Greetings Loyal Airmen, as most of you know the Air Chief meets once a month with a group of comic fans and professionals here in Fort Collins, CO once a month. Many of our group are so talented. One such is custom toy maker Jesse Bonavazi. Earlier today, at our June hook up, he surprised the Air Chief with three figures he’d been secretly working on.

Here’s one of Brother Bones, the Undead Avenger, with twin .45s.

And here’s the gorilla mobster, Harry Beest, with his favorite machine gun.

And not to be left out was our own Mr. Jigsaw, man of a thousand parts.

And here’s Jesse withe the Air Chief. We have the coolest friends in the whole world. Now to find a special place on my shelves with these amazing new toys.

In other exciting news, we’ve just released volume # 5 DANSEUSE, in writer Nancy Hansen’s amazing pirate saga Jezebel Johnston. In this one Jez finds herself aboard a French ship raid off the Barbary Coast.  Art Director Rob Davis handles the wonderful interior illustrations, while Pulp Factory Award winning artist Ted Hammond turns in his second cover for this series; which we love. As ever the book is available at Amazon in both paperback and on Kindle.

And for those of you Loyal Airmen who may have come in late, we actually collected the first four Jezebel Johnstone novels into one big omnibus volley called BIRTH OF A BUCCANEER and it too is available at Amazon.  We aim to please.

And there you have it for this week, Loyal Airmen.  Note there will be no new Flight Log on the 14th of this month as Valerie and the Air Chief will be on vacation back in New England for a visit with friends and family. But rest assured, we’ll see you all back here on the 21st. Till then, be well and enjoy the summer.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, we are writing this the day after Memorial Day. We hope all of you Loyal Airmen not only had a wonderful holiday weekend, but also, in your private ways took time out to thank in prayers, all Americans who fought in died in all wars to keep our great country free. Their sacrifices must never ever be forgotten and all of must strive every day to keep this land free for future generations. We owe them that much.

And while the long weekend meant time off for many people, some of the amazing artist the Air Chief is working with these days just kept on creating.  Above is a great panel showing Navajo shaman Eddie Nightsky, one of the characters from JIN & TONIK, as developed by the Air Chief and artist creator Cesar Feliciano.

Meanwhile Jim O’Riley was working on “roughs” from our Brother Bones graphic novel script. Artists do up these roughs so as to see what the strengths and weaknesses are inherent in each page. Then learning that, they adapt the final pages to reflect the best compositions. Jim’s plan is to do “roughs” for ALL 130 pgs before he begins the final artwork. Now that’s dedication to one’s craft.

Every Wed afternoon the Air Chief gets together with pals Todd Jones and James Gaubatz.  Wel this week, James surprised both Todd and the Air Chief with new hats carrying the Wicked Awesome Tales logo embroidered on them. This is the comic title Todd and James produced together and the Air Chief has contributed to. Thus far they have eleven issues out.  Hats are spiffy and nice addition to our hat collection.

Finally, a few weeks ago, we showed off an amazing piece of artwork done by our pal Cesar Feliciano of a Pirate Queen. Cesar is such a gifted artist. Well he’s also got a truly generous heart because upon reading my praise of this piece, he went and packaged it up and sent it to us as a gift. Wow. We are going to need to get it matted and put up somewhere in the office. The Air Chief is blessed with such amazing friends.

Ron – Over & Out!!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, we have some really good news to share with you this week. So let’s get to it. Below is part of the Official Press Released we put out.

REDBUD STUDIO presents

BROTHER BONES – The Beginning

Redbud Studio’s Managing Editor and Publisher, Rob Davis is thrilled to announce his studio will soon begin production on the first ever Brother Bones graphic novel by New Pulp writer Ron Fortier.

One of the most popular fictional figures in New Pulp, the character debut years ago from Airship 27 Productions in a collection of seven stories by Fortier, “Brother Bones – The Undead Avenger.” It was then followed up with a full length novel by Roman Leary, “Brother Bones – Six Days of the Dragon.” Fortier then completed two additional collections. “Brother Bones – Tapestry of Blood” and “Brother Bones – City of Lost Souls.” In that time several short Brother Bones strips were offered.  “Needle Justice,” was a short 8 pg tale with art by Joe Arnold and has appeared in various black and white comic anthologies.  “Bullets of Jude” was a 24 pg single from Redbud with art by John Polacek.

Whereas the actual origin of the character was only related in the first book collection. Something Fortier had hoped to change and so he wrote a 130 pg graphic novel that does just that. The challenge was finding the right artist to bring that story to visual life. “In the end, I decided to put the word out on Facebook,” Fortier reports. “My hope was if I cast a wide enough net, someone out there would either respond or connect me with an artist.” A few days later, Florida based artist Cesar Feliciano, suggested to Fortier that he contact New York artist Jim O’Riley. After exchanging a few e-mails, O’Riley agreed to take on the project.

O’Riley will pencil and ink the Fortier’s script while Redbud Studio head, Rob Davis will letter and edit. Once done, the studio will print the book via Amazon.

And there you have it Loyal Airmen. To say we are thrilled and excited about this would be a huge understatement. Finding Jim was nothing less to us than a true blessing from God. Beside the image of the Bones brother twins, Jim also turned in a sketch of some of the cast which appear in the story. We’re showing off that piece here for the very first time. Jim also hopes to do video updates as he works through the script. At 130 pgs, it will be interesting to see how long till completion. As ever we’ll happily keep you Loyal Airmen posted right here.

On another track, though somewhat related, is the subject of those amazing cos-players who come to our shows dressed up like fiction characters. Some of their costumes are so elaborate and spot-on. Obviously seeing them over the years had made us wonder what it would be like to see someone attired as one of our own creations.

We would simply flip if we saw someone at a future con dressed up as Mr. Jigsaw, Brother Bones or the Black Lion. Now that would be so cool.  Who knows, maybe some day.

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

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, this week’s Flight Log covers a wide variety of topics so let’s get started.

When editor Christopher Sequeira asked how we wished to be paid for my Sherlock Holmes story now in the new anthology, “Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Was Not,” we asked if instead of cash, we be paid in copies. This afternoon two hernia inducing boxes were waiting for us at the post office. Oh yeah!! The Air Chief now has lots of copies and can’t wait to put them out on our table at the rest of the cons we will be appearing at this year. Am so damn proud of this book. Thanks again, Chris.

One of the things we love to do here is every so often showcase some really wonderful artwork by our comics colleagues. Above are two really wonderful pieces. The dinosaur is by Jeff Slemons, our neighbor here in Fort Collins, who is doing a series of them for a project. If you are on Facebook go to his page and check out a few others. While the other is of a beautiful pirate queen as done by my friend (and partner) Cesar Feliciano of Florida. Cesar is the talented the Air Chief is doing the new graphic novel series, JIN & TONIK with. We thought you’d enjoy seeing these.

And now for more great news that just arrived yesterday. The new Johnny Dollar anthology edited by Tommy Hancock was just released by Moonstone Books. Johnny Dollar was a radio program during the golden age of radio and Dollar was an investigator who worked for insurance companies. Several (and I do mean several) years ago, Tommy approached us about writing a story for this collection. After listening to several episodes of the actual radio melodrama on the internet, the Air Chief came up with a plot and wrote a story that was ultimately accepted for the book. Then came many years of waiting for all kinds of reasons. Still Tommy and we writers hung in there always having faith the book would eventually see the light of day. And now it has, Loyal Airmen. But you can only purchase it at the Moonstone book site on-line. The link is below.  There are two editions. The softcover (above to the left) features a cover by Doug Klauba, while the more expensive hardcover features a cover by Adam Shaw (above at right) with a bonus Johnny Dollar 48 pg comic strip adventure. Anyway, that now makes two of our short stories appearing within months of each other. Turning out to be a good year.

Moonstone link (http://moonstonebooks.com/shop/category.aspx?catid=98&fbclid=IwAR2qGWm1OTepIXzh-x20rvNvQ5LC1GBdIjihUQKdvHlttiSuvDPSQHlM6_U)

And there you have this week’s Flight Log, Loyal Airmen.  As ever thanks for stopping by.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen. So here we were fresh from our great time the Denver Comicfest when the very next Saturday saw us once again joining the fun for Free Comic Book Day at Gryphons Games & Comics here in Fort Collins. The Air Chief has been part of this event at this store since moving here nine years ago. And as ever it was one super fun day.  We took a few pictures and borrowed a few others for you to get a glimpse.

Events like this requiring lots of hard work and nobody works harder than shop owner Liana Sanders and her husband Sherman. She was right there first thing Sat. greeting all the excited customers, handing out pins and organizing a colorful group of knightly cos-players.

Once the doors were open, fans entered single file, grabbed some very cool “free” comics and then proceeded into the store’s main rooms to check out all the goodies and meet some of the creators who were on hand to help make the day truly special.

At upper left is artist Ben Mikklesen, while at right writer James Powell was a first timer at this event, now that his horror title is being published by IDW. Here he’s talking to artist amigo, Abe Akins.

Around the corner we had artist Tom Webster, at upper left, with one of the staff at the shop. Then the photo to the right shows artist Laurissa Hughes talking to young fans. Laurissa and her partner drove all the way up from Denver to do this show with us.

And here’s Abe at his own table talking to a local fan and his daughter, while back by the front entrance, artist Lee Oaks and the Air Chief took a second to pose for the camera. Behind us is our colorful banner.

As ever our table was overflowing with comics like our popular Mr.Jigsaw Man of a Thousand Parts series, and we also had some of our pulp titles to included Brother Bones the Undead Avenger. Here we are signing an issue of Mr. Jigsaw for a young fan while Lee’s son, Jonas, takes a second to look at all the covers on our banner.

We so love meeting young boys and girls whose parents encourage them to read. It is that kind of guidance and support that will enrich their lives. And we need to acknowledge the one person responsible for coordinating all us writers and artists in appearing at the shop was my Official Protege, writer Todd Jones. Beside all the other activities going on that day, Todd organized a madcap contest called The Draw Off, where every creator, be it writer or artist, had to draw vs another creator….much like pictionary, only on a larger scale. Above, Todd and the Air Chief take suggestions from the audience as to what we should draw…or at least attempt to draw.

First such challenge was to draw an armor wearing goat…which resulted in a draw by the show of hands. So we went into a second round to draw a merged penguin & ostrich, to which Todd easily won. Leaving the Air Chief laughing to the point of tears.

As the draw off continued, Todd squared off against Ben.  Then it was Lee’s time to take up the gauntlet.

In the end the final battle was between Nat Perez and a talented young lady, while Todd continued to orchestrate the contest. Meanwhile, during a rare lull, Lee and the Air Chief had a few minutes to get caught up on what we’ve been up since we last saw each other.

Now one of the most adorable participants to the event was three month old, Henry Herndon, son of local artist Jeff Herndon and his wife Jamie. Honestly, little Henry was such a good baby all day long, but by mid-afternoon, in his mother’s arms, he was gonzo, learning what all of us have learned, FDBD days are fun…but also exhausting. Still we can’t wait till it rolls around next year. The Air Chief hopes all you Loyal Airmen had similar experiences where ever you enjoyed the day.

Earlier this year, Canadian artist Ted Hammond won the Pulp Factory Award for Best Pulp Cover of 2018. The cover was to Airship 27 Productions’ “Jezebel Johnston – Vol 4, Mourning Star” by Nancy Hansen. We are now thrilled to announce that Ted has signed on to do the cover to the 5^th book in the series, “Jezebel Johnston – Vol 5, Danseuse” currently in production.  Here Ted shows off his award. Once again our congratulations to him and all the PFA winners.

And there you have this week’s Flight Log, Loyal Airmen. As ever thanks for stopping by.

Ron – Over & Out!

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!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, as you are reading this Flight Log, the Air Chief and Valerie are packing for our trip down to Denver and the Denver Comicfest held at the Marriott Hotel Tech Center were we will be guest all weekend. If any of you Loyal Airmen are in the area, please do stop by and say hi.

A few weeks back the Air Chief informed you about the Sherlock Holmes we’d penned for a new anthology edited by Australian Editor Christopher Sequeira. Three years ago Chris came to us with the idea of doing an anthology that would pair the Great Detective with other companions other then the familiar Dr. Watson. Now as most of you Loyal Airmen are well aware, in the Arthur Conan Doyle stories, Watson was the narrator thus most of the classic Sherlock Holmes pastiches, included those published by Airship 27 Productions, have the doctor in that role and it behooves and would-be Holmes writer to know how to capture Watson’s voice. Something sadly the Air Chief simply cannot do. Which is why when asked by fans why we hadn’t written Holmes, our answer was always the same. “We simply cannot do Watson’s voice.”  Ergo Chris’s anthology would circumnavigate that obstacle for us. As we didn’t have to employ the good doctor, we were given carte blanche to do whatever we chose.

Thus did the Air Chief come up with an alternate world vision wherein America never broke away from England and remained loyal colonies having been granted actual representation in the House of Lords & Common. Thus we come to the Victorian Age in Boston where we find Inspector Sherlock Holmes hunting a serial killer and aided by Dr. Amelia Van Helsing, daughter of the famous Dr. Abraham Van Helsing who years earlier had defeated the monster vampire Dracula.  Amelia is an expert on secret cults and ancient rituals. She’s also a deadly martial artist. Together they are on the hunt…oh…and here’s the most important element. She doesn’t tell us the story, no, it is our  American Sherlock Holmes who narrates “The Locked Cell Murder.” We hope that little tease will be enough to get you Loyal Airmen to pick up a copy of SHERLOCK HOLMES AND DOCTOR WHAT NOT when it is released internationally in June. We had so much fun writing our story and very much want to share it with all of you.

To all our Brother Bones fans, some news. We are currently putting together a new anthology to be called TALES OF CAPE NOIRE, that being the fictional city in which the Undead Avenger operates.  Writers Drew Meyers, Andy Fix and Fred Adams Jr. are all going to write a story featuring a character from the series other than Brother Bones. It’s a way to spotlight such colorful figures as Lt. Dan Rains, Harry Beast and Sister Blood. Then the Air Chief will wrap up the package with a brand new Brother Bones tale. With fingers crossed we hope to have this out by winter.

Finally Airship 27 Productions is thrilled to present the sixth entry in the children’s book series of Barry Baskerville Boy Detective. In “Barry Baskerville & The Buried Treasure,” Barry’s father inherits a country dairy farm from a deceased uncle. On preparing to travel to the farm, they uncover a letter which tells of a buried treasure on the land and clues on how to uncover it. Naturally Barry is immediately on the hunt in this his latest adventure. Created and written by Richard Kellogg and profusely illustrated by artist Gary Kato, this sixth chapter is another great addition sure to please Barry’s growing audience of fans. Available as ever from Amazon.

And there you have it for this week, Loyal Airmen. See you back here next Friday.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, well the Air Chief is home safe, and a bit tired, from this year’s Windy City Pulp & Paper Convention in Chicago. As ever the show was fantastic and we tip our pulp fedoras to promoters Doug Ellis & John Gunnison for another fantastic weekend. Even Mother Nature’s unexpected Sunday snowstorm couldn’t dampen attendees spirits. During the course of the weekend the Air Chief snapped almost thirty pictures so as to share the experience with all you Loyal Airmen. You are about to see 27 of these, starting with the two above. The con in full swing.

Amazingly enough the promoters had two of the event room walls taken down to expand the vendors main hall and it was huge. Allowing for a whole lot more vendors to sign on and show off their wares.

Of course in the middle of all this wild goings-on were our two Airship 27 tables. The shot about is of Chief Engineer Rob Davis shortly after everything was put up and on display. We later recruited a friend across the aisle to snap a shot of the Air Chief in there as well. As you can clearly see, our tables were filled with all our great Airship 27 Productions pulp titles. And we are happy to report by the weekend’s finale, a whole lot of them were sold.

Of course one of the biggest reasons we do this show every year is to hook up with all our pals. A treat for us was in having Brooklyn based writer pal Derrick Ferguson at the show for the very first time. The photo on left above is of Derrick with Pro Se publisher Tommy Hancock (in the middle) and writer Jim Doherty (on the right). Later Rob took the one on the left as the Air Chief made sure to get one with his dear friend. Sadly Derrick could only be with us Friday, but trust us, he made the most of his day at Windy City.

Another welcome face was that of young writer Dexter Fabi. Dexter came to the show last year, introduced himself to us, and said he wanted to write for Airship 27. After exchanging contact information, Dexter began sending us script and to date we’ve published several of his fine stories. And per this get-together, Dexter has promised us lots more of his wonderful work in the future.

One of the best traditions of Windy City is that after the show on Friday night, the New Pulp crew heads over to the Fudruckers Hambuger join and this year was no exception. While enjoying our dinner, writer Van Plexico pulled out his cell-phone and snapped this crazy selfie of the crew. Going around the clock starting on the left, we have Gordon Dymowski, Rob almost totally hidden behind him. Then Tommy Hancock. The fellow in the background middle is Gene Moyers, then the Air Chief in his baseball cap, followed by Aubrey Stephens, Derrick Ferguson and finally Van himself. Honestly, getting together with this bunch is just too much.

With dinner over, we all headed back to the convention for the annual Pulp Factory Awards Presentations. This year our pal Derrick whipped out his cell-phone and actually video recorded the entire presentation. That video is posted on one of his pages and you can cut and paste this link to see it completely.

(https://fergusonink.com/2019/04/13/dispatches-from-windy-city-3-the-pulp-factory-awards/?fbclid=IwAR3Hom3i05xTjeixOkiKr9KN8wjczQrDrAG-XYiS0cyt1mR-b5jN2BYDtqA)

Above is writer Gordon Dymowski who won for Best Short Story – Knights of the Silver Cross which appeared in Pro Se Productions – 50s Western Roundup.

Winner for Best Pulp Novel was Van Allen Plexico for his crime thriller – Vegas Heist from White Rocket Books. And here’s a shot of him and Gordon together.

Winner for the Best Pulp Anthology went to Pro Se Productions’ Tales of the Interstellar Bartenders Guild from an idea by Aubrey Stephens (at left) and edited by Tommy Hancock (at right.) Then it was time to celebrate our two artists. Ed Catto won for Best Interior Illustrations and Ted Hammond for Best Pulp Cover.

To the left above is one of Ed’s illustrations from the novel The Adventures of Captain Graves by Thomas McNulsty and to the right is the cover by Ted of Nancy Hansen’s Jezebel Johnston – Mourning Star.  Both books from Airship 27 Productions. And so we congratulate all of this year’s winners and look forward to what new stories and art will emerge throughout 2019.

With awards handed out and the event concluded, Saturday saw us returning to the fun of getting together with old friends. Pro Se posted their anthology award at their table for all to see, while pulp writers extraordinaire hooked up like the photo on the left; with Gene Moyers, Fred Adams Jr. and Van Allen Plexico.

At top left is writer Doc Dwight Decker and the Air Chief, while at right, showing off their Samson like locks, are Rob and artist Mark Wheatley.

At left is veteran publisher Tony Tolin and the Air Chief.  Then we have to the right, writers Greg Gick, the Air Chief and writer Michael Black.

At left, western author Thomas McNulty stopped by the Airship 27 tables, and on Sunday we snapped the pix to the right featuring our con neighbor, and good pal, artist Doug Klauba with the Air Chief.

Sundays at the con are devoted to New Pulp and this year featured three truly amazing panels.  Starting the ball rolling at top left was Christopher Paul Carey’s talk featuring the coming plans for the Burroughs Inc. publication. Christ was recently hired as their new Managing Editor and has great things plans for the many characters created by the amazing Edgar Rice Burroughs. We do not know the gentlemen to Chris’ left, but after him you had artists Mark Wheatley and Doug Klauba, both who will be doing art for the books. And at far right was Mr. Garcia, a pulp historian and book designer.

After that panel, there was the one on Pulps in the Movies, photo to the right. Seated left to right we have writers Daze Cozort, Tommy Hancock (who also served as moderator) Andy Fix and Dexter Fabi.

And the last panel was Pulps as Bestsellers, left to right are writers David C. Smith, Fred Adams Jr, Michael Black and Gordon Dymowski who served as moderator.  All three panels were truly amazing and much fun for the folks lucky enough to attend.

And that Loyal Airmen wrapped up this year’s truly awesome Windy City. Again both the Air Chief and Chief Engineer Rob Davis extend our thanks to everyone who made the show so damn amazing. We’ve so many wonderful memories to cherish as we go through 2019 and look forward to next year’s show. Hoping lots more of you Loyal Airmen will make the effort to join us. Trust us, you’ll never regret it.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, as you are reading these words, the Air Chief and partner Rob Davis, are once again in Chicago setting up the Airship 27 Productions tables at the Windy City Pulp & Paper Con. This is one of the finest conventions put on today and we always have such a great time there visiting with old friends, and meeting new ones. Hopefully many of your Loyal Airmen will be on hand to join us as well.

Last Friday night, Valerie and the Air Chief had the sheer delight of seeing Jay Leno at the Lincoln Center here in Fort Collins. For an hour and a half he kept us and the rest of the packed house laughing uproariously. The King of Comedy easily showed why he is still the Master, and all the current hosts of late night shows are such pale imitations. He skewered Obama and Trump and the Clintons equally, took terrific punches at Political Correctness and pretty much left us all going home much happier than when we first entered the theater. Laughter is the best medicine and it is truly sad with what we are left with on today’s shows. Long Live the King!!

Meanwhile artist Cesar Feliciano continues to do up sketches of Jin & Tonik, the two heroes of our proposed graphic novel series which he hopes to begin drawing in mid-summer. To date the Air Chief has written the first two chapters in this mega action-adventure saga and they total 80 pages. Cesar tells us he has loose laid out the first 60. Wow. As ever we’ll keep you posted when the on-line funding campaign begins to make this project a reality.

Artist Gary Kato just turned in all 34 color illustrations for BARRY BASKERVILLE & THE BURIED TREASURE. This is the 6th entry in our children’s book series featuring Barry Baskerville, the boy who wants to grow up to be Sherlock Holmes. In this piece, the Air Chief thought he was greeting Art Director Rob Davis. With luck, we’ll have this book assembled and out shortly after we come home from the Windy City Pulp & Paper Con.

And that’s it for this go round, Loyal Airmen.  Next week we’ll have the results of the Pulp Factory Awards winners and hopefully some fun photos of the con. Till then, have a good weekend and see you back here next Friday.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greeting Loyal Airmen, it has been a while since we brought you any new updates on our third issue of Front Range Tales. As you’ll recall, this is the comic series completely written by our writing students at the Front Range Community College. Last winter we wrapped up our third ten-week class and each of our seven student turned in their six-page scripts. The Air Chief then sent them off to seven professional artist to illustrate. To date five have been completed and we are awaiting the last two strips to put the comic together.

Above is a page from Terry Crowley’s sci-fi story as illustrated by fellow student, and amazing artist, Zane DeGaine. When the Air Chief reported to the class that finding seven pro artist to do these strips  (for free) would be difficult, Zane told me after class that he would gladly volunteer to draw one of those stories.  Meaning, not only would he write a script himself, he would also draw one written by one of his classmates. And that’s who Zane DeGaine is, a truly wonderful, kind and super talented fellow. His work for Terry’s story is nothing short of stunning and we should be see it completed by the end of the week. In the meanwhile, we need to bug artist Sivlestre Szilagyi to finish his tale…the one that Zane wrote.  We’ll keep you posted.

One of the things the Air Chief has always loved about the classic pulps were the truly fantastic villains put forth in those yellowed pages. Perhaps none so representative of the “dastardly bad-guy” as Paul Ernst’s creation, Doctor Satan. Ernst invented Satan as an assignment from the editor of Weird Tales who thought having an on-going series of such a character would help sales. And so along comes the red-clad, horned helmet wearing menace who uses both science and dark magic to threaten society.  Of course Ernst also gave us the dashing occult Detective Ascott Keane to combat the red-scourge. In the end, fans, use to the diversity of stories in each of the popular magazine, cried long and loud in their displeasure and after only a few tales, Doctor Satan was no more. No more, that is until the advent of New Pulp.

Having discovered Doctor Satan via a small reprint booklet published by the late author and pulp historian, Robert Weinberg, we convinced New York fantasy & horror writer Gordon Linzner to join us in writing a brand new Doctor Satan wherein he battles the Moon Man; another classic character for the pulps only this one a hero. The end result, first pen almost fifteen years ago, was the novella THE HOUNDS OF HELL. When Rob Davis and the Air Chief kicked off Airship 27 Productions, it became one of our very first titles. One of the first fans of that effort was our colleague writer Barry Reese. Barry also took a shine to Doctor Satan and soon added him to his own pulp series featuring the Peregrine.  He would do so several times and each new story a gem. Of course we were not unaware of these stories and often thought about some day writing the character again. That opportunity finally arrived last year when we were putting together the latest collection of Brother Bones stories. A germ of an idea surfaced wherein Dr. Bugosi, the mad scientist of Cape Noire, wanted to build/clone a superman who would be able to defeat the undead avenger. To do so he needed not only scientific know-how, but a little arcane magic as well. Thus he recruits none other than the mysterious Doctor Satan. Writing the story that became “The Synthetic Man” was a hoot from start to finish as it was pretty much like old-home-week for the Air Chief. And reuniting with this legendary villain a “hellish” delight.  Both “The Hounds of Hell” and “Brother Bones – City of Lost Soul” are available at Amazon. If you’ve never read either, maybe now is the time to do so.

File this under seeing double. Jamie Bonjour (on right above) recently returned home after doing missionary work in South America. While there she met a gentlemen who reminded her totally of the Air Chief.  Hmm, maybe our stunt double, you think? They say all of us have a look-alike in this world. Obviously this fine fellow is one of mine.

Finally, we’re going to end this week with a western illustration by artist Jeff Sherwood.  Jeff heard we at Airship 27 Productions are always on the hunt for new illustrators and approached the Air Chief a little while ago saying he’d be interested in working for us. As we are looking to get another volume of “Masked Rider – Tales of the Wild West” into production, we asked Jeff to do us a cowboy sketch and here it is. Needless to say, that piece won us over and Jeff is now working the actual illustrations for that book.

And there you have it for this week, Loyal Airmen.  As ever, thanks so much for stopping by.

Ron – Over & Out!