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.

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.