Greetings airmen. Well the official summer season is kicking off this weekend with
Memorial Day upon us. And we here in New England are enjoying some beautiful, sunny weather. Valerie and I are off to a family wedding tomorrow morning to be held on a pier at York Beach, Maine. Should be a beautiful event and we are looking foward to it.

Last week I discussed a little bit about the
popularity of my first pulp book, BROTHER GRIM, and I thought this week I’d showcase one of the unsung heroes of my three pulp efforts. When most people buy a book, they are aware of the author and the story itself, after all, that’s why most of us buy a book in the first place. Now if we are a bit more creative than the average reader (something I consider all you loyal airmen), then we also appreciate the artwork on the cover. When people come across a book with an eye-appealing cover, they are likely to purchase it despite the author being unknown to them. That is the power of visuals in the market place. So I’d guess most of you are well aware of that contribution.
But there is a second, less heralded, and appreciated, art mechanic to book publishing.
And that is the actual design of the book itself. An art designer takes the cover and then chooses the appropriate fonts and colors that will enhance that image to the max. It is a job that requires both technical and creative skills in equal measure. Happily all three of
my Wild Cat Books have been designed by the amazing Vincent Sneed. Now all of you could jump right over to the AIR FARE section and look at his work on those three covers, but I thought I’d showcase his efforts on a back cover to prove my point. Above is Vincent’s back cover of
CAPTAIN HAZZARD – PYTHON MEN OF THE LOST CITY.
If you look very, very closely, you can see that he used a washed out version of the actual cover as his background, then added the text..and that
beautiful colored reproduction of the original
pulp mag. All in a very eye-friendly layout that is clean and easy to read. Totally professional and as artistic as the cover. One of the reasons our books have sold so well has been Vincent’s designs. Take a bow, amigo!

And as we are discussing those pulp books, it is a good time to mention the fact that the first, BROTHER GRIM (portrayed above by artist Rob Davis) is still selling great guns. I was made aware of this yesterday when I received a very nice fan letter from Eric Hebert of Quebec, Canada. Eric explained he’d just found BROTHER GRIM over at Lulu.com, purchased it and loved it. I was delighted. This book has been on sale for over a year now.
On a whim, I logged on to Lulu.com to check our sales standing. You see, Lulu post where in the sales ranks each book is on a daily basis.
Now Lulu publishes thousands of titles. When BROTHER GRIM debut, it was listted somewhere in
the 3,000 range. After about six months, I learned it was at about the 1,500 mark. Again, this is not the quantity of sales, but where in the sales ranking of all Lulu books.
So, after getting Eric’s letter, I wanted to see just how well we were doing. Imagine my pleasant surprise when I saw the three digit figure of 468!!! Of the thousands of books
being sold by this outfit, BROTHER GRIM has climbed to that high a level…and is obviously continuing to sell. I couldn’t be happier.
Folks who’ve never picked up a pulp adventure in their life are finding it, and buying it. I’m just thrilled and pray, with fingers crossed that will continue. I’d love to see us break the 100 mark. So thank you, loyal airmen, not only for buying my books, but obviously for spreading the word throughout the internet. That means a great deal. I owe all of you. You’re easily the best fans in the world.

Well, this past Wed. night television viewers were treated to the bombastic, wild, puzzling
two hour season finale of LOST. My son, Kevin,
and daughter, Heather stopped by with pizza to
watch it with me. Val just isn’t into the show, prefering stories that don’t give people headaches. Ha. Anyways, at the end of the two hours we were giddy with questions and satisfied that the writers had delieverd on their pledge to make it a powerful, cliff-hanger ending. Now we have to wait till next fall to see what happens next. I love it!

Tis the season of blockbuster movies. Haven’t seen MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 3 or THE DAVINCI CODE yet, but am hoping to catch up eventually.
The big two for me are X-MEN 3 and SUPERMAN RETURNS. Will of course give you my take after I’ve viewed them.

All for now, airmen. Here’s wishing all of you a great Memorial Day weekend. Have fun,
drive carefully and if you’re going to drink,
give someone else the car keys. We all you want you here next week, safe and sound.

Ron, over and out!

Greetings airmen. Well, unless you’ve been living on a deserted island the past week, you are aware of the relentess bad weather that recently covered New England. All kinds of
rainfall statistics were shattered as most of
New Hampshire, parts of Massachusetts and southern Maine were unindated. Rivers crested their banks and widespread flooding caused millions of dollars of damage both to private property and public roads. And at least one drowning fatality was credited to the flood waters.

The town of Somersworth was founded on the shores of the Salmon Falls river, a natural boundry between New Hampshire and the state of Maine. Sixteen years ago, when Valerie and I bought our home, situated on a hill overlooking the river, we appreciated the peace and quiet of living away from the hubbub of the town center. We gave no second thought to the house being on a very steep hill nor the problems that would pose when winter rolled around. After the first time it iced up and we couldn’t get up our own driveway, we knew what we were in for. Note, and since that first winter, every vehicle we’ve ever owned has to have 4-wheel drive. It isn’t a luxury. Anyways, over the past 16 years I’ve had many opportunities, when dredging up and down this driveway with my snowblower, to curse its steepness. Why couldn’t I have bought a house on a flat piece of real estate, I often pondered.

This past week the Salmon Falls River crested its banks and the area just below us down the river became lost under all that rushing water. It was unbelievable just how high the river rose. Valerie and I took a walk down and snapped several pictures, ala the one above. On our hike back up the road and to our
home, both of us were actually thanking God that we had a house high up on a hill. Oh, yeah,
a real life lesson learned here.

On other fronts, I’m told we’ve sold 22 copies of CAPTAIN HAZZARD – PYTHON MEN OF THE LOST CITY in the two weeks since its debut at
Lulu.com – Which probably doesn’t sound like a whole lot to most of you, but when you understand that’s ten more than BROTHER GRIM had sold by the same time, you can understand our
optimism. Books from small, on-demand publishers such as Wild Cat Books don’t generally sell beyond a few hundred copies..and those are the most successful titles. Thing is,
we get an average of 300 visitors a week here at Hangar 27. I’d like to think most of you
are regulars who come by every week to see what’s going on. If that’s the case, it would be so wonderful if just a third of you would
pick up a copy of the book. 100 sales is a wee bit better than 22, don’t you think? Of course I’d be euphoric if all 300 of you grabbed a copy, but hey, one dream at a time. And let me leave those of you who haven’t decided yet with this thought. Buying the book at Lulu (see our
Air Fare link) will get you the cheapest possible price. In a few weeks the book will be available at both Amazon and Barnes & Nobles on line. Of course, once they begin offering it,
they jack up the cost to cover their own expenses and profit margins. So, loyal airmen,
go to Lulu and save yourselves a few hard earned bucks. As always, heartfelt thanks for your support.

Till next week, Ron, over and out.

Greetings, airmen. Well New England has been in lost under gloomy gray skies all week, with rain on and off just making things rather depressing. Of course once the old sun returns, I fully expect my backyard to become an instant jungle. Which is really okay,
as I actually like mowing the grass. There’s a zen thing about it, being outdoors, breathing fresh air (okay we’ll not discuss pollen allergies) with the hum of the mower, locked into some deep, reflective mental state.

One of the truly bright spots of the past week was last Saturday’s annual Free Comic Book Day. I got to hang out at the Paperback Bazaar with JOHNNY RAYGUN’s own Rich Woodall and Matt Talbot. At the same time, I also had the real pleasure presening to the comic community two
really talented young artists for the ver first time. Both are graduates from the Comic School
Rich and I run out of the shop. Above is a shot of the three of us at our table. To my right is
Alex Eggleston with whom I am about to launch a brand new web cartoon strip called THE ADVENTURES OF ROBOT GUY. More on that as things develop. Seated on my left is Tom Bonello, the middle school art teacher who is my partner on
the comic book BULLDOZER. I’ve previewed pin-ups here in the past. Tom’s a gifted dude
and his pages awed the comic fans who stopped by. Don’t have a real head count, but I would guess we saw well over two hundred fans, both kids and adults. It was a fun day.

Towards the afternoon, when things were starting to slow down, lo and behold another one of our former students showed up to
say hi and visit for a while. Artis Adam DeGagne brought along his portfolio to show us all the great new stuff he’s working on. At the same time he presented me with this very cool illo of the TERMINATOR. I love those red eyes.

I had the opportunity to sign lots of Gargoyle comics from Digital Webbing and to
tell the fans all about the new FRANK NG-HIRED GUN title and the GOD OF VAMPIRES movie. In fact that’s what is painted all over the black t-shirt I’m wearing. Looks like filmmaker Rob Fitz and I are going to be doing several store signing in the New England area soon. All good news.

Finally, I’ve spent the last couple of days hard at work on a brand new book that is going to thrill pulp fans. Somehow manage to
get my hands on an old forgotten hero and much
like my CAPTAIN HAZZARD book, will be reintroducing him to the reading public in the very near future. Even tracked down the license holder and obtained their permission to do the book. Sorry to be so mysterious, but that’s half the fun. Book might even be out by the end of June, with fingers crossed. Keep reading these entries.

That’s it for another week, airmen. Take care, and remember, high gas prices needn’t be
totally negative. If you ever needed an excuse to walk more or take out your bike, now’s the time to do it. Get healthy and turn that negative into a positive.

Ron, over and out.

Two years ago, while attending my first Dragon Con in Atlanta, GA, I had the good fortune to meet Rob Fitz. Rob is a filmmaker from Derry, NH. Yeah, go figure, two creative guys who live only a few hours apart have to go all the way down south to finally hook up. Hey, the fates work like that. And who am I to complain, because that momentous meeting has led to a super friendship and several amazing things. One of which is a brand new Ron Fortier comic book.

Upon meeting Rob and hearing all about his super horror flick, GOD OF VAMPIRES, I started pitching the idea of producing a comic book tie-in. Rob was gracious enough to send me a copy of his shooting script and from that I was able to write an 18 page thriller that would detail the exploits of the movie’s anti-hero, hitman Frank Ng, days before the action in the movie begins. Ergo, a prequel story introducing the character. Rob loved the idea and with the help of the Leagues of Talent Studio, we got the book done.

FRANK NG-HIRED GUN was put together by a truly international team. From Florida, Johnny Atomic did the cover and Javier Lugo the pencils. Out of Mexico, Juan Jesues Castro Brusila added inks and from England, S.A.Finch the lettering. Then Matty Ryan, from Atlanta, whipped it all into shape as our production designer. All of us are very, very proud of the end result. 18 pages of action and a 2 page interview with Rob make a really neat package.
The book is ONLY available from ComiXpress on-line, and of course, wherever you might find the six of us doing store signings.

There’s a new link to it on the Air Fare page. It’s only a $1.35 -how can you go wrong?

At the same time Johnny was working on our stunning cover for the comic, he also did up the official poster for GOD OF VAMPIRES. Rob is in the last stages of editing and with fingers crossed, hopes to have it at the Sundance Film Festival later this year. We wish him all the luck in the world. The guy has put his heart and soul into this movie and deserves nothing but the best.

Lastly, as I’m sure all you airmen are aware, tomorrow, 6th May, is Free Comic Book Day across America. I’ll be hanging my hat at the Somersworth, Paperback Bazaar most of the day with friends and fans. If you are in the area, please stop on by. Hey, it’s FREE COMICS! What more could you want?

Have a great week, Ron, over and out.

Attention loyal airmen, a truly serious threat to the internet is now worming its way through Congress. It is a new bill sponsored by the big telecom companies (AT&T, Comcast among others) that would allowed them to control your access to the internet. They are making the argument that since they are the providers, they should be able to dictate such policies of restraint to their customers. Kiss the free internet good-bye should that be allowed to become law.

I’m not blind to the smut and filth that permeates much of the internet, but I am also aware of the good this information highway has done to our world. Much like the freedom to read whatever you desire, the freedom to go wherever you desire, as adult, on the net should be a guaranteed right. Fortunately a Democrat Governor named Markey has added an amendment to this telecom bill that would guarantee the neutrality of the internet. What it stipulates is, although free to regulate prices to their customers, these companies would be forbidden to
infringe on their internet surfing choices. Airmen, I don’t normally like to get involved with politics, but this goes beyond mere politics to the heart of what a democratic society is all about. We all need to write out
respective representatives and tell them in no uncertain terms to support and vote for the Markey Amendment.

There is a petition site for this at www.thepetitionsite.com.  I urge all of you to log on and sign it. Their goal is 20,000 signature. I’d like to think freedom of expression is a cherished standard in this country and they’ll gather way more than that figure by the time word gets out on this issue.

About a month ago I mentioned I’d been recruited to write a new Spider story for the new Moonstone Anthology being edited by Joe Gentile and that I’d keep you all posted. Well last week we writers were all given a big thumbs up on our plot proposals. Thus the green light to start writing our pulp adventures featuring the Master of Men. Happily my artist amigo, the fantastic Rob Davis has signed on to do the spot illustration for my tale. Above is his take on the this classic pulp figure. I just love it.
Rob’s work never fails to excite me. And if you’d like to see this illo in its pencil stage go over to the gallery section. I’ve posted both of them side by side. Oh, and our deadline for submitting our stories is the end of June.
Of course I’m already half finished mine. Ha.
No way was I going to wait for the last minute on this. It’s too much fun.

Hey, airmen, you’ve all gone out and ordered a copy of our latest pulp novel,
CAPTAIN HAZZARD – PYTHON MEN OF THE LOST CITY, right? No? Aw, what do I have to do to convince you it’s a great read and bargain at the same time? Check out the Air Fare section
and pick up a copy. Meanwhile, all the buzz on the pulp’s release last week re-inspired my gang doing the comic book version and new pages are just flying into hanger headquarters. Above is a small sample panel of Craig Shepard’s work as inked by Chuck Bordell. Chuck’s a new addition to the team and a very welcome one. Hopefully we’ll be seeing this done and out by the end of summer.

Finally my apologies. I was hoping to have the cover and link up to my newest comic release, FRANK NG-HIRED GUN, but alas, ComiXpress doesn’t post new titles on their store site till the first of each month. In this case that will be Monday. So, if all goes well, next week that should finally be here for your inspection.

Another week under out belts. The Red Sox have once again fallen on their old habits of breaking our hearts. Airmen, it’s just painful.
See you in seven.

Ron, over and out.

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.