Greetings Loyal Airmen, well here we are, having survived the amazing, super-duper, wonderful premier of the ever mega Denver Comic Con held at the Denver Convention Center last week. Although we don't have any official tallies, estimates have something like twenty-two thousand people attended this amazing three day show, the first of its kind in the Mile High City.  Our utmost thanks and praise to all the people who we've been told have been working for over three years to make this show a reality.

      
                            Valerie & the Air Chief at Table #41
Of course we were thrilled to be invited as one of the dozens of local Coloradan creators to be guests for this debut con.  And we extend a heartfelt thanks to all the great people who came by to say hi and by the end of the three days had bought nearly 80% of our stock of comics.  Truly awesome.  Mr.Jigsaw was a big, big hit and we are sure now has some truly dedicated new fans. Between us and our Fort Collins crew, we took lots and lots of photos and in the coming weeks will be sharing them with all you Loyal Airmen.

     
                            The Air Chief & Jasika Nicole of FRINGE
If you are a regular visitor to this Flight Log every week, then you already know our favorite television series these days is J.J.Abram's FRINGE on Fox, which wrapped up its fourth season a few months ago.  One of the shining lights of that cast is the lovely Jasika Nicole who plays F.B.I. agent, Astrid.  When we first discovered she was going to be one of the “big” Hollywood guest of the convention we were thrilled but never in our wildest imaginations did we think we'd actually get to meet her.  Sure enough, early Sat. morning as the staff was beginning to set up the events before opening the doors to the public, in walks Ms.Nicole being ushered to her table by one of the con volunteers.  Seeing there was no one around yet, Valerie nudged the Air Chief to go up and say hello. Fighting off our sudden attack of shyness, we approached the table and introduced ourselves and confessed to being a huge fan of both the show and her role in it.  If you've at all ever seen FRINGE, then you will already know the character she portrays is pretty much the heart of the team that investigates weird, paranormal activities.  Lo and behold, much to the Air Chief delights, Ms.Nicole is just as warm and friendly as the character she portrays and happily agreed to post with us for the photo above. In leaving, we once again thanked her sincerely for coming to Denver and making Colorado's first big show something special with her presence. This was truly the highlight of my weekend, Loyal Airmen, and one we will never forget.

     
                    Jeff Herndon, the Air Chief, Todd Jones & Felipe Echevarria
Another of the real joys of being part of this con was being able to share it with many of our Fort Collins colleagues to include the three you see pictured above with the Air Chief; artist Jeff Herndon (who has already done several beautiful covers for Airship27 Productions) writer Todd Jones, our protege and pro artist Felipe Echevarria (who is also working on a cover for Airship 27).  Both Felipe and Todd were actually across the aisle from our table. Missing in this shot is pal, Mike Baron, who was seated to our right with his wife Ann all weekend.  Sharing this weekend with these amigos was simply icing on the cake.  And we don't want to forget artist Nick Runge, another Fort Collins native who joined us.  As you can see, there was LOTS of comic talent at this show.

         
                        Cora & the Wonky Robot
Of course one of the coolest activities seen at big cons such as this one is the many, many fans who come to these shows decked in out elaborate costumes of their favorite comic, fantasy or movie heroes.  They are now called COSPLAYERS, a merging of the words COSTUME – PLAYER.  We saw dozens of them all weekend long and Valerie snapped lots of great photos of many of them.  We thought we'd display one of our favorites, the wonky robot here posting with our beautiful granddaughter, Cora.  Our son Alan, his wife Nicole and our grandkids, Cora and her brother, Alex, joined us both Sat. night and all day Sunday.  It was the first time Cora, Alex and their mother had ever attended a big comic con.  They had a blast.

And finally, while we were all in Denver having such a great time at the con, our latest Brother Bones short story entitled “Butcher's Festival,” was released as part of the new Pulptress digest anthology from Pro Se Productions. This is the first new Brother Bones story in over five years and we were thrilled to have it be a part of this very cool little book. You can find it on Amazon and Barnes & Noble and all major book sellers.  We hope you'll check it out. The idea behind the book is the Pulptress, the First Lady of New Pulp, teams up with a different pulp character in each of the five stories features in this anthology.  The book is a winner and we hope you'll pick up a copy soon.

And there you go, Loyal Airmen.  The Air Chief has attended, and survived, our first ever giant Colorado comic con.  Again our hats off to the promoters and dreamers who made this all happen and hopefully we'll all be back next year to do it again.

Ron – Over & Out!