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.

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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!