why the Air Chief and many of his colleagues have said the future of comics lies in the independents. Of course every once in a while we can still be surprised.

Imagine our surprise, when a few weeks ago, while visiting our local comic shop, we found a giant sized Batman comic done entirely by an Italian artist/writer Marini. The art inside was stunning and as we prefer complete, self-contained stories, we plunked down our cash and took it home.

And we’re happy we did, The story deals with Joker kidnapping a young girl who just may be Bruce Wayne’s illegitimate. Daughter, thus Batman is desperate to rescue her and helping him to do, for her own agenda of course, is Salina Kyle, aka Catwoman. Again, the art in this oversized comic is stunning and happily it has a powerful story to support it. We recommend all you Loyal Airmen pick up a copy. You’ll be glad you did.

Next up is a book that totally exemplifies the independent experience. “Expendables Go To Hell” came about when actor Sylvester Stallone pitched the idea to the studio for the fourth in his series of his action movies centered around a group of mercenary soldiers. The film series is one of our favorites as well. Anyway the studio nixed that particular plot and so Stallone brought it to veteran comic scribe (and our pal) Chuck Dixon who very wisely took it on. Dixon’s idea was to launch a Kickstarter program whereby fans would pay for the project. He and Stallone developed the plot and then Dixon wrote the actual script with writer Richard C. Meyer. Graham Nolan came on board to do the artwork. No sooner had the project been kicked off then Covid struck and a year came and went with no progress on getting the book finished and out to its supporters.  Now, almost two years later, and it’s a hoot. Meaning, yes dear Loyal Airmen, it was worth the wait.

In the story Barney Ross is knocked unconscious during a fire-fight and wakes up in hell.  Apparently he’s dead now and has a whole new battle to fight against the forces of Satan. But the big surprise was exactly who welcomes him to Hell. None other than Texan Audie Murphy, one of the most decorated American soldiers in World War II who later went on to have a film career in cowboy movies. Murphy becomes Ross’ guide and as the story progresses they meet lots of other historical figures, some good, some bad. Even the rest of the Expendables show up for the huge battle royale at the finale.  All in all “Expendables Go To Hell” is winner in both story and art and now a prized piece of the Air Chief’s comic collection. Oh, yeah.

While on the subject of comics, here’s a panel from pg 13 of JIN & TONIK, written by the Air Chief with art by Cesar Feliciano from his original concept. Cesar puts so much emotion in one panel alone, it conveys dept to the narrative in so many different ways elevating the script. We can’t wait to bring this story to all you Loyal Airmen.

Finally we’ve a new pulp book out this week.  The 8th chapter in Nancy Hansen’s pirate queen saga, “Jezebel Johnston – Revelation.” Like the other previous seven, this is a rollicking action packed pirate adventure. Art Director Rob Davis provides not only the interior illustrations but that gorgeous cover above. As ever available at Amazon in both paperback and on Kindle. Thank you for your continued  support Loyal Airmen.

Oh, and the Air Chief turns 75 today. Still haven’t figured out how THAT happened. Ha. As ever thanks for dropping by and we’ll see you next Friday morning.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, first up a review of a new sci-fi remake.

We first read DUNE as a high school student and fell in love with it. In fact it is one of the few books we’ve read multiple times over the years. And we’ve enjoyed both the David Lynch film version and the made-for-TV interpretations. The Air Chief just watched part one of director Denis Villeneuve’s expanded version and loved it start to finish. The additional scenes he wrote fit in beautifully with Herbert original tale and the cast, led by Timothee Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson & Oscar Isaac are perfect for their roles. Will most likely watch again later in the coming week. Magnificent classic retold. Thumbs way, way up.

We’re happy to announce that once again we’ll be guest at the Rocky Mountain Con happening in Denver Nov 6th-7th. Here is the ad posted across the internet by our friend and promoter Tim Moret. “We at Rocky Mountain Con are excited to announce Ron Fortier Will be joining us Nov. 6th & 7th. Ron is an American author, primarily known for his Green Hornet and The Terminator comic books and his revival of the pulp hero, Captain Hazzard. Early in his career he also wrote short stories and co-authored two novels for TSR. In 2017 Fortier was the recipient of the Pulp Factory’s first Pulp Grand Master Award. Get your tickets to meet Ron and all the other amazing guest at this years show!”

Pretty nice write-up. Thanks so much, Tim. And here’s hoping to see many of your Loyal Airmen in Denver that weekend.

Finally artist Cesar Feliciano continues to draw our graphic novel thriller JIN & TONIK. Above is a panel from pg # 12 which he is currently bringing to life. The amount of detail Cesar puts in each panel is truly amazing and he so wonderfully captures the emotion of the scene before what any writer could ask for it. It is joy to be working with this talented artist.

And there you have it for this week, Loyal Airmen. As ever thanks for stopping by and we’ll see you back here next Friday.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, today we want to share with you the evolution of a character we created long ago, space smuggler Captain Jain Marlee.  We created her for a short comic strip and the first artist to draw her was Brian Level, who at the time was only doing tattoos.

Above you have the first page to the very first Captain Jain Marlee story “Smuggler’s Lament.” Center is one of Brian’s early sketches of our gal. Shortly after this was published, we wrote a second story called “Cold Demise” and a Scottish artist, whose name we don’t recall now, did the sketch above at the right. He even did several pages…then for whatever reasons quite the project.

So up stepped artist Luis Rivera and he did a bang up job with the strip, he even drew yours truly as Constable Glick.  AND…managed to get a fully colored version out there. It seemed like Captain Jain was getting more popular with each passing year.

The third Captain Jain tale was called “The Prince” and this time the artist taking on our feisty space smuggler was Richard Jun, who gave her a more punkish look. Here are the two first pages of “The Prince.” Currently it is going to be reprinted in an issue of our friend Toddy Jones’ black and white comic anthology called WICKED AWESOME TALES. Thing is Todd has gotten artist Jolyon Yates to do a color cover featuring our gal.

And we love it. There is a fourth Captain Jain Marlee completed script called “The Lost World” but it has yet to be drawn. Stay tuned. We’ll keep you posted.

Last weekend the Air Chief returned to Scott’s Bluff Nebraska for the 4th Annual High Plains Mini-Mall comic day. Hosted and put on by my friend Mathew Rhys.  That’s us (0n the left) chatting about comics with Matt during the show.  Pix on the right is me at my table during a quiet moment. As ever it was a really fun day and thanks to all the great folks of Scott’s Bluff who stop by to say hi and picked up a few comics and pulps.

While out in a Chicago area bookstore two of Airship 27’s finest pulp writers shared a store signing event. Upper left is new first time novelist George Tackes and upper right is veteran pulp scribe and co-creator of the hero Doc Atlas, Michael Black. We’re told the event was a huge success. Way go to new pulp writers!

And that’s all for this week, Loyal Airmen. As ever thanks for stopping by and we’ll see you back here next week.

Ron – Over & Out!!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, a few weeks ago we learned that Amazon would be making hardback editions available to publishers like Airship 27 Production. Deciding to give this a try, Art Director Rob Davis suggested we combine the first two Brother Bones anthologies.

“Brother Bones – The Undead Avenger” & “Brother Bones – Tapestry of Blood,” and combined them into a large size omnibus that will include a total of 12 stories, each illustrated by Rob. He then strongly suggested we approach artist Adam Shaw to do the cover. Adam signed on and this past week turned in his wrap-around cover which is amazing and we can’t wait to show it to you. Stay tuned Loyal Airmen this is going to be one terrific package.

And now we’re happy to announce the release of our latest Airship 27 title – MYSTERY MEN (  & Women ) Vol 7 – This one features stories by Teel James Glenn, Curtis Fernlund, Harding McFadden with  Eleanor Hawkins and Greg Hatcher. Greg’s Dr. Fixit character nabbing the cover spot by artist Adam Shaw with our own Rob Davis providing the interior illustrations. As always it is available now at Amazon in paperback and soon on Kindle. As ever, Loyal Airmen, thanks for your continued support.

And lastly we have to end this week’s Flight Log on a sad note. This past week we lost another one of our pulp colleagues, Patrick Cranford.  Patrick and his brother Scott were regular fixtures in the pulp community and among the first to welcome the Air Chief, Rob & Airship 27. He’d been ill recently and hospitalized but none of us realized how serious matters were. Patrick was a fun loving, good natured soul and he will be sorely missed. Rest in peace, my friend. Our deepest condolences to Scott and all the Cranford family.

Ron – Over & out!