BEYOND THE STARS # 5

THE CRIMSON NUN # 2

REST IN PEACE STEVE

And that’s it for this week, Loyal Airmen. As ever thanks for stopping by. Take care and stay warm out there. Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, this week the Air Chief thought it might be interesting to look at some of current comic projects and their relationship to my personal faith journey as a practicing Catholic. We were brought up in a Catholic home, went to a parochial grade school and attended Saint Thomas Aquinas High School in Dover NH. After which, upon the joining the US. Army, we pretty didn’t give either religion or our faith a second thought. Oh yeah, that was a mistake.

THE CRIMSON NUN

CHIVALRY INC.

BEYOND THE STARS

JIN & TONIK # 2

HAMLET’S END

RON – OVER & OUT!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, this week we thought we’d have some fun by talking about our ancestry. Above is the Fortier family crest. Our oldest son, Scott, found this on-line years ago and sent it along. We thought it was pretty cool and did some research. Apparently we trace our ancestry back to Normandy where the original Fortiters were both vintners and sea merchants.

Then having the crest in our files, we had our Art Director Rob Davis do a little photo-shop magic and put it in this awesome battle painting. For you Loyal Airmen at all interested, we learned that in Normandy today there is a Fortier/Picard vineyard whose wines are sold around the world. So the Air Chief and a certain Star Trek captain have a connection. You just can’t make this stuff up.

THE CRIMSON NUN # 2

Happy to let you know the Airship 27 Podcast # 98 is now up at You Tube. Simply cut and paste this link to the show. The Air Chief and Chief Engineer Rob Davis look back at the 25 titles we released in 2024 and tell a few bad jokes. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGp8TM3fb18)

HAMLET’S END

AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTION

THE LEVON CADE MOVIE IS ALMOST HERE.

And there you have it, Loyal Airmen. We’re back at it in this New Year. We want to end this week’s Flight Log with offering our prayers to all the Californians devastated by the horrible wild fires. May Our Lord grant them comfort in these hours of pain and suffering and send them the courage to persevere. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, well here we are in a brand new year. All which got us thinking as to what we were able to get realized in the past 12 months comics- wise. Check these titles out.

RELEASED IN 2024

Not a bad collection here. A sincere thanks to my artist partners, Cesar Feliciano, Jesse Thomas, Rob Davis, Andrea Bormida. Gary Kato and Ariel Aguire.  Four of these five are on-going series and with fingers crossed you Loyal Airmen will being seeing the next chapters in the months ahead. God willing.

AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTION

2024 also proved to be a banner year for Airship 27 Production with a record number of books produced. Among these, the last to reach publication included # 24, “DAN FOWLER G-MAN” which featured two new Fred Adams Jr. stories of gun-blazing action by this classic pulp hero with a cover by Michael Youngblood and interior illustrations by Sam Salas.  

CHIVALRY INC.

Artist Javier Lugo is busy are work on the second issue of the three-issue mini series CHIVALRY INC. which will be coming from Silverline Comics when finished. Currently issue # 1 is being inked by artist Jesse Hasan.

THE CRIMSON NUN # 2

And there you have it, Loyal Airmen, our first Flight Log of 2025. Thanks as ever for stopping by. Again, we wish you and all your loved ones a truly awesome, fantastic and blessed New Year.

Ron – Over & Out!

As we begin this week’s entry, it is the afternoon of Christmas Eve and the excitement of the coming day is palatable. As all you Loyal Airmen will be reading this the day after, allow the Air Chief and Val to still wish you and all your loved ones a truly blessed Merry Christmas and fantastic Happy New Year. Let’s all strive to make 2025, a kinder, more loving and peaceful time under God’s heaven. In truth we are all brothers and sisters, that is the message of the baby Jesus. We should all do our best to live it all  year long.

SANTA’S GOODIES

JIN & TONIK # 2

Artist Ceasar Feliciano continues to draw new pages ala the one above and they are gorgeous. While super colorist Matt Webb is currently coloring the completed first five pages. Your overall response to issue # 1 was so gratifying, we are truly anxious to get this latest chapter off to you. Which mean the Air Chief has to get hustling on the script for issue # 3.  Oh, yeah.

AMERICAN AMAZON

“American Amazon” is the Air Chief’s newest in-the-works comic project. We’ve joined forces with artist Clint Scott based on another of our old projects from the dusty files that never saw the light of day. As we are developing the project itself, with character bios and sketches etc. we’ve not given any thought to which independent publisher to bring it to once it is ready to be offered. So if any of our publisher colleagues are interested, give us a holler.

SANTA’S GOODIES

Finally, we wanted to share with you Loyal Airmen some of the wonderful Santa surprises we found waiting for us under the tree Christmas day.  Our family here being Santa’s helpers. Among the Air Chief’s new goodies was a 3D like Captain America wall plaque, which grandson Alex has promised to help us put up. Though honestly, our little office is almost totally out of wall space. Ha. We’ll figure it out. Then there was the new Luke Combs’ “Fathers and Sons.” Val and the Air Chief of major fans of this talented country singer/songwriter and we’d heard this was by far one of his most personal albums. All 12 songs deal with father-son relationships, something the Air Chief is intimately familiar with, having been blessed with three amazing sons, and two fantastic grandsons. Will be listening to this one often. Then came the new books from Amazon wish-list. “How To Make Great Decisions,” by Father Mike Schmitz, of the most popular and charismatic Catholic priest evangelizing today. We became fans upon following both “Bible in a Year” and “Catechism in a Year” You-Tube series. We recommend them to all Christians wanting to learn more about the Holy Bible. And lastly, “Plot Twists and Red Herrings” by Kimberly Wylie, sub-title, “A Guide to Mystery Genre Tropes.” As a pulp writer, this should come in handy for future assignments.

And there you have it Loyal Airmen, quite a nice collection of new treasures. Of course, the greatest gifts the Air Chief receives every single year is the love and affection of his family, friends and all you Loyal Airmen who support our multiple endeavors. May the God bless each and everyone one of you and great all of us a truly HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!  2025 HERE WE COME!

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, at the end of last week’s Flight Log we posted the great news that the funding campaign for BEYOND THE STARS # 4 had succeeded four days before the final day. Obviously all of us on the team, from artists Andrea Bormid & Mike Belcher along with SilverLine publisher Roland Mann are thrilled and appreciative of your continued support for this series. In fact by the last day of the campaign, Tues 17th, Dec, the finally take was $877.  Above are the three offered covers to that issue. Going left to right, Andrea’s official cover, then the two alternatives. Middle – by Rob Davis and far right – Jose Fuentes. We loved all of them. Alright, Loyal Airmen, now on to book # 5.

THE BOSTON BOMBERS Vol 2 Issue # 3

Meanwhile Rob also continues his gorgeous work on our continuing The Boston Bombers second volume. Above are pages 4 & 5 from issue # 3. The Air Chief has already penned issue four. This is easily some of Rob’s most beautiful work and like the first two issues, will be printed at Ka-Blam and released via Rob’s own Redbud Studio. Stay tuned.

CHIVALRY INC.

Artist Jesse Hasan continues his wonderful inking over Javier Lugo’s pencils for issue # 1. Meanwhile Javier is busy at work on drawing issue # 2. This book will be in color and the Air Chief is personally excited to see artist Mickey Clausen’s colors on all these great pages. Stay tuned.

VALERIE’S RECOVERY

The best of the past week was Valerie’s excellent post-op visit with the doctor. It’s been two week’s since her right knee replacement surgery and she is doing extremely well. Sure, there is still pain and we are both so grateful for all of you who have kept her in your thoughts and prayers. They have uplifted us both so much. But those of you who know Val, know how she never backs down from a goal and she is already exceeding expectations for this recovery. Her therapist released her after only six visits and the doctor’s assistant gave her visit a whopping success. She is ahead of the curve. We go back in one month, at which time, the Air Chief predicts she’ll be chomping to have her restrictions lifted and get back to our daily walking routines. Thank you Lord. It’s going to be a great Christmas.

BEN DUNN REMEMBERS OUR POPEYE COMICS

Artist Ben Dunn posted the following on Facebook a few days ago. “Now that POPEYE is fixing to fall into the public domain I am reminded of my stint on the spinach eating sailor man. Back in the late 1980’s I was contacted by Crimson Nun, Green Hornet writer RON FORTIER to do a licensed POPEYE comic by Ocean Comics. Ron and I knew each other professionally and I was honored he would ask me to do this character. It was an interesting take and the first issue did well enough to warrant a second. I do not know how they did but it ended there. As far as I know they have never been reprinted or collected.”

To answer Ben’s query, neither was ever reprinted, or collected. They remain, to this day, much sought after collectors treasures for Popeye fans. The Air Chief still has a soft spot in his heart for them and we do treasure the few copies we still have hidden away.

THE CRIMSON NUN

The Air Chief is about seventy-five percent finished writing issue # 3 of the new Crimson Nun series for Antarctic Press. The story features Pope Pius XI, as a supporting character and the Chapel of Saint Joan. The building’s history dovetailed into our plot as if preordained. Meanwhile artist Jesse Thomas is doing a fantastic job with issue # 2. Somehow, more and more elements of our faith emerge in our scripts. Thank you, Lord.

And that’s it for this week, Loyal Airmen. As ever, thanks for dropping by and we’ll see you back here again next Friday.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, as our deacon mentioned last Sunday at mass, we’re already two weeks into the Advent season and as you are reading this entry, almost three. Meaning we are in the final stages of counting down to Christmas. Wow, but this year really flew by. Valerie’s recovery from her knee replacement surgery continues to go well at a steady pace. Thanks again for all your continued prayers and well wishes. They mean so much to us. Alright, so what fun things moved ahead this past week. Let’s check it out.

JIN & TONIK # 2

Artist Ceasar Feliciano isn’t wasting any time diving into the second chapter of this decade spanning spy action thriller. He’s already finished the first five pages and above are two of those. His work continues to bowl us over and simply gets better with every new page. Going to be a great comic when completed.

SILVERLINE COMICS PODCAST

As most of  you Loyal Airmen know, the Air Chief does a regular You Tube Podcast with Chief Engineer Rob Davis whenever we release a new Airship 27 title. Years ago, we were also regulars on a weekly comic show called Zone 4 along with Brant Fowler, John Wilson and Gordon Dymowski. Well, we’re happy to announce we signed on to another series, the Silverline Comics Tues Night program which also records weekly. We are the new member to the podcast, joining writer Tim Thiessen and artists David Rios and Jose Fuentes. The show airs on You Tube at this link. Check it out. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pcl8xwirrVs&t=69s)

THE CRIMSON NUN # 2

Artist Jesse Thomas continues his truly beautiful work on the second issue of our series, The Crimson Nun, for Antarctic Press. Jesse’s pencils are truly sensitive to the story and convey so much of the characters’ emotions in each panel. While his coloring maintains a deft touch, adding atmosphere to the setting of a small French farming village. He is truly a gifted artist and a joy to work with.

BEYOND THE STARS # 4

As of today, we have 4 days left to raise $68 to reach our funding goal for this issue # 4. If you haven’t donated yet and would like to help us out, here’s the link. (https://www.fundmycomic.com/bts1-4) Just cut and paste it in your search engine. Support has been great and the Air Chief is confident that come next week, we’ll be able to report succeeded in our $750 goal. To that end, thanks to all you Loyal Airmen who contributed.

And that’s a wrap. Another week closer to Christmas, Loyal Airmen. Hope you’ve all got your Santa list ready to go. See you back here next Friday.

Ron – Over & Out!

BREAKING NEWS – It is now Friday 13th, and our campaign is FULLY FUNDED!!!!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, well here we are full on into the Christmas Advent season and as expected things are starting to get hectic. Here’s hope all of you can take each day one at a time; relish the this festive time and have fun with it.

TOMORROW GIRL & MR. JIGSAW

A while back we let you know about the fun comic project the Air Chief launched with artists Ben Dunn and Gary Kato. As most of you know, Gary, is the co-creator of Mr. Jigsaw, our comedy super-hero that we publish via Rob Davis’ Redbud Studio. Whereas Tomorrow Girl is Ben Dunn’s creation and he tells her adventures via his own Antarctic Press out of Texas. So what happened is Ben suggested the Air Chief write a Tomorrow Girl issue wherein Mr. Jigsaw would guest-star. We liked the idea and did just that. Then having finished the script, we realized the story gave both heroes 50/50 time in the spotlight and could just as easily be an issue of Mr. Jigsaw. Hmm…? An issue drawn by Gary. One script from which we’d get two comics, each telling the exact same story, but from the unique interpretation of each artist. Above is the cover by Ben at left. To the right is Gary’s cover. Gary has finished his issue, and we hope to have it on-sale at (www.IndyPlanet.com) within the next few months. No worries, Loyal Airmen, we’ll let you know when you can order it. And we’ll do the same when Ben completes and publishes his version via Antarctic Press. Imagine having both issues in front of you, side by side, and comparing the art on each page. Fingers crossed, you Loyal Airmen will get a big kick out of this.

VAL’S SECOND KNEE FINISHED

This past Tuesday Val had her right knee replaced at the Orthopedic Surgery Center in Loveland, CO. As many of your Loyal already know, she had the left done this time last year. Happily surgery’s surgery went as well as that, and now she’s on the mend with a six week recovery ahead of her. Meaning daily therapy to get that new knee working properly. We are so proud of her and thrilled that after thirty years of suffering, the arthritis in those joints is now gone forever. Thank you all those wonderful doctors and nurses who took such good care of us, and of course Our Lord Jesus Christ who blesses us daily.

11 DAYS TO RAISE $411

Funding campaign enters final weeks. As of this writing, we are less than to weeks away from the close of our Go Fund My Comic campaign. We’ve only 11 days left to raise $411. Working on this six issue mini-series with artists Andrea Bormida and Mike Belcher is been tons of fun. Keep in mind, the Air Chief cut his writing teeth on such other sci-comics such as Terminator and Gene Roddenberry’s Lost Universe. We love sci-fi. “Beyond the Stars” as been the highlight in that regards and we are damn proud of these first four issues. We’re anxious to add book # 4 to those above here. And don’t forget, at this writing, Andrea has already penciled nearly half of issue # 5.  With fingers crossed that, and the final issue # 6 will be out next year, wrapping up the story. We hope you Loyal Airmen will stick along for that conclusion.

AIR CHIEF’S FIRST CHRISTMAS GIFT

Finally, the Air Chief wants to give a big, warm shout-out to our two amazing friends, Michael & Donna Housel. Michael’s an Airship 27 writer and every year, no matter how we protest, he and his wife Donna send us a wonderful Christmas. And it’s traditionally the first we receive. This year was no exception, and knowing my career, they usually surprise us with something we are truly fond us. So the theme in this package was Popeye the Sailor, gifting us with a jewelry case boat with Popeye and Olive Oil on board, an Olive & Popeye salt-&-pepper shaker set….and last but not least, Popeye socks!!!  Believe me, Loyal Airmen, the Air Chief has been smiling crazily all afternoon. Thanks Michael & Donna, God bless you both.

Ron – Over & Out!!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, we hope all of you enjoyed (or even still enjoying) a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends and family. Our day was blessed and we remain eternally grateful to our loving God who looks after us always. Okay, beside eating tons of great food, we did manage to get a new book and and happily some great new artwork. So here we go.

LANCE STAR – COLD SNAP

For the first time in the history of Airship 27 Production, we are releasing two books by the author back to back. LANCE STAR – COLD SNAP is a brand new full length Lance Star – Sky Ranger novel by Bobby Nash and take place in the far…far north country. Artist Clayton Murwin contributed the gorgeous black and white interior illustrations (above right) and our own Art Director Rob Davis, that great color cover (above left.) This is a high-flying thrill-a-minute adventure. Whereas “The Adventures of Lance Star” has up to this date only ever been available on Kindle only. It contains all four of Bobby’s previous Lance Star stories. Now both volumes are out in both paperback and on Kindle. As ever, we thank you Loyal Airmen for your continued support.

THE CRIMSON NUN # 2

On the comic book front, artist Jesse Thomas continues his beautiful work on issue # 2 of The Crimson Nun. Having cleared our own commitment desk recently, the Air Chief has begun scripting issue # 2.

BEYOND THE STARS # 5

While on the sci-fi scene, Artist Andrea Bormida and colorist Angelo Vecciarelli are whipping up some stunning pages, ala # 4 and # 5 above in progress. No stopping these guys. Which is a good segues to remind all of you that the….

CROWDFUNDING FOR ISSUE # 4 CONTINUES POORLY

With two weeks into the campaign, we still need to raise $600.  You might have guessed, this isn’t our favorite part of creating comics. We love writing comics. We love working with talented artist like Andrea Bormida and Mike Belcher. What we don’t enjoy is then having to sell them. Honestly, if you simply go to the actual crowdfunding page and see the sample pages on display there, this wonderful issue should sell itself. In a time when Marvel and DC are simply churning out the same old stories, with the same old characters, outfits like Silverline, Antarctic and Redbud are producing new and exciting comics. And still we have to keep beating the drums. Sigh. (https://www.fundmycomic.com/bts1-4)

ALL WE’VE RAISED IS $147 – LOOKS LIKE WE’RE NOT GOING TO MAKE IT THIS TIME.

JIN & TONIK # 2

Meanwhile artist Cesar Feliciano is hot at work on Jin & Tonik #2 and the pencils for these three pages has the Air Chief wound-for-sound. This is the good stuff, Loyal Airmen. Oh yeah.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, we’ve got a major announcement to lay on all of you. But before we go to it, let’s look at a few other equally important updates.

JIN & TONIK # 2

Artist/creator, Cesar Feliciano isn’t wasting any time jumping into the second issue of our spy-thriller and above are his pencils for page one. We love Cesar’s art, and it shined on issue # 1. Trust us, Loyal Airmen, you’d seen anything yet.

CHIVALRY INC.

Likewise work on the first issue of CHIVALRY, INC. is progressing smoothly with Jesse Hasan’s clean inks over Javier Lugo’s pencils. We’re also thrilled to announce, super colorist, Mickey Clausen, has joined the art team.  Ironically the scene above pictures an imagine Thanksgiving Turkey dinner. Now that’s a really fun coincidence.

BEYOND THE STARS # 4

Alright, now to the big event of this week, the completion of BEYOND THE STARS # 4 and the launching of its funding campaign. Here’s the link (https://www.fundmycomic.com/bts1-4) Simply cut and paste that to your search engine. All of us involved with the book are psyched to have it completed. Above to the left is co-creator Andrea Bormida’s cover, as colored by Angelo Vecciarelli and lettered by Mike Belcher. Note, this cover will be done in silver foil. To the right of it is Rob Davis’ alternate cover. There will be a second by artist Jose Fuentes, which we’ll post here when completed. The funding campaign goes to the 20th of Dec. So if you’d like to give the Air Chief a really nice Christmas gift….Yes, we know. We have no shame. Chuckle. Note, for all you Loyal Airmen who may not have picked up the first three issues of this six part mini-series, issues 1, 2 & 3 are still very much available via the funding campaign. Thanks as ever, Loyal Airmen, for you continued support. We couldn’t do this without you.

TWO FANS IN THE COMIC

Way back when we were funding issue # 1 of BEYOND THE STARS, we offered fans the opportunity, with their monetary donation, to appear in a future issue. Two of our fans took us up with that, a young man and young woman. We then proceeded to create characters based on the photos they sent us and now in this issue # 4 they make their appearances. The fellow appears on Pg 2 (upper left) as Fleet Commander Haniel Smada, and the young lady, on Pg 9 (upper right) as Song Seer Anada Dee. We hope they approve and cherish their cameos. We truly appreciated their support.

NOW THAT’S COFFEE!

Everyone in our family knows how much we love coffee. The Air Chief has been drinking the dark brew since he was 13 yrs old. When we spotted the above illustration on Facebook a few day ago, we had a good laugh and knew we had to share it with all you Loyal Airmen. If Batman ever gets into the java business, we’re totally going to give his brew a try.

A NEW OFFICE SIGN

And lastly, we wanted to show all you Loyal Airmen the Air Chief’s newest Office Sign. It was a gift from our grand kids here in Colorado, for our birthday a few weeks ago and we love. It was custom made off of Etsy and it puts a big smile on our face every morning when we walk into this room.

And there you have it, Loyal Airmen. Note, the funding campaign for BEYOND THE STARS # 4 is only 25 days long and we need to raise $700 to get the book published. Even if you can’t help money wise, do spread the word to all your comic loving friends and family. For which we’ll be eternally grateful. And with that we end saying….HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ONE AND ALL AND GOD BLESS!!!

Ron – Over & Out!