Greetings Loyal Airmen. As most of you dog owners already know, puppies grow super fast and such as been the case with our golden lab, Boomer.

As you can see from the photo above, he’s getting to be a big boy. And of course as you’d imagined, he’s really spoiled around here. Ha.

CRIMSON NUN ROUGHS

Much to my surprise and delight, artist Jesse Thomas sent me the roughs to the last 13 pages of The Crimson Nun #1. The Air Chief has looked at all of these closely and they are simply fantastic, totally the scenes as we envisioned while writing the script. Hang in there Loyal Airmen and fans of Antarctic Press we’ve got a winner coming your way.

THE LEGEND OF BASS REEVES

As most of you Loyal Airmen are already aware, Bass Reeves was the greatest lawman ever to operate out of the west during the post-Civil War era. He captured over 3,000 outlaws in a 30 yr career, was never wounded once, and survived several major gunfights. All of this took place in the badlands of what we now call Oklahoma. In a few months Bass’s story is coming to television in the form of a an 8 week series created and written by Taylor Sheridan, the fellow behind the popular series Yellowstone. So we thought to get you Loyal Airmen ready for looks to be a terrific western saga, we’d remind you that Airship 27 has been one of the biggest Bass Reeves boosters for over a decade and already in our catalog,we have five “Bass Reeves – Frontier Marshal” anthologies all still available at Amazon in paperback and on Kindle. And oh yeah, we are currently assembling Vol 6. Giddy up, cowboys..and cowgirls! Oh, and for the record, Bass Reeves was never the inspiration for the Lone Ranger. That was a lie put forth by a biographer of Reeves to sell more copies of his book.

A LOOK BACK AT BOSTON BOMBERS

Whereas we really didn’t have all that much new stuff to report on this week, we thought it might be fun to share with you Loyal Airmen to of the original covers for Volume One when printed by the late Caliber Press. Art by my Green Hornet pal Jeff Butler. As for Vol Two now in production, Rob Davis is drawing issue # 2 and the Air Chief is writing the script for issue # 3.  How long will the series be? Honestly don’t have an answer save, as long as it tells us to tell the entire story. Stay tuned.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, starting this week, the Air Chief wants to point you to a truly great graphic novel written by a good friend of ours.

SPACE CORPS by writer Bryan Richmond and artist Gannon Beck is one of the best graphic novel we’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. It is a science fiction war book that is both exciting and thriller while at the same thoughtful and sensitive to the portrayal of the soldiers caught in bloody combat. As a veteran, we found the scenes of Alien Boot Camp so vivid and re-mindful of the Basic Training 8 weeks of hell we  endured at Fort Dix, New Jersey back in 1065. Bryan Richmond is a terrific writer. At the same time Gannon Beck’s pages are simply beautiful and powerful. Wisely using limited panels, he explodes the figures off the page in the same dramatic vein of an early Jack Kirby. Honestly, if you like good comics, you need to pick those one up. Available at Amazon.

FROM COVER TO TOY FIGURES

Pal Brian K. Morris brought this to our attention. One of his pals, Matthew MadCelt Jackson is a whiz a making Forge figures and he went and did one inspired by the cover of our latest volume of “Mystery Men (& Women” which features Mark Vander Zanden’s Killdevil. We we were blown away by it and had to share it with all of you Loyal Airmen.

THE CRIMSON NUN

Artist Jesse Thomas continues to turn in new pages for our CRIMSON NUN # 1 and they are so beautiful. Each new one blows me away. Series like this and JIN & TONIK are why the Air Chief continues to love writing comics.

JIN & TONIK

Speaking of JIN & TONIK, here’s a really awesome piece artist Cesar Feliciano whipped up a while ago that we really loved. Don’t recall if we shared it before, but even we did, it’s worth showing off again.

And that’s it for this week, Loyal Airmen. A short Flight Log, but trust me lots of projects are coming down the road and we’ll soon be promoting them right here. As ever, thanks for stopping by.

Ron (Over & Out!)

Greetings Loyal Airmen, as discussed last Flight Log, Valerie and the Air Chief attended this year’s FoCo, i.e. the Fort Collins Comic Con and we had a blast. Here are few shots we took while there.

At the top tier are several pix we took from the second floor landing. In the photo (top left) you can just see Valerie by herself at our tables. So only fitting the bottom tier has a better close up of the two of us. We were in row E and happily alongside lots of our friends. To our immediate left was our dear friend, and one of my former writing students, artist Gabriella Saenz. She is a truly gifted young lady now in her first year of college and her booth was swamped with art fans the entire con. Way to go, Gaby!!

To Gaby’s left was writer (and another former student) Aaron Powers.  Aaron’s a great guy and awesome writer. He even did some work for Airship 27. To his left were the team of Byran Richardson (at left) a comics writer, and Jesse Bonafazi, (to right with Bird) of Blind Dog Custom Action Figures.  Jesse is also an artist and teaches cartooning. Seated between and he Byran is one of Jessi’s talented students.

Another guest at the show was artist Joe Arnold, who has done some amazing work in recent years including illustration Mike Baron’s terrific graphic novel, “Thin Blue Line.” Joe is already at work on a sequel to it…while at the same time doing preliminary art for a 130 pg Brother Bones graphic novel, which has the Air Chief wound for sound. As it turns out, our copies of the very first Brother Bones title (above right..and still available at Amazon Loyal Airmen) was our biggest seller at this show.

On Sunday afternoon comic creator Guy Davis, stopped by the table to show off his latest treasure presented to him by a fan. Guy writes a science fiction comic series which is fantastic, very much in the Star Trek vein, of which he is a huge fan. So in his comic, there are lots of space ships including the one flown by his characters and early on Guy actually drew up a schematic of the ship and published it in one of his issues. Lo and behold, a fan came to his table yesterday and handed him that very schematic etches on piece of aluminum. Guy was overjoyed, as any creator would be, and brought it over to show Valerie and the Air Chief. This photo doesn’t do the piece justice. Naturally Guy’s plan are have it carefully framed and put up in his office. You got to love fans.  And speaking of such, for the first time ever, we had a cos-player show up as the one and only Popeye. Having written that character way at the start of our career, we had to take a pix with this enthusiastic young fellow. You’ll note he was carrying a can of spinach in his hands…Popeye is already ready for action.

As you can see the show was another hit and we want to thank Todd Jones & Nick Armstrong for the hard work they put in all year to make this such a wonderful event for our town.

THE LAST YEAR

Our two youngest grand kids are both entering the last year of a specific chapter in their lives. Above left is grandson Logan, who in now in his senior year of high school. Logan’s ambition is to some day be a music teacher. While his older sister Taryn (above right) is seen in this pix set up her room ready to begin her senior year of studies at the University of New Hampshire. Though not set in stone, Taryn has talked about psychology as a future career path. Valerie and the Air Chief think of them daily and wish them all the best as they launch into this new school year.

BOSTON BOMBERS Vol 2 # 1

Another good seller at the show was the first issue of The Boston Bombers Vol 2 – While Valerie and the Air Chief was there, artist Rob Davis back in Missouri was busy at work on the next page for issue # 2. We were blown away when we saw it. Rob’s truly knocking this one out of the park. And the Air Chief had better hustling to write issue # 3. Ha.

AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTION – COMING NEXT!

Happy to announce the third volume of MARS McCOY – Space Ranger Vol 3 is nearing completion at Airship 27 Production. Vol 3 will feature stories by John Bear Ross, Wayne Carey, Robert J. Mendenhall and Russ Anderson. Meanwhile you can still grab volumes one and two (seen above) at Amazon.

JIN & TONIK

Finally artist Cesar Feliciano did up this great new Jin & Tonik piece that he says will be an alternate cover for book # 1 one when it is completed. We can’t wait. Colorist Matt Webb is still hard a work finishing the colors to that volume. It’s going to look amazing!

And there you have it for this week, Loyal Airmen. As ever, thanks so much for stopping by. Be well, stay safe and God Bless.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, later this afternoon Valerie and the Air Chief will be in Old Town, Fort Collins, at the Northsiade Aslan Community Center to set up our tables for this year’s Fort Collins, Comic Con. As you can see from the media ad above (left).  We hope to see many of our Loyal Airmen from both Colorado and neighboring Wyoming there. We will be found at Tables E-6 and E-7 with lots of goodies both pulps and comics.  Here’s a sample.

And those are just some of the comics. We’ll also have quite a few pulps as well.

So as you can see, Loyal Airmen, lots of good stuff. Again hope to see you there.

MYSTERY MEN (& Women) Vol 9

A few weeks ago we told you our latest volume of “Mystery Men (& Women)” was nearing completion and voila, it is now on sale at Amazon. Once again our wonderful showcase series features four tales of four brand new pulp heroes. First we have Jaime Ramos’ Steelgrave, then Jonathan Sweet’s Black Wraith, followed by Mark Allen Van’s new Killdevil tale. Wrapping it all up is Jarrett Mazza’s first work for Airship 27 and the creation of his character The Zig-Zag Man. Art Director Rob Davis provides all the interior illustrations and that great colorful Killdevil cover above. The book is now available at Amazon in paperback and soon on Kindle. As ever Loyal Airmen, thanks so much for your continued support.

AN IDEA FOR NETFLIX

The Air Chief was just thinking the other on how good actor Henry Cavill was in playing Sherlock Holmes in the two made for Netflix Enola Holmes movies. Makes one wonder why no smart producer hasn’t approached him about doing an actual Sherlock Holmes series for the streaming outfit? Mentioned this on FB and the response from friends and colleagues was overwhelmingly in support of the concept. So come on, Netflix. Make it happen.

And that’s it for this week, Loyal Airmen. Tomorrow and Sunday will find Valerie and the Air Chief having fun at the annual Fort Collins Comic Con. Hope to see many of your Loyal Airmen there.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen and welcome to this week’s Flight Log.  Right out of the gate we’ve some truly wonderful comic artwork to share with you.

THE CRIMSON NUN

Are three completed pages by artist Jesse Thomas who is doing pencils, inks and colors. When the first book, which will contain 22 pgs, has been completed then it will be handed off to artist/Mike Belcher who will letter the issue. Then it’s off to Ben Dunn for publication via his Antarctic Press. Saying the Air Chief is excited by seeing these beautiful pages would be a gross understatement.

BOOMER GETS BIGGER

Wanted to also show our latest family member, Boomer, is doing well. The little guy is growing wicked fast, with all the love and care we are heaping on him. All of us here think he’s the best and he truly brightens our days.

JIN & TONIK

Finally super colorist Matt Webb continues to add his magnificent colors to the pages of JIN & TONIK # 1, truly enhancing artist Cesar Feliciano’s beautiful artwork.  Can’t wait to see this issue finished and in your hands, Loyal Airmen.

And that’s it for this week, Loyal Airmen. Yeah, a short Flight Log, but the Air Chief is bus getting his comics and pulps ready for the Fort Collins Comic Con which happens next weekend, Sat Aug 26th and Sunday Aug 27th.  Looks to be another fun show. But more on that next Friday morning. For now, thanks for stopping by. Stay well and be good.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, it it beginning to look like our newest Airship 27 Production release will be “Mystery Men (& Women) Vol 9.” As most of you know that’s or showcase anthology wherein our writers get to create their own original, brand new pulp heroes. Each volume features four such new characters. Volume 9 is now exception and here they are thanks to these beautiful drawings by Rob Davis who is the regular illustrator on this series and will also being doing the cover to this one.

So here they are. Top tier, left to right – STEELGRAVE by Jamie Ramos. BLACK WRAITH by Jonathan Sweet.  KILLDEVIL by Mark Allen Van.  THE ZIG-ZAG MAN by Jarrett Mazza. Trust us, Loyal Airmen all four of these characters are great as are the stories they appear in. Stay tuned, we will certainly let you know when the book is finished and ready for you.

BEYOND THE STARS # 3

Artist Andrea Bormida continues his beautiful work on our “Beyond the Stars # 3″ Above you can see the development of Page 11 going left to right. First pencils, then inks and finally full colors. The next and final step is the lettering provided by artist Mike Belcher. We’re excited with this issue coming along so well. We think all you Loyal Airmen are going to love it.

ROO

Looking for a family friendly, brand new comic to support. Then we suggest all our Loyal Airmen check out the Adventures of Roo by my friends. Here’s the link, cut it out and pasted it on your search block. (https://www.fundmycomic.com/campaign/156/roo-1-back-to-the-rooture)

JIN & TONIK

After a long hiatus, super colorist Matt Webb has turned his completed colors on Pg 18 of JIN & TONIK the spy thriller comic by artist Cesar Feliciano and the Air Chief. As ever, Matt did a great job.

A NEW SISTER BLOOD STORY

As to what the Air Chief is writing these days; a brand new Sister Blood story for a new anthology being produced by my pal Adam Messer called “The Blood Runs Deep.” We will post most information in the weeks and months ahead. Plan is to have the book out sometime in May of 2024. Meanwhile, it is fun to get back to the world of Cape Noire and see what Sister Blood is up to again.

And there we have it for this week, Loyal Airmen. As always, thanks for stopping by. We truly appreciate your support in all our humble endeavors. See you all back here next Friday morning.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, we have a few fun bits to look at and discuss this week.  Let’s start with the Air Chief’s first try at teaching comics.

As most of you know over the last five years the Air Chief has taught a class on How To Write Comics & Graphics Novels at the Front Range Community College here in Fort Collins, CO.  What most of you don’t know is this course wasn’t the first time we tried our hand at teaching comic. Over twenty years ago, when we still lived in Somersworth, NH, we frequented a comic shop called the Paperback Bazaar managed by our good friend Ralph DiBarnido. Somehow Ralph got us in a discussion about possibly teaching such a class in the store’s back room twice a week and suggested we bring in artist Rich Woodall, another Somersworth resident, pal and creator of Johnny Raygun. After a couple of talks with Rich, we opted to team up and class the class over an eight week period with the Air Chief teaching the history of comics and how to pen a script while Rick would handle how to draw graphics. How successful was the class, well we taught it twice, the first time with three students and the last with two. Both Rich and the Air Chief worked well together and hopefully those five students learned some valuable things from us. It was fun, but really in the end had no future. So we let it go. Imagine twenty years later and here we are back at it again, in a college setting. The above add for the class was discovered by a good friend of us from Maine. Sure brought back a whole lot of nice memories. Thanks Larry.

AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTION

The Air Chief is happy to report two new Airship 27 pulp anthologies are moving down the production line smoothly. (Above at left) Artist Daniele Danbrenus Spezzani continues doing his wonderful illustrations for the new “Mars McCoy Space Ranger” anthology, Volume Three. Then Airship 27 Art Director Rob Davis is almost finished with his illustrations for our popular series “Mystery Men (& Women Vol 9.” (Above right is one of those illos.) Rob will also provide the cover when the entire book is finished. Both are titles we are so eager to get out there to you Loyal Airmen. Stay tuned.

CHARLES SAUNDERS & IMARO

One of our dearest friends was the late fantasy adventure writer, Charles Saunders. During his career, the most popular character Charles ever created was his warrior Imaro who lived and fought in an ancient mythological Africa. Charles wrote several books featuring the character and when passed away several years ago, he was in talks with a young Hollywood producer to bring Imaro’s adventures to the big screen. So imagine the Air Chief’s surprise when the other day, upon logging on to Facebook, we find the above drawing of Imaro done by the talented artist Chuck Patton. We were overjoyed to see it and of course had to share it with all of you. The last we had heard, that Hollywood producer was still moving forward with his project. All fingers crossed, it comes to pass and will be a fitting tribute to a truly wonderful man who though gone, will never be forgotten.

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

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, this week we start off with something near and dear to the Air Chief, carousels. Growing up in Southern New Hampshire, every summer my parents would take us to the resort amusement park along the coast of Maine, Wells Beach. At the time the pier that jutted out several hundred yards into the Atlantic had on it the oldest carousel in the U.S. and we were entranced by it. All those beautiful painted horses, lions etc. It was the one ride we got on immediately upon rushing up to the pier.

Last week someone on Facebook posted the whimsical picture above at left of one of these magical creatures coming to life and escaping. It immediately brought back to mind the plot of the Peter Pan comic we wrote ages ago for the new defunct Malibu Comic. In it, we envisioned that all carousel horses put out of commission for one reason or another ended up on Never Never Land in badly need of repairs and new paint jobs. Thus Peter got the idea of coming to America to find two cowboys who would help him and the Lost Boys find and capture these horses, painted them up good as new and have a blast riding. My Mr. Jigsaw partner, Gary Kato, did the artwork and it is glorious. When the book came out, it did rather well and got some nice reviews. Sadly it has been out of print for almost twenty-five years now. But there is light at the end of the tunnel, artist Mike Belcher’s son, Aiden, who has digital copies of all the pages, has taken on the laborious task of re-color them. Once done, we hope to republish the book via Rob Davis’ Redbud Studio. Stay tuned, Loyal Airmen. As ever, we’ll keep you posted.

THE WOODEN BLADE # 3

Fort Collins artist Olivia DeGaine is hard at work inking issue # 3 of “The Wooden Blade” our saga bout the wandering swordsman, Raizee the Ram. And as ever she’s doing such a bang up job with it.  We’re hope the issue might be finished for this year’s Rocky Mountain Con in Nov. All fingers crossed.

AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTION

The Air Chief is thrilled to announce the latest title from Airship 27 Production.  “After Sunset” is a terrific western novel by writer Jonathan Casey. It tells the story of a retired lawman who reflects on his long career, both good and bad.  Colorado artist Sam Salas provides the interior illustrations and Shannon Hall that terrific cover above. As always, the book is now available at Amazon in both paperback and on Kindle. As ever Loyal Airmen, thanks so much for your continued support.

THE CRIMSON NUN

Artist Jesse Thomas continues to work on our Crimson Nun project. After penciling the first nine pages, he is now hard on the inks. When these are all done, the next phase will be the coloring. Then on to artist Mike Belcher for lettering. The Air Chief is delighted with Jesse’s work on this comic. Easily some of his finest work ever.

And there you have it for this week, Loyal Airmen. As always thanks so much for stopping by and we’ll see you all back here next Friday. God bless, one and all.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, we’re going to start this week’s Flight Log with a look at a few comic projects and where they are at production wise.

THE CRIMSON NUN

Artist Jesse Thomas is hard at work on issue # 1 as the page above beautifully demonstrates. This is the first time the Air Chief has partnered with Jesse and we are thrilled with his talent and storytelling skills in display in his composition and panel layouts. Can’t wait to see it all finalized and colored.

BEYOND THE STARS # 3

Meanwhile artist Andrea Bormida is turning in more amazing pages for issue # 3 of our space saga. Keeping in mind, this is a six-issue series, with the publishing of this issue, we’ll have reached the half way mark of our tale. Can’t thank you Loyal Airmen enough for supporting us right from the start.

AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTION

One of the things we love in publishing New Pulp is the range of titles people bring us. Last year the Air Chief was contacted by two first time writers from New England who had a book to submit called “The Return of the Crimson Howl.” Writers Paul Landri and Jason Clark’s plot resolves around a group of retired super-heroes who, after World War II, gave up their crime-fighting. One of them is savagely found murdered, the FBI agents on the case set up interviewing the old heroes. Once we’d accepted the book for publication, the Air Chief recruited artist Sam Salas to do the spot illustrations for the project. But before starting, Sam opted to do several full color pin-ups of the main characters to get a feel for his illustrations and has allowed us to share them. Above left to right are, The Crimson Howl, The Swami and The Human Bullet.  This is one action packed thriller and we think when ready, you Loyal Airmen are going to love. Stay tune for more updates.

And that’s it for this week. Thanks ever for stopping by and we’ll see you back here next Friday.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, we are truly very happy to introduce you to the newest member of our family, Boomer.

He’s a Labrador Retriever and was just about two weeks old when he arrived. Life around here just got a whole lot more fun. It is impossible not want to sit and play with the little guy every morning and then walk away with a huge smile. Honestly, Loyal Airmen, life is always better with a dog.

GREAT NEW REVIEW OF BEYOND THE STARS

We were thrilled to learn our pal, writer Michael Housel had done up a review of our sci-fi comic series for Silverline Comics – “Beyond the Stars.” You can find it at this link. (https://bizarrechats.blogspot.com/2023/07/fortiers-beyond-stars-join-galactic.html)

BEYOND THE STARS # 3

And as we’re discussing this series, here’s the completed page 7 from issue # 3 by artist Andrea Bormida. Shaping up to be our best issue thus far.

WHILE IN MERRY OLE ENGLAND

Meanwhile it seems like London is the place to visit this year, according to our family. As you’ll recall, Loyal Airmen, our son Kevin and his wife Melanie made the trip there a few months back. Well now our oldest granddaughter, Kristi is over there attending a wedding. Of course she wasn’t going to pass up doing some fun sight-seeing, including this stop at the famous Harry Potter train station. Kristi and her sister Chelsea grew up reading those marvelous books, and even got the Air Chief hooked on them. Something we’ve shared, that love of reading. Anyways, we’re thrilled she’s having so much fun and making tons of great memories.

MYSTERY MEN (& Women) Peek

One of Airship 27 Production’s most popular anthology series of the past few years is our showcase series, “Mystery Men (&Women.” Above left is the cover to Vol 8 – Currently Art Director Rob Davis has begun assembling four new stories for volume 9 which will feature four new great pulp characters. One of these being writer Jamie Ramos’ super cop STEELGRAVE, as depicted above right. This looks to be another stellar volume. Stay tuned. We will keep you Loyal Airmen posted.

THE RETURN OF MAJOR LIBERTY

Years ago, when the Air Chief was affiliated with a great little comics outfit in Maine called Alpha Production, we created our own female version of Captain America and called her Major Liberty. That’s her up front of Team Alpha in a cover by Paul Pelletier. We later wrote a 16 pg adventure feature the character that was later published in Redbud Studios’ ALL STAR PULP COMICS. Recently when talking with fan/creator Frank Scott, we mentioned the character and he got all excited. Wanted to know if we’d allow him and his pal Kevin Birge to use her in a new super-hero team comic they were cooking up. It would also include Frank’s own “Dangeress” and the Chuck Dixon inspired “Phantom Avenger.”

Here’s Frank’s initial write up for the project.

THE TRINITY OF THE EXTRAORDINARY

Dangeress aka The Siren of Strength.  Ageless leader of S.A.G.A. ( The Super Agents Guarding America ) Phantom Avenger ( Origin conceived by the legend Chuck Dixon ) Major Liberty ( Created by Ron Fortier )  The three women caught in a Timestorm initiated by Mr. Friendly , a Nazi scientist bent on winning not just World War Two but EVERY war. His modern day ally an enigma known only as The Actor ( Created by Ron Fortier and myself ) Master of disguise. Impresario of assassination. It is this Trinity of S.A.G.A. who must find a way to end this attempt at temporal terrorism

Story by Frank Scott & Kevin Birge ( Plot elements from Ronald Fortier ) Art/Designs Daniele Danbrenus Spezzani – Letters/Colors Doug Curtis – Story elements ( Phantom Avenger ) Chuck Dixon ) This all looks to be a great and it will be nice to see Major Liberty back in action again, we’ll keep you posted.

FINALLY JIN & TONIK

And as if all that wasn’t enough to keep the lights on, Loyal Airmen, let’s not forget our “JIN & TONIK” project co-created with the amazing Cesar Feliciano.  The Air Chief wrapped up issues # 1 & 2, with colorist Matt Webb now coloring # 1 and Cesar adding lettering. It’s a long process, as Matt has lots of projects on his table and the moment. Hopefully before the year is out, issue # 1 will be ready for the printers. Till then, enjoyed this wonderful new pin-up from Cesar.

And there you have it for this week, Loyal Airmen. As always, thanks for stopping by and spending a little time with us. Till next Friday, God bless.

Ron – Over & Out!