Greeting Loyal Airmen, well the 2016 Fort Collins Comic Con has come and gone. Doubled up to a two day show this year, it was so much fun and Valerie and the Air Chief got to visit with old friends and make lots of new ones. Proceeds from this show go to the Poudre Valley Library District and at the end of the two days, the con had earned them $30,000.  Now that’s how a comic community works.

At left is Val and the Air Chief behind our table and in front of our banner. That, is you’ll recall, was a wonderful Christmas gift to the us several years ago. Then on Sunday afternoon, our beautiful granddaughter Cora and her beau, Calvin, came to the show and Val snapped the picture of the three of us. Calvin is a huge comic fan and he was in his glory at this show.

Sitting across the aisle from us was writer Bryan Richmond and sometime during the show he snapped this pix of a cos-player in a great Ant-Man costume. Whereas if you squint your eyes, you can see the Air Chief over the his fellow’s right shoulder. Then our good friend from Barnes & Noble, Nikki Jackson was there with tons of role playing games modules, books and toys. Nikki has done a great deal to get her store connected with the city’s comic community and those efforts have benefited everyone.

One of the most amazing surprises the Air Chief has ever experienced happened Sat. afternoon when a Facebook pal and fan, Kenneth Stock of Denver, showed up and presented me with a 9 1/2″ bronze statue of my character, Brother Bones the Undead Avenger. It weighs in a 7 lbs. Now Ken and the Air Chief had communicated a few times on Facebook and we were looking forward to meeting him at long last, but never in our wildest dreams did we expect for him to show up and give us this amazing statue…as a gift!!  When we say we have the best fans in the entire world, we are not joking.

Both Val and the Air Chief has so much fun talking with Ken then we learned he’d actually sculptured a second pulp hero.  As he’d seen the cover to our new comic series, GUNS OF THE BLACK BAT from Moonstone Comics, Ken so loved Michael Stribling’s cover to issue #1, he went and did a bronze of it as well. See above. The man is really a gifted artist and it was my distinct honor to autograph a copy of Brother Bones # 1 for him and issues #1 & #2 of the comic. Before leaving, Ken promised he would be doing more of these pulp inspired figures.  WOW.

Here’s another shot of the Air Chief and Val having fun behind our table of comics and pulps, while to the right is the very cool award given to us for participating in the show. To all involved in putting on this fun show, especially our good friend Todd Jones, we say a heartfelt thanks.  And hope to see you next year.

Meanwhile, as the Air Chief and Val were having fun at the con, Art Director Rob Davis was busy wrapping up the last four character sketches for the new Brother Bones movie. Here we have Cape Noire’s toughest cop, Lt. Dan Rains, and its dedicated crime reporter, Sally Paige.

And the last two, Brother Bones’ assistant and chauffeur, Blackjack Bobby Crandall and mob boss, Big Swede Jorgenson.  Rob did a total of 20 character sketches which will be used by the producers to aid in both casting and costuming. Stay tuned for more as the project progresses.

And there you have it for this week, Loyal Airmen.  As ever, thanks for stopping by and we’ll see you back here next week.

Ron – Over and Out!