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!!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, well as we being to write this entry, it is Tues 25th of Oct and we’re sick with a chest cold. Came on about three or four days after we returned from our New England trip. The old symptoms of a sore throat, body aches etc. To be on the safe side, Val made sure we went to the clinic for Covid test which happily turned out to be negative. Then it was off to see the family doc, who now has me on several meds including some anti-biotics. After our lung surgery years ago, we are highly prone to bouts of pneumonia and at our age, that’s something to be avoided at all cost. Meanwhile we’re about a week and a half away from this years Rocky Mountain Con in Denver, where we will once again be guest. Truly am praying this little setback is all gone by then, as that is our favorite show of the year and we really don’t want to miss it.

On a much happier note, a few weeks ago we showed you our new Suburu Forester which we’d purchased just before heading off to New England. Well now it sits in our driveway next to the old blue Suburu Outback which has been so good to us all these years. We gave it to our son and his wife to add to their fleet of vehicles in their landscaping business here in Fort Collins. Meanwhile Valerie and the Air Chief are having a blast getting to learn all the fancy new features on our new auto. It is truly amazing how far automobile technology has come since these days when the Air Chief first got his license to drive.

THEY STABBED MY BOOK!

File this episode under Weird. As most of you know, we’ve been writing our review blog, Pulp Fiction Reviews for over twenty years. In that time we’ve received books from both writers and publishers that have arrived in every shape possible. From pristine copies to those so ripped or bent one wonders what game the postal carriers were playing with the package before eventually delivering it into our hands. We thought we’d pretty much seen it all.  Ha. Never say never.

A few weeks ago, much to our delight, Titan Books sent us package. Inside was the newest Mike Hammer thriller “Kill Me if You Can,” written by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan. Folks who read the blog know we are big fans of both the late author and his super talented protégé. So, again, we are very happy and began flipping through to the pages. Which was when we realized several pages had a torn hole in the middle of them. Upon closer examination, we realized something had penetrated the book from the front as if stabbing through the hard cover and penetrating all way through to page 138! We have no idea what was used in the stabbing, but it would appear to have been some kind of very tough nail to have cut that deep into the volume.

Of course the damage is minimal in we are still able to read the book, which we are currently doing. Still, it is strange. And perhaps a case for a tough guy P.I. like Hammer to solve were he able. Our introduction would have been, “Mike, somebody stabbed our book!”

WHAT’S COMING NEXT

We’re happy to announce that our next SHERLOCK HOLMES – CONSULTING DETECTIVE is almost ready to be released. This is volume # 18 in our best selling series and features three new Holmes tales by Michael Black, Ray Lovato and Ian Watson. Above are three random illustrations by Art Director from the stories. The cover is by Warren Montgomery and we gave you a sneak peek at it recently. With all fingers crossed, we’ll showcase the release in next week’s Flight Log. Stay tuned.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN CON

We are within a week of this year’s Rocky Mountain Con, as hosted and promoted by Tim & Nicole Moret of Denver, our dear friends. This is what the Air Chief considers his “home con.” Tim always does such a great job with. The show is not too big, or too small. And the vendors for the most part all local talent from either Colorado or surrounding states. This year, one of the most talented and comic pros will be the featured guest-star, Mr. Joe Staton. We’ve been fans of Joe’s work from day one and are happy to call him and a personal friend. So Loyal Airmen, check out the ad above here and if you live anywhere within driving distance of Denver, why not make plans to come and join us. It’s going to be a great show.

THANKS END OF WEEK

Want to thank all my friends and family who took time to send me prayers in helping me get over the cold that sapped me at the start of the week. Amazing what a few short days can make. We are feeling lots better, almost totally free of the nagging cough that plagued us. Getting both our voice and normal energy back as well. So it looks like we’ll be seeing at the Rocky Mountain Con for sure. Thanks again, Loyal Airmen.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, well Valerie and the Air Chief are once again back home in Colorado after our ten day trip back to New England. We had a great time visiting with family and friends.

During our trip we stayed at Wells Beach, Maine. Our rental was one mile from the beach itself and four out of the ten days we were there, Valerie and the Air Chief would walk down to the beach to see the sun come up over the Atlantic. It was breath-taking. Also a bit chilly. Happy Val had packed some cold weather gear.

Upper left, the Air Chief took a hike along the beach at low tide. That’s us waving to Val still on the viewing deck. Later that same day son Scott drove up to see us. It is always so great to see him.

A few days later our daughter Michelle and her husband Chris met up with us and drove us up along the Maine coast through places like Kennebuck Port (where the former President Bush and his family have their estate) and Sebago Lake. At one point we past a house selling pumpkins and stopped to take the pictures above.

We ended our trip with a drive up to Colchester, Vermont to visit our brother Paul. The Fall colors were fully on display. Valleys and mountains covered as if by a giant colorful quilt draped over the landscape by Mother Nature. We so love New England in October.

We grew up loving the old black and white Universal monster movies. Much more so than what passes for “horror” flicks these days. So you can easily image in just how much fun we had watching Marvel’s WEREWOLF BY NIGHT on Disny Plus. A perfect Halloween gift to all of us fans.

BEYOND THE STARS # 2

Artist Andrea Bormida turns n pencil pages for Pg # 14 of “BEYOND THE STARS” # 2. We love his panel compositions.

We’ve often said we at Airship 27 Production have the best fans in the world. Well that’s no understatement as we’re about to show you. Several years back a new writer/editor/publisher entered the New Pulp community and almost immediately became a great addition to our ranks. His name is Mark Vander Zanden (above) left and once a part of our pulp gatherings, Mark set a goal for himself of collecting every single Airship 27 title currently in print. Art director Rob Davis and the Air Chief were so bowled over by this enthusiasm, we actually acquiesced to Mark’s plea that we de “new” editions of those title that had long gone out of print. His sincerity won us over in the past few years we’ve done just that, allowing Mark to keep adding to his collection.  Yesterday afternoon, Mark posted the above photo (to the right) stating with arrival of our last two releases, he now owns the entire Airship 27 library.  WOW!! We honestly are at a loss of word. Talk about making the impossible happen. Meaning what you see on that book shelf is 267 Airship 27 titles.  Again…WOW!!  And way to go, Mark. Thanks so sincerely for your wonderful beyond the call support of our humble efforts. Oh yeah, we have the best fans ever!!

Ron – Over & Out!