Greetings Loyal Airmen, later this afternoon Valerie and the Air Chief will be in Old Town, Fort Collins, at the Northsiade Aslan Community Center to set up our tables for this year’s Fort Collins, Comic Con. As you can see from the media ad above (left).  We hope to see many of our Loyal Airmen from both Colorado and neighboring Wyoming there. We will be found at Tables E-6 and E-7 with lots of goodies both pulps and comics.  Here’s a sample.

And those are just some of the comics. We’ll also have quite a few pulps as well.

So as you can see, Loyal Airmen, lots of good stuff. Again hope to see you there.

MYSTERY MEN (& Women) Vol 9

A few weeks ago we told you our latest volume of “Mystery Men (& Women)” was nearing completion and voila, it is now on sale at Amazon. Once again our wonderful showcase series features four tales of four brand new pulp heroes. First we have Jaime Ramos’ Steelgrave, then Jonathan Sweet’s Black Wraith, followed by Mark Allen Van’s new Killdevil tale. Wrapping it all up is Jarrett Mazza’s first work for Airship 27 and the creation of his character The Zig-Zag Man. Art Director Rob Davis provides all the interior illustrations and that great colorful Killdevil cover above. The book is now available at Amazon in paperback and soon on Kindle. As ever Loyal Airmen, thanks so much for your continued support.

AN IDEA FOR NETFLIX

The Air Chief was just thinking the other on how good actor Henry Cavill was in playing Sherlock Holmes in the two made for Netflix Enola Holmes movies. Makes one wonder why no smart producer hasn’t approached him about doing an actual Sherlock Holmes series for the streaming outfit? Mentioned this on FB and the response from friends and colleagues was overwhelmingly in support of the concept. So come on, Netflix. Make it happen.

And that’s it for this week, Loyal Airmen. Tomorrow and Sunday will find Valerie and the Air Chief having fun at the annual Fort Collins Comic Con. Hope to see many of your Loyal Airmen there.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen and welcome to this week’s Flight Log.  Right out of the gate we’ve some truly wonderful comic artwork to share with you.

THE CRIMSON NUN

Are three completed pages by artist Jesse Thomas who is doing pencils, inks and colors. When the first book, which will contain 22 pgs, has been completed then it will be handed off to artist/Mike Belcher who will letter the issue. Then it’s off to Ben Dunn for publication via his Antarctic Press. Saying the Air Chief is excited by seeing these beautiful pages would be a gross understatement.

BOOMER GETS BIGGER

Wanted to also show our latest family member, Boomer, is doing well. The little guy is growing wicked fast, with all the love and care we are heaping on him. All of us here think he’s the best and he truly brightens our days.

JIN & TONIK

Finally super colorist Matt Webb continues to add his magnificent colors to the pages of JIN & TONIK # 1, truly enhancing artist Cesar Feliciano’s beautiful artwork.  Can’t wait to see this issue finished and in your hands, Loyal Airmen.

And that’s it for this week, Loyal Airmen. Yeah, a short Flight Log, but the Air Chief is bus getting his comics and pulps ready for the Fort Collins Comic Con which happens next weekend, Sat Aug 26th and Sunday Aug 27th.  Looks to be another fun show. But more on that next Friday morning. For now, thanks for stopping by. Stay well and be good.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, it it beginning to look like our newest Airship 27 Production release will be “Mystery Men (& Women) Vol 9.” As most of you know that’s or showcase anthology wherein our writers get to create their own original, brand new pulp heroes. Each volume features four such new characters. Volume 9 is now exception and here they are thanks to these beautiful drawings by Rob Davis who is the regular illustrator on this series and will also being doing the cover to this one.

So here they are. Top tier, left to right – STEELGRAVE by Jamie Ramos. BLACK WRAITH by Jonathan Sweet.  KILLDEVIL by Mark Allen Van.  THE ZIG-ZAG MAN by Jarrett Mazza. Trust us, Loyal Airmen all four of these characters are great as are the stories they appear in. Stay tuned, we will certainly let you know when the book is finished and ready for you.

BEYOND THE STARS # 3

Artist Andrea Bormida continues his beautiful work on our “Beyond the Stars # 3” Above you can see the development of Page 11 going left to right. First pencils, then inks and finally full colors. The next and final step is the lettering provided by artist Mike Belcher. We’re excited with this issue coming along so well. We think all you Loyal Airmen are going to love it.

ROO

Looking for a family friendly, brand new comic to support. Then we suggest all our Loyal Airmen check out the Adventures of Roo by my friends. Here’s the link, cut it out and pasted it on your search block. (https://www.fundmycomic.com/campaign/156/roo-1-back-to-the-rooture)

JIN & TONIK

After a long hiatus, super colorist Matt Webb has turned his completed colors on Pg 18 of JIN & TONIK the spy thriller comic by artist Cesar Feliciano and the Air Chief. As ever, Matt did a great job.

A NEW SISTER BLOOD STORY

As to what the Air Chief is writing these days; a brand new Sister Blood story for a new anthology being produced by my pal Adam Messer called “The Blood Runs Deep.” We will post most information in the weeks and months ahead. Plan is to have the book out sometime in May of 2024. Meanwhile, it is fun to get back to the world of Cape Noire and see what Sister Blood is up to again.

And there we have it for this week, Loyal Airmen. As always, thanks for stopping by. We truly appreciate your support in all our humble endeavors. See you all back here next Friday morning.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, we have a few fun bits to look at and discuss this week.  Let’s start with the Air Chief’s first try at teaching comics.

As most of you know over the last five years the Air Chief has taught a class on How To Write Comics & Graphics Novels at the Front Range Community College here in Fort Collins, CO.  What most of you don’t know is this course wasn’t the first time we tried our hand at teaching comic. Over twenty years ago, when we still lived in Somersworth, NH, we frequented a comic shop called the Paperback Bazaar managed by our good friend Ralph DiBarnido. Somehow Ralph got us in a discussion about possibly teaching such a class in the store’s back room twice a week and suggested we bring in artist Rich Woodall, another Somersworth resident, pal and creator of Johnny Raygun. After a couple of talks with Rich, we opted to team up and class the class over an eight week period with the Air Chief teaching the history of comics and how to pen a script while Rick would handle how to draw graphics. How successful was the class, well we taught it twice, the first time with three students and the last with two. Both Rich and the Air Chief worked well together and hopefully those five students learned some valuable things from us. It was fun, but really in the end had no future. So we let it go. Imagine twenty years later and here we are back at it again, in a college setting. The above add for the class was discovered by a good friend of us from Maine. Sure brought back a whole lot of nice memories. Thanks Larry.

AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTION

The Air Chief is happy to report two new Airship 27 pulp anthologies are moving down the production line smoothly. (Above at left) Artist Daniele Danbrenus Spezzani continues doing his wonderful illustrations for the new “Mars McCoy Space Ranger” anthology, Volume Three. Then Airship 27 Art Director Rob Davis is almost finished with his illustrations for our popular series “Mystery Men (& Women Vol 9.” (Above right is one of those illos.) Rob will also provide the cover when the entire book is finished. Both are titles we are so eager to get out there to you Loyal Airmen. Stay tuned.

CHARLES SAUNDERS & IMARO

One of our dearest friends was the late fantasy adventure writer, Charles Saunders. During his career, the most popular character Charles ever created was his warrior Imaro who lived and fought in an ancient mythological Africa. Charles wrote several books featuring the character and when passed away several years ago, he was in talks with a young Hollywood producer to bring Imaro’s adventures to the big screen. So imagine the Air Chief’s surprise when the other day, upon logging on to Facebook, we find the above drawing of Imaro done by the talented artist Chuck Patton. We were overjoyed to see it and of course had to share it with all of you. The last we had heard, that Hollywood producer was still moving forward with his project. All fingers crossed, it comes to pass and will be a fitting tribute to a truly wonderful man who though gone, will never be forgotten.

And that’s it for this weekend, Loyal Airmen. As ever, thanks for stopping by and hopefully we’ll see you all back here next Friday.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, this week we start off with something near and dear to the Air Chief, carousels. Growing up in Southern New Hampshire, every summer my parents would take us to the resort amusement park along the coast of Maine, Wells Beach. At the time the pier that jutted out several hundred yards into the Atlantic had on it the oldest carousel in the U.S. and we were entranced by it. All those beautiful painted horses, lions etc. It was the one ride we got on immediately upon rushing up to the pier.

Last week someone on Facebook posted the whimsical picture above at left of one of these magical creatures coming to life and escaping. It immediately brought back to mind the plot of the Peter Pan comic we wrote ages ago for the new defunct Malibu Comic. In it, we envisioned that all carousel horses put out of commission for one reason or another ended up on Never Never Land in badly need of repairs and new paint jobs. Thus Peter got the idea of coming to America to find two cowboys who would help him and the Lost Boys find and capture these horses, painted them up good as new and have a blast riding. My Mr. Jigsaw partner, Gary Kato, did the artwork and it is glorious. When the book came out, it did rather well and got some nice reviews. Sadly it has been out of print for almost twenty-five years now. But there is light at the end of the tunnel, artist Mike Belcher’s son, Aiden, who has digital copies of all the pages, has taken on the laborious task of re-color them. Once done, we hope to republish the book via Rob Davis’ Redbud Studio. Stay tuned, Loyal Airmen. As ever, we’ll keep you posted.

THE WOODEN BLADE # 3

Fort Collins artist Olivia DeGaine is hard at work inking issue # 3 of “The Wooden Blade” our saga bout the wandering swordsman, Raizee the Ram. And as ever she’s doing such a bang up job with it.  We’re hope the issue might be finished for this year’s Rocky Mountain Con in Nov. All fingers crossed.

AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTION

The Air Chief is thrilled to announce the latest title from Airship 27 Production.  “After Sunset” is a terrific western novel by writer Jonathan Casey. It tells the story of a retired lawman who reflects on his long career, both good and bad.  Colorado artist Sam Salas provides the interior illustrations and Shannon Hall that terrific cover above. As always, the book is now available at Amazon in both paperback and on Kindle. As ever Loyal Airmen, thanks so much for your continued support.

THE CRIMSON NUN

Artist Jesse Thomas continues to work on our Crimson Nun project. After penciling the first nine pages, he is now hard on the inks. When these are all done, the next phase will be the coloring. Then on to artist Mike Belcher for lettering. The Air Chief is delighted with Jesse’s work on this comic. Easily some of his finest work ever.

And there you have it for this week, Loyal Airmen. As always thanks so much for stopping by and we’ll see you all back here next Friday. God bless, one and all.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, we’re going to start this week’s Flight Log with a look at a few comic projects and where they are at production wise.

THE CRIMSON NUN

Artist Jesse Thomas is hard at work on issue # 1 as the page above beautifully demonstrates. This is the first time the Air Chief has partnered with Jesse and we are thrilled with his talent and storytelling skills in display in his composition and panel layouts. Can’t wait to see it all finalized and colored.

BEYOND THE STARS # 3

Meanwhile artist Andrea Bormida is turning in more amazing pages for issue # 3 of our space saga. Keeping in mind, this is a six-issue series, with the publishing of this issue, we’ll have reached the half way mark of our tale. Can’t thank you Loyal Airmen enough for supporting us right from the start.

AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTION

One of the things we love in publishing New Pulp is the range of titles people bring us. Last year the Air Chief was contacted by two first time writers from New England who had a book to submit called “The Return of the Crimson Howl.” Writers Paul Landri and Jason Clark’s plot resolves around a group of retired super-heroes who, after World War II, gave up their crime-fighting. One of them is savagely found murdered, the FBI agents on the case set up interviewing the old heroes. Once we’d accepted the book for publication, the Air Chief recruited artist Sam Salas to do the spot illustrations for the project. But before starting, Sam opted to do several full color pin-ups of the main characters to get a feel for his illustrations and has allowed us to share them. Above left to right are, The Crimson Howl, The Swami and The Human Bullet.  This is one action packed thriller and we think when ready, you Loyal Airmen are going to love. Stay tune for more updates.

And that’s it for this week. Thanks ever for stopping by and we’ll see you back here next Friday.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, we are truly very happy to introduce you to the newest member of our family, Boomer.

He’s a Labrador Retriever and was just about two weeks old when he arrived. Life around here just got a whole lot more fun. It is impossible not want to sit and play with the little guy every morning and then walk away with a huge smile. Honestly, Loyal Airmen, life is always better with a dog.

GREAT NEW REVIEW OF BEYOND THE STARS

We were thrilled to learn our pal, writer Michael Housel had done up a review of our sci-fi comic series for Silverline Comics – “Beyond the Stars.” You can find it at this link. (https://bizarrechats.blogspot.com/2023/07/fortiers-beyond-stars-join-galactic.html)

BEYOND THE STARS # 3

And as we’re discussing this series, here’s the completed page 7 from issue # 3 by artist Andrea Bormida. Shaping up to be our best issue thus far.

WHILE IN MERRY OLE ENGLAND

Meanwhile it seems like London is the place to visit this year, according to our family. As you’ll recall, Loyal Airmen, our son Kevin and his wife Melanie made the trip there a few months back. Well now our oldest granddaughter, Kristi is over there attending a wedding. Of course she wasn’t going to pass up doing some fun sight-seeing, including this stop at the famous Harry Potter train station. Kristi and her sister Chelsea grew up reading those marvelous books, and even got the Air Chief hooked on them. Something we’ve shared, that love of reading. Anyways, we’re thrilled she’s having so much fun and making tons of great memories.

MYSTERY MEN (& Women) Peek

One of Airship 27 Production’s most popular anthology series of the past few years is our showcase series, “Mystery Men (&Women.” Above left is the cover to Vol 8 – Currently Art Director Rob Davis has begun assembling four new stories for volume 9 which will feature four new great pulp characters. One of these being writer Jamie Ramos’ super cop STEELGRAVE, as depicted above right. This looks to be another stellar volume. Stay tuned. We will keep you Loyal Airmen posted.

THE RETURN OF MAJOR LIBERTY

Years ago, when the Air Chief was affiliated with a great little comics outfit in Maine called Alpha Production, we created our own female version of Captain America and called her Major Liberty. That’s her up front of Team Alpha in a cover by Paul Pelletier. We later wrote a 16 pg adventure feature the character that was later published in Redbud Studios’ ALL STAR PULP COMICS. Recently when talking with fan/creator Frank Scott, we mentioned the character and he got all excited. Wanted to know if we’d allow him and his pal Kevin Birge to use her in a new super-hero team comic they were cooking up. It would also include Frank’s own “Dangeress” and the Chuck Dixon inspired “Phantom Avenger.”

Here’s Frank’s initial write up for the project.

THE TRINITY OF THE EXTRAORDINARY

Dangeress aka The Siren of Strength.  Ageless leader of S.A.G.A. ( The Super Agents Guarding America ) Phantom Avenger ( Origin conceived by the legend Chuck Dixon ) Major Liberty ( Created by Ron Fortier )  The three women caught in a Timestorm initiated by Mr. Friendly , a Nazi scientist bent on winning not just World War Two but EVERY war. His modern day ally an enigma known only as The Actor ( Created by Ron Fortier and myself ) Master of disguise. Impresario of assassination. It is this Trinity of S.A.G.A. who must find a way to end this attempt at temporal terrorism

Story by Frank Scott & Kevin Birge ( Plot elements from Ronald Fortier ) Art/Designs Daniele Danbrenus Spezzani – Letters/Colors Doug Curtis – Story elements ( Phantom Avenger ) Chuck Dixon ) This all looks to be a great and it will be nice to see Major Liberty back in action again, we’ll keep you posted.

FINALLY JIN & TONIK

And as if all that wasn’t enough to keep the lights on, Loyal Airmen, let’s not forget our “JIN & TONIK” project co-created with the amazing Cesar Feliciano.  The Air Chief wrapped up issues # 1 & 2, with colorist Matt Webb now coloring # 1 and Cesar adding lettering. It’s a long process, as Matt has lots of projects on his table and the moment. Hopefully before the year is out, issue # 1 will be ready for the printers. Till then, enjoyed this wonderful new pin-up from Cesar.

And there you have it for this week, Loyal Airmen. As always, thanks for stopping by and spending a little time with us. Till next Friday, God bless.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, recently our good pal, artist Mike Belcher took it up himself to make July his personal Tribute to Independent Comics month. Like the Air Chief, Mike believes the best, most original comics being produced today, around the country, aren’t coming from the big publishers at all but from the small outfits like his own AMK comics, Silverline Comics, Redbud Studio and many other such.

As we said above, it’s where the Air Chief does all his comics these days.  Anyways, Mike is doing a pin-up sketch of an independent comic book character every single day of this month to the end of making more people aware of the great comics out there you many have never heard of before.

And to get the ball rolling last Friday morning, Mike this this brand new Mr. Jigsaw illustration which we love. It’s just great. If you are on Facebook, you’ll hopefully be seeing all the other great pieces he’s doing. Thanks again, Mike. You rock!

SOUND OF FREEDOM

This is the movie we’d been waiting to see and now that it is here, we urge all of you to please go see it. Human trafficking is real, it is slavery on a scale the world has never known before. All the nations of the world must unite to end it forever. “God’s children are not for sale.”

THE CRIMSON NUN

In writing the mini-series comic “The Crimson Nun” the Air Chief opted to set it against an actual historical time frame of the late 1930 into the start of World War II. To that end, we’ve incorporated some historical figures such as Pope Pius XI (seen above) and his role in the birth of our hero. Stay tuned.

SOME ILLUSTRATION PEEKS

And finally we thought we’d leave you this week with a couple of illustration peeks from two new anthologies we are now producing at Airship 27.  “The Challenger Chronicles” is our first anthology featuring Arthur Conan Doyle’s other hero, Prof. George Challenger. Artist Clayton Hinkle is doing a bang up job with the illos for that one (see above left). Then we have our second collection of “The Phantom Detective” a classic old pulp hero, and on board to illustrate that one (above right) is veteran artist Kevin Paul Shaw Broden. Trust me, Loyal Airmen, our artists make our books sing. Will keep updated on the progress of each title and when they are finished and available.

Till then, as ever, thanks for stopping by and we’ll see you back here next Friday.  God bless.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, with summer here, we also enter into what most comic fans know as Convention Season with such events, big and small, happening all over the country. But at the same time in various towns and cities, people sponsor book fairs where quite a few of our Airship 27 writers are invited to be guest.

GEORGE TACKES IN PEORIA

One such writer was our pal George Tackes who last week was in Peoria, Il to sign copies of both his novel, “The Great Chicago Fire Conspiracy” and “Sherlock Holmes – Consulting Detective Vol 17” in which he had a story. George reported that the show was much fun and he met a lot of other great writers.

MARS McCOY SPACE RANGER Vol 3

Many years back at the start of Airship 27 Production, a half dozen our writers got together to envision an old fashion space hero, ala Flash Gordon & Buck Rogers. From this, the writers all contributed to an overall bible and within two years we’d released Volumes One & Two of “Mars McCoy – Space Ranger.” And after that, he seemed to drift away with little interest among our crew to do a third volume. Still, there were diehard McCoy fans ala Van Plexico, James Palmer and John Bear Ross. When Ross went so far as to submit two new stories two years ago, the Air Chief decided it was time to make this happen. And to that end, a few months ago, while on Facebook, we crossed paths with illustrator Daniele Danbrenus Spezzani and we approached him about doing the interior illustrations for this new, third volume. Much to our delight, Daniele signed. Above right is one of his completed illustrations and we are thrilled by it. He is an amazing artist. Meanwhile another regular artist for Airship 27, Michael Youngblood has already turned in a gorgeous cover. So hang in their space jockeys, Mars McCoy and his team are coming back soon!  Oh, yeah!

BEYOND THE STARS # 2

We are happy to announce the printed copies of our comic “BEYOND THE STARS # 2” have arrived and all of you who supported this Kickstarter should be getting your copies as well. Thanks ever and truly hope you enjoy the issue.

RADIO PLAY ON YOU TUBE

We recently told you about our latest radio melodrama “Matilda.” Well it has been produced and released and for a very limited time will be available free on You Tube at this link.

(https://youtu.be/Ytb6N2dfJLQ) Take a listen and let us know what you think. The Air Chief loves it.

And that’s it for this week Loyal Airmen, as ever, thanks for stopping and see you back here next week.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen. Well, after two long months, we’ve finally returned to our Airship Podcast show with recording episode # 91 this past week. It is now up a You Tube and you an find it by simply cutting and pasting this link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QtMjdqrwLM&t=270s) We hope you’ll enjoy.

MATILDA

We received a wonderful notice from British radio producer Simon Collier telling us that our newest radio melodrama, “MATILDA” has been recorded and will soon be featured on their internet radio program, “Another Wavelength.” Think Twilight Zone on radio and you’ll get the idea. This is my second script of Simon and his amazing, talented voice actors and sound crew. Soon as the episode is up and available for purchase on their website, the Air Chief will certainly let you know and post a link. Meanwhile enjoy the awesome poster they did up for the episode. We love it.

WICKED AWESOME TALES Vol 2

Our good pal, and Official Protege, Todd Jones has just put out his, “Wicked Awesome Tales” Collection Volume. It collects all of the last four single issues and contains 18 black and white strip in all. Seven of which were written by the Air Chief, and these paired me with artists Luis Rivera, Gary Kato, (twice) Joe Arnold, Mike Belcher, Scott Ladzinski and Ron Stewart…with many of these lettered by artist Warren Montgomery.  The cover above features characters from the stories hanging out at a local watering hole, and yes, that is indeed our Brother Bones in the bottom left corner. Way to to, Todd. Another great collection, which he’ll be selling at future Colorado shows in the coming months.

BEYOND THE STARS # 3

And finally, artist Andrea Bormida is back hard at work on Beyond The Stars # 3 with the pencils for page number seven.  Beautiful work as ever.

And there you have it for this week, Loyal Airmen. As ever thanks for stopping by and we’ll see you all back here next Friday.

Ron – Over & Out!