Once again, my fellow airmen it’s been a fast week. The big news is Digital Webbing Presents #24 (see that gorgeous cover above) is now in comic shops across the world! Yup, and from what I’m hearing, it is selling off the racks quick. So if you haven’t gotten a copy, what are you waiting for? Get down to your favorite comic shop and grab one. If they’ve already sold out,
then ask your shop manager to reorder one for you. Remember, they are there to serve you, the customer. So never take, “Gee, they’re all sold out,” as a final word. Besides my MASK OF THE GARGOYLE, this beautiful issue also features a Teenage Mutant Ninaj Turtle story and a rollicking superhero yarn called FIST OF JUSTICE. All good stuff. I’m proud of this project and I hope those of you who see it,
enjoy it as well.

If you are curious as to this week’s heading, well one of the things I’ve always tried to do in my life is make my dreams come true. It’s never enough to just have dreams. Unless you make them a reality, or at least do your best to achieve that end, what is the purpose of dreaming? In my life, I’ve been blessed with lots of dreams fulfilled which leads to the following experiences of the past week.

If you are a regular visitor to the Airship, then you’ll know my favorite movie of all time is the original, 1933 KING KONG. You will also know there is a tremendous amount of hype these days for Peter Jackson’s new version due out in theaters this coming December. So it should be no surprise that the merchandising markets are now being swamped with KONG items, to include various tie-in publications. I know of at least three paperback KONG books due, never mind the more expensive hardback volumes being planned. Oh, to hit the megabucks and get them all, ha. But I’m off track here. Back to my tale of dreams reaching out to touch you. A few weeks back I was
approached by a publisher pal who was in negogiations with a Hollywood firm to produce a KING KONG comic book and he wanted to know if I’d like to write it for him. After I stopped jumping up and down for ten minutes, and calmed down a wee bit, he explained the situation etc. The deal was this licensor in California would put forth the plot idea and I would write a script from it. They wanted to do Kong’s story up to the point where the 1933 movie begins. Seemed logical enough to me. I began jotting down notes and ideas on how I would lay the narrative to show Kong, how he was born on that savage, forgotten world of Skull Island, how his mother and father raised him, how they died and how,
left alone as the last of his kind, he became the true, mighty ruler of his domain, KING KONG.
I tried to keep all this under wraps, as I didn’t want to jinx anything until the deal was official. Two weeks went by without a word. I was getting very, very nervous. Then a few days ago the publisher sent me the licensor’s proposed plot and the minute I began reading it,
my dream of being connected with a KING KONG project slowly slipped away. Their idea was that aliens came down to Earth in prehistoric times, zapped a gorilla into giant size and continued to do this over the millions of years that followed. In their grand vision, a giant gorilla is present when the pyramids of Egypt are built! It is a giant gorilla who answers Joshua’s horn summon and destroys the walls of Jericho!! And on and on and on. Truly the most ridiculous, idiotic story I have ever read. I wrote my publisher pal and told him I hated it. Ten minutes later he called me personally and admitted so did he.
Neither of us wanted our names attached to this mess, in any shape or form. My buddy was going to call those Hollywood dudes and diplomatically
try to explain to them why their idiocy won’t fly, and maybe they might want to listen to our
ideas. But I’m not holding my breath. Hollywood types are notoriously as stubborn as they are stupid. So there you go, it was a real dissappointment. But those things happen. For all the dreams that do come true, others go unrealized.

Of course, life does have a certain balance to it and no sooner did I put the KING KONG dream behind me then another equally important project took a big step closer to fruition. Super cover artist, Tom Floyd (his work graces both my pulp books..BROTHER GRIM and THE HOUNDS OF HELL) sent along three rough sketches for the proposed cover of my latest pulp actioner, CAPTAIN HAZZARD. For those of you not in the know, I have rewritten an old pulp classic, starring this lost hero. It is called PYTHON MEN OF LOST CITY, and with fingers crossed, it will see publication early next year. Obviously we needed a new cover and Tom, the loyal pal he is, stepped right up and took the assignment. Like he said, “What’s a Ron Fortier pulp book without a Tom Floyd cover?”
I couldn’t have said it better myself. So, Tom in his professionalism sent along three sketches for yours truly to pick from. Talk about a tough decision. All of the sketches were beautiful, when using imagination to see them fully painted. I went to several of my artists pals for their advice and the final choice was acutally unanimous. It is posted here for you to see. As Tom develops the final version, I’ll continue to post them here. In fact, son Scott, my personal PC guru, is in the final stages of getting a gallery page added to the Hangar. Once that’s done, I’ll be showing you lots of very cool artwork. Anyways, seeing CAPTAIN HAZZARD moving ahead like this was a real charge and took away the sadness of losing the KING KONG gig. Win some, lose some. It’s what life is all about. The trick is to take the losses for what they are, learning experiences, and move on. There are always dozens of other dreams waiting in the wings. Believe it.

Have a great week, Ron, over and out.