Greetings Loyal Airmen, Valerie and the Air Chief celebrated a very quiet New Year’s Eve. First by attending evening mass and then home for Chinese take-out. All was going fine until we received a really sad e-mail as explained below.

Airship 27 writer Lou Mougin 27 Nov 1954- Dec 31 2022 passed away yesterday at the age of 68. Though we never met face to face, we became friends online and last year we published his first JOE COMPUTER Private Detective. Joe loved it, especially the art by Fer Calvi. Below is the bio he gave us for that publication. I loved Joe’s humor that came through all his e-mails. He will be sorry missed by the New Pulp community. God bless you, my friend and may you rest in peace.

LOU MOUGIN – despite rumors to the contrary, is a writer.  In prose, he’s written the Frankenstein novel, MONSTER IN THE MANSIONS, and several other items for ProSe Press.  His first Joe the Computer story debuted in Airship27’s LEGENDS OF NEW PULP FICTION.  SECONDARY SUPERHEROES OF GOLDEN AGE COMICS, a history of lesser-known 1940s comic heroes, has been published by McFarland Books.  In comics, his current gig is scripting horror stories for Warrant’s THE CREEPS, SHUDDER, and VAMPIRESS CARMILLA.  He’s also written stories for Marvel, Eclipse, AC Comics, InDellible, Claypool, Lucky, and others.  (What others?  At this point, he’s not sure himself!)  This is his first ever detective-type book.  If you buy it, he’ll be exceedingly happy.  If not, he’ll probably cry for a week.

THE MUSIC MAN

On a much happier note, while wishing all in the family a Happy New Year, our son Kevin sent along this new picture above doing what he loves best, playing one of his guitars. Kevin’s always had a gift for music and though he spends his days buy as the manage of a good sized supermarket in Massachusetts, his nights and free time are for his music. As some of you will recall, we even put Kevin on the cover of the new Sam Dunne novel by Fred Adams Jr. that we also released last year.

And so 2023 kicks of with both sad and happy moments as is typical in life. We cherish our loved ones and miss those who have passed. Amen.

BOSTON BOMBERS Vol Two

Setting aside time during the holidays, Rob Davis devoted his energy to get issue # 1 of the new Boston Bombers series wrapped.  Above are his just turned in Pages 17 & 18. With only a few more to go before the end, these will be our last sneak peeks. With fingers crossed we’ll have the comic out within the next few months. We are super thrilled with the work Rob has done here and think it is some of his best. Stay tune for updates.

BEYOND THE STARS  Issue # 2

Artist Andrea Bormida is now finished with Pg # 17 of Issue # 2 of our sci-fi comic book adventure “Beyond the Star.” Looking awesome. Our team of Science Warrior about to traverse an unstable Nebula.

PRAYING FOR INJURED FOOTBALL PLAYER

During Monday night’s football game between the Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals, Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered heart failure and collapsed. Medical staff rushed to the field to begin CPR and within minutes an ambulance was carrying him away to a nearby trauma center. As it drove off, his teammates fell to their knees in prayer to Our Lord Savior Jesus Christ and prayed. The Air Chief will remember this scene as long as  he lives. In minutes, a team, a stadium full of fans and millions watching on TV prayed. And we will continue to do so until this young man recovers. Amen.

THE WOODEN BLADE

With the release of “The Wooden Blade” issue # 2 last year, Olivia DeGaine and the Air Chief are now hard at work on issue # 3 of the adventures of Raizee the Ram and his vulture sidekick Orai. Above are Olivia’s first roughs and layouts. Wahooo!!

THE AIRSHIP 27 PODCAST

Was checking You Tube recently and discovered something great. Seems our last Podcast Episode # 89 has to date received over 100 views.  Wowser!! We generally get about 70 to 80 views. So whatever happened, we have no clue but still Rob and the Air Chief want to thank all of you Loyal Airmen for tuning in and obviously telling your friends about the show.

And that wraps up this Flight Log, Loyal Airmen. As ever thanks for dropping by and we’ll see you back here next Friday.

Ron Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, we hope your Christmas last weekend was the best one ever. As we look to jump into the New Year 2023, we’ve all kinds of hopes and wishes. But first let’s look at the some of our Santa goodies.

THE AIR CHIEF’S SUPER SIX

As we’ve said often enough here, family is everything to us. Val and the Air Chief have five amazing grown up children and six super grand kids. So Val went and had this custom made sweatshirt made for us. Pepere is French for grandfather…and here represented from left to right, according to their ages are our Six Super Grand Kids: Kristi, Cora, Chelsea, Alex, Taryn & Logan. We love them all so much and this shirt is something truly special to the Air Chief. Oh, yeah.

STAR WARS – THE MANDADOLIAN

Our family knows the Air Chief loves action figures and we’ve quite a collection doting the book shelves in our office. So it was a wonderful Santa surprise to unwrap a really awesome Madalorian action figure which you see above to left. But the funniest surprise was later opening a box with a Funko bobble head version of the character (above to the right) who also comes with the baby Grogu in his arms. They are both awesome toys.

THE GREAT ADVENTURE BIBLE

Over a year ago, while surfing You Tube, we discovered a daily podcast series from Ascension Press titled the Bible in a Year hosted/narrated by Father Mike Schmitz. Father Mike is such a wonderful, humorous soul devoted to his ministry and as we began to watch episodes daily, it didn’t take us long to get hooked. As we recall, we’d come in towards the end of that first year.  So…after we’d reached the end of the program, we simply went back to Day One on You Tube and started from the beginning. One of the marvels of this series is the accompanying Great Adventure Bible put together by the folks at Ascension under the guidance of bible expert Jeff Cavins. Their approach is to cross-reference books from the Old Testament with those from the New to ultimately reveal a linear narration that is God’s beautiful story of salvation history. From Adam and Eve’s original falling to sin to the miraculous incarnation of Jesus to save mankind…once and for all.  Thus, our kids, knowing of my affection for this video series, gifted me with a copy of the Great Adventure Bible. We are wicked excited as it will be a tremendous aid to our ongoing bible studies. As for Father Mike’s Bible in a Year series, if any of you have ever wanted to read the bible, we recommend it highly.

AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTION

Just before Christmas, we managed to release our 22nd (and last) title of the year. Kind of fitting that we’d do 22 books in 2022. Ha. This was of personal interest to the Air Chief as it features a fictional character we created as whim to announce our You Tube video podcast. We’d found an old classic 1940s pin-up picture on line (at right above) and called her Radio Rita, the manager of Hangar 27 where all the magic of Airship 27 happens. Eventually, several of our writers started asking if we’d ever do a book starring this lovely redhead. The idea sounded like fun and we came up with this concept wherein we’d write a very brief bible in regards to the Rita’s character…and let each writer who signed on to fill in the rest of just “who” she was. Of course this would immediately have each writer doing a “different” version of Rita and that’s exactly what transpired. Vol One features four Radio Ritas as envisioned by writers Mel Odom, Gene Moyers, Teel James Glenn & Samantha Lienhart. Rob Davis provided all the great interior illustrations and Ted Hammond that gorgeous front cover (to left above). The girl fliers collage is the back cover. “The Adventures of Radio Rita” is now available at Amazon in both paperback and on Kindle. We think it’s something special and we hope you’ll give a look.

NEW FRIENDS FROM FRANCE

Several days ago, the Air Chief received a surprise e-mail from a woman named Randa Hassan. She’s French and she and her husband, Sherif Negati, were in Fort Collins visiting her mother for the holidays. Sherif is a big comic book fan and they were hope to make contact with any comic book professionals while here. The Air Chief wrote back suggesting we all hook up at the local comic shop and they agreed. So on Wed afternoon, the Air Chief, along with our pal, pro letterer James Gaubatz, had the real pleasure of meeting and getting to know these truly wonderful people. Sherif recently gave up a good paying IT job for an oil company in France to start writing/drawing his own comics. So for an hour and a half  the four of us talked comics, pros and cons, those here in America and the French comics back where they live. It was a fun, informative meeting. Sherif promised to send us sample of his work when he gets home and asked the Air Chief to be totally honest in our critiques. Which we’ll gladly do. We snapped the picture above. (Left to right is James, Sherif, Randa and the Air Chief. Like to think we made two new friend today from way across the globe.

And that’s it for our last Flight of 2022 Loyal Airmen. Thanks ever for following this blog all year long, we truly appreciate your interest and support of our humble activities and ramblings. Here is wishing all you a truly wonderful and great New Year. God bless you all.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen. As this post, we are just two days away from the “big day” and it is our fondest wish that Santa has wonderful surprises in store for you and all your loves come Christmas morning. Here at Hangar 27 all our gifts are wrapped and under the tree and we’re all getting wicked excited.

PETER PAN REPRINTS

One of our fondest writing projects was getting to do a Peter Pan adventure for Malibu, which they published under their Adventure comics line. Our pal Gary Kato provided all the art. After the two issues were published, they actually did another edition combining both. Of course that was years ago and the book has sadly been out of print. We’re about to change that, as working with the original black and white pages, artist Aiden Belcher is recoloring them. Gary has done a new cover (above at the right) and with fingers crossed, Peter Pan, Return to Neverland will be out from Rob Davis’ Redbud Studio sometime in 2023. Yahooo!!

SURPRISE CHRISTMAS GIFT ARRIVES

So the mail delivers a big package from our artist pal Mike Belcher. (Yup, he’s Aiden Belcher’s dad.) We opened it up and our jaw drops. Mike gifted us with all 9 original pages of our recent Green Hornet (Paul & Mishi) strip that we produced together and sent out freely to all our GH friends. This was such a wonderful surprise. Best Christmas gift ever, Mike. Thank you so much.

PULP FICTION REVIEWS LINK

Wanted to remind all you Loyal Airmen, there is an active link at the top of this site which leads you to our almost twenty year old review column, Pulp Fiction Review. It is still active and the Air Chief averages about 50 reviews there every year, so on occasion when visiting here, you might want to click on to it and see what recent books we’ve looked at. An example being our latest, which we’ve copied here.

SERGEANT PRESTON OF THE YUKON By Martin Grams Jr.

OTR Publishing LLC  (www.MartinGrams.biz) 123 pages

In this self-published book, award winning cultural historian, Martin Grams Jr. pays homage to one of early radio and television’s most popular heroes, Sgt. Preston of the Yukon. Working from the first 16 radio scripts written Detroit’s WXYZ station by writers Tom Dougall and Frank Striker, Grams adapts them to prose form. He takes us readers on a trip back to the wild and wooly frontier days of the Yukon when gold was first discovered in the frozen north.

Here is the stalwart Sgt. Bill Preston, his faithful dog, Yukon King as well as a supporting cast to include Canadian Pierre LeRoux. Each story is set against the rugged, unforgiving Yukon with locations such as Frozen Gulch, Skagway and Dawson. Names that echo romance and adventure. Gram’s prose is straight forward, without flowery embellishing adding to the rugged drama of each story. It’s his first venture into fiction writing and we certainly hope not his last.

WELCOME JESUS OUR SAVIOR

And finally we want to wish all of you and your loved ones a truly joyous and blessed Christmas. Join us in celebrating the arrival our savior, Jesus who came into this world to save us all from our broken state of sin and once again open the gates of heaven. Believe in this babe in a manger. He is love incarnate.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen. Last week we gave you a peek in the pre-production of what we hope will result in the publication of our 130 Pg BROTHER BONES graphic novel.

As our yet-to-be-named artist on the project continues to do up character sketches. See above. It is time we put out a call for a colorist to join our team. Note, there will be no up-front monies as this project will be funded entirely by some kind of on-line program ala Kickstarter. So our artist, and whoever joins signs on as colorist will only be paid IF the campaign is a success. And of course much of that will depend on the talent involved…and promotion. Not being all that savvy about such funding programs, the Air Chief expects the final money goal will be up there. Paying people to do a 130 pg comic book isn’t going to be cheap, by any stretch of the imagination. To be successful, we’ll need ALL you Loyal Airmen not only to help us by contributing, but to spread the word throughout the internet. But relax, we’re still months away. For now, we need that colorist.

A TEMPLAR KNIGHT

Look what mail delivered a few days ago. Our first Christmas gift. A wonderfully detailed Templar Knight figure from my dear friends, Michael & Donna Housel. Michael’s is one of our writers at Airshcip 27. There was a second surprise in the box and we’ll share that later after some special adjusting.

DOWN MEMORY LANE

The Air Chief turned 13 the Nov of 1960. As a comic book fan, we were in seventh heaven as that year had seen the birth of Marvel Comics and the start of what would be known as the Silver Age of Comics. The amazing Stan Lee and Jack Kirby had given us the Fantastic Four, and then Steve Ditko joined Lee on Spiderman and just like that, we fans were being bombarded by amazingly wonderful new titles. Of course, the good people at National Comics (now known as DC Comics) weren’t oblivious to the sudden burst of sales competition they were getting. For the past few decades after World War II, they had pretty much owned the superhero market, though those titles had fallen into woefully childish tales not fit for anyone by a five year old. Thus, with Marvel whipping up Iron-Man, Thor, Ant-Man like popcorn month after month. Thus as 1960 started slipping away into the future, the big guns at National began offering up “new” versions of their own classic Golden Age titles and almost overnight we had a new Flash, a new Green Lantern, Atom and Hawkman. All were brilliant and this 13 old fan just couldn’t get enough. Eventually Lee assembled the Avengers and hot on their heels National began posting adds for Brave & Bold # 28 to be out in the Spring of 1961. We had always loved team books and the cover of that comic excited us to no end. And so when that month arrived, we jumped on our bike and peddled all over our little town of Somersworth, N.H. in search of that comic. Remember, there were no comic shops in those “olden” days and distribution was random from drugstores to Mom & Pop grocery markets. The same title was guaranteed to appear at any one location monthly. Thus the hunt was on and after a desperate few weeks, we finally found the comic in one of those neighbor markets. The euphoria of actually getting our hands on is one of the fondest memories we have. Tie to the fact that we’d be going to high school that Fall and you can see why the memory is so vivid. We didn’t even wait to get home to read the darn thing, but rather sat down on the cement steps of that little store and read it there and then. Ah, what a rush.

That was 63 years ago. A lifetime indeed. Now imagine the Air Chief’s wonderful shock when looking through new titles at our local comic shop here Fort Collins, CO. and we see that exact comic. And we do mean exact. Picking it up and flipping through it, lo and behold we immediately realized DC had printed an exact facsimile reprint of Brave and the Bold # 28….to include not only all the great story pages, but even the old ads that had been featured in the original issue. Obviously there was no way the Air Chief was leaving that shot without it. Getting home and rereading it again, after all those years was simply wonderful. Of course back then we only paid .10 cents for it. This reprint was $4. Ha. My how the times have changed.

ADDITIONAL FUN BITS

Ever since moving to Colorado, it was inevitable that Valerie and the Air Chief would become huge fans of Country Western Music. Don’t get us started on how awful today’s modern music scene is. Thank God for good old fashion C & M, with great songs that tell stories by some of the finest singers in the land. Thus it was which much pleasure we watched Georgia native, 22 yr old Bryce Leatherwood become the winner of The Voice talent show this past week. There’s a photo of him with his coach, veteran C & M super star, Blake Shelton. Week after week this kid knock our socks off with his melt-butter-in-your-mouth voice and knowing he won by the viewers vote, tells us America still knows good music when it hears it.

Finally a film recommendation to found on Netflix.  Guillermo del Toro’s own version of the classic children’s book Pinocchio. Be warned, it’s not the cute little Disney cartoon version, and the setting if Facist Italy during the second World War. But it remains a haunting story of love and loss brilliant envisioned by del Toro and the people at the Jim Henson studios. This is stop-motion-animation at its finest and the voice cast is terrific. Don’t miss it.

And that’s it for this week, Loyal Airmen. Again, thanks for stopping by and we’ll see you back here next Friday morning. Counting down to Christmas.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, we’re starting off this week’s flight log with a bang.

Several weeks ago, after having attended this year’s Rocky Mountain Con, we reported that one of our local artist friends had expressed an interest in taking on our Brother Bones 130 pg graphic novel. Well after several e-mail exchanges, this really talented artist confirmed wanting to take on the project. Above you will see several of his early sketches of three of the characters from the story. He did up about ten of them and the Air Chief will be be posting them here in the coming weeks. We don’t want to reveal the artist identity just yet, as we are preparing an official Press Release which give all of you Loyal Airmen more details in regards to the project. We’ll also be announcing the name of the Editor and putting out a call for a colorist to join this creative team. So stay tuned, lots more to come. Oh, as as for the image of the very awesome Brother Bones custom figure above the drawings, it was done by our pal, expert model maker Jase Marshal.

BEYOND THE STARS # 2

Artist Andrea Bormida has colored Pg # 16 of book # 2.  Wahooo!  Our heroes are about to start their voyage to learn the secret of the alien technology and hopefully safe the universe.

THE INDEPENDENTS RULE

We’ve been saying for many years now that the best comics produced today do not come from the big guys ala Marvel & DC, but rather the self-made comics from new creators. Here in Fort Collins, among our informal Fort Collins Comics Coffee Clutch Crew, two such creators have proven that theory once again. Writer Seselis has been one of the crew for several years now. Recently he and artist Yazmine Tatiana produced a black and white gem called “Beyond the Wall.” It is a wonderful comic, simply told with terrific black and white art. Then just a few months ago, N. Honor Vincent and her husband moved to our little part of Northern Colorado and within a few weeks she was part of our crazy gang of writers and artists. Honor is a gifted writer and her latest example of that talent is the full color two issue series “New Rat City” done with artists George Quadros & DC Alonso. It is simply fantastic. So dear Loyal Airmen, the next time you visit a comic shop or attend a con, go check out the independent titles, we think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

RADIO RITA

Repeating for all you new Loyal Airmen.  Several years the Air Chief used the above 40s pin-up to announce new Airship 27 Podcasts. We named her Radio Rita. Eventually lots of our writers at Airship 27 Production began asking if we’d ever do a book with her. End result, the Air Chief challenged them to create stories of a female aviator, using the same simple facts. 1) She’s tall. 2) Has green eyes. 3) Has red hair. 4) Is an expert pilot. And sure enough, four of the best writers in the business delivered above and beyond our expectations. Above the back cover to “The Adventures of Radio Rita” now in the final stages of production. We hope you Loyal Airmen will this special book.

THE SPIRIT OF THE SEASON

Earlier in the week, Valerie and our daughter-in-law Nicole, got busy decorating the house for Christmas. One of the annual events is Valerie putting her collection of old world Pipka Santas on display. Surrounded by lights, they are each one beautifully sculptured and painted. And so for the next couple of weeks, this festive display, along the Christmas tree on the other side of the room, will put a huge smile on all our faces. Here’s hoping each of you Loyal Airmen all have your on family traditions to show off the Spirit of the Season.

THE WOODEN BLADE # 3

Finally we started writing a new Raizee the Ram adventure. The character we created with writer/artist Olivia DeGaine. Olivia ended issue # 2 (see above right) with a cliffhanger ending. We are no finishing that story and it will kick off issue # 3 which we hope to have out at next April’s second Wicked West Comic Expo. More as that develops.

And that Loyal Airmen is it for this week’s Flight Log. As ever, thanks for stopping by and we’ll see you all here next Friday morning. God bless.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, a few years go Airship 27 Production put out a book collecting stories by writer Fred Adams Jr. appropriate called “Fred Adams Jr. – Pulp Writer.” Now we’re happy to announce we’ve just released a second collection in this vein this time featuring veteran writer Brad Sinor.

Brad is truly an amazing writer. As if the book is now available at Amazon in both paperback and on Kindle. We hope you’ll check it out. This is our 21st release of the year. Will there be another before 2022 says goodbye? Stay tuned Loyal Airmen.

THE HOLY FAMILY

Last Sunday began the church season of Advent; the four weeks before Christmas wherein Christians around the world prepare their hearts for the coming of our Savior on Christmas day. In his homily at mass, our pastor reminded us once again, this should not be a time to get lost in mere commercialism and buying gifts for each other, but a time to give thanks to a God who set such a wonderful plan in motion. That a broken world would be saved by a babe born in a manger, and loved beyond measure by his parents. Family is the heart of God’s wondrous plan for our salvation. We would suggest in the coming weeks all our Loyal Airmen reflect on their own families and cherish them for the true treasures they are. The birth of the baby Jesus, is the reason for the season. Amen.

CUSTOM GREEN HORNET FIGURE

Every now and then some enthusiastic Green Hornet fan will come along and built his or her own custom made GH figure. Just like Lex Barker who put together the figure above. Someone on Facebook saw the pix and began sharing it with others. Which is how the Air Chief discover. Well done, Mr. Barker, this is a beauty.

OTHER PROJECTS – Working on so many different comic projects, things often go up and down like a roller coaster for all kinds of reasons; first fast and then slow. Right now this is where some of these projects are.   BEYOND THE STARS # 2, hard working artist Andrea Bormida is juggling at least four different comic series to earn enough to pay his bills. He’s up to Pg # 15 on issue # 2 and we should see that wrapped up after the start of the new year.  JIN & TONIK status, issue # 1 is fully penciled and inked by Cesar Feliciano and we are now waiting for colorist Matt Webb to complete his beautiful colors. Again, he was pulled off by a paying gig and will return to ours when time allows.  MR. JIGSAW # 18 is now be drawn by artist Gary Kato and we should see that issue out from Rob’s Redbud Studio some time in January as well. Those are the top three projects the Air Chief has going. There are four more, but those are still in the early stages. Hopefully in the next few weeks’ Flight Log we’ll be able to cover them as well. Till then, thanks for your continued encouragement and support.

Ron – Over & Out!!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, last week we showcased the wonderful Comic Crusader Omnibus we had just purchased which collected all the great issues of this truly wonderful fanzine created and published by the last Martin Greim. Well, lo and behold, the mailman once again brought us another giant sized book written and assembled by Jon B. Cooke for TwoMorrows Publishing that details the entire history of Charlton Comics.

The book features a cover by Joe Staton, co-creator of E-man. Inside Chapter 16 you’ll find pictures of a very young Air Chief and his artist partner Gary Kato along about the time we had given Charlton our lovable comedy super-hero, Mr. Jigsaw Man of a Thousand Parts. It’s all there, our reminiscing about those early days when we breached the walls of comicdom with raw talent and a dream that wouldn’t die. Hope you go to Amazon and pick up a copy.

BEYOND THE STARS # 2

Meanwhile artist Andrea Bormida has completed the pencils, inks and colors to issue to Pg !5 of BEYOND THE STARS # 2. He’s so making this issue even better than the first. We kid you not.

Whereas yesterday was Thanksgiving, it is our fondest wish that all our Loyal Airmen had a wonderful holiday with friends and family. Val and the Air Chief had a great day with lots of good food. We started our day with attending mass and giving thanks to God for all our many blessings. Among those are all you Loyal Airmen who have made our career such a joy. Take care and we’ll see you back here next Friday.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, we have such a wonderful story to share with you today. It’s truly amazing and beautiful…if you’ve are a believer.

In 2021 we lost one of Airship 27 Production’s finest writers, Greg Hatcher at the young age of 60. In the past few years, Greg had given us three stories featuring his original character, Dr. Fixit; a fellow who made fantastic weapons for super-villains. Yeah, a wacky idea, but Greg made it work. When Greg died, he left behind one last Dr. Fixit tale which he never got to finish. His wife, Julie, made us aware of this fact and so Art Director Rob Davis and the Air Chief decided we’d find someone to finish that story and then collect it with the previous tales and publish a book in Greg’s honor. The writer we recruited to complete the last story was one of the best in New Pulp, our good buddy Fred Adams Jr. Then one of Greg’s own talented friends, artist Christ Kohler, volunteered to draw the cover with Rob coloring it. So we started working on it in earnest.

Last Sunday morning, Nov 13th, the book was posted to Amazon and is now available there in both paperback and on Kindle. Of course, as always, the Air Chief, began spreading the cover and press release all over the internet to let folks know the book was available. And while on Facebook, we note something that about knocked us out of our chair….Nov 13th was Greg’s birthday!!!  No lie!!! We got the out on what would have been his 61st birthday!  And still was, only this time, our friend Greg was able to celebrate it in heaven with the angels. Please don’t tell us it was a coincidence. There are no such things, only a loving God who smiles on all of us.

BROTHER BONES GRAPHIC NOVEL

As most of you Loyal Airmen are well aware, the Air Chief has been sitting on a 130 pg Brother Bones graphic novel manuscript for several years now. In that time a few brave artists have stepped up to take a shot at illustrating it, but alas they quickly bowed out. This script, for the first time ever, tells the entire origin of the Undead Avenger in comic form and obviously we’ve been disappointed at not being able to recruit an artist to bring it to life. So while at the Rocky Mountain Con two weeks ago, one of our many artists friend here in Fort Collins inquired as to if  we had a new Brother Bones projects in the works. We grimaced and explained about the graphic novel script collecting dust in our files. Note, this fellow had already done a short Brother Bones comic and really likes a great character a great deal. Enough, it seems that after getting home, he wrote saying he might be interested in taking on the project, were it to be launched as Kickstarter campaign. We’re not adverse to such, though in all honesty we’ve never been fans of such funding programs. Anyway, we sent him the script and quite a few character sketches previously done by Rob Davis. Two days later, this artist sent us the first four pages of the script in roughs. Apparently he’s having fun reading the script, and is very much interested in taking it on. Don’t want to jinx it just yet by revealing who. But we are excited at the possibility and we’ll certainly keep you posted as things develop.

BEYOND THE STARS # 2

We already showed you page 15 in progress by Andrea Bormida. This week he’s defining the last panel, defining the team members as they all buckle up aboard N’Atelle’s speedy space ship.

THE BOSTON BOMBERS Vol 2

Princess Kumana is on the run from Roman troops in this, Pg # 16 of THE BOSTON BOMBERS Vol 2 – story by the Air Chief. Art by the amazing Rob Davis. Oh, yeah.

COMIC CRUSADER

In 1968 we left the army and returned to civilian life in our hometown of Somersworth, NH. We were 21 at the time. Little did we know then that in nearby Dedham, Massachusetts, a comic fan named Martin Greim was in the process of launching his very on fanzine (amateur magazines devoted to comics) to be called Comic Crusader. He would be aided by two fellow fans, Bob Cosgrove and Al Bradford. Within the next year, the Air Chief, through various sources, learned of the magazine and began purchasing copies as soon as new ones were finished. Fanzines were testing grounds for would be writers and artists looking to become professionals. During those years, we had become correspondent pals with then new comic pro artist Joe Staton who worked Charlton Comics. His first real series for them was called PRIMUS based on a TV show about a scuba diver. When Joe agreed to let us interview him for publication, we immediately contacted Greim and asked if he’d be receptive to publishing such an interview. He was only too eager to do so. Then Joe went and did an original sketch to accompany the interview which appeared in issue # 13 which featured a cover by Jim Steranko. Believe Loyal Airmen, in those days Comic Crusader had stuff from lots of folks just breaking into the business such Tony Isabella, Gary Kato and so many others. All names you’d easily recognized. Sadly Martin Greim passed away a few years ago and all his material became part of his estate managed by his two surviving daughters. Earlier this year, Cosgrove and Bradford got their permission to publish an omnibus edition and make it available on Amazon. This whopping book is well over 350 pgs and contains every issue of Comic Crusader except for the very first one, which Cosgrove reports in his intro to the collection is now lost forever.

Wherein we re-united with Joe and his wife Hilary, two weeks ago at this year’s Rocky Mountain Con, we realize then that we had to get a copy of this wonderful tome. Our own copies of the original issues are buried somewhere in the our tomb of stuff. Chuckle. Still at $25, this piece of comic book history was well worth picking up. Just flipping through it has brought back so many memories…and there’s that interview we did with Joe (see above right). Our very first ever published comic related project. WOW.

NEW GREEN HORNET 8 PG STRIP

PRESS RELEASE –  Ron Fortier, Mike Belcher & Aiden Belcher have produced a brand new original Green Hornet comic strip as fan fiction in a PDF. Anyone wishing a copy can have it for free merely by writing either Ron (airship27@comcast.net) or Mike at (amk_designguy@yahoo.com). Again this is fan fiction and there is no charge. Merry Christmas Green Hornet fans!

And there you have this week’s Flight Log, Loyal Airmen. Thanks for stopping by and see you next week. God bless.

Ron – Over & Out!

Hi Loyal Airmen, we’ve got one fun, long Flight Log for you this week. As many of you know last week the Air Chief and Valerie headed down to Denver for the Annual Rocky Mountain Con hosted by our dear friends Tim & Nicole Moret. At the same time, Sat, the first day of the show was the Air Chief’s 76th birthday! Oh yeah, and quite honestly there is nothing like having a birthday at a comic con. Take my word for it. Above are several pictures of the Air Chief autographing comics while wearing his brand new Vietnam Veteran’s cap which Valerie gave us that morning as a special birthday gift. To the Air Chief’s left and our con neighbor for the weekend, artist Zane DeGaine. The same fellow we are doing the new western series with. But more on that later, right now we’ve a bunch of great pictures to share with all of you. So hang in there.

A more direct look at part of my two tables of comics and pulps and a nice shot of Zane and Olivia. They are both extremely talented creators. Don’t ask us why, but it seems in the past decade or so Colorado has become a homebase for lots and lots of great comic artists and writers.

Above left are another two such artists. Guy Davis is at left, giving with the peace sign, with Joe Arnold on the right. Good buddies both. And Guy was debuting his new sci-fi series. To the right above is the Air Chief with his Official Protege, comics writer Todd Jones. Todd publishes the fantastic WICKED AWESOME TALES series which has featured lots of our stories in the past.

And then there’s pal Mike Baron, another Colorado resident and the genius behind Nexus and The Badger. The shows big guest was artist Joe Staton, and at right is Joe and is wife Hilary, along with the Air Chief and Val. Joe and the Air Chief’s friendship goes back nearly fifty years. It is always great to hook up with him and Hilary. They made this show extra special.

One of our dearest friends in Colorado, his Rio Herrera. Val and the Air Chief met Rio at the very first big Denver Comic Con. He’s a truly great guy. So when the Air Chief was penning his Zorro story last year, he thought it would be fun to put his pal in the story as a Catholic Padre who gets kidnapped by outlaws and has to be rescued by Zorro. Well when Rio discovered we’d done that, he was thrilled. Being of Hispanic roots, Zorro was always a childhood hero of his. He went out an bought a copy from Amazon immediately. Then he shows up the Con Sat morning and buys a second copy from us just so we could autograph it for him. Sadly we didn’t get a picture together, but the Air Chief later found the above pix on-line. That’s our pal, Rio, with a lovely Zatanna cos-player. Leave it to Rio to find beautiful women wherever he goes. Ha.

Here’s the Air Chief and Val with the show’s creators, Tim & Nicole Moret. They are such a wonderful couple and on Sat night, hosted us for a special birthday dinner at the local Moonlight Diner. Zane & Olivia joined us along with two other of Tim’s buddies, Steve and Matt. A really fun time was had by all.

Brett & Jeanni Smith have also become dear friends of ours. It is always great to get together with them (up at left) and lastly one more pix of us with Zane & Olivia. We really talked about the new western comics Zane and the Air Chief are doing and hope to have out by next April. Fingers crossed.

MY NEW TREASURES

Of course you should never attend a comic con and leave without picking up so new titles. And the Air Chief never does that. At this show, we left with these three wonderful titles. First up, Mike Baron’s NEXUS – Triplets with art by Kelsea Shannon is simply wonderful. If you’re a Nexus fan from way back, then you know how well crafted this sci-fi world is shaped and Horatio steps into this new story as if he never missed a step. We love it and can’t wait for future issues. Whereas BELLATRIX RISING is artist-writer Guy Davis’ long running sci-fi Star Trek inspired webstrip evolved into an original, all new comic adventure. Volume one above, with the hero on the cover is a compendium of this world, which Guy has build up over the years and then book one launches into a brand new adventure that is packed with great characters and tons of action. Guess this con was a sci-fi bonanza after all. Go find these comics now!

SOLD OUT!!

Oh, and should you Loyal Airmen wonder, the show was a huge success sales wise as by the end of the two days we sold out of two books and two comic titles (see above). Thanks to everyone who stopped by our tables and picked something up. You fans are the reason we do this stuff and go to these shows. And as ever our Rocky Mountain fans didn’t let us down. Our next show will be the second Wicked West Expo in April of 2023 and looks like we’ll be re-ordering these, and other titles to build up our inventory.

SHERLOCK HOLMES Vol 18

And while we were in Denver, Airship 27 Production Art Director was busy getting our Airship 27’s latest new pulp title, Vol 18 of our best selling series, SHERLOCK HOLMES – Consulting Detective. This one features two short stories; by Michael Black and Ian Watson. And a novella length mystery by Ray Luis Lovato. With interior illustrations by Rob and a wonderful cover by Warren Montgomery. As always, you can pick this up at Amazon in both paperback and on Kindle. And as always, thanks for your support.

BEYOND THE STARS

Artist Andrea Bormida turns in the roughs for Pg # 15 of BEYOND THE STARS # 2. We so love his composition layouts. He’s a gifted visual story teller and working with him is a joy.

THE BOSTON BOMBERS Vol 2

The action continues to heat up in the first new chapter of THE BOSTON BOMBERS Vol 2 with Rob’s art pretty much exploding off the page. We love this stuff.

BROTHER BONES THE UNDEAD AVENGER

As many of you Loyal Airmen know, in the past few years, two different film outfits attempted to get a Brother Bones movie and TV series launched. Both failed due to the lack of funds. Thing is, way back when dealing with the film project, the Air Chief took the finished shooting script and rewrote it as a graphic novel script. It was based on the first ever three Bones short stories and tells his origin in detail. So for the past five or six years we’ve been looking for an artist who would be willing to take on this 130 pg script. And it looks like that may have happened at Rocky Mountain. Yup, an old artist friend started talking to us about Bones and the state of things with the character. We in turn mentioned the script still collecting dust in the files and the end result of that conversation was this artist asked to read the manuscript. He is interested. And we’ll things right there. Don’t want to tease you Loyal Airmen, but all of you keep your fingers crossed. If this moves forward, for the Air Chief it will be a dream come true.

And there you have it, Loyal Airmen. This year’s Rocky Mountain Con was super fantastic…and for the record our next show will be the second Wicked West Expo happening in April of 2023. Here’s hoping we see many of there. Meanwhile, don’t forget to stop by here every Friday morning for our latest entry. God bless you all.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, as you read this, we are only hours away from packing up our comics and pulps for our trip to Denver this year’s Rocky Mountain Con. Happily we’ll be tagging along with our good friends, Olivia and Zane Degaine. Both are talented writer/artists who first met at the Joe Kubert School of Graphic Illustration back in New Jersey. Ever since they moved here to Fort Collins, Val and the Air Chief have truly enjoyed their friendship. In fact the Air Chief and Olivia started the Raizee the Ram comic series, “The Wooden Blade” together of which issue # 2 was just released from their Pulp Fusion comic line.

Meanwhile in the intervening years, Zane had confessed his desire to do a western comic. Something that has always appealed to the Air Chief as well. Then last year, while a guest at Todd Jones’ first ever Wicked West Comic Expo, we did a panel in which we, and the folks in attendance, whipped up an actual proposal for a western comic series to be called “Hamlet’s End.”

So hang on to your hats, western fans. HAMLET’S END by yours truly and artist Zane Degaine will be coming your way as a mini-series early in 2023.  Wahoooo!!!

THE BOSTON BOMBERS Vol Two

The action heats up in Chapter One of THE BOSTON BOMBERS Vol 2 – We can’t say enough good things about artist Rob Davis’ amazing work on this project. Out humble script jumps off the pages with his dynamic artwork. Just beautiful, page for page.

BEYOND THE STARS # 2

Artist Andrea Bormida delivers the final colors to Pg # 15 of BEYOND THE STARS # 2.  As always, Andrea is knocking it out of the part. Our space saga rolls along. Can’t wait to see all these pages after letterer Mike Belcher gets a hold of them. Oh, yeah.

Finally we know the holiday season is upon us, but you know what Loyal Airmen, there is such a thing as rushing your life away. Store retailers need to learn some restraint and let us shoppers relax a wee bit between these events. As the cartoon above makes fun. Still life is way too short. Let’s take time to truly appreciate it.

Ron – Over & Out!!