Greetings Loyal Airmen.  As most of you are aware, the Air Chief annually does two pulp shows and one comic con.  The pulp shows are the Windy City Pulp & Paper Con which just happened last month in Chicago and PulpFest which happens in Columbus a the end of July. Then come November, we have our Rocky Mountain Con here in Colorado.  Those are again routine appearance whereas it looks like this summer the Air Chief will be expanding his schedule to include a few other local events. The other day we met with an associate of the local Barnes & Noble bookstore here in Fort Collins. After a pleasant chat about our career, we were invited to do two appearance at this store in July.

The first of these will be a night time lecture on the history of American pulps and their evolution into comics and today’s New Pulp movement of which Airship 27 Productions is a major player. This will be followed by a book signing.  Then about a week later, we’ll be returning to the store on a Saturday afternoon along with our writing colleague, Todd Jones, do do a presentation on the history of comics and how they are made for young readers and their parents. It looks to be a fun time. We are most grateful for the good people at Barnes & Noble for affording us these opportunities.

Now the “other” summer event came as an unexpected, although extremely delightful, surprise.  It seems Fort Collins has their own version of what we called “block parties” back east.  On a given day, certain city streets are blocked off by the police and made available to neighborhoods to congregate and have games, showcase local businesses etc. etc. etc. and of course food vendors. Here they are called “Open Street Events,” and lo and behold they are going to have one here in our neighborhood come Sunday June 5th. When the Air Chief learned of this via a letter sent to everyone in the area, we contacted the officials in charge and told them about our being a comic book creator and would they allow us to set a table up with our Mr.Jigsaw books?  Happily they got back to us within a few days totally thrilled by our offer and said we were exactly the kind of participation they looked for in these events.  So the Air Chief contacted his amigo, Rob Davis, and asked him to whip up the promotional flier above, which we hope city officials can add to their further promotional packets.  And we’ve re-ordered more books to assure we have enough on hand when the day arrives.  Now all we have to do is pray it is a gorgeous, sunny day.  All fingers crossed.

And of course it is always great when our new comics arrive in the mail as was the case earlier in the week.  Here we are holding up copies of “Ron Fortier”s Tales of the Macabre.” This one contains three brand new stories by yours truly with art by Gary Kato, Sam Salas and Kurt Belcher.  Then there was “Paradise Falls,” our sci-fi murder mystery with artist John Williams and letterer Warren Montgomery. Both are available on-line from (www.IndyPlanet.com) As ever, thanks for your support.

Finally if you are in the Kansas City area this weekend, do your best to hit up Planet Comic Con where our partner artist Rob Davis will be one of the dozens of great guests. That’s Rob above in one of the promo pieces for this great show. Be sure to stop by his table and tell him the Air Chief sent you.

And that’s it for this week Loyal Airmen, as ever, thanks so much for stopping by.

Ron – Over & Out!