Greetings Loyal Airmen, we've got some exciting news to pass along to all of you, but most especially you Airmen who live in New Hampshire and Maine.  Many years ago when Ye Old Air Chief was starting his comics writing career, we were guest at a Portland, Me. convention. It was there we met a familiar face, Pat Callaghan.  Pat, at that time had just become the anchorman for Portland's WCSH Channel 6 evening newscast.  As Valerie and the Air Chief watch this program daily, we recognized Pat immediately when he came to our table and there discovered he is a life long comic book fan. 

During the course of the next decade our association with Pat continued to grow, as we would see him at most of these Maine conventions.  All of which led to his coming to our home one year to tape an interview with the Air Chief concerning the debut of our new, original character, MR.JIGSAW, Man of a Thousand Parts.  As the character lives and operates in the city of Portland, Pat saw an opportunity to give us the spotlight and that interview ran during the Christmas week of that year.  Pat instantly became a huge Jiggy fan.

                            
                              Pat Callaghan & Cindy Williams of Channel 6

Over the years Cindy Williams joined Pat as co-anchor and for as long as the Air Chief can remember, they've been THE news team for Channel 6.  Several years ago, we found ourselves writing Mr.Jigsaw stories for a website called Adventure Strips.  Before it folded up, artist Gary Kato and the Air Chief managed to produce three new Jiggy stories for that project.  One of these was called…THE ICEMEN COMETH!

In the tale, Jiggy survives a massive explosion when a robot snowman he is battling blows up under him.  When his friends recover the dis-assembled parts of his body, they discover his head is still missing.  As we were writing this scenario, it dawned on us that this story-line might be the perfect opportunity to put Pat and Cindy in a Mr.Jigsaw comic.  We taped one of their broadcast, then sent that tape, along with the finished script, to Gary to draw.  He did a magnificent job of capturing these two and the page has Pat asking the public's help in finding Mr.Jigsaw's head.

                     
                                      Pat & Cindy in a Jigsaw adventure.

Although the page was completed, the strip site folded before it could be posted and so for the past eight years Pat and Cindy never knew they had been guest stars in a Mr.Jigsaw comic adventure.  Until a few months ago, that is.  As all you Loyal Airmen know, we've brought back the character in a brand new comic series which we are self-publishing with the help of Rob Davis and Redbud Studio.  The first three issues being reprints of all the earlier Jiggy tales to include, The Icemen Cometh.   Once that issue was printed up, the Air Chief immediately sent a few to the Channel 6 studios in Portland, addressed to Pat.  A few days later Pat e-mailed us relating how the books were a big hit among the entire crew and passed around from studio hand to another.  Of course both he and Cindy were delighted with their comic cameos.

It was then that Pat suggested we come up to Portland one night and appear on their live half-hour feature show entitled 207.  (That's the phone area code for Maine.)  The show features two to three segments a night focusing on anything doing with the state of Maine.  Whereas both Pat & Cindy appear in this comic and Jiggy is a Portland resident, Pat brought the idea of our being a guest to his producers and they enthusiastically agreed to make it happen.  SO….this coming Wednesday evening, 2 Sept., at 7 PM, Ye Old Air Chief is going to be guest on Channel 6's 207.  And as it turns out, the regular host, Rob Caldwell, will be on vacation next week and Pat will be filling in for him.  So, it will be me and Pat, and co-host Kathleen Shannon, talking about Mr.Jigsaw on live TV.  To say Ye Old Air Chief is excited would be a real understatement.   This looks to be a really fun experience and again, we're hoping those of you Loyal Airmen who live in the area will be able to tune in and catch our first ever live-TV appearance.   As always, we so appreciate the support.

Finally, to wrap this week up, we have to tip our baseball caps to Red Sox short-stop, Nick Green who during last night's trouncing by the Chicago White Sox, was asked by manager Terry Francona to go out and pitch the 8th and 9th innings!!  Yup, a position player put on the mound in sheer desperation, to save the bullpen, which Francona obviously believes had been over-taxes lately.  Well, Mr.Green certainly gave up hits, but none of them scored, in other words he pitched two complete innings against batters who earlier in the game had tallied up 9 runs by the fourth inning and shut them down…most impressively!  Way to go, Green.  As for the rest of the Red Sox pitching staff, if you feel a wee bit embarrassed by all this…well, you should be!!!

Till next week, “We're ready for our close up, Mr.DeVille.”  Ha.
Ron – Over & Out