Greetings Loyal Airmen, 2022 seems to be rolling along nicely, with many of our projects gathering steam. Ala Andrea Bormida’s amazing work on issue # 1 of “Beyond the Stars.”

In Pg # 6, we arrived at the alien dig-site where Prof. Yonel Travane is studying ancient script when he is suddenly visited by the same Ar-Keedy ghost who has appeared to the All Mother. He leaves Travane with a cryptic message. Again, Andrea’s work from start to finish is simply amazing and it will be exciting when letterer Mike Belcher begins adding the captions and word balloons. Oh yeah.

Long, long ago, the Air Chief was hired to write a Rambo comic book to be published by Blackthorn. We wrote a 4 issue story which detailed John Rambo’s past, his enlistment in the U.S. Army and ended it with the start of a new mission for him. Well, the publishers had to show our script to the movie people who held the license and they were surprised that there was very little action in that first script. Enough so that they ordered the editor to cannibalize issues one and two, taking out all the character moments and replacing them with action scenes from script # 2. Then they gave the screwed up script to the young artist, a dude named Aaron Lopresti and he did the best he could with it. See cover above to left. We personally hated what they put out and were not a bit sorry with the book flopped. Almost thirty years later, having kept all four of our scripts, we re-wrote them. Our hero was now an Ex- Navy Seal named Jamal Lyons and then fate led us to retired Army veteran turned artist Kevin Johnson. We told him about our scripts and he was only to happy to sign on. Thus three years ago, we released Black Lion # 1 to our fans. Earlier this week, Black Lion # 4 came out and the series is wrapped up at long last. Keep following this Flight Log as we’ll let you know soon where you can find all four issues. Again rule of thumb, never ever throw away your scripts.

One of the things we at Airship 27 Production encourage our writers and artists to do is promote their work to local outlets such as small town newspapers or libraries. With all the books published in this country every year, self-promotion is an art in itself. Well we are happy to report that writer Tyler Auffhammer took that advice to heart. Aside from teaching fiction-writing, Tyler also writes for The Mountaineer, a paper located in the city of Waynesville, NC. And they did up a really nice article on him and his recent release “Marshal Horne of Talon’s Crossing.” The feature tells a bit about Tyler’s history in writing, then showcases the book reprinting Adam Shaw’s beautiful cover and give a nod to interior illustrator Jeff Cram as well. It’s a nice piece and will hopefully help sell lots more of this wonderful western collection. Way to go, Tyler!

We were 13 yrs old when Stan Lee and Steve Ditko gave the world Spider-Man. We’ve often wondered if Lee realized at the time what a change he was bringing to the world of comics. Prior to Peter Parker, all of the teen-age costumed heroes were some adult superhero’s sidekick, never THE HERO. That all changed with Spider-Man. For the first time ever the gawky, nerdy kid (who we totally identified with at the time) got these amazing powers. His reckless abandon and enthusiasm were new to us readers. No more adult stoicism ala Superman, but exuberance to max. We’ve been fans ever since. And now Sony pictures and Marvel Studio have given us by far the BEST Spider-Man movie of them all with, Spider-Man No Way Home. Valerie and the Air Chief saw it this past week and we loved it start to finish. No spoilers, as we assume some of you Loyal Airmen have yet to see it. Please, we beg you, wear your mask and see it on the big screen. It is already Sony’s highest grossing film of all time. The cast is fantastic and Tom Holland by far shines throughout. This one’s a winner, Loyal Airmen.

As mentioned above, when discussing the birth of Spider-Man, we grew up in the 50s and 60s. As we were on a path to become a slinger-of-words, i.e. writer, we enjoyed classic rock music that featured artists capable of telling stories with their lyrics. Neal Sedaka, Buddy Holly, Bobby Vinton, Gene Pitney to name a few. Even the Beatles and other early British bands provided us with memorable phrasing that we grew up singing. Now in all this time we were familiar with Country Western music and enjoyed a few break out performers ala Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard. But for the most part, they were far and in between. As the 70s rolled in American music seemed to explode everywhere and things like Heavy Metal and Grunge arrived and just like that it wasn’t about the words anymore, but how much loud noise you could produce. Yup, we’re not fans of either and don’t get me started on Rap…not music. Sorry.

By the time Valerie and the Air Chief moved out here to Colorado, we really weren’t listening to much on air radio any more. There just wasn’t much we enjoyed, or could even make and decipher. Then, bit by bit, we started tuning in to a local Country Western radio station and slowly discovered both old and new performers we actually liked listening to. People like Blake Sheldon was pushing C & W on his reality music contest series, “The Voice” and we caught a great special on PBS one night featuring Darius Rucker and once again were blown away. Great songs with great lyrics. The Air Chief soon became a huge fan of Lou Combs who did a song a year ago about a father and son relationship that brings us to tears every time we hear. We see ourselves and our father in his song. And not to worry, at the same time we were discovered this new crop of male C & W artists, we also began appreciating those ladies following in the steps of the great Patsy Cline; way too many for us to mention here. One of these rising ladies is Carly Pearce who’s latest album, “Writen in Stone,” is fantastic. Each of the 15 songs in the collection is a well written gem, with pathos, irony, love and humor. You see, in a time with rock and roll has lost its ability to communicate other than shout at its fans, Country Western songs continue to speak to the truths of the heart. Better than ever. Thank God.

Ron – Over & Out!