Greetings Loyal Airmen, we are sure you will recall how we were shaken last year upon hearing of the passing of our friend, fantasy adventure writer Charles Saunders. His passing had come and gone without some much as a ripple among the residents of St. John’s in Nova Scotia. And ultimately he was buried in an unmarked grave. When the news finally did reach the writing community, it was received with much grief and shock. Charles was truly an amazing soul and his death was a true loss to the world, especially of black writers. Eventually a group of his friends, to include Milton Davis, Derrick Ferguson and others set up a Kickstarter campaign to have a tombstone and memorial made up.

Last week both were delivered and placed over his final resting place. Seeing the photos above was so heartening. We remember our friend in our daily prayers and God willing, we’ll one day make a trip to his grave to pay our final respects. Rest in peace, my old friend.

As many of you know, “Satin’s Ways” is a comic project we’ve tried to get off the ground for a long…long…time. We even had an 8 pg completed and published with the first artist to ever draw her, Gonzalo Martinez of Chile. Since then several other artists have stepped in and offered to illustrate the 48 pg script we wrote way back when. For one reason or another, they never completed more than a few pages and then disappeared on us. Well, we’ve got as yet a new artist willing to take a stab at doing this comic, Richard Jun. This past week he sent along a few rough sketches of Satin and other characters to show us and Silverline Comics publisher Roland Mann. We like what we’re seeing. Fingers crossed, Richard is going to be the hero who brings us across the finish line at long last.

On another very welcomed piece of news. Back in 2019 the Air Chief wrapped up his fourth “How to Write Comics” at the Front Range Community College here in Fort Collins. As we’d done with the first three classes, we then set about getting a comic book made with stories from our four students, pairing them with talented professionals. Well things seemed to drag in regards to find a fourth and final artist and then Covid 19 happened and everything seemed to get pushed back further and further. Still we pushed on, regularly posting to our writers that the book would get down, come hell or high water. Well as of yesterday, the book is FINISHED. All the stories have been completely illustrated and artist Howard Simpson turned in beautiful finished cover. All that remains now is for Rob Davis, Editor of Redbud Studio, to put the files up at Ka-Blam’s printers.  Volume Four of Front Range Tales features “Space Monkey” by Nathanael Vidaurri as illustrated by Olivia DeGaine. “There Goes The Van Gogh” by Vincent A. Vidaurri (he’s Nathan’s dad) as drawn by Luis Rivera. “Real Zizzle Reel” by Stephen Beer as illustrated by Gary Kato and finally “Jake the Bandit” by Donna Braginetz as drawn by Howard Simpson. Honestly, we couldn’t be happier. Of course there was no class in 2020, and it is doubtful there will one this year. It is our hope, come 2022, that we’ll be able to once again offer this eight week course. We have so much teaching it. For now, our four writers only have a few more weeks before they get to hold their first ever published comic stories in their hands. Now that’s cause for celebration.

By far the best writer of Sherlock Holmes stories today is none other than I.A. Watson of England. Fittingly with a name like Watson, you’d figure he was predestined for such. I.A. has had a story in every each of Airship 27 Production’s bestselling series, Sherlock Holmes – Consulting. Now we are about to publish a new collection of I.A.’s stories that have appeared in other publications over the years. Above is a sneak peek of the back cover. The book is currently being proof-read and we hope to have it out within a week, two tops. Stay tuned, Loyal Airmen. This is one you don’t want to me.

Finally, yesterday Valerie and the Air Chief received our second Covid 19 vaccine shots. We pray all you Loyal Airmen have either received yours or are enrolled to do so soon. It’s time to protect all of us and our loved ones and get the world back to normal, God willing. Amen.

Ron – Over & Out!