Greeting Loyal Airmen.  It's been a hectic couple of weeks since our return from Pulp Ark. Regarding that fabulous weekend, the Air Chief finally finished his full Con Report and posted it over at the Comic Related website for all to read and enjoy. We also added 34 photos depicting the event and the very cool creators who were in attendance. So if you want to read it, head on over to (www.comicrelated.com).

The Air Chief is also extremely excited to announce the release of our latest pulp title from Airship 27 Productions, SHERLOCK HOLMES – CONSULTING DETECTIVE Vol III –  The first two volumes of this series were best sellers for us and we've no doubts this one will be as successful.  Holmes fans enjoy the fact that all the stories these books are written in the same classic style as the original tales written by Arthur Conan Doyle. Volume three shown above with that gorgeous cover by Brian McCulloch features five new stories by Ian Watons, Andrew Salmon, Joshua Reynolds and Aaron Smith (who penned two of them).  The design and interior illos are by our partner Rob Davis, the same fellow who won a Pulp Factory Award for his illustrations in Volume One. The book is now on sale at our Digital Website and will soon be available at our on-line shop as well, then of course it will arrive at Amazon, Barnes & Nobles and other well known book dealers. Just click on to our dirigible logo to the left of this column.

     
                   Artist Mike Manley and his Pulp Factory Award for Best Pulp Cover
Earlier this year, Rob and the Air Chief has the pleasure of announcing the winners of the 2010 Pulp Facotry Awards at the Windy City Paper & Pulp show in Chicago. Several of the winners could not be present and so their trophies were mailed today. This past week, we found this great shot of winner artist Mike Manley on his Facebook pages and wanted to share it with all of you. We hope Mike doesn't mind that we borrowed it.

            
                     Robin Hood Cover by Mike Manley
And just in case you forgot what Mike won the award for, here is that stunning painting without any text or logo.  From the first time the Air Chief and Rob Davis set eyes on it, we knew we had something truly special and apparently the voters for the PF Awards agreed with us.  Again, congratulations Mike and well deserved.  The exciting news is Mike is painting the second Robin Hood book in this series by author I.A. Watson entitled ARROW OF JUSTICE.  Look for it this Fall from Airship 27 of course.

         
                         Rough Sketch of ZONE 4 cast by artist Andrew Law
As all your Loyal Airmen know, the Air Chief every Sat. night dons his flying cap and becomes Sky Captain Ron, one of the four hosts of the popular Comic Related podcast, episodes post on the website the following Friday night. Well one our biggest fans, Australian artist Andrew Law took us up on our suggestion that there should be a Zone 4 comic and he has started work on such by doing up a series of roughs on his drawing pad. This week he shared a half dozen pages with us and we wanted to give you a sneak-peek at what he is whipping up.  The figures in the rough above feature, left to right, Chuck Kennedy (and his smiling triplets) Cary Kelley in the ship's porthole at sea, Brant Fowler at the radio controls and that last figure at the airship gondola's steering wheel is none other than Sky Captain Ron.  We love the energy evident in these roughs and are truly anxious to see this project develop.  We'll keep you posted and hopefully show other images as it all comes together.

Finally, this is the Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of the summer season.  Kids are out of school, days are longer and the baseball season is in full tilt, Go Red Sox!!   At the same time, it is also a time of remembrance for all those brave men and women throughout our country's history who made the ultimate sacrifice on her behalf.  It's our hope that somewhere during this fun filled weekend, all Loyal Airmen will take a few minutes to bow their heads in a silent prayer of thanks for those who will never be forgotten.

God bless, and see you back here next week.
Ron – Over & Out!