I first saw a Tarzan movie as a child, accompanying my father to the theater and then having to put up with him attempting to imitate actor Johnny Weissmuller’s cry all way home. I don’t recall which particular film it was, but having been born in 1946, it was certainly a re-release, as by the 1950s, Weissmuller, perhaps the most famous screen Tarzan of them all, had given up the role to a younger, leaner actor; Lex Barker. Anyway, this was my first introduction to the famous apeman as invented by writer Edgar Rice Burroughs. I liked the character a lot, what fun loving America kid wouldn’t?

Many years later, as a teenager, I tripped over the Tarzan books then being printed in paperbacks. Being a fan of the character, I bought them to finally see if there were any differences between the source books and the film interpretations. To say there were plenty would be a gross understatement. Immediately upon reading TARZAN OF THE APES, the reader learns the true origins of the character and how he is a descendant of British gentry. At the end of the first book, he’s traveled to Europe, become educated and speaks several languages fluently. He is known as Lord John Graystoke and is a very wealthy man. A far cry from the illiterate, grunting figure portrayed in the movies. As much as I was thrilled to discover the “true” Tarzan of the novels, it made viewing the cinematic version quite difficult from that point on.
My young teenage mind wondered why it was Hollywood couldn’t give us the real Tarzan from the books. In 1962 filmland my wish, and that of thousand other Tarzan fans, was granted.

Veteran actor/stuntman, Jock Mahoney, was cast as an intelligent, sophisticated Tarzan in TARZAN GOES TO INDIA. Using the sixties environmental issues as a backdrop, Tarzan became not only an action hero, but a defender of mother earth and all wildlife as well. The studios followed this up with TARZAN’S THREE CHALLENGES. To this day, I am still a big fan of both these movies. But I was naiively ignorant of a long forgotten Tarzan project that had trumped these movies by nearly thirty years.
It was an eye-opening revelation and one I would come to appreciate more and more as time went on.

In 1934 a group of Hollywood investors came to Burroughs suggesting he join them in a business partnership to exploit his now highly lucrative writings. A silent screen Tarzans had made millions for the studios and MGM was just going into production for what would be the biggest Tarzan of them all, starring Olympic swimming champ Johnny Weissmuller and the lovely Maureen O’Hara. It was easy to convince Burroughs that he would make a bigger profit if he were directly involved and he signed on. First he wrote a screen treatment for a story to be called TARZAN AND THE GREEN GODDESS, then he asked for permission to choose the actor who would portray his famous tree dweller. From a long list of possible wannabes, Burroughs hand picked as yet another Olympic veteran, handsome, young Herman Brix.
Brix was a former shot-putter with a tall, rangy physique and a charasmatic visage perfect to play the Jungle Lord. Since this newly formed company had no real studio to shoot in, it was decided to film on location in the jungles of Guatemala. In the late months of 1934, an expedition of twenty-nine cast and crew members, with tons of freight, via a huge line, set sail for the highland ruins of Guatemala. Under the direction of Edward Kull and Wilber F.McGaugh, the movie, now called THE NEW ADVENTURES OF TARZAN, was shot in four months. Upon completion, MGM, having gotten wind of this competitive venture, purposely set about making sure they could not get a decent distribution contract with any of the major theater chains.
This effectively buried the movie in America and paved the way for the MGM Weissmuller movie to become a major blockbuster hit. Meanwhile NEW ADVENTURES found acceptance in Eurpoean markets and is still considered among the favorite Tarzan movies of all time to this day in these countries.

The company that produced this long-ago classic released it in multiple versions, including a 12 Chapter Serial and this is available today from various DVD outfits. I recently purchased one from the Roan Film Group and watched it this past week. I’d seen it many years ago but am thrilled to own it on DVD. It is a damn shame that history conspired against Brix in his role as the true Tarzan, but thanks to modern technology, his performance is captured forever in this rare, wonderful adventure from a long ago time. I can’t recommend it enough to all airmen who truly love grand, old fashion jungle adventures. This is Burroughs noble savage played to perfection. Go find it and see if I’m not right.

As I write this, a steady, warm rain is blanketing most of New England. A dismal weekend if forecast with more of the same. But that isn’t dampening are our plans. Valerie and I are catching an Amtrak train out of Boston tomorrow and heading for Conn. to visit our new grandson, Logan, for the very first time. Going to be a great weekend. I hope yours is as well. See you in seven.

Ron, over and out.

During the heyday of the pulps, the three best selling hero magazines were; The Shadow, Doc Savage, and The Spider. The Spider was a blatant attempt to compete against the highly popular Shadow. Still the publishers were smart enough to make their character different from the other. They did so by making him scarier, meaner and just plain bloodier in his death dealing. Polo-playing Richard Wentworth lives by one credo, “the only good gangster is a dead gangster.” And he never had any problems dispatching dozens of them in each and every one of his many adventures.
Aided and abetted by his sweetheart, socialite Nita Van Sloan, his impressive Indian Sikh manservant, Ram Singh and his tough-as-nails chauffeur, Ron Jackson, he blazed his way across pulpdom.

His adventures were credited to one Grant Stockbridge. That was a house pen-name for such stalwarth wordsmiths as Norvell Page, Emil C.Tepperman, Wayne Rogers and countless others.

Earlier this week I was invited to write a Spider story for a new anthology being produced by Moonstone Comics under the editorship of Joe Gentile. Last year, exploring the prose market, Moonstone put out a Kolchak the Nightstalker anthology that sold through the roof and won them a Bram Stoker award nomination for best new horror anthology. It didn’t take Joe very long to realize there is a real audience for these old fashion, purple prose tales of wonder.

I’m very excited about this project and actually got butterflies in the pit of my stomach when I learned who else will be contributing to the book. Heading a very stellar list, is the famous historical novelist, John Jakes. Also on board is Warner Bros. Animation guru, Bruce Timm, plus popular writers like Robert Weinberg, Chuck Dixon and my own amigos, Chris Mills and Martin Powell. Like I said, it’s a stellar cast. Stay tuned. I’ll let you know more as it develops.

Off course, life does seem to balance out and shortly after getting this good news, I received a terribly sad notice that a local comic book personality in our area had passed away at the young age of 41. Hector Diaz owned and operated a comic shop in nearby Portsmouth, NH. I’d known Hector for over twenty years,when he first moved into the area and one night, out of the blue, called and asked if he could come over and meet me. He was an artist wanting to get into the comics game and was hoping I could give him some mentoring on that career choice. Valerie and I were immediately taken with his personable enthusiam and over the years our friendship grew. Then we drifted out of touch as Hector went on to make his dreams a reality. About ten years ago I learned he’d opened JUMPGATE, the comic shop I mentioned. I made a point of driving up to see him and congradulate him. He was the same Hector, full of bubbly fun and engergy. Sadly, according to his obituary, he lost a four year battle with cancer. He leaves behind his loving wife, Sharon, and two sons. I’m still in shock by his passing. It’s a cautionary warning to me that we have to live every day to the fullest as there are no guarantees in this life as to how long any of us will be here. Rest in peace, old friend. You won’t be forgotten.

Finally, Valerie flies home tomorrow. Yahoo.
You see, airmen, every year she spends the entire month of January in Ft.Collins, CO, with our son, Alan and his family. It helps her get through the winter, which are brutal here in New England. We miss each other deeply, but it has helped her cope with these long lasting winters and that’s what counts. Whereas asbsence certainly makes the heart grow fonder..and how. And tomorrow she’s home. I hope your weekend will be just as happy as mine is going be.

Until next week, over and out, Ron.

Back in 1985, after having had some small successes with short comic strip projects, artist Gary Kato and I decided to try our hands at a full blown mini-series. The result was the five issue STREET-FIGHTER series we created for Bob Palin’s Ocean Comics. It was well received, the late Don Thompson comparing it favorably to the early Stan Lee & Steve Ditko work on SPIDERMAN.
High praise indeed.

In case any of you out there are aware of that “other” Street Fighter, the one based on a highly popular series of computer games, allow me to set the record straight. We proceed them by almost a full year. When their arcade games began appearing in local malls with the very same logo we were employing, we sought a lawyer to see if we could take any legal action and make them stop. Which is when we learned one of the harsh truths of this life, it’s not always fair. To have taken the parent company Via Com and made them desist from using our name and logo, would have completely driven us into the poor house. This wasn’t a case of David versus Goliath. It was more like David versus a hundred Goliaths. Our lawyers advice in the end, continue to do you comic and alter the name slightly. Ergo, when the series was collected as a graphic novel years later by Alpha Production, it was under the title..THE ORIGINAL STREET-FIGHTER. A claim I feel we were rightly entitled to.

So why bring is all up? Because in a few short months he is going to be back in action. Or, should I say, those long forgotten books are getting a brand new, shiny release on a forthcoming comics website. I’m not liberty to divulge much more save to say, when the series begins to run on the site, it will also be made available for print sales. And I very much wanted to introduce all of you to the magnificent work of Mickey Clausen. Mickey has signed on to recolor all those pages of the series and his work is just gorgeous. We’re lucky to have him on board. More as things develop further.

I am a huge Sherlock Holmes fan. I have maybe 95% of all the movies based on his exploits on DVD and many, many volumes in my library. I’m also a major toy fancier of action figures. How do these two hobbies relate to one another? Well, I’ve often wished I could have an action figure of the famous Baker Street detective. But alas, it seemed a rather far fetched dream. I mean, one one thinks of Holmes, one thinks of brilliant deductive skills, not slam-bang all-out action adventures.

So, fellow, airmen, you can all imagine my complete surprise and total euphoric glee when a pacakage arrived yesterday in the mail containing such a toy! No, fooling! See picture above. It was a gift from my good pal,
Anthony Schiavino who actually knew nothing of my secret wish for such a toy. I immediately e-mailed him a heartfelt thanks. Now I have to find an appropriate place in the Batcave to display it. Ain’t it cool?

That’s it for another week in the hangar, airmen. Stay safe and well. Ron, over and out.

Greetings airmen. Almost twenty years ago, I made my one and only sale to Marvel Comics. It was a short, 8 pg. HULK story and illustrated by then newbie, Paul Pelletier. The story was our campaign to get Paul into the pros and it worked. He is still one of today’s finest, most dependable pencillers, having worked for all the big guys. Thing is, I had hoped to maybe make a few more sales to the old House of Ideas and suggested something radical to then HULK editor, Bobbie Chase. At that time Peter David was writing the HULK and his brand of wry wit was quite evident throughout his run. Meanwhile John Byrne was handling SHE-HULK and he too was giving it a really broad, comedic feel. So much so that I saw both books very much ala the old Fawcett CAPTAIN MARVEL titles, what with Captain Marvel and Mary Marvel leading the clan. But they had a Captain Marvel Jr. and I felt that junior member of the family was the missing element at Marvel. So I suggested to Ms.Chase the possiblities of creating a KID HULK!

She turned me down quite cooly, stating in no uncertain terms that the HULK was not a humorous title. No? You could have fooled me. I’ve often wondered since then if Ms.Chase actually read her own books? But that is neither here nor there, loyal airmen. I was shot down. But I still liked the idea of a HULK-like teenager roaming the world. There was a real appeal to it. So I sat down and wrote up the concept, only now making it my own, and leaving out anything remotely connected to the Marvel Universe. I then tried to find some interested artists who would want to work on this idea, but alas wasn’t lucky there either. So, as I’ve done so many times in the past, I simply slid the now tagged folder, BULLDOZER, into my files and went on to other things.

Of course, if any of you are at all aware of the current crop of Marvel titles, you’ll note that a few years back they put forth a Junior Avengers group and smack dab in the middle of this teen group was a KID HULK!!! Several of my comic amigos made a point of calling to tell me this. Oh, yeah. Was upset. Naw. It was a good idea twenty years ago. I’m just sorry it took Marvel so long to figure it out. NOTE, I have not seen a single comic with this character, nor do I plan to. Why? Because, somewhere during our first session of the School for Sequential Graphics, I gave out BULLDOZER presentation packages to our two students and gave them the assignment of doing up character sketches from it. Little did I know at the time that homework would result in a full-blown resurrection of the project.

Tom Bonello, one of those first two students, turned in such fantastic sketches, both artist Rich Woodall and I were amazed. As the class wound down, I began to nurture the thought of returning to BULLDOZER full-force, if Tom were willing to take it on. I popped the question to him on our last night of class..and he said yes! I was estatic!! The pin-up above is one of several Tom has completed since then. It was inked by Ken McFarlane, another local talent I’ve known for many, many years. They make a great team. So there you have it, airmen. What was thought to be long dead, now has a new life and a very hopeful future. And rest assred, I’ll keep all of you posted with lots of previews as Tom starts turning in full pages.

This week saw the posting of my latest PULP FICTION review column. See the logo above this log? Go to it and click on to it. Please. As I had mentioned in one of my entries last year,
2005 saw the passing of my favorite writer of all time, Ed McBain. Well, one of his last published titles was a reprint from Hard Case Crime, the best new mystery publisher on the market. If you haven’t checked out any of their titles yet, you are missing out on some great reading. Check them out, and do let me know what you think of the reviews.

Finally, this week saw the return to television of my favorite show, LOST. After a long, holiday hiatus, they came back strong with one of their best episodes ever. I love this series and think it has the best writing on televsion.

Take care, Ron over and out.

In 1904, French Canadian Pierre Fortier left Thedford Mines in Quebec and moved his family to the small, southern New Hampshire town of Somersworth. One of his many children was the strapping 13 year old, John Basptiste Fortier.
John had never been to school and he didn’t know how to read and write. What he knew how to do was work and help support his loving family. Thus,no sooner settled in their home, John went to work at a local tannery that cured and treated leather hides. It was hard work, but he was big for his age and he never shied away from getting his hands dirty. At the age of 15 he met one of his foreman’s daughter. She was a pretty 16 yr.old named Alphonsine, but everyone called her Rose. They courted and eight years later were married and started raising a family. And although, in his life time, Big John Fortier never learned to read, he did become a U.S. citizen and was selected to be a poll monitor during town elections; a task he did with much pride. At nights, after the evening dishes were washed and put away, Rose and he would sit in the front pallor with the local newspaper. John would light up a cigarette and Rose would put on her glasses and then proceed to read the entire paper aloud, cover to cover. They were truly amazing, wonderful people.

John and Rose Fortier had six children, all boys! The second, born in 1916, they named George Joseph Fortier. George grew up loving to play pick-up baseball games in the big fields by their home in the French section of Somersworth.
He went to Catholic parochial school until the seventh grade and then quit to get a job. Times were hard and he wanted to make money to help the family. One of the first jobs he had as a teenager was usher in a the local movie house. It was a great way to see movies for free and George loved the movies; especially the westerns. Tom Mix,the great first true superstar of the silver screen was his favorite, followed by Buck Jones and later John Wayne.
When World War II broke out, he was drafted into the Army and fought in the South Pacific with an artillery company. After the war, George came home, married his sweetheart, Gabrielle Richer, and went to work at the same tannery his father was employed by. George and Gaby Fortier had four children, three boys and a girl. Their first born they named Ronald because George’s best friend in the Army had been a fellow named Ron. He would grow up to be a comic book writer and the author of this log.

When my grandfather John passed away, I had just come home from Vietnam. I remember standing with my father at the funeral, both of lost in our grief and loving memories of that good man. A few years later, tired of college, I went to work in a local shoe factory and met a young woman, fell in love and got married. That the marriage didn’t survive does in no way diminish the three most beautiful results of that union, Scott, Kevin and Heather Fortier. Scott was born on May, 20th, 1971.
The very next day, I was standing in the maternity ward with my father, George, his arms across my shoulders, as we both looked through the viewing glass at the newest Fortier to enter this world. Dad was so damn happy, he was bubbling with joy. Sadly he passed away a few short years later, after Heather was born. He was my hero in life and I’ve always wished my kids could have gotten to know him better.

Scott Fortier has an inquistive, seeking mind. Even as a child he always wanted to know how things worked. One Christmas somone gave him a small portable radio. After finding it, Scott ran back into his bedroom and his mother and I didn’t hear a peep out of him for almost an hour. When I finally went to check on him, he was sitting on the floor by his bed. Spread out before him on the rug was the entire radio completely broken down into its individual parts. No, he couldn’t put it back together again, but that was no big deal to Scott. Satisfying his curiousity was the prevailing urge of his life. That he would ultimately discover computers at a young age seems like fate to me now. After graduating high school and doing six years in the Army Reserve, Scott went to work in the computer field. Hands on, learned everything there is to know about the darn things, and can both repair the hardware as well as write the most sophisticated programs imaginable. I wouldn’t have this site if it weren’t for Scott and that fantastic mind of his. Oh, and less you envision a stilted egghead, let me assure you, he is also a very personable, fun loving soul who people just naturally gravitate to the minute they meet him.
He’s a lot like his grandfather that way.

About six years ago (okay, I’m bad with dates, ha) Scott met Katie Gilberg from Long Island, NY. They were married in a gorgeous
Spring wedding in Kennebunk Port, ME, with the blue Atlantic as a backdrop. A year later, their first child, Taryn was born. That was four years ago, and she is a beautifuly little girl today, who is very, very excited. You see,
last Sat, on the very last day of the year 2005,
Taryn got a baby brother! At 5:15 PM on 31st Dec., Katie gave birth to Logan Scott Fortier. All of us are so happy! And when I sat down to plan this log entry, I decided to do it in a special way.

Pierre, John Baptist, George, Ron, Scott and now Logan. He is an amazing miracle, this little guy; the totall realization of all the dreams and hopes of those who came before him.
Will he do great things? He already has by adding more love into all our lives. Welcome, grandson, to the world.
Last week I gave you all a sneek-peek at the new CAPTAIN HAZZARD pulp cover as turned in by Tom Floyd. When the book is published, hopefully next month, it will also contain nine marvelous interior spot illustrations as done by my talented friend, Rob Davis. I thought you’d enjoy seeing one of these as well. Rob did the spot illos for my previous two pulp thrillers, BROTHER GRIM and THE HOUNDS OF HELL. I’m am always thrilled to work with him as he brings so much to each and every project.

Finally Rich Woodall and I have started our second session of the School of Sequential Graphics at the Paperback Bazaar and look to have as much fun with our new students as we did last time. 2006 is getting started on some really positive notes.

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

Greetings loyal airmen and welcome to our last log entry of 2005. As the image of that 1930s Sikorsky S-38 above beautifully displays, we are all set to gear up, rev our props and go flying into 2006! As we do, we hope and pray it will be a fantastic new year for all of you, filled with new challenges and potential.

It certainly has been a rambunctious year, old 2005, so full of the ups and downs that life is. On the grand scale, I will always remember it as the year Mother Nature turned deadly. Although the tsunami in the Indian Ocean actually happened a day of Christmas, 2004, it really wasn’t until several weeks into 2005 that the rest of the world began to grasp the enormity of the tragedy and the overwhelmingly staggering death count. None of us alive today had ever experienced such loss of life in such numbers before and it took the world a long to time come to grips with the reality of it all. Eventually global aid would appear and begin to help the survivors reclaim some semblance of their lives but it will still be many years before that corner of the world is anywhere near properly healed.

Then, no sooner had we accepted the horrors dealth by the tsunami when Pakistan was wracked with several major earthquakes and once again we witnessed a tremendous loss of life occuring within a matter of a few fear-wrenching hours. I’ve experienced one earthquake in my life and it was nothing as devastating as what happened in Pakistan. Still, it was frightening enough that I don’t ever want to be anywhere near another. Thus, once again, the international community of man was called upon to bring aid and comfort to the destitute of that far off land. Had the tsunami and the earthquake been all, it would still have been too much. But Mother Nature wasn’t through with us yet and along came Hurricaine Season in America!

Hurracaine Katrina was the final knock out blow, as she drove into the Gulf Coast and ravaged countless low-lying communities and pretty much destroyed New Orleans while the rest of us watched it all during the 6 O’Clock News at our dinner tables. And although the real loss of life was not as cataclysmic as it had been overseas, the loss of property and the economic blow to thousands of the survivors was heart-wrenching and for many of them the suffering and isolation continues. These people lost everything..but their lives!

What annoyed me the most during the flooding of New Orleans and its aftermath was the sheer stupid pettiness of Washington politicos from both sides who used the suffering of others to point fingers at each other. Insanity. As if the hurracaine had actually been the fault of any politcal party? I am constantly amazed at the tremendous ego of humans, even in the face of Mother Nature’s might, some people still think something could have been done to prevent it. Impossible. Now the reaction by government agencies, both local and national were less than stellar during the days after the disaster and there will be plenty of time to review those matters at a later time. For right now, all our energies should be put into help our fellow Americans in any way we can, no matter how small. Whatever you can do..do. In the end big efforts are made up of little acts.

Were I a religious fundementalist, I might think this year’s worth of natural maladies pointed to some kind of Godly wrath on mankind.
And I have heard some folks speak like that. Thing is, I don’t buy that. Not for a second. Rather, my Christian sensibility tells me, when bad things happen to good people, it is in reality an opportunity given me to step up and help my brothers and sisters. Those kind of opportunities are what we’ve been given as a people,as a country. It is my fervent prayer when historians look back on 2005, they will note those calamitous events and then will add that people of all countries and faiths pulled together and acted humanely towards one another.
Then, truly out these great times of pain and suffering, a very real good will have emerged.
Let’s pray that happens.

On a more personal level, 2005 saw my own ups and downs with health issues. Those of you who are regular visitors will recall that I started the year with having found mysterious spots on both my lungs and for a while it looked like I
might be dealing with cancer. Thankfully that was not the case and although those two spots are still there, they seem completely benign and inactive. So I breathed a huge sigh of relief and got on with living my life. It was a good year for us all around. My two pulp novels were published to very good reviews and Digital Webbing Presents put out my two Gargoyle comic strips. Add to this some 18 Pulp Fiction columns and yeah, a very good year writing-wsie. But wait until next year, airmen.

Early next year will see the publication of my new pulp venture, my rewrite of the classic CAPTAIN HAZZARD – PYTHON MEN OF THE LOST CITY. Above is Tom Floyd’s new painting for the cover and I can’t wait to see what designer Chris Mills does with it when he adds our new Captain Hazzard logo. Meanwhile Martin Powell and I are still hard at work writing the first new Cap adventure in 67 years,
CITADEL OF FEAR. And with fingers crossed I’ll finally find a publisher for the comics version. Wish me luck.

Spekaing of comics, I hope to have FRANK NG-HIRED GUN ready to go to the printers by the start of Feb. A big heartfelt thanks to penciller Javier Lugo, inker Juan Castro and letterer Steven Finch for their outstanding work on this book. And to my pals Johnny Atomic, for his cover, and Blake Wilkie for bringing me this amazing team. Also, I’m hoping to see several other comic projects get out there as well. One of these is a new 48 pg. Brother Grim graphic novel by yours truly and Chris Mills, along with artist John Polacek. You are going to love this one!

Finally, before closing the hangar for the last time this year, I want to recommend a new book to all of you. IT’S SUPERMAN was written by Tom Dehaven and is a very wonderful retelling of the Superman story told against the backdrop of the 1930s Great Depression in America. It is by far the most insightful and warm-hearted version of this hero’s tale I have ever read. Do yourself a big favor and pick this up, you’ll be so glad you did.

That’s it. Next time we get together, it will be 2006. Thanks for all your support this, our first year on the flight line. Each and every one of you made this site a whopping success. Thanks always and see yah all next year. Keep ’em flying, airmen. Ron, over and out.

Holiday greetings, fellow airmen (and airwomen). A few weeks ago I started sending out traditional Christmas cards and in return began receiving some. I am always taken by those photo-cards you guys send and sincerely wish Valerie and I had had the time to do one as well. So when I saw this excellent shot of my lovely lady, and the old guy, I knew it would be a perfect digital Christmas card for all of you. This is a Holy Time of year, a time to ponder what the baby Jesus’s arrival into our world truly signifies. His is a message of peace and love, and that is a universal message regardless of your particular faith. We cherish all of you dearly and want you all to have the most blessed Christmas ever. Thanks for being there, our world is so much richer because of each and every one of you.

Okay, as you may recall, I was really pumping up going to see Peter Jackson’s remake of my all time favorite flick, KING KONG.
Well, that happened just a week ago when Valerie and I, accompanied by son Kevin and daughter, Heather, made it to a local cineplex and caught the 10 AM showing. For the next three hours I was a little kid again, so wonderful and amazing was this true blockbuster achievement in visual storetelling. And much like the first time, when I saw the movie at 9 yrs old with my Dad, I cried at the end for the Big Gorilla. Peter Jackson is a blooming genius and he has given us all a fanatastic new movie classic. Be sure to see it on the big screen where the size does matter, and be prepared to be wowed! Oh, and the picture gracing this section is an actual Russian poster of the film. Thought you’d enjoy the international feel to it. Am planning on seeing this many more times. Oh, yeah.

And finally, two weeks ago, artist Rich Woodall and I completed our first School of Graphic Storytelling at our local comic shop, the Paperback Bazaar. And we had a graduation ceremony for our first-ever students,
artist Tom Bonello and writer Josh Florence. I can’t say enough about how talented these two young men are and how much fun it was for Rich and I to share our craft with them. Above is a picture of the four amigos, going left to write;
Rich, Tom, Josh and of course, that Fortier dude. Our next session kicks off 3 Jan.06 and
we have four new students signed up. I think we’ve got something special here and hope to see it continue to grow.

That’s it gang. Two more days and Santa is here. Valerie and we’ll be spending Christmas
morning with our daughter Michelle, her husband Chris and our two beautiful grand princesses, Kristi & Chelsea. Gonna be a wonderful day.
I hope each and every one of you will be with either friends or family. Know, that you will all be in our Christmas prayers.

Ron, over and out.

Another snow/ice storm is nailing us even as I write these words. Already went out early this morning to get a jump on it and cleaned up the wet snow. Now a cold rain is falling and slicking things up. Hopefully the temperatures will rise a bit before nightfall and we won’t be left with a sheet of ice as our driveway. Oh, the joys of winter.

The picture above is of my son, Scott, and his daughter, Taryn. Recently he paid a visit to her pre-school and gave her classmates a demonstration of model trains. It is quite obvious from this picture, that Taryn was thrilled to have her dad in school. And it sure brought back tons of memories when I use to go to Scott, Kevin and Heather’s classes and give my little comic book presentations. All these years later and now Scott is sharing his hobby, that he loves as much as I do comics, with others. I think it’s great.

Well, the year is really winding down fast, isn’t it? I saw THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA last weekend. What a remarkable film and beautiful adpatation of C.S.Lewis’s marvelous fantasy classic. Lewis, a devoted Christian, imbued his stories of Narnia with lots of Christiam themes, including brotherly-love and sacrifice. This is truly the perfect movie to go see this Christmas season with your entire family. Am hoping it does well enough to warrant sequels.

Writing wise, my 18 pg. comic thriller, FRANK NG-HIRED GUN is complete. The last of the pages were turned in this week. All that remains now is for yours truly to interview filmmaker Rob Fitz about his forthcoming horror movie, GOD OF VAMPIRES, which will be included in the back of the comic. With fingers crossed, should have this ready to go the printers by the end of Feb.06.

On a depressing note, I just finished writing a comic script that will mostly likely never get printed. You see, about a week ago a friend asked me if I’d like to get involved with doing a presentation based on a very popular Marvel Comics superhero. (No, I won’t tell you which one.) This friend had done up an outline for what the story would be and asked if I’d be the writer. I thought it was fun, but realized I hadn’t read this particular title in twenty-years. My friend said not to worry, what we were doing was one of those WHAT IF stories, thus the book’s continuity wouldn’t be an issue.
Fine, I thought, and proceeded to write the script. I turned it in this morning, satisfied I’d done a decent job. Then, on a whim, I sent a copy to a friend who happens to be a real fan of this particular Marvel character. A few hours later, said friend responded and said, with much regret, that there was no way my particular story would ever be accepted. He then proceeded to tell me what had been happening to this “hero” over the last twenty years worth of adventures. It seems the powers that be at Marvel had decided to darken the character’s basic personality and nature. To make him cold, mean, merciless..and in the end, even worse than the actual villains he fought.
I was both shocked and disguested as I read all this. My God, what is wrong with comic publishers and editors these days? Will they sell their very souls to sell a few more issues of a title by pandering to all the baser sides of human nature? I detest the word anti-hero.
It’s semantic BS. Don’t tell me your principle character is dark because he or she is an anti-hero. There is already a word in the dictionary that defines the opposite (anti) of a hero; that word is VILLAIN. I’ve since written to the fellow who first wanted me on this gig and told him, after getting my pal’s eye-opening letter, that it is very unlikely Marvel is going to accept my story as it is. And I suggested, if he wants to play in their nasty sandbox, he really should find another writer. I’m too old to change. I like my heroes being heroes. End of story.

And that’s my homily for this week, airmen.
With fingers crossed, will finally see Peter
Jackson’s KING KONG sometime tomorrow. Hot dog!
We’ll report next week. Till then stay warm, happy and nice to your neighbors. Tis the season! Ron, over and out.

Last week I announced the birth of Craig and Susan Shepard’s baby. The lovely Miss
Rylee Quinn Shepard is pictured above in the loving arms of her father. She weighed in at a very healthy 8 lbs. 1 ounce and was 20 inches long. Her birthday was 1 Dec. 2005. At last report, both Mom and Miss Rylee are doing great.
Every time a new baby is born, I think God hasn’t given up on us yet. Welcome to the world, Miss Rylee. It just got better because you’re in it now.

Yesterday the mailman delivered my deluxe edition DVD of the greatest movie ever made, KING KONG. This is the original 1933 product as made by Mereim C.Cooper and his pal,
Ernest Shoedsack. As I’ve often repeated here, it is my favorite movie and to have it in this durable format is just awesome. The deluxe package comes with a second disc loaded with two amazing documentaries. No KING KONG fan should be without it. Also worthy of mentioning, Warner Brothers also released the sequel, SON OF KONG and the original MIGHTY JOE YOUNG as well.
Great movies all! Just a few more days until Peter Jackson’s blockbuster arrives. Oh, yeah!

Last week’s Fortier Family Christmas get together went without a hitch and was a marvelous event. My two brothers and my sister, all made it up with their respective families and my own three kids (Scott, Kevin & Heather) also showed up; Scott with his precious 4 year old, Taryn. Sadly, Scott’s wife Katie couldn’t join us. She’s pregnant with our newest grand child, a boy, due the start of the new year and the trip up from Conn. was out of the question.
But Scott took lots of digital pictures for all of us. I love my family, I think they are grandest people in the world and am so blessed to be a part of them. This coming Sunday we head up to Manchester, N.H. to join Valerie’s clan. Should be another great day. Weather permitting.

Right, weather permitting. As I write this, we are now watching the snow fall in this, the first real storm of the winter season. The weather man says it will cease some time this afternoon, at which point I will don my ton and a half of winter gear, go out to garage, crank up the snowblower and go at it. The battle of winter has been joined once again. Let’s hope we win again. Ha.

That’s it from here, airmen. Have a good week. Ron, over and out.

Howdy fellow airmen. Well its only been three days since Valerie and I returned from our fun filled Thanksgiving jaunt to Colorado. And tomorrow we are hosting the Fortier Family Christmas get together here, so you can imagine this is going to be one hectic Friday, as we try to get all kinds of things done and in place. I’ve a whole lot of topics to cover today and realizing I might not have 30 minutes to just sit here and write, figured I’d simply do this week’s log in increments. So, if you’ve stopped by and are reading this, please come back later throughout the day. I will be adding topics as time allows. Ha.

The phrase heading this column refers to my CAPTAIN HAZZARD penciller, Craig Shepard. He and his wonderful wife Susan were expecting their first baby and this morning I received a very short e-mail reading, “She’s here! I’m a Dad!” Wahooo! I immediately replied asking my happy friend to provide lots more detail. Will post here as it comes in.

The picture above is from the GODBOX, a project editor Tracy Duty tried to get off the ground recently. I’d provided the script and he had recruited Maine based artist Chad Hurd to do the art. I’ve showcased some of these pieces in my Gallery section. Well, Chad is attending college at the University of Maine in Orono and over the past week his art production had started to dwindle drastically. A couple of days ago he wrote Tracy and told him he was bowing out of the book. He simply hasn’t the time, what with his studies, to get it done. Now this kind of stuff happens in comics all the time, which is why I mention it here. For every comic project I ever had finished, I’ve files full of those that were left uncompleted. GODBOX now joins that group. And I don’t fault Chad in the slightest. His studies are certainly a priority in his life now. Who knows, maybe after he graduates we can pick this up again.

Almost a full year and a half ago I attended my Dragon Con in Atlanta, Georgia. While there I met several gentlemen who are now close friends. One of these was New Hampshire filmmaker, Rob Fitz. When Rob first told me about his independent horror movie, GOD OF VAMPIRES, I was so excited, I suggested doing a comic book tie-in to help promote the film. I came home and wrote an 18 page script featuring the hero of the movie and called it, FRANK NG – HIRED GUN. I set about putting together an art team and got the project rolling. Four months later my artist, after having done only two pin-ups, quit on us. Obviously I was really bummed out.
With the help of Talent Agent, Blake Wilkie, I found another art team and off we went again.
Three months later, this new art team had delivered all of two pages and then they quit.
Are you sensing a tread here? If you do not want frustration in your life, do NOT become a comic book writer. This kind of stuff happens all the bloody time.

Undaunted, I went back to Blake and we put our heads together and once again cast out our nets. And this time we landed winners. Javier Lugo, a penciller from Florida, and Juan Castro, an inker from Mexico. Both these men are new to the field, but they have talent aplenty and they attacked my script with fiendish delight. A few weeks ago we added British letterer Steven Finch to the mix and I’m now happy to report the project is 99% done. Above is the very last two panels as pencilled by Javier. The book looks fantastic and I am so thrilled with how it all came out. Thanks guys. I, of course will keep you posted on its development through to publication. The moral here, obviously, don’t ever quit on a good idea.

While on the subject of vampires, lets talk about DAUGHTER OF DRACULA. This is a 94 graphic novel I wrote many years ago. When I offered it to artist Rob Davis, he said if he took the job, which he clearly wanted, he could only provide me with a page a week. Do the math, at 94 pages, it was going to take him over a year and half to do this one book! Thing is, I trusted Rob and knew what a tremendous talent he is. I said okay to the schedule. Well, here we are rolling along and last week Rob finished page
#75. We’ve only 19 left!!! That’s how time flies, if you’ve the patience to hang in there.
Above is a promo piece Rob had done for a con earlier in the year. Meanwhile I am posting pages 74 & 75 in the gallery section for all of you to enjoy. They show Dracula’s daughter, Marya, begninning to turn her lover, the World War I flying ace, the Red Baron, into one of the undead. Yeah, it’s a gothic romance like none other you’ve ever seen. Enjoy. Hmm, think I’d better start looking for a publisher.

And since we started this week’s log talking about Craig Shepard becoming a father, let’s wrap things up with another Shepard. This one being actor Dax Shepard, as seen above between his two kid co-stars. While in Ft.Collins, last week, we and our grand kids took in two terrific family films. The first, on the day after after our arrival, was HARRY POTTER & THE GOBLET OF FIRE. The kids and I give it major thumbs up. It’s certainly dark and spooky, but also funny and it is just incredible to see the three lead players growing up before our eyes on the silver screen. A terrific new chapter to the saga. Then, a few days later, we returned to the same theater to catch ZATHURA. Now this is a sequel to the classic, award winning children’s book JUMANJI by Chris Van Allsburg. And like that previous book/film, this started as a book. Ergo, the director John Favreau and his writers had there work cut out for them, taking a short volume and making it into a feature length adventure. That they did so successfully is a tribute to all involved with this rollicking, out there space adventure. Imagine you and your siblings alone one Saturday afternoon, when suddenly, through the whims of a bizarre board game, your entire house is hurled into outer space and you suddenly find yourself battling lizard-like aliens! Dax Shepard plays the mysterious astronaut who shows up half-way through the movie to help the boys survive their fantastic predicament and get home by winning the game. The movie is seen from the boy’s perspective and that’s why it works so well. It’s not about logic or real science, but about fun and adventure. So if you want to get lost in a truly imaginative experience, do go and see this before it’s gone.

And that, loyal airmen, about wraps it up for this week. Still got to go and vacuum the living room rug. Valerie’s has the house decorated and looking very festive. Going to be so much fun having all my family, siblings, kids and grand kids here tomorrow. I hope all of you are enjoying this season as much as we are.

God Bless the new Ms.Shepard and her happy parents. Ron, over and out.