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.
                   
              

                                    
Greetings, Airmen, well here it is Tuesday, and I'm back at the Airship 27 Hangar after a fun filled week-end in Dayton, Ohio, attending Pulp Con #35.  That's how many years they have been holding these gathering of true pulp magazine fans.  I met so many wonderful people there, and have some great stories to relate.  So I've decided to post early this week and keep adding to this one post as the week goes along.  So please, if you've read it today, come back tomorrow etc. as I will be adding lots of photos of the con itself.  But before I get to that fun and games, another happening over the week-end occured while I was in Dayton.  The first book in the new pulp anthology series I'm editing for Wild Cat Books was published.  LANCE STAR – SKY RANGER features four great new adventures of the 1930s flying hero by Frank Dirscherl, Bobby Nash, Bill Spangler and Win Scott Eckert.  The book is available at Lulu.com – Son Scott will be posting this cover and a link on our Air Fares page later this week.  But don't wait till then, go on over to Lulu and check it out.  The art, cover and interiors are all by the amazing Rich Woodall.  It's a great looking…and reading new pulp book.
                                          
This shot was snapped by William Lampkin, one of the many pulp-friends I've known via the internet and was finally able to meet at this show.  William took lots of great photos, including this one of me in Sell-Mode.  I do tend to get animated when talking about the literature of the fantastic…ha.  Note, distinguished gentlemen to my right in this photo is noted Canadian pulp historian/writer, Don Hutchinson.  It was a real pleasure to meet Don and be his con-neighbor for four days.  Behind Don is another friend, David Walker.  Who is now a new loyal airman.

                     
Three of the oldest, and most respected pulp fans were in attendance and I had the good fortune to meet two of two of them, from left to right, Al Tonic, Nick Carr and Ray Beam.  Nick is a pulp historian who wrote scores of articles on pulps that appeared in fanzines for years.  Ron Hanna, publisher of Wild Cat Books, with whom I attended Pulp Con is Nick's literary agent and just published a brand new book on his articles and essays that sold like hot-cakes.  As for Al, I had the good fortune of sitting beside him at the Saturday banquet and he was all ears about my revival of Captain Hazzard.  What a great guy.  As for Ray, I sadly did not get to meet him this time around.
                 
One of the great joys of this trip was meeting William Lampkin, above with yours truly.  William manages Pulp.Net, one of the greatest on-line sites devoted to the pulps.  It was by tripping over his site that I first discovered the amazing world of pulps now available on the internet and eventually led to my new career as a pulp writer.  He's a great guy and now, new pal.

               
Okay, Airmen, here it is Wednesday morning and a few more shots for you.  The one of above I call the Two Rons.  The fellow to my right is none other than the dude responsible for my new pulp career, my trip to Pulp Con and lots of other happy things in my life.  He's Wild Cat Book publisher, Ron Hanna.  A really great guy. It was a ball hanging with him in Dayton.
               
And here I am with fellow Flearun Forun amigo, Mr.Duane Spurlock.  An easy going dude, Duane is currently writing a new Ki-Gor Jungle Lord story for my anthology series.   Was a real pleasure meeting him at last.

          
One of the biggest highlights of my trip to Pulp Con was being cast in a dramatization of a Shadow radio play.
They do these quite often at pulp related cons and it was a thrilled to get up on stage with these other fans and imagine myself a radio actor in New York City in 1937.  The show we did was DEATH TRIANGLE and I played the villian, Corvet.  It was a blast!  Of course I'm the fellow in the white shirt about to start spouting his lines.

                                            
As a young man reading comics and dreaming of some day having a career as a writer, one of my all time favorite comics writer was Gerry Conway.   Either alone, or when he worked with his pal, Roy Thomas, Gerry wrote of the best DC and Marvel books ever produced.  Over the years, he drifted out of comics and moved to Los Angeles going to work for the movie-tv people.  I'd see his name pop up on the credits of LAW AND ORDER all the time, but thought it was another writer with the same name. Couldn't be the comic guy, I thougth.  Wrong.  Imagine my surprise when on Sat, the last day of the show, this gentlemen walks up to our table and begins a livelyconversation with Ron Hanna…and his name tag says GERRY CONWAY.   I introduced myself, shook his hand and thanked him for all the great comics that had so entertained me.  And yes, he is the same guy who writes all those gritty, tough Law and Order shows.  Amazing.  It was a real pleasure and honor to meet one of my personal heroes at long last.

Oh, and Scott has put LANCE STAR – SKY RANGER up at our Air Fare page.  So if you haven't gone over to check it out.  Please, give it a try.  It's a dandy pulp anthology and I think you'll like it.  Okay, today is Thursday.  For real.  I've been getting my days confused ever since I came home from Dayton, ha.  One more day of posting to this…my longest log entry ever!

TO BE CONTINUED…
                                        

Greetings loyal, airmen.  Last Sunday saw the first ever Fortier Comics Creators Pool Party.  As you can see by the photos attached, we had a very good turn out and Valerie and I were delighted.    We got to spend a hot, summer afternoon with lots of good food and drink and much more lively conversations with old and new friends.

From left to right is Thomas Young, his dad, writer Larry Young and daughter Annika.  Then my better half, Valerie, next to artist Michael “Mitch” Mitchell, his son Brandon, yours turly in the Hulk shirt, Kyle Mitchell and his mom, the gracious Laurie.   Larry and I have known each other for more years than I can count and he is one terrific writer.  Whereas Mitch and I only hooked up a short few weeks ago and with this first ever meeting, are now good pals.  Have some fun pulp projects lined with Mitch.

Also showing up to get into the fun were several of guys we met during the Paperback Bazaar Comic School Rich Woodall and I gave over the winter.  In this shot are artists Adam DeGagne and Tom Bonello. Tom is the fellow I'm currently doing the BULLDOZER comic with. Check out our gallery for images of his great work.

And this happy trio is made up of Green Landern super fan, and cartoonist max, Alex Eggleston, with humor writer Josh Florence and his girl friend Christine.  Alex, Josh and I are involved with a cartoon strip called ROBOT-GUY which sooner or later you are going to see on the web.  All these young men abound in talent and truly helped make the afternoon a fun event.  Enough so that you can expect to see this become an annual event at the Fortier Homebase.  Thanks one and all for coming down and making it a blast.

Oh, and yes, some of the guys did take a plunge into the pool.  Although the truth, Larry's two, Thomas and Annika didn't get out longer than five minutes all afternoon and lovely Annika looked like a happy prune when she finally did get out.  I also gave tours of the Batcave (my new den and office) to those few visitors who had yet to revel in the experience.  Ha.

On to comics stuff.  Back in the 1930s, after Bela Lugosi's big hit with the film DRACULA, Universal begged him to come back and do a sequel.  Alas, Lugosi had already done the Count numerous times on American stages and with the completion of the movie version, he was finished with the part.  He adamantly refused to do a sequel.  But Universal was not to be put off doing another vampire tale, as DRACULA had made lots of money and as we all know, Hollywood thrives on sequels to big hits.  Thus they went and made a sequel called
DRACULA'S DAUGHTER, starring actress Gloria Holden; a bit player, this would be her only starring feature. The story picks up where DRACULA ends, with the Count's beautiful daughter Marya, coming to London to see to the remains of his body.  Once in England, she enters high society and attempts, through pyschology to cure her lust for blood.  Of course it doesn't work and soon she has her manservant prowling the night time streets of London to bring her victims; one of these is a lovely blonde lass.  DRACULA'S DAUGHTER is considered one of those lost and forgotten classics among horror fans and is critically a better produced film.
It's blatant erotic overtones certainly make it a more adult movie.    I saw it long ago and never forgot it; it is now a treasured part of my DVD collection.   Over the years I dreamed of rewriting my own version and eventually got around to doing so.  But not wanting to be accused of merely copying Universal's story, mine is called.THE DAUGHTER OF DRACULA…and is an original drama from start to finish.   I initially wrote it as a 108 graphic novel and then later rewrote it as a film script.

A little over two years ago, while surfing the web one night, I found an old comic artist pal, Rob Davis.  Rob and I had communicated back in the 80s when both of us had full-fledged careers in the industry.  We had hoped to do something together, but it never happened, much to both our regrets.   So here we were getting reacquainted and in the course of exchaning lots of e-mails, I mentioned DAUGHTER OF DRACULA to Rob and asked if he'd be interested in doing it?  You'll never know how tight my fingers were crossed while I awaited his reply.
Rob wisely asked to read the script.  I sent it off.  Crossed those digits again. Ha. At last he said yes, but with the proviso that he could only do one page a week.  108 weeks!  That's what he was telling me it would take him to do this comic, if I agreed.  But here's the thing, airmen, Rob was going to do it all…pencils..inks..and letters!! Up to that point the script had been sitting my filing cabinet going nowhere.  Of course I said yes, happily.  Well, last weekend, Rob turned in page # 108!!!  The book is finished!!!.  Then only two short days later handed in his pencils for the cover (see a portion of those pencils above).  The piece will now be colored by Freddy Lopez, who works magic with digital coloring.  It is going to blow you away when completed.

Earlier this week Rob posted his own account of this two year project at his web-site (see my links page) and I urge all of you to drop by and read it.  It's insightful and will tell you much more about this amazing artist who has become a truly good friend and partner.   Rob will be at the Chicago Comic Con next week with some pages from DAUGHTER OF DRACULA.  Any of you lucky to be going, please seek him out. His floor table number is 3320 A.   As to what the future holds for this graphic novel, Rob and I do have plans for that and a particular comic publisher in mind.  But it is too early to talk about that now.  I'll keep you posted. Of course my dream is to see the graphic novel become a huge success for both of us, then drop into somebody's lap in Hollywood and become what it was always intended to be, a feature film.  If you are going to dream, airmen, dream big!

And there you have it for this week.   I am off to Dayton, Ohio, next Wed with Wild Cat Books publisher, Ron Hanna, to attend Pulp Con.  If I have time, I might post something here next Tues.  If not, I'll see you back here in two weeks. 

Till then, stay cool, Ron over and out.

Mickey Spillane started writing for the pulps and comics back in the 1930s. When World War II broke out, he entered the serivce and served with distinguishent.  Upon being discharged in 1945, Mickey started his writing career again, this time targeting the new, burgeoning paperback market.  In 1946 his masterpiece of crime fiction, I, THE JURY, was published.  It was the start of a fantastic career and the birth of the toughest private-eye hero of them all, Mike Hammer.  If it can be argued that Dashiel Hammett was the father of the modern day private-eye genre, then Spillane was his rightful heir, or more fittingly  bastard son.  Unlike Sam Spade, Mike Hammer didn't think too much about anything and his way of solving a problem was to attack it, pretty much like the tool he was named for.  He was tough as nails and unsympethetic.  Men envied him, dames lusted for him.  He truly was an American original.  I was born the same year this book was published.  I would find a dog-earred copy of it in a barber shop 14 years later, read it and become a fan instantly.

Earlier this week, at his South Caroline home, Mickey Spillane died at the age of 88.  There won't ever be another like him.  He was the last of the tough guys and rather than mushy sentimentally, we should grab a brew and lift our mugs to the Mick.  Rest in piece, Mick, we are going to miss the hell out of you, pal.

Of course with Spillane's passing, lots of my colleagues have been discussing his body of work and all the movies, good and bad, made from them.  In regards especially to all the actors who've portrayed Mike Hammer.  I never cared for Stacy Keach's TV interpretation and there were only two Hammer's I liked.  The first was Ralph Meeker in the 50s version of KISS ME DEADLY and the second was the 80s take on I,THE JURY with Armand Assante.  Sure, the movie had its flaws, but the pacing and action were great and Assante, in his prime at the time, made a dynamic, edgy, Hammer as I always imagined him.  Now if this ever comes out on DVD, somebody please give me a holler.

This past week has seen lots of activity on the Captain Hazzard front.  Those of you wondering when the comic book version of Python Men of the Lost City is ever going to come out, rest easy.  Most of the art team on this book has been straight out on the project and these people do have full-time jobs and obligations.  Penciller Craig Shepard and inker, Chuck Bordell turned in pages 17 & 18 this week and they are great.  To see both of them in the whole, check out our Gallery section.  With fingers crossed this will wrap early winter.

On the pulp end of things, I've started writing my third Captain Hazzard novel; CURSE OF THE RED MAGGOT.  This one is similar to my efforts on the first book, PYTHON MEN OF THE LOST CITY, where I took the original pulp novel and re-wrote it start to finish.  Whereas this one is a bit trickier.  You see, when Captain Hazzard was cancelled back in 1938, after only one issue, the publisher actually had a second script ready to go.  When the mag folded, the script was rewritten as a Secret Agent X adventure and appeared months later in that particular series as, The Curse of the Red Maggot.  When it was first made known that I was going to be doing new Captain Hazzard books, a pulp fan sent me a xerox copy of that entire Secret Agent X magazine and asked if I'd consider reworking it back into a Hazzard story?   Talk about a challenge. So this week, with Curse of the Red Maggot on my desk beside my PC, I've been slowly rewriting the book and doing my best to revamp it into a bonafide Captain Hazzard adventure.   So far it's been a blast.  I'll keep you posted on when the book is done and ready for publication.

And finally, just in time for the big San Diego Comic Convention now in full swing, the U.S.Post Office has released a series of DC Superhero postage stamps. These things are just too cool, featuring most of the big guns from DC Comics.  Let's hope they do Marvel next.

That's about it for another week, loyal airmen.  Weather here in southern NH is still hot and sticky.  In two days Valerie and I host a Comics Creators Pool Party.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate and make being outdoors fun, instead of miserable.  Fingers crossed.   The Red Sox, after taking a drubbing by the Oakland A's are back on their winning ways, still atop the AL East.  But still a lot of season left to go.  They need a new starting pitcher in the worst way.  Let's hope they get one.

Ron, over and out.

Greetings loyal airmen, hope all of you had a great 4th of July vacation and are enjoying this glorious summer. As promised, I finally got to see SUPERMAN RETURNS last Friday and I liked it a whole lot.  Enough to give it a big thumbs up and recommend it to you.  Now I fully realize half of you are not in agreement with me on this and that's fine.  Art, more than anything else in this world is subjective and it truly becomes a matter of taste in the end.  If I may use a food analogy; two people can sit down and have the exact same dish and walk away with totally different reactions; one thinking it's the best meal they ever ate, the other thinking it's the worst.  And that's been the feelings of most viewers to this particular film.

I don't feel I have to justify or defend my liking the movie, but since several of you, whose opinion I do value, made a point of telling me why you didn't like this film, well, now it's my turn.   First up I think the action was top-notch. The opening plane/space shuttle sequence is one of the most intense I've ever seen up on that big silver screen.  For the most part the action stuff was extremely well handled.   Acting-wise, I was totally impressed with Brandon Routh's Superman/Clark Kent and thought he played both exactly as had the late Christopher Reeve.  And since this movie was intended from the very start to be a continuation of Reeve's first two outings, I thought this interpretation was perfect.   Kevin Spacey was by far the scariest Lex Luthor I have ever seen.  Now I did like Gene Hackman's comedic take, which Spacey aped beautifully, but he took the pyscho factor up a notch, which is what was always missing from Hackman's version.  I truly saw Spacey's Luthor as a sociopath capable of killing thousands of people and not shedding a tear.   I liked Frank Langella's Perry White and the cameo's by Jack Larson and Noel Neil were precious.   And lastly, I loved John Ottman's continuation of the John Williams score.  Hearing that opening fanfare in the theater was like welcoming back lots of great memories.  It told me I was about to see old friends again and it didn't lie.

Of course there are things wrong with the movie. That can be said for every single movie ever made. My most annoying moment was the ridiculous lapse of common sense on Lois's part when she goes out to investigate wrong doing and brings her child along.  What kind of Mom is she?  For a woman who supposedly won a Pulitzer, she's not all that bright where her child's safety is concerned.  Duh.  And the entire rebirth of Krypton real-estate plot was muddled a best.  Then again hard science has never been a strong factor in comic book based stories, ha.

Lastly, one more food analogy before we leave this subject.  If you go to somebody's house and they are having a frosted cake for desert and you ask them, “Gee, what flavor is it?”  And they reply, “Vanilla.”  And you don't like vanilla, then cutting into that cake, take a bite and then yelling foul is totally not fair.  Why the analogy?  Because director Bryan Singer has been telling the world that he was making a Richard Donner Superman continuation movie right from the start.  That was no secret.  Yet, of all the criticisms leveled at this movie, this one continually comes up and it drives me nuts!!  Oh, I didn't like it being a Donner/Superman movie people say as if it was a surprise to them.  To which I reply, if you didn't want to see a Donner/Superman take, then why did you bother to go see the movie in the first place?  Did you think Singer was just making this up?  That is an unfair critique on anybody's part.  In the end, those people who love this character and were dissapointed by the movie, I sincerely feel for them.  I do.  I don't like knowing my friends were let down and dissappointed.  But I wasn't.  I was entertained.   This time around I was the lucky one.  Maybe next movie it will be your turn.

On other fronts, this past week I, and my writing partner, Martin Powell, wrapped up our new Captain Hazzard novel, CITADEL OF FEAR.  It is now off to my publisher, Wild Cat Books.  Rob Davis has nine spot illustrations to add, as well as our old amigo, Tom Floyd providing a brand new painted cover.  Once published, hopefully within the next couple of months, it will be the very first all new Captain Hazzard adventure in nearly 70 years!!  Now that's something worth shouting about.  Ha.

Finally, I've been enjoying the new BLADE TV series based on the hit Marvel movies.  It's a new cast, but the same all vampire action that made the films popular.  It runs on Spike TV at 10 PM on Wednesday nights and is really worth catching.  I'm very impressed with the movie-like-level of action in this series and hope it keeps up.

That's it for another week, loyal airmen.  Thanks as ever for stopping my.  I truly appreciate it.  Ron, over and out.

Greetings loyal airmen.  Well, time does march on, as I discovered this past week when Jerry Edwards wrote to tell me one of the earliers comic characters I ever worked on was officially 25 years old this year.  Which really got me to thinking.  The truth is, Mr.Jigsaw, Man of a Thousand years is around 29 actually.  But let me explain.   Way, way back, almost 30 years ago now, artist Gary Kato and I submitted a short sci-fi comic strip to Charlton Comics (now long gone) for a try-out mag they were calling Charlton Bullseye.   They accepted the strip and then surprised us by asking for more.  That's when Gary informed me he wanted to do a comedy super-hero.  One who could dismember himself at will, and then by that very will, control those body parts.  From that I envisioned and wrote Mr.Jigsaw, a not too swift young fellow from the backwoods of Maine who ends up coming to Portland to begin his career as a super-hero.

By the time Gary finished illustrating that first, origin story, the Bullseyes project had been cancelled and we really thought we'd never see Jiggy in print.  Lo and behold the editors looked at the pages, loved them and promsied to run the strip somewhere in their line of books.  Sure enough the following year, Mr.Jigsaw appeared on the cover of Scary Tales #38.  Where he was promptly seen by…ten people, maybe.  Just kidding.  Whatever the number, one of them was writer-columnist, Tony Isabella.  Tony took a shine to Jiggy and went as far as to flag the late Don Thompson about our Maine based hero.  Thompson in turn listed our story as one of the Top Twenty of that year.  Amazing.

Jerry, by the way is Mr.Jigsaw's biggest fan and has been around since the start when he wrote me a wonderful letter after having read that first story in Scary Tales #38.  In fact, to celebrate the anniverary of Jiggy's birth, Jerry is putting together a fanzine of sorts that will be an official check-list of all Jiggy's appearance, and a detailed account of his history.  Since the comic stuff, Gary and I have done several website adventures with Jiggy and he is now currently found at Brian Meredith's excellent site, Modern Pulp.  The beat, as they say, goes on.

A few months ago, my daughter Heather gave me a copy of WICKED by Gregory Maguire.  It is a humorous,  retelling of the story behind the famous L.Frank Baum WIZARD OF OZ tale.  Whereas in this story, Maguire gives us the biography of the Elphaba, the witch herself, and the story he spins is a far cry from what was seen up on the silver screen.  You see, Maguire, wants to add some depth to the witch.   After the movie became a classic, a lot of focus came to Margaret Hamilton, the wonderful actress who played the Witch.  It was especially poignant when it was learned she was once a grade school teacher who always loved children.  It's my gut hunch that Maguire tried to infuse that kind of goodness in his portrayal. WICKED is a terrific book filled with imagination and heartache.  Pick it up, you'll enjoy it.

Finally, before sending this week's log to the presses, a warm hello two new airmen from across the big waters. Kaan is an artist from France, and Joaquin Agreda, a writer of the fantastic from Spain. Thanks for stopping by the Hangar, amigos.  And more importantly for writing to say hi.  I'm thrilled to have you on board.

And that loyal airmen wraps up another week in the hangar.  Am closing up shot early this afternoon, as Valerie and I are off to catch SUPERMAN RETURNS at the local movie house.  I'll let you know my thoughts, good or not so good..next time.

Have a great week, Ron, over and out.