Greetings airmen.  Well, the month of October had graced New Hampshire with her annual display of Fall colors.  I've always loved New Hampshire in October and when I was in the army, it was the time of the year I most missed being home.   A few days ago, Valerie brought her digital camera with her on our daily two mile hike along the Salmon Falls River.  She snapped these two magnificent shots.

The old saying is one picture is worth a thousand words and seeing these, I'm not about to debate that.  Sometimes in life you just have to slow down, take a deep breath and look around you.  Really look!  See the wonders of nature, the touch of God in everything.  Powerful, life-affirming stuff.

What with the Fall here, we New Englanders get it into our psyhes that pretty soon all those leaves will be down. That a cold northern wind from Canada will soon be slapping on our doors and it's time to get ready for frigid winter season.  Likewise, my Wild Cat Books team and I are gearing down, wrapping up our last couple of book projects for 2006 and making time to enjoy the coming holidays.  To that end we've decided to release two more pulp books and call a very good year.   The first of these came out this past week and we are very, very excited about it.

SECRET AGENT X was by far one of the most popular and successful pulp heroes of the 1930s.  Now, complete with his original magazine logo and all, the Man of a Thousand Faces is back in four brand new adventures by Steven Atkins, Mark Justice, Brian Meredith and Kevin Noel Olson.   It's a great collection and all art in the book, to include that gorgeous cover above, is by our own Ace of Illustrators, Rob Davis.  Please, go over to our Air Fare page and click on to any Wild Cat Books link.   Or simply go directly to (http://www.Lulu.com/wildcatbooks)    Anthony Schiavino designed the book and I honestly think it is his best for us so far.  Wait till you see what he has coming up next for our final 2006 offering;  THE MOON MAN.  Not to be missed, pulp-lovers.

One more week and it's off to Varillo's in Porltand, Me. for the Comic Con.  Counting the days.  Hope to see lots of you airmen there.

All for another week.  Again, look at those river pictures and go out there and enjoy what is yours for free.   It will do you all a world of good.   Ron, over and out.

Greetings loyal airman.  Looks like as yet another banner, all out week for the crew of Hangar 27.  Up first the best news of all.  Our second Captain Hazzard pulp novel, the first new adventure in over 68 years, is now available from Wild Cat Books.  The book went on sale earlier this week and is already showing sales signs of being our most successful pulp yet!   Kudos to the amazing Team Hazzard.  My co-writer and dear friend, Martin Powell, fantastic artists Tom Floyd (cover) & Rob Davis (interiors) and the unbelievably imaginative book designer, Anthony Schiavino.  Take my word for it, airmen, this is by far our best looking volume to date.  And of course a humungous tip of the hat to publisher Ron Hanna, who makes all this possible.  Now, flip on over to the Air Fare page where you'll find the link where to buy your copy.   Of course if you haven't bought Captain Hazzard #1 Python Men of the Lost City, sheesh..what are you waiting for?  Then again maybe your not one of those airmen who likes thrilling, action filled yarns?  These books are slam-bang in your face with action galore.  Not for the weak of heart.  
                                          
 

And if the publication of my latest novel wasn't enough big news, wait until you read what happened on the promotional front.  They say in this world of ours, everyone eventually gets their fifteen minutes of fame.  Well between the start of this week and today, it looks like mine was stretched to twenty.  Ha.  First up the national magazine, BACK ISSUE #18 appeared on the newstands this week and inside it is a very long, and well written story of my involvement with the Green Hornet comic book series that was published by Now Comics in the early 90s.  Perhaps the one comic book title I am most remembered for.  Writer Michael Browning dis a yeoman job of interviewing myself and all the principles who brought about that amazing series and tells the inside story on who did what and when to make it happen.   It was very much like a happy trip down memory lane reading through the piece.  Oh, and it is jammed packed with lots of Green Hornet artwork from artists Jeff Butler and Steve Erwin.  Above is the cover for the issue, don't delay.  I hear they are dissappearing off the racks fast!!

So there I was on the national stage.   Now comes today and our local newspaper, Foster's Daily Democrat comes out with their supplement magazine, Showcase, cover featuring my pulp book, Captain Hazzard – Python Men of the Lost City.  Inside is as another long article on my writing career, this one focusing specifically on my new entry into pulps, my connection with Wild Cat Books and displays the covers to all my books in full color.  There's also a side-bar on artist Rich Woodall and his work for our first anthology title,  LANCE STAR – SKY RANGER.  All in all it's a great report that I hope all you local airmen will be sure to pick up and read.  My hat goes off to Showcase Editor Kristan and writer Tim Robinson who somehow managed to get all the facts right.  He's a good writer and even made my life sound exciting.  Ha.

What with all this notoriety, many of you are probably right now wondering, Geez, when will we ever get a chance to meet Ron and maybe buy some of his cool books?   Well, ask no more.  This is your first heads-up airmen, so mark your calendars.  I am going to be a guest at a one day Comic Convention to held at Verillo's Convention Center in Portland, ME. on the 22nd Oct.   Only a few weeks away.  The con is being sponsored by the good people at Primate Productions and besides your trusty Air Chief, there will be another half dozen very cool guests and lots and lots of vendors.  So please, make plans to come down and say hi.  Besides the pulp books, I will also have on hand my movie-based comic, FRANK NG-HIRED GUN, along with tee-shirts and posters based on soon to be released film, GOD OF VAMPIRES.  These have to be seen, they are just gorgeous.  And very, very reasonably priced.  So bring them pennies and dime.  Ha.

Lastly, the Fortier Clan celebrated two very special birthdays this past week.  Taryn Fortier, down there in Bethel, Conn. turned 5 years old!!  She's getting to be such a young lady.   And half way across the country in Ft.Collins, CO, her cousin Alex Horne became 9!  He's shooting up like a rocket, that kid!  So Happy Birthday Taryn and Alex, from Pep.  I love you more than words can say.

And on that joyous note, take for another week, airmen.  And laugh, it really is the best medecine of all.
Ron – over and out! 

                                                           
Greeting loyan airmen, it is my sincerest hope that all of you are well and happy as we roll into what is the most beautiful season in New Hampshire, Fall.   Colors are about to erupt over the landscape draping the mountains and valleys in bright hues of red, orange and yellow.  During my short stint in the military, October was the month I missed most not being home.  Then again having been born in November, I guess I'm very much a Fall soul.

One of the interesting things of life I've been a student of most of my adult years is the connect-the-dot theory.
Basically no one act, be it benevolent or cruel, is ever unconnected to the other events in your life.  Case in point, what happened last week-end.   It deals with something I was involved with several years ago.  You see I wrote a three act play called WHERE LOVE TAKES YOU and it tells the story of how my mother and father met and fell in love in the months just prior to the start of World Wark II; and how they had to put their romance on hold for nearly five years while he was off serving his country in the South Pacific.  I'd heard the story from both of them hundreds of times growing up and was so enamored of it, I finally set it down on paper.  Well, as a play which, to my blind first-timer's luck, actually got produced.   A wonderful community theater group; the Sanford Maine Theater Company put it over a week-end, three sold-out performances that most of my family had the opportunity to see and enjoy.  Opening night with my mother in the front row was a high I will never-ever forget.  Afterwards I tried in vain to interest another company in doing it, but alas, had no success and began to wonder if I'd ever see it staged again.

I've been keeping most of you update with all the pulp books I am producing for Ron Hanna's Wild Cat Books and I'm having a great time in the process.  I'm currently working with 22 writers and 8 artists on so many titles that I can't remember all of them off-hand.  It's hectic but fun.  Well, a few weeks ago I was called by a local journalist asking if he could come over and interview me about this new career of mine as a pulp writer/editor.   His name is Tim Robinson and he came over last Sat. afternoon.  Well, lo and behold, before getting into the pulp stuff, Tim started asking me about my play!  It seems he had visited the hangar, seen it listed on my credits page and wanted to know all about it.  Turns out he is the member of a theater group in nearby Portsmouth whose mission it is to promote and produce plays by local writers.   And he very much wanted to read my play, after we  wrapped up the pulp-interview-article thing.  I sent it off to him a couple of nights ago and am now waiting to see what happens next.  Will they want to produce or not?  All fingers are crossed.  As you can see, the last thing I expected in getting ready for interview about my pulp work was to end up possibly seeing my play produced a second time.  See what I mean about connnect-the-dots?  You just never know.   Oh, and the lovely young lady in that poster above is my mother, Gabrielle Richer-Fortier at the age of 17.  Wasn't she a doll?

And that wasn't the end of weird resurfacings for your Hangar Chief.  Nope, I was going to get another very big surprise within the next 48 hours.

A little over two years ago I did a 16 page crime comic called..TEMPLE & NASH – The Cockroach Conspiracy.  It's still available for sale over on our Air Fare page if any of you are curious.  I did it with a gifted young artist from Tampa, Florida named Johnny Atomic.  It was Johnny's first comic work and it led to his opening up an entire new art studio down there.  He's been very successful at it.  So the Monday afternoon after the interview week-end, Johnny called and said he'd recently become involved with a Tampa based Film Production looking to start making small-budgeted-independent movies.  They are interested in my writing a 90 minute movie for them based on our comic characters!!  That's one of them in the illo above, Detective Vincent Nash.  Now as tantalizing as this may seem, let me assure you most such options rarely materialize.  Still I wasn't about to pass up on the opportunity.  I wrote a four page story treatment detailing the script I would write if given the green light and sent it off.  Johnny will pass it on to the Film people and they'll make their decision.  If yes, then I'll be flown down to Tampa and meet with them to see where we go from there.  If not, well, the last few days have been exciting and writing the treatment was fun. 

So as you can see, things have been rather exciting around the old hangar.  Will either of these wonderful projects actually get off the ground?  Who can say?  The odds are overwhelmingly against both for so many reasons, I won't elaborate.  Still, I've always been an optimist and have made lots of my dreams come true.  Let's see if two more are in the wings.  I'll keep you posted, in the meanwhile you all keep me in your prayers.

That's it (as if it wasn't enough..ha) for this week, airmen. Take care, Ron over and out.

Greetings loyal airmen.  Well another week has zipped past us and the older I get the more I sit back and reflect just how fast life does move.  Lots of good and fun things have happened in just seven days.  So let's dig into them.

First up, two weeks ago my good friend and working associate, Anthony Schiavino e-mailed me with an idea to launch as yet another internet site.  He wanted it to be a place where all the new pulp writers and artists we were  working with on various projects, could meet and promote their efforts.  It wasn't that I was totally negative to the idea.  But in the past I have belonged to all kinds of internet forums and ultimately stopped going to them  because I was simply too busy with my own writing.  So why bother, I thought, and told Anthony that.  Well give him credit, he was not undaunted by my less than enthusiastic response and replied he was going to give it a shot regardless.  He asked if  I ha any ideas for a possible title?  I was in the middle of writing my Phantom story and thought if you wanted to play up the true essence of the pulps, which were built more on sweat than inspiration, then you should have something to reflect that.  Ergo, the Pulp Factory.  

Anthony slapped up as a Blogger site where only members could actually create post, but anyone could stop by, read them and leave comments.   Before that first Saturday was over, half a dozen of our colleagues had signed on and during the course of the next week more and more joined up.  I was simply amazed, and delighted to have been soundly proven wrong.   And to celebrate the first week of the Pulp Factory's existence, Anthony even made up a great little cartoon strip.

At the bottom of the last panel is the actual web address for the Pulp Factory.  Please, if you are at all curious, stop on by and check it out.  The logo was illustrated by my good friend, Rob Davis and yes, we already have tee shirts and a coffee mug to go with it.  And…now that we are two weeks old (tomorrow) the list of writers and artists signed on is much larger than reported here.  Never was I so happy to be so wrong.  Tip of the pulp fedora to Anthony.  A true man of vision.

Somewhere in last week's Log Entry, I did mention that the kids were back to school and the old familiar yellow school buses were once again a daily sight in most American neighborhoods.  One of the most unusual things about this opening school year for the Fortier clan is that all five of our grand kids attending school all began the year in a “new” school.   Kristi, the oldest, started high school.  (I know…I'm still in shock over that one..ha.) Her isister Chelsea is in fifth grade at the new middle school.  Out in Colorado, both Cora and Alex, who had been  attending a very special private school, were now entering public grade school.   I am happy to report all four of them are doing just great, as Valerie and I knew they would.

And if you've been counting your fingers, I did say five of our six grand children.  Sure enough, in the town of Bethel, Conn, the above little yellow bus drove up to the home of Ms.Taryn Fortier to take her to the wonderful and always excting world of Kindergarden.

Of course her nine month old brother Logan had to come and see her off, allowing him to inspect this strange looking vehicle up close.  Like his father, Scott, Logan never takes anything at face value.  Taryn had a great first day and since has become really aclimated to the process of school, teachers, learning and fun.  She is a really bright girl (her grandfather said with obvious pride) and is going to do great things.

At the end, I'll leave all of you with this thought that Valerie and I discussed the other day while watching a local bus picking up neighborhood kids.  This being, of course adult wisdom and hindsight.  Isn't the entire concept of eduction truly amazing?  You are brought to a facility where, for eight hours, people teach you things!!  And of course being kids, we detest the entire process.  Ha.  Whereas, as adults, I would love to have 8 free hours a day where my job was to just sit there…and learn things.

That's all for another speedy seven, loyal airmen.  Take care and have a great week, Ron, over and out.

                         
Greetings airmen, have I got a story for you this week.  As most of you know I have been living a dream these past few years by getting involved with pulps as both a writer and now and editor.  One of the recurring themes of the pupsmiths of old was how they were commissioned to write X number of words at any given time to help various editors fill their dozens of magazine titles.  And often with very little notice before hand.  And that's what happened to me over last weekend.

But first a little bit of background.  Moonstone publishing is currently getting into the pulp anthology field in a very big way, much to delight of all we fans.  First they did their award nominated KOLCHAK – The Night Stalker Chronicles.  Then they set about doing an anthology on the famous pulp hero, THE SPIDER.  Those of you who stop by here on a regular basis, know I am a part of that book, having been invited aboard by editor Joe Gentile and what a thrill it was.   Well, shortly after all that, a colleague, Martin Powell, informed me that Moonstone had decided to do as yet a third prose anthology.  This time to feature the classic comic strip hero, Lee Falk's THE PHANTOM.  I thought that was a great idea.  Moonstone already does a fantastic job publishing the comic adventures of the Ghost Who Walks, so who better to do a prose collection.  I wished Martin luck, as he had been invited to participate.

As the summer months went by Martin continued to keep me abreast of his many projects including the Phantom story he was writing.  Finally it was done and he let me read it before he turned it in.   It was a great yarn and I figured this was going to as yet another big winner for Moonstone.  Little dreaming what would happen a month later, long after this book was suppose to be finished.   Early last Saturday morning I received an e-mail from Joe Gentile asking if I would like to write a Phantom story for their anthology?  Boy, did that catch me by surprise.  That book should have been done long-long ago.  I immediately realized they had obviously hit some serious bumps in the road, as Joe further went to say, were I interested, he would need my 5,000 story ASAP.  Ha.

I took a few hours to mull all that over.   It was something out of the blue.  Something I had not been prepared for and if I said yes to doing it, I would have to pull out the stops.  Drop everything I was doing, sit down, come up with a decent idea and then get it written and written fast.   But could I do it?  And would it be any good if I did.  See, you always thought it was easy being a writer.  Ha, no bloody way.  Sometimes it's really, really hard or even scary.  Still, not one to pass by a golden opportunity to write one of the greatest fictional characters of all time, I finally sat down and wrote Joe.  I told him I would do it and I would have the story to him by today, meaning in five days.

In the next three days I went at it and all the time began to understand just how it must have been for all those pulp writers back in the heyday of the pulps.  Working under the gun, trying to make a deadline, getting that word count where it had to be, and no more.  Well, airmen, three days after Joe's letter, I sent him THE FASTEST ANIMAL, a Phantom adventure in 5,000 words and it will be appearing in that anthology book due at the first of 2007!!!   Joe was clearly surprised and thrilled at how quickly I turned around his assignment, and me, I felt good.  Really, really good.  As if all the ghosts of all those wonderful pulpsmiths of old were looking over my shoulder and smiling.  Welcome to the club, they were saying, now your a pulp writer.

Oh,and a special thanks to Tom Floyd for letting me borrow his wonderful Phantom illo to brighten up this week's log entry.

Have a great week, Ron, over and out.

Greetings, airmen.  Well here we go, into the long Labor Day weekend and the unofficial end of summer.  Locally we've been seeing the familiar yellow school buses popping up on neighborhood streets and kids put away their bats and gloves and pick up their books and pencils once more.   First thing Valerie and I noticed was how quiet the block was this morning while on our daily two mile walk.   September is a transitional month, summer's last gasp if you will.  Time to start thinking about the fall and what comes next.

Since coming home from Pulp Con 35 and seeing the successful debut of our LANCE STAR – SKY RANGER book, I've been a very, very busy guy.   Most of this activity all centered around our new series of pulp anthologies that I'm producing for Wild Cat Books, of which LANCE STAR was number one.   Now I'm focused on our second anthology title…SECRET AGENT X.

                                                 
I'm really excited about this book as Agent X is truly a great pulp character with his ability to disguise himself at the drop of a hat.  He was known as the “Man of a Thousand Faces.”   I've assembled a really talented group of creators to do this volume and they include writers, Steven Atkins, Mark Justice, Brian Meredith and Kevin Noel Olson.  Artist Rob Davis is providing all our interior spots and the cover as well.   Recently I also added a new member to our pulp-house team, art designer Anthony Schiavino.   Anthony's a good friend and one of the most talented designers I've ever met.   His work is so brilliant, he brings such a level of enthusiam to his work, it is just a joy to behold.  Anthony has as much fun playing with fonts, logos and layouts as kids have in a toy store.

                                                   
Besides doing the anthologies, I've also started producing other pulp series that will showcase talented newcomers to the field.  One such case is writer Wayne Skiver's new action hero, Prof.Stone.  Wayne had self-published a smaller book of Stone's adventures last year and I bought a copy.   After reading and enjoying his stories, I contacted him and suggested he should be working in a higher-profile outfit ala Wild Cat Books.   Wayne listened to what I was offering and signed on.  The end result, Wild Cat Books, i.e. yours truly, is now putting together a Prof.Stone volume that will not only reprint some of those earlier storis, but include a brand new novella…THE EYE OF RE.   Taking charge of the art for this project is my good buddy from Maine, Michael Mitchell and again, Anthony is on board as our designer.  The above is an advertising flyer they produced together, which Wayne hopes to hand out at the grand opening of the new Lester Dent-Doc Savage Museum in Dent's home town of LaPlata, Missouri.   Mitch has knocked himself on this piece and I promise you all, it is just a small sample of the fantastic work you'll find in the finished book.

Pulps, pulps and more pulps.  You just can't get enough good action adventure fiction, in my humble opinion. Ha.

On other fronts, one of my new favorite actors is Britisher Jason Statham of the TRANSPORTER movies.  He has a new movie coming out today, CRANK, and it looks like a modern day re-write of the classic noir thriller, D.O.A.   In that old flick, the hero, played by Edmund O'Brien,  is injected with poison by parties unknown and has only twenty-four hours to live.  He chooses to spend that time in hunting the person who poisoned him.   It is a classic and was remade sometimes in the 80s, I believe, with Dennis Quaid in the part.   Now the variation on this one is that our hero has been given a drug that will slow down his heart and kill him..within an hour.  Ergo, he has to find a way to keep his adrenalin up while he chases down the bad guys.   Looks to be wild.

Finally, before signing off, a few words on the Red Sox and their sad state of affairs.   Watching this team fall apart has been painful.  At least they did the right thing by veteran pitcher David Wells and let him go to the San Diego Padres, who have a shot at making the play-offs.  This is most likely Boomer's last seaon as a ball player and he deserves to finish in a play-off atmosphere.  He is a trooper who only ever gave the Red Sox his best in the two years he was here.  Good luck, Boomer.  We're pulling for you all the way.

That's it, airmen, for another week.  Take care, one and all.  Ron, over and out.

PRESS RELEASE –
The first official appearance of Wild Cat Books' TEAM HAZZARD will be at next year's Windy City Pulp Con.  TEAM HAZZARD is composed of pulp writers Ron Fortier & Martin Powell, cover painter Tom Floyd, and interior illustrator, Rob Davis.  This is the team responsible for the successful rebirth of the 1938 classic pulp hero, Captain Hazzard.  A few months ago they released their first book, PYTHON MEN OF THE LOST CITY, which was a completely re-edited and rewritten version of the one and only Captain Hazzard magazine. 

In a few short weeks they will be releasing the first new Captain Hazzard book in 68 years, THE CITADEL OF FEAR.  Work is now moving full speed ahead on the third adventure in this new series, THE CURSE OF THE RED MAGGOT.  All three books will be available for sale at Windy City Pulp Con 2007, as well as original artwork from the books.  Hope to see you all there.   For TEAM HAZZARD, Ron Fortier.

END OF PRESS RELEASE –

Greeting loyal airmen, as you can well see by the announcement above, things have not slowed down one iota since returning to Hangar 27 after my exciting trip to Pulp Con # 35.  If nothing else, things have really started moving ahead lots faster on many of our pulp related projects.   And before I forget, to help celebrate the creation of TEAM HAZZARD, we've opened up a gift shot at the Hangar, via Cafe Press.  So be sure, after reading this week's log, to click on to the Air Fare page and check out all the goodies we have there.  Pick one up and you'll become an official member of TEAM HAZZARD.

Oh, and in case any of you would like a picture of the group, and our illustrious publisher, Ron Hanna, look no further.

Here we have, seated, publisher Ron Hanna, surrounded by, left to right, me, Martin Powell, Rob Davis and the big guy in the back is Tom Floyd!!

OOPS!!  WRONG PICTURE!!!   Ha.  Okay, just kidding here people.  That really is an illustration from my forthcoming children's book, YARD ELVES VISIT INSPIRATION PARK.   I'm doing this for my son, Alan, and the community of Ft.Collins, Colorado, in honor of their soon to be opened children's park.  The artists on this project is my life long pal, Gary Kato.  Will post more as it comes in.  And of course once it is up and for sale, I'll let you know where to pick up a copy.  Gary is doing a great job, as is our book designer, Matty Ryan.  This is going to be a fun book.

And that, loyal airmen, about wraps another week.  Sadly, Coach-a-saurus couldn't get the job done last week and the Yankees trounced our beloved Red Sox.  There was much crying, gnashing of teeth and what not, last week.  But hope does spring eternal.  There is still a lot of baseball to be played.  And the Fat Umpire hasn't called his last strike yet. 

Take care, and have a great week, Ron, over and out.

Greetings loyal airmen, I come to you this week with a harrowing tale of adventure, one in which 50% of crew lost theirs lives in horrible fashion.  It all happened days after our return from Pulp Con 35.  My publisher, Ron Hanna was eager to play host and wanted to show me all the sights and sounds of his hometown, Winchester, Virginia.  “Hey, I've got an idea,” he announced after breakfast.  “Let's go to Dinosaur Land.”  Well, it turns out this was supposedly some innocent, family park located only a few miles down the road.  Still, in all the years he had lived here, Ron admitted never having visited the attraction.  I should have immediately seen this as a very bad omen.

Next thing I know both of us are in the tacky, all American souvenir shop plunking down $5 each to pass through the turn stile and entered the amazing Dinosaur Land.  Probably just somebody's backyard with papermache monsters I thought to myself.
                                             
For the next few minutes, Hanna and I walked along a shaded forest path, but alas, no dinosaurs?  We decided to split up, hoping we'd have better luck.  It was a hot and humid day and I began to wonder if we'd really ever see any monsters.  I mean, come on, how hard is it to spot a giant lizard thingee?

                                              
From over the hill, I heard Hanna yelling.   “Snake!  Snake!”  Figured he must have encountered one of those little garden snakes you find all over this time of the year.  So I just yelled back, “Don't be such a baby!  Just stomped your feet and it will go away.”   It was the last I heard or saw of him?  Of course, how could I know we'd actually stumbled upon the Lost World of Arthur Conan Doyle's novel.  Only it wasn't in South America or some other exotic jungle of the world, but right here in our own back yard…in the sleepy little state of Virginia!!

At this point, I thought it best to calmly exit the grounds in a cool and collected manner.
                                             

And that is how I survived to tell the tale, loyal airmen.   Another harrowing adventure in the life Captain Ron and the old Airship 27.  One I will never forget, oh poor Ron Hanna….woe is he.  But all is not in vain, airmen.  Oh,no, for you see, as I was fleeing…ah…leaving the area, I spotted a very unique dinosaur…Coach-A-Saurus by name.  After a few hasty words and the promise of fresh, Yankee treats to dine on, I convinced him to return to New England with me for this week-ends five day contest against the New York sluggers.  Happily he was only too glad to sign on.              
                                        
So, bring it on, Yanks, we're ready for yah!!!

Have a great week, me I need a sedaitve.  Ron, over and out.

Wow, airmen, that post-Pulp Con log entry was really getting long.  Figured it was time to jump to another page and call this one Part Two.  Just a real wrap up if you will.  If you've yet to read Part One, go to the Flight Log page, where the archives are kept.  The true joy of attending this con was all the gracious, talented folks I met there.  Being able to finally meet Ron Hanna, my publisher and pal, for the first time was a joy. Then there were all the great pulp folks from Nick Carr to David Walker.   And oddly enough, when folks found out I was the same Ron Fortier who had written the old Green Hornet comic, lo and behold, I discovered I was actually shaking hands with true fans.  People said such nice things about my work on that series, I must have been blushing all the time.

                     
One of these people who came up to introduce himself to me was writer John Wooley.   A nicer man you are never going to meet.  John and I both started our comics writing careers back in the 70s and worked for a whole lot of small, independent outfits.   John wrote one of my all time favorite pulp-inspired series, THE TWILIGHT AVENGER.  It was illustrated by one of my old friends, Terry Tidwell. (See illo below).  John has been a huge devotee of the pulps.  The photo above is his playing our commercial announcer during the Shadow radio play.
Later that same night, John won the prestigious Lamont Award given every year to the person who has done oustanding work in support of pulp collecting.   It couldn't have gone to a more worthy fellow.
                               
THE TWILIGHT AVENTER…as written by John Wooley and drawn by Terry Tidwell.  What a great comic book this was.  They also did another called the MIRACLE SQUAD.   These guys knew how to do good comics.

And so, airmen, that wraps up my coverage of my first ever Pulp Con.  What can I add that all these pictures don't say a whole lot better.  This is a great show and kudos to all the hardworking folks who put it on every year.  I hope to go back, someday.

Right now its back to the work and projects at hand.  I hope all of you have at least gone over and checked out our newest pulp offering…LANCE STAR – SKY RANGER.   The stories are top-notch, and Rich Woodall's art is just amazing from cover to twelve gorgeous spot illustrations.  Below is the back cover, as laid out by our designer, Vincent Sneed.
                                         
Pulp wise, we are currently in production on the second Captain Hazzard novel, CITADEL OF FEAR and with fingers crossed it may be out in a few months.  Our regular cover painter, Tom Floyd, is busy these days doing all the interior illos for Moonstone's new SPIDER anthology.   Meanwhile I'm hard at work on Captain Hazzard number three, CURSE OF THE RED MAGGOT.  How's that for a pulpish title?  Ha.

Finally, it seems ironic that THE WORLD TRADE CENTER movie should be playing in theaters just as a new group of terrorists is caught in the middle of planning new terror attacks on Cross-Atlantic flights.   I am constantly amazed at the short-term-memory loss that infects our society today.   We seem to forgotten that only a few short years ago, we as a country, were attacked, without provocation and that nearly  3,000 innocent men and women (representing 87 nationalities) were murdered horribly by a group of fanatic radical Islamics.   We did not go into Afghanistan or Iraq for oil as the American Left accuses.   And wether there ever were Weapons of Mass Destructions in Iraq is not important.  What is important is that both these countries openly harbored and supported the people responsible for 9-11.   That was reason enough to go over there and take them on.  We are in a war.  One we did not start.  You can choose to bury your head in a hole and wish it to go away, but that will never happen. No, you have only one of two choices in any war.  Either withdraw from the enemy's turf, and then fight him on America soil (trust me that is the only alternative you have) or stay the course and fight him in HIS backyard.  Personally, I like my streets and neighborhoods free of combat.

I love my country.  I despise her enemies.  

That's it, loyal airmen, have a great week.  Ron, over and out.