Greetings Loyal Airmen and welcome to this week’s Flight Log. Hopefully in a few days Airship 27 Productions will soon be releasing our newest anthology, AVIATION ACES. Flying heroes were a big thing during the age of the classic pulps and we’re trying to recapture that magic. In a story that takes place in World War II, writer Fred Savage Jr. has his hero learning to flying in an inflatable rubber plane. And he din’t just make that up. Above to the left is an actually photo of this weird little aircraft pioneered by the Army Air Corp and to the left is a gorgeous illustration featuring it by artist Howard Simpson, who did all the illos in this volume. As ever, Loyal Airmen, at times the truth is very much stranger than fiction.

Speaking of the multi-talented Mr. Adams, we thought we’d share this wonderful picture he sent along recently. Aside from being a college writing and English teacher for many years, Fred is also a singer, musician and composer. Recently he participated in the week long Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival, both performing on stage and wandering through the grounds offering merry tunes to the attendees. Honestly, Fred is one of a kind and we’re thrilled he’s part of the Airship 27 team.

As most of you know by now, the Air Chief teaches a night class on How To Write Comics and Graphic Novels at the Front Range Community College here in Fort Collins.  This semester, we are thrilled to have seven really talented writers in our class and we’ve tagged them the Magnificent Seven.  And if you are at all into sociology, you might find it interesting that on the very first night of class, three weeks ago, upon entering the classroom itself, the three young people (shown at left above – Gabriella, in front, then Aryn and Justin) all plunked themselves down to the left side of the room, whereas the older amigos (see above, left to right front row Evan and Zane, back row again left to right Terry and Dave) all ended up in chairs to the right.  Upon seeing this we were amused but here’s the thing, regardless of gender or age, what they all have in common is a genuine love of comic books and a true desire to learn how to create them.  This is an awesome class.

And lastly, a few weeks back we told you how local comic artist/writer Jon Bonjour had agreed to write and draw a short strip based on two characters from our Mr. Jigsaw series. In issue # 6 of that series, Mr. Jigsaw held a contest to see who would become his official sidekick. Among the try-outs were the Blimp and the Turtle. After the event, it was learned that the contestants banded together to call themselves Jiggy’s Misfits.  Now for the first time ever, we will be seeing a Blimp & Turtle adventure and if all goes well it will appear as a back up feature in issue # 17 due out sometime next year. Will keep you posted. In the meantime enjoy this fun pin-up Jon turned in to help promote the project.

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

Ron – Over & Out!