Greetings Loyal Airmen, 2022 seems to be rolling along nicely, with many of our projects gathering steam. Ala Andrea Bormida’s amazing work on issue # 1 of “Beyond the Stars.”

In Pg # 6, we arrived at the alien dig-site where Prof. Yonel Travane is studying ancient script when he is suddenly visited by the same Ar-Keedy ghost who has appeared to the All Mother. He leaves Travane with a cryptic message. Again, Andrea’s work from start to finish is simply amazing and it will be exciting when letterer Mike Belcher begins adding the captions and word balloons. Oh yeah.

Long, long ago, the Air Chief was hired to write a Rambo comic book to be published by Blackthorn. We wrote a 4 issue story which detailed John Rambo’s past, his enlistment in the U.S. Army and ended it with the start of a new mission for him. Well, the publishers had to show our script to the movie people who held the license and they were surprised that there was very little action in that first script. Enough so that they ordered the editor to cannibalize issues one and two, taking out all the character moments and replacing them with action scenes from script # 2. Then they gave the screwed up script to the young artist, a dude named Aaron Lopresti and he did the best he could with it. See cover above to left. We personally hated what they put out and were not a bit sorry with the book flopped. Almost thirty years later, having kept all four of our scripts, we re-wrote them. Our hero was now an Ex- Navy Seal named Jamal Lyons and then fate led us to retired Army veteran turned artist Kevin Johnson. We told him about our scripts and he was only to happy to sign on. Thus three years ago, we released Black Lion # 1 to our fans. Earlier this week, Black Lion # 4 came out and the series is wrapped up at long last. Keep following this Flight Log as we’ll let you know soon where you can find all four issues. Again rule of thumb, never ever throw away your scripts.

One of the things we at Airship 27 Production encourage our writers and artists to do is promote their work to local outlets such as small town newspapers or libraries. With all the books published in this country every year, self-promotion is an art in itself. Well we are happy to report that writer Tyler Auffhammer took that advice to heart. Aside from teaching fiction-writing, Tyler also writes for The Mountaineer, a paper located in the city of Waynesville, NC. And they did up a really nice article on him and his recent release “Marshal Horne of Talon’s Crossing.” The feature tells a bit about Tyler’s history in writing, then showcases the book reprinting Adam Shaw’s beautiful cover and give a nod to interior illustrator Jeff Cram as well. It’s a nice piece and will hopefully help sell lots more of this wonderful western collection. Way to go, Tyler!

We were 13 yrs old when Stan Lee and Steve Ditko gave the world Spider-Man. We’ve often wondered if Lee realized at the time what a change he was bringing to the world of comics. Prior to Peter Parker, all of the teen-age costumed heroes were some adult superhero’s sidekick, never THE HERO. That all changed with Spider-Man. For the first time ever the gawky, nerdy kid (who we totally identified with at the time) got these amazing powers. His reckless abandon and enthusiasm were new to us readers. No more adult stoicism ala Superman, but exuberance to max. We’ve been fans ever since. And now Sony pictures and Marvel Studio have given us by far the BEST Spider-Man movie of them all with, Spider-Man No Way Home. Valerie and the Air Chief saw it this past week and we loved it start to finish. No spoilers, as we assume some of you Loyal Airmen have yet to see it. Please, we beg you, wear your mask and see it on the big screen. It is already Sony’s highest grossing film of all time. The cast is fantastic and Tom Holland by far shines throughout. This one’s a winner, Loyal Airmen.

As mentioned above, when discussing the birth of Spider-Man, we grew up in the 50s and 60s. As we were on a path to become a slinger-of-words, i.e. writer, we enjoyed classic rock music that featured artists capable of telling stories with their lyrics. Neal Sedaka, Buddy Holly, Bobby Vinton, Gene Pitney to name a few. Even the Beatles and other early British bands provided us with memorable phrasing that we grew up singing. Now in all this time we were familiar with Country Western music and enjoyed a few break out performers ala Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard. But for the most part, they were far and in between. As the 70s rolled in American music seemed to explode everywhere and things like Heavy Metal and Grunge arrived and just like that it wasn’t about the words anymore, but how much loud noise you could produce. Yup, we’re not fans of either and don’t get me started on Rap…not music. Sorry.

By the time Valerie and the Air Chief moved out here to Colorado, we really weren’t listening to much on air radio any more. There just wasn’t much we enjoyed, or could even make and decipher. Then, bit by bit, we started tuning in to a local Country Western radio station and slowly discovered both old and new performers we actually liked listening to. People like Blake Sheldon was pushing C & W on his reality music contest series, “The Voice” and we caught a great special on PBS one night featuring Darius Rucker and once again were blown away. Great songs with great lyrics. The Air Chief soon became a huge fan of Lou Combs who did a song a year ago about a father and son relationship that brings us to tears every time we hear. We see ourselves and our father in his song. And not to worry, at the same time we were discovered this new crop of male C & W artists, we also began appreciating those ladies following in the steps of the great Patsy Cline; way too many for us to mention here. One of these rising ladies is Carly Pearce who’s latest album, “Writen in Stone,” is fantastic. Each of the 15 songs in the collection is a well written gem, with pathos, irony, love and humor. You see, in a time with rock and roll has lost its ability to communicate other than shout at its fans, Country Western songs continue to speak to the truths of the heart. Better than ever. Thank God.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen. Well after no really snow here in Fort Collins, Mother Nature opted to wait until the last day of the year, Friday, 31st of Dec. to give us some white stuff.

Above the view of our front yard through my office window. The snow fell steadily all day and into the night, i.e. New Year’s Eve. Then awakening this morning, we found ourselves buried under a good seven inches. The Air Chief had to don his winter boots, clean up the car so that we could attend mass, this being a Holy Day of Obligation for we Catholics. The drive was a bit tricky, but we made it fine. Then after getting home, the weather cleared up and the sun reappeared. As you can see by the pix above, it is now doing its thing and melting has begun. But winter is officially with us.

BEYOND THE STARS

Artist Andrea Bormida continues his amazing work with a completed Pg # 4. Coming out of her nightmare, the All Mother, by her cries, awakens the holographic house keeper Abode, who inquires as to her condition.

Then our story shifts to an archeological expedition led by Prof. Yonel Travane studying the remains of an alien settlement. Among his team is the half-cyborg Is-Brt. Her augmented strength helps in carrying fresh supplies into the storage hut.

On the pulp front, Airship 27 Production released its first new title for 2022.  “Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Iron Crown” by Ray Lovato & Michael Black. Above is the watercolor cover by Morgan Fitzsimons and one of the spot illustrations by Art Director Rob Davis. This books features a special “Bonus” section by Rob detailing some history behind those illustrations. The book is of course available at Amazon in both paperback and on Kindle. Last year we produced 23 books, 22 original titles and one reprint collection.

Meanwhile Rob also continues to do the illustrations for our novel “CAPE NOIRE – A Beest & Beauty Tale” ala the illo above at the left. In this prequel novel to our Brother Bones series, we tell the full story on how mobster Harry Beest (above center) had his brain cut out and put in the body of a silverback gorilla. It’s a story we’ve waited over ten years to tell fully.

And that’s our Flight Log for this week 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 this week finds you all still relishing the joy and fun that was Christmas. We here at Hangar 27 had one of our best holidays ever enjoying our family get together and those long distance phone calls. We are truly blessed. And then of course Santa was overly generous as ever.

Perhaps our biggest surprise was the truly beautiful Robin Hood statue given to us by Donna & Michael Housel. Michael is a gifted writer who has worked with Airship 27 for several years. He created the new pulp character The Persona plus authoring a Dead Sheriff weird western for us. Michael knows that after the original King Kong, our second favorite movie is Errol Flynn’s “The Adventures of Robin Hood.” We love it, from the cast to the rousing Ernst Korngold music score. We are also proud to have published British writer Ian Watson’s Robin Hood trilogy, which we later collected in a beautiful omnibus edition seen above. Thus getting this gorgeous statue simply blew us away.

The best way we can thank Donna & Michael, is to point all you Loyal Airmen to his amazing novels, all of which are available at Amazon in both paperback and on Kindle. Do check them out.

Of course Santa was more than kind to the Air Chief as well and among the goodies we received were the entire Blu-Ray series, “Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries.” A wonderful, fun mystery series from Australia that the Air Chief and Val loved a great deal. We were sorry to see it go.  And at long last, the Silverline Comics CHRISTMAS SPECIAL 1921 arrived. It featured a six-page Satin’s Ways story by yours truly with art by Richard Jun and letters by Mike Belcher. Look for the regular two part series of our lovely Chinese cat-burglar to come your way from in Silverline in 2022.

A while back Valerie and the Air Chief had seen a print of a small boy alone in an attic reading. We told her of how it brought back memories of our own childhood. We did the exact same thing and the attic in the home where we grew up became the Air Chief’s secret sanctum to get away in our imagination with books as our tickets. So Valerie went and picked up a copy of the print and had it frame. It will soon be at home on our office wall where we do our readings these days. Oddly enough, we also realized that it had a visual connection to the painting we did long ago of our oldest grand-daughter Kristi based on a photograph her mother took of her reading under the clothesline where clothes were drying in the hot summer sun. We so love the picture, we painted it. Kristi just turned 30 last month and is still a veracious reader. Like grandfather, like granddaughter.  Oh, yeah.

This past year we have the pleasure of publishing writer George Tackes first novel, “The Great Chicago Fire Conspiracy.” We hooked up with George the week of its debut at the Windy City Pulp & Paper Convention in Chicago. He was so thrilled with its release, as he had every right to be. Well, his daughter Jill went and had artist Christ Rawding’s cover for the book made into a poster and surprised her father with it on Christmas Day. We’re sure it now hangs proudly in his own writing sanctum. Awesome.

BEYOND THE STARS

Our partner artist Andrea Bormida introduces the half-cyborg warrior IS-Brt in Pg # 5. She is assigned to assist an archeological expedition examining the ruins of an alien village. Her augmented strength comes in handy in moving supplies.

And then Pg # 6 takes us up into one of those ancient alien structures where we find head archeologist Yonel Travane and his little flying pet, Nix. Andrea is a truly gifted graphic artist. He has taken our script and turned it into a visual treasure of storytelling.

JIN & TONIK

And from Cesar Feliciano comes Pg # 20 of our “Jin & Tonik” thriller about two deadly assassins. Plus an early sketch of Russian lovely Darya Tonikova. Enhanced by science at birth, she is unstoppable as a killing machine. But does she have a soul? Writing her was a challenge we relished.

And finally, we want to wish all you Loyal Airmen a truly wonderful and Happy New Year. It our wish it is a truly positive time for all of us, working together and enjoying each others creative efforts. God bless you all.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen and welcome to our Christmas Eve Flight Log. Before we look into the regular fun things that have occupied us this past week, the Air Chief would like to take a moment to share with all of you how wonderfully reflective the past Advent season has been for us. We have been eagerly awaiting the birth of our savior Jesus Christ who on this night of nights broke into history to become one of us. He did this to save all of us and free us from the chains of sin. On this Holy Night we give thanks. Millions of Catholics around the world will be attending Midnight services. Whereas Valerie and the Air Chief are looking forward to going to church tomorrow morning.

We will be celebrating with our fellow parishioners at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church here in Fort Collins, CO.  We’ve been members of this 1,500 families community since moving here. Named for St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American born saint and found of the the Catholic Parochial School system of which we were both a part while growing up. The building itself was renovated last year and is a beautiful place of worship.

After much deliberating, a few months ago the Air Chief stepped forth and volunteered to be a Lector and our first time behind that podium (to the left in the picture above) to read scripture will be at 10 a.m. tomorrow morning, Christmas Day! We feel so blessed and honored. All of you will be in our prayers at this service. Praying that God blesses you and all your loved ones with his unending love.

BEYOND THE STARS

Artist Andrea Bormida has finished Pg # 1 and Pg # 3 of our first issue of “Beyond The Stars.” Moving left to right above, from his first composition and layout of the three panels, to final inking of each and lastly the coloring that brings it all together.

On Pg # 3 we meet the All Mother, one of our main characters. She’s caught up in a horrible nightmare seeing a Black Cloud devouring galaxies as it moves through space. All that remains for these two pages are the lettered captions that will be added by Mike Belcher. Meanwhile, Andrea moves on to Pg # 2.

BROTHER BONES

Less all you Loyal Airmen think everyone one of our ventures meets with immediately, glorious success, we just wanted to mention how mildly disappointed we remain that we’ve unable to find an artist to commit to our 130 pg Brother Bones graphic novel. The story that tells his complete origin. Above are his first solo appearance in comics plus two other short tale appearances.

Considering his popularity in the prose novels and anthologies and even his own Role Playing Module, it remains a puzzle we’ve yet been able to solve. We’d like to believe we just haven’t met the right artist yet.

JIN & TONIK

Artist Cesar Feliciano delivered Pg # 19 of our “Jin & Tonik” comic project this week. It’s above to left next to an earlier pin-up sketch he’d done of our girl, the biologically enhanced Darya. We are so loving these pages.

AIRSHIP 27 PPRODUCTION presents…

Finally, Airship 27 Production is thrilled to announce the release of our 21st title of the year, Vol 7 of our Sinbad the New Voyage series, this one a full length novel “Sinbad and the Minotaur” by writer Nancy Hansen with a cover by Ted Hammond and black & white interior illustrations by Gary Kato. The book is now available at Amazon in both paperback and on Kindle. As ever Loyal Airmen, thanks for your continued support.

And there you have it Loyal Airmen. Again, we here at Hangar 27 want to wish all of you and your loved ones a truly awesome MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen and welcome to this week’s Flight Log.  As ever, things are always hopping at Hangar 27 and our first piece of news is the fact that we’ve just signed on to write a Zorro story.

Created by pulp writer Johnston McCulley, Zorro has been a favorite of ours since we first saw him on the Disney’s Wonderful World of Color TV show starring the handsome Guy Williams. That was the launching pad into his own series which lasted several years and we never missed an episode. As time went on we learned of his origin in the pulps and of the many amazing film portrayals. First by the super athletic Douglas Fairbanks in the silent movies followed then by the classic “Mark of Zorro” with Tyrone Powers and the dastardly Basis Rathbone which featured one of the best sword duels in cinema. Of course there were lots more TV series, both here in the US and overseas until finally James Bond director Martin Campbell’s wonderful “Mask of Zorro” with Antonio Bandera and Catherine Zeta Jones.

In the past few years pulp publisher Bold Venture Press, guided by Audrey Parente and Rich Harvey have reprinted all the original McCulley Zorro stories in great 5 Vol series. Then they took a step further in offering brand new Zorry novels and anthologies by some of today’s finest New Pulp scribes. In fact writer John French’s own story from “Zorro – The Daring Escapes” won this year’s Pulp Factory Award for Best Short Story. All of which leads to Ms Parente inviting the Air Chief to write a new adventure of The Fox for another planned anthology coming 2022. We’ve agreed, with a great deal of anxiety. We really don’t want to mess this one up, Loyal Airmen. Wish us lots of luck.

JIN & TONIK

Artist Cesar Feliciano continues to produce new pages and thrill us to no end. Above to left is an early sketch of Darya Tonikova done back in 2018. Next to it is the newly completed Pg 18 of the script wherein she is attending a security conference along with her sergeant and division commander. As unaware of the danger they all face. Trust me, Loyal Airmen, the action is about explode in the coming pages.

A few weeks ago we mentioned having finished our latest novel, “Cape Noire : A Beest & Beauty Tale.” It is the prequel to our Brother Bones pulp stories that have appeared in five books. So we the other day we handed off the manuscript to our pal and Airship 27 Art Director as he will be doing the art for the book from the interior illustrations to the cover. Well apparently Rob’s enthusiasm is fired up as last night he surprised us with whipping up the cover logo for the book (see above) and we love it. We doubt seriously the book itself will be completed by year’s end, but then again we’re totally okay with it becoming our first new Airship 27 release for 2022. Onwards and upwards, Loyal Airmen.

Last year we were thrilled to publish our first Jon Shadows action/adventure novel by Pulp Factory Award winning writer Teel James Glenn, “Killing Shadows.” Rob Davis did the cover (above left) and the amazing Tedd Lehman did the interior illustrations. All of us were really proud of this book. Then happily Glenn sent us a second book in the series, “Deadly Shadows” and we eagerly began assembling it. Rob did up a cover and Tedd signed on again to do the illustrations.  (Above center is the first of two he did.) Then after sending in his second illo, he and his family were hit with health issues which forced him to stop drawing and we had to book the production on hold. All the while we kept Tedd in our prayers and thoughts. So time moves on and then the other night, much to our delight, up pops a letter from Tedd and a cell pix of illo # 3. (Above to right). We realize it’s not very visible here, but trust us, the piece is beautiful and Tedd reports he’ll have it finished and # 4 on the way shortly. As excited as we are about this, we are even more delighted that he is well again.  Welcome back Tedd. We really missed you. At the same time a reminder, “Killing Shadows” is still available at Amazon in both paperback and on Kindle.

BEYOND THE STARS

And finally we want bring all you Loyal Airmen up to speed with our new comics series project we are doing with the super talented Andrea Bormida. As you’ll recall, it was just about a month ago that we saw six pages of art that Andrea had posted on his Link-In site. (The first of these is above to the left.) We were so taken with them that we wrote him and began a correspondence. Which in turn led to Andrea inviting us to join him on making those six pages the start of an actual sci-fi comic series. Our next step was taking his original outline and developing it further. Then we were blessed to have Publisher Roland Mann of Silverline Comics to accept it for publication. The Air Chief immediately got to work and write the first 22 pg issue # 1. This past week, Andrea took that script and has begun to illustrate it.  At above center is his progress on Pg # 1 and to the right is his preliminary break down of  Pg # 2. And we couldn’t be happier. The layouts on both pages are exactly as we imagined the scenes when writing the script. Honestly, we are so excited. This is going to be something truly special. As ever we’ll keep you posted.

Finally Amazon Prime has started airing the 6th and Final Season of the best sci-fi on television today, The Expanse. It began on the Sci-Fi Channel and then jumped ship after its 4th Season. The show is terrific with great writing, directing, special FX and an amazing cast. Well certainly enjoy these last episodes but are really going to miss it when it wraps.

And that’s it for this week, Loyal Airmen. As ever, thanks so much for joining us…and more importantly sharing this link with your friends. Are viewing numbers are starting to grow, all because of you. Till next week.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, we’re kicking off this week talking about a project we couldn’t make happen but we’re only to happy to see achieved by others. All of which is bout the real life western lawman, Bass Reeves.

Many years ago we first heard about the most successful western lawman ever to patrol the frontier after the Civil War. His name was Bass Reeves and he was a U.S. Deputy Marshal riding for Federal Judge Isaac Parker out of Ft. Smith, Arkansas. In a 30 yr career he brought in over 3,000 outlaws, was involved in 14 gun battles and never wounded once. Shortly after learning about this man, we read Art. T. Burton’s biography and got the idea to do a graphic novel depicting the life and times of Bass Reeves.

To that end we recruited our good pal, artist Rob Davis who was only too happy to be a part of such a project. We wrote a ten page script and Rob illustrated all ten pages. Above you have the first three. With this, we wrote an outline for what would be a five issue mini-series. We then sent out a proposal package to various comic companies. Not a one accepted the idea. After a year of these rejections, we gave up on the idea of a Bass Reeves comic book. But we we’re not about to quit on Bass.

Instead we launched a brand new anthology series from Airship 27 Production called “Bass Reeves – Frontier Marshal” and to date have published four volumes with a fifth in production. The books are big sellers for us as the audience awareness of this great man is growing.

Then a little over a year ago we heard a new comic company named Allegiance was coming on the scene and they were going to offer a Bass Reeves comic. No one was more surprise than the Air Chief. And of course a wee bit jealous. But only for brief while as we then heard an old acquaintance, actor/writer Kevin Grevioux would be writing the series. We knew then it would be a quality offering story wise but we were unfamiliar with the artist, David Williams. We picked up the first issue and became an instant fan. Williams work is stylized, a bit on the cartoony side, but it works with this fast pace, gritty western story. Above to right is the cover to issue # 3, the latest. Our only complaint is how long it takes for these comic to come out. Allegiance’s “Bass Reeves” is a winner and we recommend it highly. You can find it at your local Walmart.  And to Kevin and David, congratulations. It’s an awesome comic about an awesome man.

Was talking with Mr. Jigsaw artist Gary Kato recently. Above left is an early color-guide Gary did when we launched the character. Truth is it wasn’t till years later that the Air Chief realized he’d created a character who could control every part/molecule of his body and then hooked him up with a character who had a part missing. Now that’s how a writer’s subconscious works. Truly weird. And while on the subject of our beloved Jiggy, allow to remind you of the giant sized full color Christmas Special we released last year in which Jiggy saves Santa Clause. It’s still available at Amazon and we think you and your kids and grand-kids would love to see it under the Christmas tree come Christmas morning.

JIN & TONIK

Cesar Feliciano turns in Pg # 17 of JIN & TONIK wherein Captain Darya Tonikova and her Sergeant accompany their commander to an important Kremlin meeting concerning terrorists. Cesar’s use of Point-of-View, from wide to close up shots is wonderful throughout. It sets the scene for the wild and crazy action sequence about to explode at this gathering. Stay tuned, Loyal Airmen.

And that’s all for this week, Loyal Airmen.  As ever thanks for stopping by. Hope to see you here next Friday for lots more fun things to report.

Ron Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen and thanks for stopping by. This week we want to put the spotlight on another creative partner, artist Cesar Feliciano.

Formerly from Massachusetts, Cesar now hangs in hat in sunny Florida. As you may know, Cesar was the artist who came up with the idea for the multi-graphic novel saga of JIN & TONIK; the story of two deadly assassins, one Chinese and the other Russian, masters at their death-dealing professions, who in a truly strange way both experience a similar spiritual epiphany that ultimately changes the course of their lives and leads them to salvation.

Intrigued by the concept, the Air Chief wasted no time in signing on to script this tale. This was well over a year ago and we spent almost two months writing up 85 pgs of script. All the while Cesar was busy finishing up another graphic novel project called CHANGO. Then last year and Covid struck and put lots of things on hold. Once this year rolled around, all of us started playing catch up and for Cesar that was doing up tons of great sketches for our characters, Sammy Jin and Darya Tonikova, both alone and together as is evidence by the beautiful pieces above.

Then a short time ago Cesar began in earnest bringing my script to life. Above are samples from the first 16 pages, starting at left with Pg # 1 that introduces Navajo Shaman Eddie Nightsky, then we have Pg # 8 with introduces Sammy Jin and finally Pg # 16 which he turned in a few days ago finally debuting Darya Tonikova’s arrival on the stage. This is going to be a truly amazing adventure and Cesar and the Air Chief hope, after we wrangle a publisher, you Loyal Airmen will join us on the journey.

On other news, the first Brother Bones Grave Tales hardbacks from Amazon arrived this week. Overall we’re are happy with the printing itself. The cover reproduction, both front and back is excellent, the interior quality is also top-notch and the books are easy to open and read…with pages complete and far enough from center. Our only criticism is Amazon did not protect them when packaging. They were simply put in a small box without any stuffing material, bubble-wrap or such. Thus two of the three seen above had the top cover corners slightly mashed. Which has us scratching our heads. Whenever we order paperback books, they come totally wrapped in protective paper or bubble-wrap. So why not with these more expensive items? Go figure mega-companies? We certainly cannot.

Now for something truly important, updates on our wonderful children. Between us, Valerie and the Air Chief have five, three boys and two girls. They are the greatest loves of our lives, them, and of course our six amazing grand kids. What with Thanksgiving last week, we heard from all of them and that included some new pictures. Wahoo. Son Kevin above to left, manages a very successful supermarket in Massachusetts, while at the same time continuing his love of music and guitar. He was recently taking night lessons to play classical guitar. Just as writing feeds our soul, for son Kevin it has always been music and we so envy him that talent. To upper right, the young lady at far left is daughter Heather with two of her friends braving a rather chilly night in Chicago where they life. Heather is a social butterfly and has a close knit group of friends in the Windy City all of who love theater. She recently saw a new production of the Sound of Music and said it was great. Her birthday is Aug 27th, for those of you Loyal Airmen who always wondered why that number when creating our Airship 27 Production company…and now you know. It’s the Air Chief’s lucky number for sure.

Airship 27 Production is thrilled to announce our latest New Pulp novel release, “Dragonthroat” by award winning writer Teel James Glenn. This is an other-world fantasy adventure much like the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Great action, exciting new worlds in a great story. Art Director Rob Davis provided the cover (above left) and artist Chris Nye the black and white interior illustrations (above right). The book is up at Amazon now in both paperback and on Kindle. As ever we thank you Loyal Airmen for your continued support.

And that’s it for this week, Loyal Airmen. Thanks again and see you back here next Friday.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen. We’re delighted to see our viewing numbers are going up steadily per week and are truly appreciative so many of you Loyal Airmen have been opted to follow us every Friday. Now we want to you meet Andrea Bormida, the Italian artist who pulled me into working with him on this new sci-fi fantasy comic series we are calling BEYOND THE STARS.

 Andrea is a 30 years professional comic artist. His love for comics started with American superheroes, and Disney’s adventures. He began his professional walk on Graziano Origa’s Videomax; a tribute to old daily strips. He then collaborated with Sergio Bonelli Editore for almost 25 years, mainly on the sci-fi series, including Legs Weaver, Nathan Never, Agenzia Alfa, Asteroide Argo. With a couple of digressions into the fantasy worlds of Jonathan Steele and Dragonero. Since 2018 he began an artist for hire journey, that led him to three numbers of Drew Eash’s Captain Luv; meanwhile he also did three numbers of Jason Barrett’s Heru. A collaboration that still goes on. At 54, he lives in Stresa, Italy. The character on the right is The All Mother, the governing ruler of the Haven Empire.

The first thing we love to do when working with a new comic partner, is hopefully see if we mesh as a team. In his first early drafts to the Air Chief, Andrea send along several sketches of characters he envisioned for the story. One being the mysterious Arqua’Ht. Whereas, after reading his bare bones outline, we thought it might be advantageous to introduce an actual alien character to the mix and we suggested he use her. Within a day, Andrea had morphed her into the Alien Arqua’Ht. We couldn’t be more more delighted.

ArNal was another character we introduced to the plot. Andrea immediately did up the sketch (upper top left) then to give us another option, drew the same character only older. In the end we settled for him being in-between, middle age with graying hair. (lower colored version). This is why the Air Chief loves doing comics, the opportunity co-create with another talented soul. We will continue to keep you posted on the development of this project and ultimately what comic company has accepted it for publication.

RAIZEE THE RAM & The Wooden Blace

Another on-going comic series we are involved was kicked off several years ago when the Air Chief had the good fortune to meet artist Olivia DeGaine. Both Olivia and her husband Zane are graduates of the Joe Kubert School of Graphic Art in New Jersey who moved to Fort Collins years ago. Becoming friends with them, one day we mentioned a fantasy style script we’d written with animal characters. Olivia has a fondness for anthropomorphic characters (she’s also a huge animation fan) and we shared our script with here. She decided the protagonist should be a ram and thus was born the warrior Raizee who travels the land with his Vulture side-kick Jones.  He also wields a magic wooden blade that makes it impossible for him to be defeated in battle. To date Olivia published one issue of the series via their Pulp Fission imprint. See above.

At present she is hard at work on Issue # 3 and above are the first three pages. All that remains to be added are the captions and dialog. In this adventure, Raizee crosses path with an old love. We love Olivia’s work and can’t wait to this new issue completed. As ever, Loyal Airmen, we’ll keep you posted.

JIN & TONIK

Although busy with his day job and holiday madness, artist Cesar Feliciano did begin work on Pg # 16 which finally introduces Russian Captain Darya Tonikova to our story. He was most gracious to send along the panel above for all you Loyal Airmen. Trust me what happens next kicks butt. Oh, yeah.

Finally well over 15 yrs ago we created the Brother Bones pulp series, starring the Undead Avenger and his exploits in the dark brooding Northwest port metropolis of Cape Noire. One of the most popular denizens of that place was Harry Beest, the mobster whose brain was removed from his body and put into that of a silverback gorilla. Since his debut, Beest has been the one character fans can’t get enough of. Which got the Air Chief thinking about a year ago as to how Beest’s full story had really never been told. His origin, in that first collection (see cover above) was told in just two paragraph. In and out and off to the races we went. Whereas there was indeed a whole lot more to the tale and we’ve always wanted to correct that by writing it all out. Thus six months ago we began writing “Cape Noire – A Beest & Beauty Tale,” a prequel novel to the Bones series. As of today we are 60,000 words done and should have the book wrapped up by the end of the weekend. Oh yeah, this has been a story a long time in coming and we really hope all our Brother Bones fans are going to enjoy it. More later for sure.

Till then, we truly hope all you Loyal Airmen had a fantastic, blessed Thanksgiving.  As ever thanks for stopping by and we’ll see you back here next Friday.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, this week we want to kick off our entry with the news that, after having parted company with Facebook, at the suggestion of our pal Rob Davis, the Air Chief joined the Link-In platform. Should any of you Loyal Airmen wish to join me there, simply go to the site and hook up with Ron Fortier. We’re slowly expanding our network there and would be thrilled to have you be a part of it.

Speaking of joining things, this week we’ll be talking about how many of our comic projects get started. While Link-In one day we connected with a very talented artist from Italy named Andrea Bormita. After a few message exchanges, Andrea said he’d like to work with us on a project and sent along one page outline for a fantasy/science fiction idea he had.

He also sent along five pages he’d completed based on his idea. We’ve put three above here. The second we saw these, we knew he had to work with this truly gifted artist. Whereas upon reading his outline, we found it a bit undeveloped and suggested to Andrea that we might want to tighten it up. Much to our delight he was all for that and gave us the okay to edit and alter the concept any way we thought would work better. Which he have now done.  At present we’ve found a publisher to take on the project and Andrea is now doing sketches of the principle characters.

Such as Kal and Ehrmet, two of the Science Warriors recruited to combat an intergalatic threat. Once these are done, we’ll begin writing the first issue. We’ll reveal the publisher in future updates. Hope to title it…BEYOND THE STARS. We will feature more previews in coming weeks.

JIN & TONIK

In this week’s update on JIN & TONIK, artist Cesar Feliciano previews panels from pg 14 of our script in which a character dies. Cesar’s art beautiful captures the emotional impact of the scene, even without the captions. He is a master story teller.

The panel above left is how Cesar ends pg # 14. No words necessary. What excites me is the story now shifts gears and we go to the Arizona desert and an Indian Shaman. Story shifts gears next to Moscow and the introduction of Darya Tonikova.

BLACK BAT GRAPHIC NOVEL PREVIEW –

THE PARAGON BOXING ARENA – Boxing arena owned by Crime Boss Oliver Snate. Although a legitimate enterprise, it is still a front for all of Snate’s illegal activities in the city. Also where he crosses path with Butch O’Leary. Once again artist Mike Belcher offers up these preview pieces as he works tirelessly on this 103 pg graphic novel.

On the pulp side of things, Airship 27 Production’s latest release as a straight up western, “Marshal Horne of Talon’s Crossings,” by writer Tyler Auffhammer. It features four stories of a tough as nails Nevada lawman. Maine artist Jeff Cram did the black and white interiors (one of them above at right) and the ever fantastic Adam Shaw painted the cover (above to left). Now available at Amazon in paperback and soon on Kindle. As ever, thanks for your continued support.

Finally we want to wish all of Loyal Airmen a truly Happy Thanksgiving. We live in the greatest country in the world, with so many blessings. It is the Air Chief’s wish for safety, good health and countless blessings to all of you and your loved ones. Don’t eat too much turkey. See you back here next Friday morning.

Ron (Over & Out!)

Greetings Loyal Airmen,  there are about to be some major changes in this weekly Flight Log. Why you ask? Well, as of last week, in fact on his 75th birthday, the Air Chief was for the third time in as many months expelled from posting to Facebook. We won’t bore you with the details, but suffice to say we’ve had enough of their childish, mercenary little games and will not longer participate on that platform. Thus we are shifting the main thrust of our internet presence to this weekly Flight Log. How is that going to change things? Well for the most part, it is going to expand the topics we’ll be discussing. The Air Chief has tons of great comics and pulp projects in the works, either solo or as Managing Editor of Airship 27 Production, so rest assured you’ll be learning all about every one of them right here, every Friday morning. Some on a weekly basis. Oh yeah, lots of stuff coming way. So what say we can started with our look back on this year’s Rocky Mountain Con held in Denver last weekend.

First of all we have to give giant thanks to producer Tim Moret who puts on the show every year, along with his lovely wife Nicole and their staff of super friendly helpers. That’s Tim above in the red shirt standing with Colorado based artist, Guy Davis. Guy is a fun dude who is so into Star Trek and also happens the fellow illustrating writer Nancy Hansen’s new fantasy series, The Silver Pentacle for Airship 27 Production. Guy is currently illustrating the second volume now in production.

Here’s Valerie and the Air Chief at our table. We met so many wonderful people and sold tons of books both pulps and comics. The two of us love this show and the chance to get together with so many friends.

First of which was the Air Chief’s Official Protege writer/editor Todd Jones. He had copies of his latest two Wicked Awesome Tales comic anthology, including the issue with our character Space Smuggler Captain Jain Marlee on the cover by artist Jolyon Yates. Jolyon was scheduled to be a guest at the show but had to cancel out at the last minute.

The irascible, one and only Mike Baron was also on hand. Mike’s the Eisner winning writer who created and wrote two of comicdom’s most memorable characters, Nexus and the Badger. We’ve become good buddies over the years (as we both live in Fort Collins now) and we even did an hour gab-fest panel on writing comics that was lots of fun.

And then we have the comic dynamic duo of husband and wife team, Zane & Olivia DeGaine. Both professional graphic artist creators who operate Pulp Fission. Two of our dearest friends.

Here’s another pal, artist Jeff Slemons, who does hot-rods and dinosaurs better than any other artist we know. Jeff and the Air Chief recently did a six page comic strip for CARtoons magazine featuring an Alabama redneck named Buck Hokum. While at the show we kicked around an idea for a second story featuring the ex-racing car turned bus driver. Stay tuned for more news as that develops further.

And then we have the lovely, energetic super talented Ms Gabriella Saenz. We first met Gaby when she took our course on how to write comics. She was still in grade school. Now she’s a high school senior whose art had evolved into something truly beautiful. In fact she recently did the interior illustrations for writer Peggy Chamber’s book, Flitiron Death Grip and is now in talks with Peggy about adapting it as a graphic novel. That is something we hope happens.

Of course one of the real joys of attending cons is to meet new talented folks like artist creator Dylan Bloomfield who came over to our table with his wife and showed us his brand new children’s book. Dylan’s a really great guy eager to get into publishing and do lots more. We exchanged contact information and the Air Chief is going to do what he can to get Dylan’s career moving forward.

And all this was a small sampling of the good time Valerie and the Air Chief had at this year’s Rocky Mountain Con. Thank you Tim Moret & Company.

THE BLACK BAT GRAPHIC NOVEL

THE MORTON SCHOOL OF THE BLIND – As many of your Loyal Airmen are aware, earlier in the year we wrote a graphic novel telling the origin of the classic pulp character, the Black Bat which is now being illustrated by Mike Belcher, with his son Aiden doing the lettering and coloring. When completed, Mike will self-publish it via Ka-Blam. We had a great time writing the tale and Mike is doing such an amazing job with the art. Early on Mike had the idea of our previewing sketches by him once a week to hype up the project with all our fans and we created what we called Black Bat Saturday. For the past 22 weeks every Sat Mike would post a sketch of character from the script, or a locale, and we’d do a short write up to accompany. Well, no long on Facebook, Black Bat Saturday has now come to an end to be replaced by this new segment which will appear here in every Flight Log from now until the project is completed and we can announce the release of the book. Our first entry is the Morton School of Blind where former District Attorney Anthony Quinn goes after he is blinded by a criminal who threw acid in his face.

JIN & TONIK

A second comics project we are deeply involved with currently is a huge graphic novel saga called JIN & TONIK. First envisioned by artist Cesar Felciano and further developed by the Air Chief. This is a modern day thriller about two deadly assassins both born at the same minute on the same day; Chinese martial artist Sammy Jin and scientifically enhanced Russian agent Darya Tonikova. As beautifully rendered in Cesar’s sketch above. He’s currently drawing the first opening chapters and the pages are stunning. No definitive plan as to how we’ll get this publish, but it is still early and we have lots of options. For now we plan on keeping all you Loyal Airmen up to date with lots of great artwork.

And lastly in regards to pulps, Airship 27 Productions just released its first every hardcopy book. BROTHER BONES – Grave Tales collects the first two Brother Bones anthologies, “The Undead Avenger” and “Tapestry of Blood.” All 12 stories in this one volume, containing all of artist Rob Davis’ interior illustrations and the above gorgeous cover by the amazing Adam Shaw. The book retails at Amazon for $24.95 with over 300 pgs of bizarre pulp action. We hope you’ll check it out.

That’s it Loyal Airmen, as ever thanks for stopping by and hope you’ll make it a regular weekly visit.

Ron – Over & Out!