Greetings airmen. As I write this, there are sunny skies over Ft.Collins, Co.
where my wife and I are spending this Thanksgiving day. Which is also a good place to share with you some elf fun. You see, our son, Alan, came out here to go to college many,
many years ago. He met a wonderful young lady and ended up planting roots out here. He also
started up his own lawn-mowing business which grew and grew until it became one of the biggest, finest landscaping companies in all of
Colorado. His mom and I couldn’t be prouder. It’s lots of hard work, but he’s never been afraid of that.

A few years ago, to help promote the business, artist Gary Kato, and I put together a coloring book based on the company’s logo, the happy, working elves of YARD ELVES. This past week I had a link put up which will take you to that very coloring book. Alan hopes you’ll stop by and feel free to download the pages if you have a small ones at home. Sort of our Thankgiving gift to all of you. And please, check out the rest of his site while you are there. It’s pretty amazing.

That’s it. Gonna go grab a cup of coffee and relax. Can almost smell that big bird cooking. Take care, and may God bless each and everyone one of you. Till next week, Ron,over and out.

Greetings airmen, I hope all of you are gearing up for the holiday season which kicks off next week with Thanksgiving. Personally, I’m getting very excited about the line-up of fantastic genre movies that will be coming our way starting with this very weekend.

HARRY POTTER & THE GOBLET OF FIRE is the fourth movie in this mega-blockbuster series based on the marvelous books by J.K.Rowling. When my first grand-daughter, Kristi, was born, Valerie and I
offered to babysit her when her mom, our daughter Michelle, went back to work. For the next three years, that brown-eyed bundle of joy totally ruled our hearts. Of course you have to know, having a grandfather who is into comics and fantastic literature, this little beauty was given a daily dose of storytelling from day one.
Enough so, that by the time she was in pre-school, she had AN unsatiable appetite for fiction and became an avid reader. It is a habit we clearly encouraged. Well, sure enough, that old adage about what comes around applies here as well. You see, when the Harry Potter books began arriving, naturally Kristi, about eleven or twelve at the time, became one of the legions of fans of that series. Enough so that she persuaded her old grandfather to pick them up as well. And of course made a Potter fan out of yours truly. I have loved all the books and the movies based on them and I am most eager to see this new one. It is remarkable to watch the three young leads actually maturing and growing up in front of all our eyes. The USA TODAY reviewer gave GOBLET OF FIRE three out of four stars. That’s plenty good enough for me.

Of course you can’t have a hit childrens series without everyone in Hollywood Land wanting to imitate your success, ergo the competition is going to be fierce. Alas, to date nothing has come close to being as well done and fanciful as the Potter films. Whereas I honestly believe that’s all going to change come the 2nd of Decemeber when Disney releases its spectacular adaptation of C.S.Lewis’s classic childrens adventure…THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE..the first in his NARNIA CHRONICLES. You have to believe, if this first entry is a winner, we’ll be seeing the sequels soon after. Which if fine by me, after having seen many of the movie’s trailers. It certainly looks like we are about to have two family friendly fantasy series on our hands. And what’s wrong about that? It’s a whole lot better than those violent video game based movies we’ve been force-fed lately.

Finally, on the 14th of December, Peter Jackson is going to give the world his take on the greatest fantasy adventure movie of all time, KING KONG! This is a movie I can honsetly say I’ve been waiting most of life to see. Having seen the original 1933 movie at nine years old, when it was in re-release in 1955,
its images and grandeur branded themselves on my psyche and to this date it remains my favorite movie. Now, another fan of that same classic,
has used all the tricks of modern film magic to reimagine it in any ever bigger, bodler fashion, while retaining the heart of the story. The tragedy of a wild thing brought to defeat amidst the power of the mechanical age. Any guesses where I’ll be on the 14th of December? The gray hairded dude in line in front of you at the local theater.

Besides these top three blockbusters, the next couple of weeks are also going to offer up
the cinema bio-pic of Johnny Cash as portrayed by the super talented Joaquin Pheonix. And Charlize Theron is about to bring to life the old MTV animated sci-fi assassin, AEON-FLUX. All good stuff. When you consider it, we are clearly living in the golden age of movie magic.

Can’t end this week’s log without saying a big thanks to all the fans who stopped by my table at last week’s Portsmouth Con hosted by the good folks at the Paperback Bazaar. It really was a great day and we met lots of old friends and made many new ones. Tom Bonello,
one of our students in the Comics School, is an art teacher at the Barrington Middle School and has started a comic club there. Well, lo and behold lots of his kids showed up and experienced their very first con. Way to go, Tom. Would love to see more such clubs in local schools to get kids back to comics and reading.

And lastly, Valerie and I are flying out to Ft.Collins, Colorado in two days to spend Thanksgiving with our son, Alan, and his family.
I want to wish each and every one of you a joyous, fun filled holiday. Don’t eat too much good food and do take a minute to thank God for your blessings. Ask Him to give you the good graces to share them with others.

See you next week, from Colorado. Ron, over and out.

Back in 1965, in a small room in the Army recruiting offices of Manchester, NH, I and several other young men raised our right hands and took an oath. In that oath we promised to defend the both the people and the constitution of the United States of America. I was 18, Vietnam was raging overseas, and I was taking a vow based on my feelings and family history. You see, my father served in World War II as part of an artillery outfit in the South Pacific. When my brothers and I grew up, we would pester him to tell us his war stories. Of course, what I recall is he always told us funny anecdotes about the mischief he and his buddies would get into. It was obvious he would omit any accounts of loneliness or terror that are part and parcel of any combat experience.

My parents brought us up to love America.
This upbringing was reinforced by our school teachers who taught us the history of the land and why it is a republic unlike any other in the history of the world. I grew up a patriot. Even in the comics I reads like DC’s OUR ARMY AT WAR which featured the gruff Sgt.Rock and the men of Easy Company. To writer Robert Kanigher and artist Joe Kubert’s credits, they never glossed over the horrors of war in their stories of bravery and courage under fire. Thus when I signed up, I had no illusions about what I was getting myself into. Still, part of me has always believed that if you are blessed, as all Americans are, to live in such a great country,
then you have an obligation…a duty if you will, to
serve that very ideal.

So on this day, we take time to reflect on those men and women who loved America so much,
they put their own lives on the line. From Valley Forge to Gettysburg, to the beaches of
Normandy, Pork Chop Hill and the bloody Tet Offensive, they fought and they died for this
grand democracy, for this land governed “…of the people and by the people.” They died for your freedom and mine.

Today another generation of servicemen and women are in Afghanistan and Iraq doing that exact same thing. They are honoring their oath, the are, with their hard work, sweat, tears and even their lives, securing our liberties.
God bless them and bring them home safely..when the job is done. God bless America and all her veterans, those who came back and those who did not. We will never forget.

Well, Rich Woodall and I are half-way through our first session of the Paperback Bazaar’s School for Sequential Graphics. It has been such a fun experience for both us and our students are simply amazing. Above is a page done by Josh Florence. Josh wants to write comics and he has the talent for it. Still, part of our philosophy is to give both our writers and artists a feel for all the components that make up a comic. Thus Josh was assigned a script to do break downs for and he did so with panache and flair. When Rich and I saw the humor of his pages, we were delighted.
Josh has a bright future in this game and it has been a joy to help guide him on that path.

I also want to thank all you airmen who took the time to write both wishing me a Happy 59th
Birthday last week, but also to express your concern over my injuries suffered a few days prior when I took a nose dive off a ladder and sprained my right ankle. So here we are, eight days later, and believe me, it still hurts like
hell! Oh yeah, but I do walk on it and continue to keep both cold and heat on it during regular intervals. The ankle itself seems to be healing
okay, but I know I’ve torn some calf ligaments
as well and that is simply going to take lots of time, and limping..ha..before the leg is back to normal. All your well thoughts and prayers are deeply appreciated.

Finally, I’ve added five no pieces of artwork to the gallery section this week. They all resolve around a character I created named
Satin Wei. She’s a jewel thief and is brought to
visual life by penciller Gonzalo Martinez, of Chile, and inker Terry Staats of Texas. I’ve a short story and a mini-series in the works featuring her under the title SATIN’S WAYS.
Stay tuned for more as things develop.

Okay, got to go put the leg up and get some ice on it. Have a great week, Ron, over and out.

Well, tomorrow is my 59th birthday and I was thinking all week on how I was going to write this really heavy, philisophical essay on aging, wisdom, life, etc. You see, my dad died at 59,
so that number has been rather significant for me. But yesterday, I did something very stupid and paid the price in physical pain.
While cleaning up leaves from the front yard, I got it into my head that I should also clean the rain gutters. Now, rather than wait until Valerie was available to come outside and hold the ladder for me, as she usually does, I thought I could do it all by myself. STUPID! Halfway through the job, while descending, my foot slipped and next thing I knew, me, the ladder and the lawn-blower were going down! Thing is, while falling over, my right leg fell into the ladder itself, which then proceeded to go the other way from where the rest of me was heading. I hit the ground hard and lay dazed for a few seconds. Through the pain, my thoughts began letting me know just how incredibly dumb I was. Sheesh, I’m lucky to be reaching 59 at all!

Well I took careful inventory, while sitting on my butt. Had bruises on my face,arms ribs, and knees, but what hurt the most was my right ankle. I had managed to extricate my leg from the crumbled up ladder beside me. By the time I found my glasses and got to me feet, I knew it was twisted badly. Sure enough, it was already swelling up fast. I carried the ladder back to the garage, put the leaf-blower away and hobbled into the house. Valerie was just coming down the hall from the bedroom and saw me collapse on the setee. I confessed my accident and, although I knew she wanted very much to add her own thoughts about my inane dumbness, she held off and immediately set about doing what needed doing. Primarily that entailed putting ice packs around that ankle, now twice its normal size.

So here I am, a day before my birthday and I’m hobbling around like Chester from the old TV western, Gunsmoke. Am going to be hurting for a while yet, believe it. The swelling is going down, and we continue to treat the leg with both ice and hot-packs. I make a point of hobbling around on it every 30 minutes. And when the pain shoots up my leg, I grit my teeth and take it as a lesson I obviously needed to learn. Surveys say most home accidents are the result of carelessness. Amen. You’d think after 58 years, I should have known better!

I really hope all of you reading this will take it to heart and learn from my fall. Ladders are always dangerous things. Be careful when using them and maybe you won’t have to limp around like me. Have a great week, Ron, over and sore.

Greetings, airmen. And yes, I know it is not Friday, the day I usually post these new long entries. Valerie and I just had so much fun at last weekend’s two day Nashua N.H. Comic Con, I just wanted to share some of that with you. Along with some digital pictures we took. The fun of conventions is always the opportunity to get together with old friends and make new ones. And that is exactly what happened here.

The smiling dude on the left, is Chris Mills, one of my dearest friends in the whole wide world.
Chris and his wife, Brandi, drove down from Belfast, Me. to spend the day with us, Saturday.
It was so great to see them again. Chris is one fine writer and I’m his biggest fan. He and Joe Staton are doing a FEMME NOIR mini-series due out early next year. It will blow you all away. His terrific website, Supernatural Crime, is listed on my links page. Go check it out. Always tons of good stuff there.

The first comic professional creator I ever met was Joe Staton. Way back when he was just cutting his artistic teeth at Charlton Comics, I was home from Vietnam and slowly getting back into comics collecting. I wrote Joe a fan letter and much to my surprise and delight, he actually responded. Thus began our correspondence and friendship. Then a few short months later, Joe and his charming wife, Hilary,
made their first trip to New England and made a point of staying at my house one night. It was such a joy to meet them. Of course, being a typical fan, I pestered the hell out of Joe with all kinds of ridiculous questions about the industry and what advice could he offer me. He took it all in good stride and told me, wisely,
“Just don’t quit.” Simple, oh yeah, but so sound. It’s been my motto ever since. And as I began my own career, Joe, Hilary and I would cross paths once every ten years or so. Ha. And every time, they remained as always two of the kindest, most giving people I have ever known. It was a joy for me to have Valerie meet them at long last in Nashua. For you young’uns, Joe has worked on practically every major character Marvel & DC ever invented. And lately he’s been the visual force behind the truly funny, SCOOBY DOO comic, which just passed its hundreth issue mark.

Now as for making new friends. I have been bugging all you airmen for months about my new CAPTAIN HAZZARD comic project. Well, sitting next to me at the con was none other than artist Craig Shepard -that’s him in the Superman baseball shirt. This was a special weekend for Craig, as it was his first appearance as a guest at a show. And it was a thrill for me to watch Craig interacting with young fans and doing sketches for them. He’s a great guy and super talent. I’m so happy to be a part of his rising career. And I can’t forget to mention his wonderful wife Susan, who is prgenant with their first child. The baby is due in Dec. and Val and I wishing them a very special, miraculous Christmas gift.

On the second day of the show I had the opportunity to catch up with Digital Webbing’s very own boss man, Ed Dukeshire. In the little time Ed has been running the site and its comic line, he’s made them both recognizable names in the business. At present, Digital Webbing is the most visited comics site on the net today.
Literally hundreds of new and old creators visit it every day. Ed just is a bloddy magnet for talent. DIGITAL WEBBING PRESENTS is the best comic anthology book on the market today and I really hope to do lots more with Mr.D in the future. Always fun to hang with him.

Finally, one of the biggest joys of my weekend was meeting at least a half dozen of you airmen! Yup. You reading this right now. Coming up to me and saying, “Hi, I visit your site weekly.” Man oh man, was I ever happy to hear those words. Corey, Chad, Dave, Larry and Marco…and the others I’m forgetting now. I am so happy to have met you all. Sincerely. That’s why Airship 27 is here, because of all you wonderful folks.

And there you have it. A very specail log entry. And I can’t end it without thanking Ralph and Chris, the dudes who put on this great show. What a job well done. Now I have to figure out what to write on Friday? Ha.

Over and out, Ron.

Greetings fellow airmen. This week we’ve a few items on the agenda covering a nice variety of topics. First up, Valerie and I are off to the Holiday Inn in Nashua, N.H. tomorrow to attend the first ever 2 day comic con in the Granite State. There will be over twenty professional guests (yours truly in that merry group) and a hundred (yup…that’s 100!) vendor tables selling everything the discriminating genre fan could want from comics to video games and action figures. So come early and bring your check books. Ha.

I’ll be selling copies of my pulp books plus a very neat poster of the BROTHER GRIM cover art painting. If they go over big at the show, I plan on selling them here at the old Airship 27 later. So keep a sharp eye out. Joining me at this Halloween fun-fest will be Craig Shepard, making his professional con debut. Craig is bringing up tons of original artwork from our CAPTAIN HAZZARD comics project. So fans will be in for a treat. The doors open at 10 AM both Sat. & Sun. and the show runs to 5 PM. Hope to see many of you airmen there.

Last week I gave you a little bit about the history of the composing of the score for the original KING KONG movie. Well, there has been more exciting developments on Peter Jackson’s new version, due the 14th of Dec.
It seems Jackson just loves the big gorilla so much, he has turned in a whopping 3 hours epic!
According to the press releases I’ve seen, executives from Universal were flown down to
Wellington, New Zealand, to view an early cut of the finished spectacular. Word is, after seeing it in this length, they all applauded Jackson’s
efforts and have given him a green light to release this long cut. So we are going to a get a full blown three hours of movie thrills from a master film maker. How’s that for an early Christmas gift?
Hoorah! Go Kong!

I’ve received some very nice comments concerning the addition of our gallery pages.
Per my promsise to keep it updated, this week you will find three really funny illustrations by Chad Hurd for a project called THE GODBOX. Its a way-out fantasy adventure featuring a teenage version of Indiana Jones. Chad is an art student at the University of Maine in Orono, and his work is just magnificent. Enjoy these shots of our hero and his kid sister.

Finally, HAPPY HALLOWEEN to all you airmen and your families. Growing up in a small, New Hampshire town, I have lots of great memories of dressing up on Beggar’s Night and hitting the streets immediately after nightfall. My brothers and I used pillow-cases and pretty much
hit up half the houses in town with our Trick or Treating cries. By the time we got home, hours later, those pillow cases were bursting with enough candy to keep a dozen dentists busy into retirement. So, have a great time, stock your candy shelves, and get into the spirit of a truly American holiday original.

Over and out, Ron.

In 1933, RKO film producer, Meriem C.Cooper was making what would be his greatest movie ever, KING KONG. Cooper was a take-charge kind of guy and producing to him meant being responsible for the entire picture; assembling cast and crew, picking a director, etc.etc. Thus as the film was nearing completion, he went to RKO’s head of music, composer Max Steiner, and asked him to prepare music for his new monster picture. Steiner, a classically trained Austrian, then proceeded to assemble a score from bits and pieces stored in the RKO archives. It was pretty much choosing from already written music, preferably standard classics. Steiner did this based solely on his reading of the shooting script. When Cooper returned days later and listened to Steiner play some of it on the piano, he was crestfallen.

Cooper instinctively realized Steiner was not grasping what it was he wanted. When he explained he needed Steiner to watch a rough cut of the film and then compose music to
match it, the little Austrian reminded him of the money restraints his department operated under. Cooper, so positive his new kind of thriller required a fresh, original sound, promised Steiner he would pay for an orchestral recording from his own pocket. And he was true to his word, eventually shelling out a whopping $50,OOO for Steiner to compose and conduct his original score. (See picture above.) Once completed, Cooper said it was worth every single penny. KING KONG was one of the first true blockbusters and in the midst of the Great Depression, made $89,931 in New York City alone in only 4 days of its premier!

Movie historians, especially musicologist, are always quick to point out that Steiner’s original score was one of the major factors in the movie’s success. Never before had music been so perfectly matched in mood and rhythm to what was happening on the big silver screen.
Which is why, all these many years later, we fanatical King Kong fans are very aware of the newsmaking events which occured this past week on the Peter Jackson remake.

It was reported that Jackson’s LORD OF THE RINGS partner, composer Howard Shore, had left the project; after having completed a full score! The news articles, including Jackson’s own public statement, explained that the two had come to an impasse concerning the music. Part of me was not at all surrpised to hear this. Although I liked Mr.Shore’s work on the RINGS trilogy (he deseveredly won an Oscan for one of the three scores), I always felt (simply by listening to that music) that he did not have the sensibilities to capture the bombastic sounds of an over-the-top jungle epic. And let’s be honest here. Be they organic or concrete, the story of King Kong is a jungle adventure.
It was at the same time reported that Jackson had recruited James Newton Howard to come on board and do the music. I was delighted. Howard has written wonderful music for such movies as the live action PETER PAN, Disney’s
TREASURE PLANET & ATLANTIS-The Lost Empire,plus
all the scores for M.Night Shyamalan’s weird thrillers ala THE SIXTH SENSE, SIGNS, UNBREAKABLE and THE VILLAGE. He is a consumate composer with a very good feel for pure adventure melodrama. I’m excited at what kind of music he will deliver and can’t help but wonder if it will echo the great work of Max Steiner. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Finally, I just wanted to let you know the 8 week course I mentioned a while ago on comic books has been launched. Rich Woodall and I started classes two weeks ago and we’re having a blast. The class is small, but with these new flyers Rich whipped out, we hope to see it grow once these and word of mouth get out there. Isn’t anything more fun, at least in my humble opinion, than sharing the knowledge of something you love with others. That’s what this class is all about for Rich and me.

What with the foul, rainy weather finally letting up and sunshine back again, I’ve been able to take out my new bike and go riding. Still a few sore muscles, but it is getting easier. Ha. Not bad for a dude pushing 59!

That’s it for this week, fellow airmen.
Take care, over and out, Ron.

Greetings, airmen. My son, Scott, the PC whiz guy, was busy this week setting up our pages for the art gallery. It was something we had planned on doing right from the start, but like everything else in life, it just seemed to always get postponed. The purpose of Airship 27 has always been, aside from yours truly venting his thoughts and opinions on a helpless public (ha), to keep you informed on the various comic and pulp projects I’m currently invovled with. Obviously in that line of work, I collect lots and lots of very cool artowrk. Artwork I wanted very much to share with all of you. So here it is. Hopefully there will be lots more added as the weeks go by.

So let me identify the pieces I’ve put up to kick this off. The first two pieces, going left to right, on the first gallery page are from my
18 pg. story FRANK NG-HIRED GUN. The story is a prequel to the independent horror movie, GOD OF VAMPIRES, written, produced and directed by my good pal, Rob Fitz. The artist on this comic tie-in is Javier Lugo and that’s his work on the first page of the story. Next to that is the full color cover for the project as done by the
amazing Johnny Atomic; my parnter on TEMPLE & NASH. Johnny’s work is just gorgeous as this cover piece testifies.

Up next is some BROTHER GRIM art. The first piece is of course the powerful painting by Tom Floyd that was used for our pulp book, still available for those of you who haven’t yet picked up a copy. (See the Air Fare page.) With the success of the pulp book, co-creator Chris Mills and I decided it was time for a BROTHER GRIM comic book. It is going to be a 48 pg one-shot called BULLETS OF JADE and is being
drawn by the talented John Polacek. He did up
pin-ups of Blackjack Craddock and Det.Rod Riley
for us, both appear in the comic. And lastly, on
the next Gallery page, is John’s take on the
undead avenger. I love it.

Finally, as most of you know, the really big project on my plate these days is my bringing back the classic pulp hero, CAPTAIN HAZZARD. I’m doing both new pulp adventures and a comic book series. When I decided to rewrite the original Hazzard book, PYTHON MEN OF LOST CITY,
Ron Hanna over at Wild Cat Books agreed to publish it once it was ready. So I went to best pulp artist I know, Tom Floyd, and offered him the gig of doing the new cover. Tom jumped at the chance and is now hard at work on that assignement. To get it rolling he turned in three pencil sketches for me to choose from. I won’t tell you which I picked, but one of those pencils is now being painted by Tom. And since I detest wasting great artwork, I also picked another of these roughs and told my comic book
artist, Craig Shepard, to make a comic cover out of it. And while on the subject of that very same book (see the mock-up Chris did over the original pulp cover by the legendary painter Norm Saunders), Brian Meredith has begun serializing PYTHON MEN OF THE LOST CITY over at his (www.ModernPulp.com)site. He is posting a new chapter every Sunday and will do so until all 15 have been done. So if you’d like to read what I did to this 1930s adventure pulp, head on over and give it a go. Note, once the book is completely serialized, it will come off his site and go to the printers. Meaning, it will no longer be available to read for free. You’ve been advised.

Hope you all like the gallery. Scott and I still have more plans for Airship 27. So stay tuned and please, make your visits to the Airship a habit. We always love spending time with our friends. Have a great week, Ron, over and out.

Some of my fondest memories of growing up revolve around a gorgeous red bicycle my parents bought me for 12th birthday. Since my birthday is November 5th, it drops smack dab into the start of winter and not a time to be outdoors riding bikes.
I distinctly remember that particular year the snow had come early and there was no way I was going to be able to take out my new beauty on two wheels and even try it out before Spring. Talk about having the patience of a saint, ha.
It stayed in out basement all winter long. If you know anything about New England winters, that was many, many months. When the cold finally left and the warm weather returned, I must have driven my folks nuts with my contant pestering to take out my bike. The big day finally arrived and off I went down the street at full speed. She rode like the wind and handled like a dream. You could not have found a happier kid in all of Somersworth, NH that Spring and Summer.

This was somewhere around 1956/57 and bikes were not complicated machines as they are today.
There were no gears, no handle brakes. Just two wheels on a sturdy steel frame with a chain, two pedals and a handle bar. If you wanted to stop or slow down, you stepped backwards on the pedals.
Like I said, uncomplicated. Of course it required muscle to move and get from here to there. And in my town that was no small achievement. You see, Somersworth was built on a series of hills along the Salmon Falls River that divides NH and Southern Maine.
In fact the town’s nickname is the Hilltop City.
It is impossible to go one single mile in Somersworth without going up or down a hill. Now when you are a pre-teen and have a brand, new,shiny bike, that is not a problem, it’s a blooming blessing to one’s daredevil soul. And we were reckless, oh yeah. I have so many memories of whizzing down busy streets, my brother and cousins tagging along on their bikes, at breakneck speeds, through intersections and curving roads without any thought of how dangerous it all was.

These were the days before helmets and knee pads and elbow pads and whatever. If you took a fall in those days, and I took my share, then you got the bumps and bruises to show for it. Luckily I never broke anything, although how I managed that is pretty much a miracle.

Eventually I left grade school behind, entered high school and got my drivers license and that once new bike was stashed in the garage and like all childhood treasures, forgotten. Time rolls along, you grow up and there comes a time when those memories resurface. You have kids and then they have kids etc.etc. Which I think is what triggered it all for me when I saw my grand daughters learning how to ride their new bikes. I started reflecting on those wonderful days of youth and Valerie suggested I get a bike. What the heck, the riding would be good exercise as well. So we did. But the mistake we made was getting a modern contraption with all those fancy gears and gizmos and what-not.
I wrote it all of two months and never really enjoyed it, being always worried about shifting properly and never really figuring it out properly.
In the end it went up on hooks in our garage and still sits there to this day. It just seemed to me nobody way making bikes the old way anymore.
With no fancy doodads. Valerie kept telling me they did, but I didn’t believe her. All I had to do was watch Lance Armstrong do his thing with those handle-thingees and know my ever riding again was just a silly dream.

Of course what I forgot was the truth, as Jimminy Cricket says in the song, “if you believe hard enough, dreams do come true.” Two days ago Valerie and our daughter Michelle went off shopping for the day. Upon their return home,
Val waved from the front seat, “Come give us a hand getting stuff out of the back.” Michelle has a big SUV. I went over as she opened up the rear door and began pulling out this shiny,new black bike. Hmm, I thought, maybe its a new bike for one of the girls. They are shooting up
like sprouts and most likely one of them had outgrown her current bike. So I helped Michelle take hold of it, heave and bring it out and set it down in front of me. And realized it was a boy’s bike…WITH NO GEARS OF ANY KIND!!!
Which is when Val came over, gave me a hug and a kiss and said, “It’s early, but Happy Birthday.”

I have a new bike! It handles like a dream.
I took it around the block later that afternoon
and feeling the wind slapping me across the face almost got me crying. I was 12 again and life was just a series of hills, up and down. I couldn’t be happier. Of course that night certain 58 year (soon to be 59) leg muscles were
hurting. Oh yeah, but it was such a sweet pain.

Take care, airmen. And should you see this white haired old kid zipping down the road,
give him lots of room. Ha. Ron, over and out.

FAMILY EPILOGUE – Since writing the above yesterday, my son Scott e-mailed me pictures from our grand daughter’s 4th birthday. Among
Miss Taryn Rose Fortier’s gifts was her very own big bike. So here she is, conquering her hills and maintaing a noble family tradition. She sure is whole lot prettier a rider than yours truly. Way to go, T! Love yah, Pep.

Greetings airmen, another week has just flown by. They seem to really speed up this time of year, as summer weather wanes. The nights get colder and baseball season wraps this coming weekend. What with the Red Sox playing the Yankees in Fenway, for the whole enchillada, who but God could have scripted a more dramatic end to the season. A priest once told me it’s okay to pray for your team. Just keep in mind, good folks are also praying for the other guys.

A few weeks back I posted the primary portion of the awesome picture above. Back then I showed off the works of our penciller Craig Shepard and our inker, Sean Tenhoff. Well, as you can see, there was lots more to the picture than what I chose to reveal. Here it is complete with the book’s menace, one of the Python Men of the Lost City. And a big tip of the hat to colorist Bishop Bowie, who did such a bag up job here. Come on folks, if you saw this on the comic racks in your local shop, wouldn’t you have the urge to pick it up? Am hoping that’s the case. Ha. The project is coming along smoothly with everyone on board delivering some amazing work.

I spent an hour with some kids from the Barrington, NH middle school yesterday afternoon. I’m part of an after school enhancement program and I’m giving them a three week crash course in comic books. Had ten kids, nine boys and one girl, sign up. They were a good bunch and I’m looking forward to seeing them again next week.

My favorite TV show from last season was the Emmy award winning LOST. It kept me glued to the edge of my recliner all season long and I simply couldn’t wait to see it pick up again.
Well, it has and we are already two weeks into season 2 and it still rocks! The show is like an elevated, televised video game. My wise partner, Valerie, made that observation after we’d seen the season’s premier. She says it certainly feels like we’ve all been bumped up to the next level. Top notch writing, great characters and a mysterious setting. What more could you ever want from a TV show.

And finally, this week I have to offer up my sincerest apologies for NOT being at the Wizard World Boston convention, as I’d stated I would be. Circumstances beyond my control negated my
hoped for transportation and so I’ve sadly had to bow out. I do not drive in big cities, and Boston is one of the biggest, and the worst to navigate. Take my word on that one. I am particularly sorry I won’t be able to join the gang from Digital Webbing as they sign copies of
DWP #24. But on an upbeat note, DWP #25 is out and at comic shops across the country. It features the second MASK OF THE GARGOLYE story by yours truly and art by the gifted Dario Carrasco. I hope you’ll pick it up. As for you
folks hoping to see me in Boston, again, sorry.
I will be in Nashua, Halloween weekend, and that you can take to the bank.

That’s it for another go round. Tare care and have a great week. Ron, over and out.