Greeting a whole day early, loyal airmen. I normally do log entries only on Friday morning, but this one is a bit different. You see, after almost twenty-some odd years of dreaming and working to get out a Captain Hazzard pulp book, it’s now here! Yesterday morning Wild Cat Books announced the release of my rewrite of the
original novel, PYTHON MEN OF THE LOST CITY, in an absolutley gorgeous volume. The stunning cover is by Tom Floyd and the interior features nine terrific illustrations by Rob Davis. Add three sneek-peek chapters at CITADEL OF FEAR, the first all-new Captain Hazzard novel in over 70 years, an interview with yours truly by WCB publisher, Ron Hanna…and three pages from the proposed Captain Hazzard comic book and it’s clear to see what I am wound for sound.

In the past, all you loyal airmen have been wonderfully supportive and my two previous pulp books are still selling, thanks to you. I hope you’ll jump over to the AirFare page and click on to Captain Hazzard and check it out. If you like slam-bang, all out action, done in the old fashion purple prose style, you are going to love Captain Hazzard.

The greatest marketing tool on the internet has been word-of-mouth. Currently we have approximately 800 of you loyal airmen you stop by the Airship 27 Hangar every single week. Now if all of you were to send out a notice of this book, and it’s link, to any of your family and friends who dig this brand of action fiction, one can only guess at how many others would get the message. It’s the electric ripple in the pond, airmen. Let’s send this wave across the globe.

Oddly enough, yesterday also saw the release of my latest comic book, FRANK NG-HIRED GUN, but whereas the printer has yet to put the book up on their store-site, I am going to hold off ranting and raving about that one (..I mean, how much excitemen can you airmen take..) until next week’s entry. Which will fittingly enough coincide with Free Comic Book Day.

Finally, one little fly in all the fun of yesterday. The day earlier, Valerie and I had gone to the local Wally-Mart to buy a new, small portable TV to put on our breeze-way. You know the same one with the brand new windows I mentioned last week. Well, I hooked it up, turned it on and we watched it while eating lunch out there. The next day Valerie turns it on and it won’t play. We fiddled with it for over an hour and could not get it to work. Good old quality control strikes again. Early this morning it was returned and we got our money back. When the clerk asked if wanted a new one, Val said no-way. If this one was defective, the odds are so are all the others in the same lot. Oh, well, we’ll just keep shopping..at other stores. Ha.

The Red Sox, thanks to all their non-super star players, Adam Stern, Kevin Youkalis, Mark Loretta (amongst others) are on top of the AL East and playing extremely good baseball. As a fan with high blood pressure, I would appreciate them doing more 9 to 1 games. Those low count battles are fraying my nerves all to hell. Ha.

All for this week, go buy Captain Hazzard.
Ron, over and out.

Well here we are, airmen, Holy Week coming to an end with Good Friday and Sunday being Easter. For those of you who share our beliefs,
Happy & Blessed Easter. To our jewish daughter-in-law, Katie, and her family, A Blessed Passover. It’s a fine spring day, with the sun shining bright and I’m mind juggling lots of thoughts and emotions.

Our oldest daughter, Michelle, married a fellow named Chris, who is carpenter/contractor of amazing skills. Being the nerd who could never wield a hammer right, I am always in awe of people who work with their hands. Ever since we moved into the old homestead, Valerie has wanted to get rid of the windows on our breezeway that connects the house with our garage. Well, two weeks ago, having finally sqirreled away enough money to afford them, we ordered five new windows through Chris. This morning, he and his parter arrived at the crack of dawn and within 90 minutes had removed the old windows and completely installed the new ones. Valerie is in seventh heaven.

As she was washing the new windows, the mailman drove into the yard and brought us today’s mail. Amongst the collection was my
monthly stash of comics. I get them from a buddy who manages a comic shop in Ohio. Also
a letter from the Arizona State Prison where
my best friend from my high school days is serving a life sentence for murder. He and I
lost touch after high school, and as the years rolled by would now and then bump into each around town. With each of these brief encounters there was always the promise of getting together socially, but that never happened. Instead, I began to hear, from friends and neighbors that he was having a rough go of life. No matter what he attempted, it failed. Eventually, with a divorce under his belt, he packed his few posessions and took off for the mid-West. Over twenty-five years later,
I learned of the his bad luck had continued to
hound his footsteps, leading to his permanent
incarceration. I managed to contact his younger sister and get a mailing address. I was compelled to write him and renew our contact.
He was my best friend during those awkward years of growing up, when every day is a challenge and mystery you don’t know if you’ll survive or not.
He was a big part of my making it through. Now it’s my turn to reach out and keep him afloat.
Life is funny and sometimes just plain sad.
Each of us would do well, every day, to remember there are always people worse off than we are.
Guaranteed. Then sit back and honestly appreciate what you do have. It’s the right thing to do.

I’m sure by now, the more astute of you have noticed how the hanger has been spruced up with some color touch-ups and new, snazzy fonts. They are a gift from my good pal, Anthony, who started a brand new job this week.
All good wishes going your way, pal. And of course, what Anthony provided, my son, Scott put into use here, as he’s our hangar master mechanic. That’s him above with his son, Logan. Scott’s a great dad and I’m terribly proud of him,as I am of all my wonderful kids.

Oops, almost forgot another Chris. This one my writing colleague, Chris Mills. A few weeks ago he launched as yet another website, this one devoted to B-Movies. It’s a hoot and you really should check it out. THE DVD LATE SHOW, the link is now up on the links pages.

Finally this week, although off to a great start, the Red Sox certainly hit a bump in the road with the Toronto Blue Jays this week. Ouch. But hey, the season is still young and
hope, as ever, springs eternal.

Happy Holidays, airmen. Ron, over and out.

This past Wednesday, I had the truly fun experience of participating in a middle school teacher’s workshop. Al Spader, a science and math teacher at the nearby Rochester Middle School, is also an avid comic book fan. He works part time on weekends at the Paperback Bazaar, our local comic shop. (Another indication that as a society we are so screwed up. We don’t pay our teachers one half of what they are truly worth.) Al had started using graphic novels in with his reading
classes, especially targeting those kids who had difficulties in reading. And his results have been terrific. Enough so that his principal asked Al to run a workshop on the subject of graphic novels as a teaching tool.

So, having been made aware, through the comic shop, of my career in comics, Al invited me to join him for those workshops. I suppose he saw me as both a practioner in the field and someone to provide moral support. I was flattered by the invitation and early Wednesday morning walked into the Rochester Middle school armed with my portfolio of original comic book artwork. I had an great opportunity to meet two of Al’s reading classes and talk to them a little bit about the history of comics and how they are produced. After the kids were dismissed for the day, we had lunch and then the actual workshops began. Al did a fantastic job.
His presentation was very well-thought out and had lots of good stuff for his colleagues to consider and take away. I answered a few questions and made some supportive comments along the way, but it really was Al’s show and by the end of the afternoon I believe he’d made several new converts to the gospel of graphics.
Comics are still, in America, an underutilized
teaching school. The thing is, today’s teachers are receptive to learning more about comics, unlike when I was growing up. This is a wonderful turn around and bodes well for future generation of young readers.

Al and his fellow teachers are the Rochester Middle School are wonderful instructors and mentors to their charges. The people of Rochester,NH, are truly fortunate to have teachers of this caliber and care in their schools. Thanks for having me, Al.

Well, the official press releases have gone out about my editing a new series of
pulp anthologies for Wild Cat Books. The first of these being Bill Barnes Air Adventurer. I hope to have this volume out somewhere around June or July of this summer. If you would like a sneak-peek at the subject of a future anthology volume, go to my gallery pages. I’ve uploaded some black and white illustrations from the pulps this character appeared in. A final note on my pulp work. CAPTAIN HAZZARD -PYTHON MEN OF THE LOST CITY has been completely put together by ace designer, Vincent Sneed, and delivered to Wild Cat Books publisher, Ron Hanna. With fingers crossed, I’ll posting next week where you can buy a copy. Oh, and for sure, I’ll have the finished cover for all of you to ogle. Ha.

Several items of note now. My writer pal,
Bobby Nash has a new, superhero novel called
FATASTIX out, and it’s available from Amazon.
Check it out. Whereas another associate, Win Eckert, has just written a brand new forward to TARZAN ALIVE. This is a faux history of the “real” Tarzan as written by Philip Jose Farmer that was long-long out of print. Again, go to Amazon and take a look. This is a fun book.

PULSE…a well respected comics site has posted a great interview with Tom Floyd about his webcomic, CAPTAIN SPECTRE (my favorite webcomic these days – see the link). These series truly deserves your support. It’s classic graphic adventuring of the highest order.

Finally a tip of the hat to Airman, Barry
Delmarca from Chicago who guessed my connection with the movie V FOR VENDETTA. The opening sequence of that film shows the notorious Guy
Fawkes being hanged for attempting to blow up Parliament. He was hanged on the 5ht of November and since then, British children have celebrated that date as Guy Fawkes day, sort of their version of our Halloween, in that they get all dressed up and go from door to door seeking treats. Well, what Barry guessed is, Nov.5th is my birthday. Way to go Barry, you are hearby promoted to Airman First Class of Squadron A –
Airship 27!

Another week. Take care one and all, Ron
over and out.

Recently there have been some rumors and official releases out of Hollywood that have me, and other movie lovers, concerned. The first was a rumor about Ben Affleck and Matt Damon doing a remake of BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID and the other, an honest-to-goodness press release that a studio is going to do a brand new DIRTY DOZEN. In the former case, the writers of Entertainment Weekly were quick to lash out at the idiocy of such a propsal. BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID is a much loved, western classic. Near perfection to most fans. So what’s the logic behind wanting to remake it? Ergo, the folks going after the World War II combat classic, want to modernize the story. Huh? So who are the supposed convicts recruits going to be fighting now, arab terrorists? Oh, please, give us a break!! When you consider the fact, and this is simply the law of percentages, that the majority of movies Hollywood puts out every year are just plain awful, you begin to understand why good..or bettet yet, great films are rare..and cherished. Leave them alone. In the past, such stupid attempts have resulted in
trashy, dumb results foisted on the public, lured in by curiosity. Anyone remember
PSYCHO not with Anthony Perkins?? There was one.
Duh! Or how about THE FLIGHT OF THE PHONENIX, albeit a half-way decent action piece, when viewed back to back the original Jimmy Steward original, once again I’m left scratching my head in bewilderment.

Movies aren’t cheap. Even the smallest ones cost millions to make. So, Hollywood moguls, why do you waste all that money on making movies NOBODY wants to see? Where, on the other hand, you have vaults and vaults filled with bad movies just begging to be remade…right! Anyone remember WILD WILD WEST? Oh, please, I know college film students who could have made a better movie. So, come on people, if you agree with me, let’s start spreading one phrase around the internet so that the film people wake up. That pharase…REMAKE BAD MOVIES!!! I want to see bumper stickers.

And before I get a half dozen letters pointing out Peter Jackson’s remake of my beloved KING KONG was brilliant, let me say..YES. It was! But then again, he is the exception that proves the rule. Not every director is Peter Jackson, to our dismay. REMAKE BAD MOVIES!!! It has a certain ring to it, doesn’t

Look out pulp world, here I come. Last weekend, Wild Cat Book publisher, Ron Hanna, graciously invited me to attend PulpCon with him this year. I said okay. I’ve never done a Pulp convention before and am very, very excited about going to this one. It’s held in Dayton, Ohio from 3Aug to 6Aug. So, if any of you loyal airmen are in the area, please stop on by. I hope to be signing copies of..BROTHER GRIM..
THE HOUNDS OF HELL..CAPTAIN HAZZARD-PYTHON MEN OF THE LOST CITY (out in two more weeks) and
BILL BARNES-AIR ADVENTURER. Geez, I never had this many title before me at the comic cons. Ha. Looks to be a great show and here’s hoping I meet lots of new fans/airmen.

And lastly, although Spring officially kicked off this past week, and the weather here in New Hampshire has been shockingly nice, we loyal Red Sox fans are eagerly awaiting Monday, 3 April, when the new 2006 baseball season kicks off. They’ll be in Texas playing the Rangers. And that my friends, is the real start of Spring.
Enjoy.

Till next week, Ron, over and out.

Greetings airmen. I’ve got lots of various odd tid-bits to share with you this week, so let’s get right to them, shall we.

First up, last week the Sci-Fi channel started the new Doctor Who series. It has been running in England, where it is produced, for a while now and the buzz among fans across the pond said this one was a winner. I totally agree, after watching and enjoying to the max, last week’s opening epidsodes. The 9th Doctor is played by Christopher Eccleston and he is damn near perfect in the role. He is an easy mix of action and human, with really acting chops beneath his intelligent face. I like this Doctor a whole lot. And he’s once again accompanied by a very independent and spunky young lady named Rose Tyler, brilliantly done by
Billie Piper. She’s never cute, but rather a capable, daring partner for our favorite Time Lord. If you’ve never-ever watched a Doctor Who adventure, take my word for it, this is the place to jump on board.

The wonder of the interntet amazes constantly. After posting last week about my new pulp anthology starring flying ace, Bill Barnes, I received a wonderful letter from Larry Marshall, up in Quebec. Larry is the edtior of
Flying Model Magazine and asked he could write a piece on our anthology for his column. I was floored. A few exchanges of e-mails later, I recruited Larry to write an article on the connection between those early flying pulp mags and model airplane enthusiasts of that era. It is really going to dress up our book. Thanks, Larry.

My good friend, Anthony, who religiously checks this site out every single week, made a comment to me the other day that I really should try marketing some kind of Airship 27 merchandise. Obviously it is his belief that all you loyal airmen would want to own something relating to the old Hangar 27? Well, Anthony,
and the rest of you, I would direct your attention to the coffee cup above. It’s been around for months. What you have to do is go to the Air Fare link in the upper left here, click on it. Then Click on the Mr.Jigsaw banner.
This will take you the Cafe Press site where this particular item can be purchased. So yes,
loyal airmen, you can start every day with a cup of joe in your own Hangar 27 cup. They make wonderful birthday gifts too.

Couple of internet updates for all of you.
My new Brother Grim comic (written with Chris Mills and artist John Polacek) post a new page every Tuesday over at (www.SupernaturalCrime.com) It’s good stuff.
Check it out. There’s an SC banner on my links page. And very soon, my regular bi-weekly Pulp Fiction column will also start appear over at
Blake Wilkie’s League of Talent site. I’ll include the url next week. Guess that really makes me syndicated now. Ha.

Saw V FOR VENDETTA, based on the Alan Moore graphic novel, last week and liked it very much.
Trivia question. Can any of you tell me the personal connection I have the the opening scene of that film?

Finally, I got an e-mail from a dedicated fan named Michael Browing this past week. Seems Mike is a true fan of my work on Now Comics GREEN HORNET series and he was hoping he could interview me for a proposed article he is going to do for Back Issue magazine. If you aren’t familiar with this mag, it is one of several relating to the comic book industry published by TwoMorrows Publishing. They are the same people who put out..Alter Ego, Draw and Write. All these excellent magazines are devoted to a specific aspect of the comic book industry and if you are a budding writer or artist who dreams of a career in this game, you should be reading all of them. Anywho, back to Mike and his request. In the end, he called me and we had a long, long phone-interview. Mike has since gone on to talk with artist Jeff Butler, my partner on the series, and Publisher Tony Caputo. He also has plans on talking with fellow writers Mike Baron and Chuck Dixon. All in all, it looks to be a major piece on the history of that entire series. Mike says, if all goes according to plan, it should be in Back Issues #19. Keep your eyes out, airmen. I’ll be sure to give you a heads up as well.

And there you have it, airmen. Another week, the first of Spring. A really wonderful time of the year. Hope you are all enjoying it to the max. Till next week, Ron, over and out.

Several log entries back, I posted the illustration above by artist Rich Woodall and asked all you airmen to guess what famous pulp hero he was. I got quite a few good guesses, to include G-8 and Dusty Ayers among the more popular. But nobody actually nailed it. The flying action hero above is none other than, Lance Star-Sky Ranger.

He is the star of a new anthology I am going to be editing for Wild Cat Books. Each volume will contain all new stories about a specific pulp star. Choosing Lance Star as the first to open this series was easy. Flying heroes were really popular in the heydey of the pulps and there were dozens of such published monthly. Starr was certainly one of the more famous and his adventures are actually still being produced in South America.

To aid me in getting this first book off the ground, I've recruited four top-notch writers. They are Bobby Nash, Bill Spangler, Frank Dirscherl and Win Eckert. Bobby and I met at Dragon Con in Atlanta several years ago just when he was about to debut his first novel, a thriller called EVIL WAYS. He is one of the most gifted new writers I've ever had the pleasure of reading. Bill Spangler and I go way back, in our comic writing careers. Bill is a newspaper journalist by day and a sci-fi writer by night. Frank Dirscherl is an Australian who loves pulps, as is evidence by his character, THE WRAITH, who stars in both prose books and comics. There's even an independent Wraith movie on the way. This guy has creative drive to spare. And finally, another recent acquaintance, is Win Eckert, another pulp fan and authority. Win loves crossovers and I'm assured his Star story will feature some deligthful cameos from unexpected pulp characters. It's a classy group of penmen.

While I'm at, let me add that both EVIL WAYS and THE WRAITH are still available from Amazon Books. Check them out.

As part of my format, each anthology will sport lots of interior black and white illustrations and a new, colorful cover painting. Each book will spotlight one particular artist. For this premier outing, Rich Woodall, of JOHNNY RAYGUN fame, has taken the job. I've been a fan of Rich's graphic work for several years and when he once, in passing, mentioned wanting to some day spot illo a prose project, I knew I had my man.

So loyal airmen and other pulp lovers, keep your eyers glued to this flight log as I continue to update the progroess of the book. Right now I'm hoping to see in the print by the start of summer. Fingers crossed. At same time, while on the subject of new pulps books, my long-awaited rewrite of CAPTAIN HAZZARD is only weeks away as well. Gonna be a busy time in the old Hangar 27. Stay tuned.

Final reminder, airmen, the new DOCTOR WHO premiers on the Sci-Fi channel tonight. I've heard lots of good things about this new,updated Doctor. Should be fun.

Ron, for another week. Over and out.

Greetings airmen, it’s good to be home. Vacation was a 95% blast of fun. The fact that I caught a wicked chest cold three days into the trip is that 5% negative. Of course having a cold while away from home is a real inconvenience and I found myself, rather than enjoying the new sights, searching for the local drugstore to buy cold meds. And the darn thing refused to go away, staying with me all the way home. Yesterday I made in to the see my doctor, got put on some rugged anti-biotics and am hopefully on the road to good health. If you’re wondering why I bother about something as piccune as a cold, well I have cause. It was a cold last winter that kicked into pneumonia and ultimately led to the that entire spots-on-my-lung circus that I had to endure.
So now I’m really hyper-sensitive about even the tiniest cough.

Man oh man, when I booted up the old computer, I had 153 messages awaiting me. Ha.
And of course 150 of those were spam! Amazing the volume of junk mail, both real and digital, we pollute ourselves with. Do any of these internet companies really make any money off of these intrusive, stupid ads? What a waste of time and energy.

If you’re wondering about the 3 legitimate messages, well those were from fellow creators telling me that various projects we are working on had been delayed. Most frustrating to say the least. But none of these were disasterous, merely minor set-backs that are now being correcting. It’s just annoying to have to keep my friends and fans waiting a wee bit longer for some of these really cool comics.

On a completely postive note, Chris Mills, during my time away, finally launched our brand new 48 pg. Brother Grim comic adventure…BULLETS OF JADE as illustrated by
the gifted John Polacek. Chris is posting a brand new page every Tuesday over at his site,
Supernatural Crime, go over to the banner on my links page and click on it. When the front page comes up, click on the COMIC icon and away you go. Thus far 5 pages have been posted. So go
check it out and let me know what you think.
Please.

Valerie and I did manage to take in a movie while on vacation and we saw the crime thriller
RUNNING SCARED with Paul Walker. We both give it thumbs up as a nail-biting, extremely suspenseful outing with a terrific Mickey Spillane type ending I loved. But be warned, it is extremely violent. Not for kids.

Okay, time to go take some meds. Weather here in New England is changing to pre-Spring.
Saw a cardinal flitting through trees in the front yard this morning. Now that’s a wonderful omen of things to come. You take care, and see you next week. Ron, over and out.

Believe it or not, Rich Woodall and I, this past Tuesday night finished another 8 Week Comic School. Talk about time whizzing by. And above are the trio of talented artists
we handed out certificates to. Pictured from left to right, in foreground our students,
Adam DeGagne, David Freeman and Alex Eggleston.
The dude in the baseball cap waving is of course the comical Mr.Woodall and the old duffer to the right is yours truly. Adam, Dave and Alex are really gifted young men and it was a pure joy to work with them these past few months. Our next class kicks of on the 21st of March. So pass the word along if you know any talented comic book fans in the Southern New Hamphisre/Maine area. It’s a fun course and Rich and I have a ball teaching it.

Heads up air-crew, Valerie and I packing our bags for a week-long vacation. We leave the 1st of March and return home the 8th. That’s a Wed. to Wed., so sadly there will be no Log Entry next Fri. First miss in almost a year.
But I’ll be thinking of all of you, rest assured. As to where we are off to, well that’s a secret. Ever go someplace where relatives live nearby and because you din’t stop by to visit, they declare Holy Jihad? Am sure you know folks like this. Ergo, our destination remains a closely guarded secret. This is a getaway for us, not a visit-distant-relatives trip.

Son Scott sent along more great pictures of our newest grand-baby, Logan, the other day and you didn’t think I’d not post at least one here. Isn’t he a handsome little guy?

What with the really mild winter we’ve had thus far, Valerie and I have been enjoying a rather unique audio phenomenon lately. You see we live by a river and when the sun is out and the air not that cold, we love nothing better than bundling up and going for a long walk along the river-road. Well, for the past couple of days, as the morning sun hits the thick layer of ice on the water, it begins to shift and crack. Thus producing some amazing, almost musical noises that emerge from under the shifting ice. Almost a OOHHOOOMMM sound. What I like to call River Whales. It’s a wonderful, playful sound and another indication Spring really isn’t all that far away.

Before I forget, artist Johnny Atomic’s new website recently launched and he sent along a brand new banner for my links page. Check it out. Johnny is one of America’s premier young illustrators hands down.

Finally, before wrapping this up, I thought I’d leave all you loyal airmen with a puzzle. Sometime later this summer, I hope to edit a brand new anthology book for Wild Cat Books that will feature a very popular 1930s pulp hero. Rich Woodall has enthusiastically volunteered to do illustrations for the volume.
Above is his initial take on our classic hero.
So who do you think it is? Drop me a line if you think you know the answer. (Of course those of you who I have already taken into my confidence about this project are excluded..ha.)
Again, he was a popular pulp hero who did have his own magazine title for many years.

And that’s it. Take care, and I’ll be back at the hangar, all rested up and ready to go, come March 10 – till then, Ron, over and out.

Greetings, airmen. As I write this, artist Rich Woodall and I are wrapping up our second 8 week Comic School. Recently the topic one night centered around the diverse styles that exists in the world of graphic storytelling. I made the comment that even after 30 years in this business, I am still surprised by the appearance of new and original approaches to comic art. After having seen lots (…and lots) of comic art over the years, one begins to identify the particular approaches new artists are using and for the most part be able to trace their particular influences. Example; the first time I saw Paul Pelletier’s artwork, it was obvious he was a fan of John Byrne. Paul’s work was very derivative of Byrne’s techniques. My own good friend, Gary Kato, is a student of the great Steve Ditko. Nothing is wrong with any of this, as all young artists learn from studying those whose work they admired. The trick is not to stay locked in that particular mode overly long in one’s career because it really is living under another’s shadow. The task, and true evidence of real artistic talent, is to grow beyond your influences and develop your own unique, fresh style.

Now every once in a while, and all too rarely at that, an artist will burst on the scene with completely new stuff right from the get go. Again, this doesn’t happen very often and when it does, I take note. It’s hard not to. That’s what happen the first time I saw John Polacek’s art. It simply blew me away because it was like nothing else I’d ever seen before. And he continues to wow me like that to this day.

A few months back I posted some of John’s pages in the Gallery section and announced he’d just signed on to do a 48 pg. Brother Grim comic with me and writer Chris Mills. (note..go check those out and the new pieces I’ve added this past week) When I first suggested John to Chris for this job, he was unaware of John’s skills. Now, with 22 pages of that project under his belt, John is having the same affect on Chris he’s had on me all along.
Both of us are just stunned by what he is producing on a weekly basis. John’s art is dark, moody and just plain different..and I mean that in a good way. The concept of the story is a tale of murder and intrigue all set against the background of a 40ish city known as Port Nocturne. Chris says John is making it look like a classic black and white classic Warner Brothers gangster movie from the 40s and I couldn’t agree more.

In about two weeks or so, Chris is going to start posting the story at his site (www.SupernaturalCrime.com) and will continue to do so until is is finished. At which time we’ll have it printed up. Neither of us has any doubts it will be picked up by a publisher, not after they see John’s work. So stay tuned, airmen, and I’ll announce when the postings start so you can enjoy this tale from page #1. Meanwhile check out these sample panels and see why I’m so bloody thrilled to be working with this young man. It’s just great comics!

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

Greetings airmen, I sincerely hope all of you are doing well. As I mentioned last week, Valerie and I took the Amtrak train from Boston to New Haven, CT, last Sat. to go visit our son Scott, his wife, Katie, daugther Taryn and the lastest member of the Fortier clan, son Logan.
As you’ll recall, Logan arrived on the 31st of Dec. and we had yet to make his acquaintance, what with Val off to Colorado for her annual Jan. visit. So it was time to take care of that important business. As you can see we didn’t waste a single minute getting acquainted with the little guy. That’s the proud grandfather up above holding him while his Big Sister looks on affectionately. Babies are a true blessing from God, and our entire family is so happy with Logan’s arrival.

Of course babies aren’t just about playing. There’s also the important matter of feeding them, as Valerie was only too thrilled to help out with that. As grandparents it is impossible for either of not to hold this new generation and not remember when it was their parents we were holding and cuddling not so long ago. Babies grow up so fast. You blink your eyes and their off to school. Then college. Then married and with babies of their own. And the miracle that is life keeps rolling along. Logan is our sixth grand child. God, I pray we have lots..lots more.

On a sour note, a good pal wrote me a few days ago to inform me that a hacker had taken over his website and shut it down so that neither he or his friends could get on and chat.
I have such a difficult time trying to imagine the mind of such a cruel act. It is wanton maliciousness and utterly senseless. What bothers me is the phony self-image hackers of themselves, ala some kind of hero-rebel little guys battling the big conglomorates. For some,that may actually be true. But when someone purposely destroys a small, intimate, friendly site for no other purpose than mischief, that isn’t heroics, that base evil. Shame on all of them.

I don’t often recommend books on this log, rather leaving that to my bi-weekly Pulp Fiction review column over at the Paperback Bazaar site.
But this week I posted the review of a really fun book I wanted to tell all you airmen about.
It’s an anthology series called KOLCHAK- The Night Stalker Chronicles and put out by Moonstone. 27 all new stories focusing on the hero of the late TV series that starred Darren McGavin and was a personal favorite of mine.
The book is available from Amazon.com and Barnes & Nobles on-line. If you like weird, twisty yarns, give it a try.

And that wraps it up for this week. Weather man says we got a major North-Easter storm heading our way for the weekend. Better go check the snow-blower. Ron, over and out.