Greetings Loyal Airmen.  As the Air Chief writes these words, many of our friends and colleagues are in San Diego attending the big, big..BIG COMIC CON.  We wish all our Loyal Airmen at the show a great time and we can't wait to hear all the news about what comic companies are going to surprise us with next.  And speaking of surprises, we at Airship 27 Productions revealed a beauty this past week across the internet.

Ever since the Air Chief and his pal/art director, Rob Davis, began Airship 27 Productions, we focused solely on using public domain characters for our books.  Being a small, two many operation, we hardly had the cash need to acquire rights to most licensed properties out there, especially those that would fit into the mold of pulp action hero. Then late last year, one of our new writers, Jim Beard, came to us with an intriguing offer.  It seemed Jim had been speaking with the owners of Captain Action Enterprises, Inc. LLC, Joe Ahearn and Ed Catto about the idea of writing a Captain Action pulp novel.  Okay, so before going any further with this story, here's a little history about this character.

                 
Captain Action began life back in the mid-1960s as an action toy figure.  The unique thing is once a boy or girl bought a Captain Action figure, they could could out and buy other costumes for him; costumes that would turn him into other heroes such as Batman, Superman, Spiderman, the Lone Ranger and the Green Hornet to name only a few. This ability to change one hero, simply buy changing his outfit, was extremely well received and the toy was a big hit. 

In fact Captain Action became so popular, he eventually got his own comic title from DC comics and lots of great artists such as Wally Wood and Gil Kane worked on the short lived series.  Then after the 70s, he slowly drifted away into obscurity as do a lot of one popular toys.  Then in 2004, as mentioned above, Joe Ahearn and Ed Catto acquired the rights and began working diligently to make Captain Action a household name once again. Part of that effort was launching an entire new comic series, this time from Moonstone Comics out of Chicago where he fared rather well.

Then a new toy company began issuing brand new Captain Action figures with all new costumes, this time to include Captain America and Thor.  We're told in the very near future there will be an Iron Man outfit and a Rocketeer outfit. You can sign us up for that latter one. Now that's crossing over into true pulpdom which brings our story full circle. You see, with all this success in the toy and comic fields, the one venue Captain Action had yet to conquer was that of prose fiction and that is exactly what writer Jim Beard was proposing to the owners last December. 

When they turned out to be receptive to the idea and asked to hear more, Jim then directed them to the Air Chief and Airship 27 Productions, truly going out of his way to describe us as one of the leading quality publishers in the New Pulp Movement today.  Joe and Ed looked over our titles and ultimately contacted us via a remarkably friendly conference call which, when it was all over, we had agreed to produce for them the first ever Captain Action pulp novel.  Of course Jim was set to be the writer and he got to work immediately.  Our choice for interior illustrator was easy, none other that Rob, our super talented Art Director and genius book designer. The challenge was to find the best possible cover painter and after putting our heads together, Rob and the Air Chief knew the only person we wanted for this project was super talented artist Nick Runge.  Nick is a personal friend and several years ago painted a Mr. Jigsaw cover for our comic series by that name that people still drool over whenever they see.  So we contacted Nick and much to sheer joy, he signed on readily to paint the cover.

           
                          COMING SOON!
And there's that glorious cover pictured above for Jim Beard's thrilling novel, CAPTAIN ACTION – Riddle of the Glowing Men.  The actual book is in the last stages of production and will debut at this year's Pulp Fest in Columbus, Ohio, 9th to 12th Aug.  Note, Jim will be at the Airship 27 table on Sat. morning, 11th Aug to autograph copies of the book.  Obviously we full expect the appeal of this book to both pulp fans and toy collectors will make it a very highly sought collectible and hope you Loyal Airmen will grab a copy soon as they become available.  Rest assured, the day they go on sale, we'll notify you right here on where to purchase yours.

And that Loyal Airmen, is how an action toy figure became a bonafide pulp hero.  To say the Air Chief isn't excited would be a whopping understatement.  We think this book is a winner and trust you'll agree.  As ever, thanks for your continued loyalty and support.  See you back here in seven days,

Ron – Over & Out!