Greetings Loyal Airmen and welcome to this week’s Flight Log.  As ever, things are always hopping at Hangar 27 and our first piece of news is the fact that we’ve just signed on to write a Zorro story.

Created by pulp writer Johnston McCulley, Zorro has been a favorite of ours since we first saw him on the Disney’s Wonderful World of Color TV show starring the handsome Guy Williams. That was the launching pad into his own series which lasted several years and we never missed an episode. As time went on we learned of his origin in the pulps and of the many amazing film portrayals. First by the super athletic Douglas Fairbanks in the silent movies followed then by the classic “Mark of Zorro” with Tyrone Powers and the dastardly Basis Rathbone which featured one of the best sword duels in cinema. Of course there were lots more TV series, both here in the US and overseas until finally James Bond director Martin Campbell’s wonderful “Mask of Zorro” with Antonio Bandera and Catherine Zeta Jones.

In the past few years pulp publisher Bold Venture Press, guided by Audrey Parente and Rich Harvey have reprinted all the original McCulley Zorro stories in great 5 Vol series. Then they took a step further in offering brand new Zorry novels and anthologies by some of today’s finest New Pulp scribes. In fact writer John French’s own story from “Zorro – The Daring Escapes” won this year’s Pulp Factory Award for Best Short Story. All of which leads to Ms Parente inviting the Air Chief to write a new adventure of The Fox for another planned anthology coming 2022. We’ve agreed, with a great deal of anxiety. We really don’t want to mess this one up, Loyal Airmen. Wish us lots of luck.

JIN & TONIK

Artist Cesar Feliciano continues to produce new pages and thrill us to no end. Above to left is an early sketch of Darya Tonikova done back in 2018. Next to it is the newly completed Pg 18 of the script wherein she is attending a security conference along with her sergeant and division commander. As unaware of the danger they all face. Trust me, Loyal Airmen, the action is about explode in the coming pages.

A few weeks ago we mentioned having finished our latest novel, “Cape Noire : A Beest & Beauty Tale.” It is the prequel to our Brother Bones pulp stories that have appeared in five books. So we the other day we handed off the manuscript to our pal and Airship 27 Art Director as he will be doing the art for the book from the interior illustrations to the cover. Well apparently Rob’s enthusiasm is fired up as last night he surprised us with whipping up the cover logo for the book (see above) and we love it. We doubt seriously the book itself will be completed by year’s end, but then again we’re totally okay with it becoming our first new Airship 27 release for 2022. Onwards and upwards, Loyal Airmen.

Last year we were thrilled to publish our first Jon Shadows action/adventure novel by Pulp Factory Award winning writer Teel James Glenn, “Killing Shadows.” Rob Davis did the cover (above left) and the amazing Tedd Lehman did the interior illustrations. All of us were really proud of this book. Then happily Glenn sent us a second book in the series, “Deadly Shadows” and we eagerly began assembling it. Rob did up a cover and Tedd signed on again to do the illustrations.  (Above center is the first of two he did.) Then after sending in his second illo, he and his family were hit with health issues which forced him to stop drawing and we had to book the production on hold. All the while we kept Tedd in our prayers and thoughts. So time moves on and then the other night, much to our delight, up pops a letter from Tedd and a cell pix of illo # 3. (Above to right). We realize it’s not very visible here, but trust us, the piece is beautiful and Tedd reports he’ll have it finished and # 4 on the way shortly. As excited as we are about this, we are even more delighted that he is well again.  Welcome back Tedd. We really missed you. At the same time a reminder, “Killing Shadows” is still available at Amazon in both paperback and on Kindle.

BEYOND THE STARS

And finally we want bring all you Loyal Airmen up to speed with our new comics series project we are doing with the super talented Andrea Bormida. As you’ll recall, it was just about a month ago that we saw six pages of art that Andrea had posted on his Link-In site. (The first of these is above to the left.) We were so taken with them that we wrote him and began a correspondence. Which in turn led to Andrea inviting us to join him on making those six pages the start of an actual sci-fi comic series. Our next step was taking his original outline and developing it further. Then we were blessed to have Publisher Roland Mann of Silverline Comics to accept it for publication. The Air Chief immediately got to work and write the first 22 pg issue # 1. This past week, Andrea took that script and has begun to illustrate it.  At above center is his progress on Pg # 1 and to the right is his preliminary break down of  Pg # 2. And we couldn’t be happier. The layouts on both pages are exactly as we imagined the scenes when writing the script. Honestly, we are so excited. This is going to be something truly special. As ever we’ll keep you posted.

Finally Amazon Prime has started airing the 6th and Final Season of the best sci-fi on television today, The Expanse. It began on the Sci-Fi Channel and then jumped ship after its 4th Season. The show is terrific with great writing, directing, special FX and an amazing cast. Well certainly enjoy these last episodes but are really going to miss it when it wraps.

And that’s it for this week, Loyal Airmen. As ever, thanks so much for joining us…and more importantly sharing this link with your friends. Are viewing numbers are starting to grow, all because of you. Till next week.

Ron – Over & Out!