Greetings Loyal Airmen, as you are reading this Flight Log, the Air Chief and Valerie are packing for our trip down to Denver and the Denver Comicfest held at the Marriott Hotel Tech Center were we will be guest all weekend. If any of you Loyal Airmen are in the area, please do stop by and say hi.

A few weeks back the Air Chief informed you about the Sherlock Holmes we’d penned for a new anthology edited by Australian Editor Christopher Sequeira. Three years ago Chris came to us with the idea of doing an anthology that would pair the Great Detective with other companions other then the familiar Dr. Watson. Now as most of you Loyal Airmen are well aware, in the Arthur Conan Doyle stories, Watson was the narrator thus most of the classic Sherlock Holmes pastiches, included those published by Airship 27 Productions, have the doctor in that role and it behooves and would-be Holmes writer to know how to capture Watson’s voice. Something sadly the Air Chief simply cannot do. Which is why when asked by fans why we hadn’t written Holmes, our answer was always the same. “We simply cannot do Watson’s voice.”  Ergo Chris’s anthology would circumnavigate that obstacle for us. As we didn’t have to employ the good doctor, we were given carte blanche to do whatever we chose.

Thus did the Air Chief come up with an alternate world vision wherein America never broke away from England and remained loyal colonies having been granted actual representation in the House of Lords & Common. Thus we come to the Victorian Age in Boston where we find Inspector Sherlock Holmes hunting a serial killer and aided by Dr. Amelia Van Helsing, daughter of the famous Dr. Abraham Van Helsing who years earlier had defeated the monster vampire Dracula.  Amelia is an expert on secret cults and ancient rituals. She’s also a deadly martial artist. Together they are on the hunt…oh…and here’s the most important element. She doesn’t tell us the story, no, it is our  American Sherlock Holmes who narrates “The Locked Cell Murder.” We hope that little tease will be enough to get you Loyal Airmen to pick up a copy of SHERLOCK HOLMES AND DOCTOR WHAT NOT when it is released internationally in June. We had so much fun writing our story and very much want to share it with all of you.

To all our Brother Bones fans, some news. We are currently putting together a new anthology to be called TALES OF CAPE NOIRE, that being the fictional city in which the Undead Avenger operates.  Writers Drew Meyers, Andy Fix and Fred Adams Jr. are all going to write a story featuring a character from the series other than Brother Bones. It’s a way to spotlight such colorful figures as Lt. Dan Rains, Harry Beast and Sister Blood. Then the Air Chief will wrap up the package with a brand new Brother Bones tale. With fingers crossed we hope to have this out by winter.

Finally Airship 27 Productions is thrilled to present the sixth entry in the children’s book series of Barry Baskerville Boy Detective. In “Barry Baskerville & The Buried Treasure,” Barry’s father inherits a country dairy farm from a deceased uncle. On preparing to travel to the farm, they uncover a letter which tells of a buried treasure on the land and clues on how to uncover it. Naturally Barry is immediately on the hunt in this his latest adventure. Created and written by Richard Kellogg and profusely illustrated by artist Gary Kato, this sixth chapter is another great addition sure to please Barry’s growing audience of fans. Available as ever from Amazon.

And there you have it for this week, Loyal Airmen. See you back here next Friday.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, well the Air Chief is home safe, and a bit tired, from this year’s Windy City Pulp & Paper Convention in Chicago. As ever the show was fantastic and we tip our pulp fedoras to promoters Doug Ellis & John Gunnison for another fantastic weekend. Even Mother Nature’s unexpected Sunday snowstorm couldn’t dampen attendees spirits. During the course of the weekend the Air Chief snapped almost thirty pictures so as to share the experience with all you Loyal Airmen. You are about to see 27 of these, starting with the two above. The con in full swing.

Amazingly enough the promoters had two of the event room walls taken down to expand the vendors main hall and it was huge. Allowing for a whole lot more vendors to sign on and show off their wares.

Of course in the middle of all this wild goings-on were our two Airship 27 tables. The shot about is of Chief Engineer Rob Davis shortly after everything was put up and on display. We later recruited a friend across the aisle to snap a shot of the Air Chief in there as well. As you can clearly see, our tables were filled with all our great Airship 27 Productions pulp titles. And we are happy to report by the weekend’s finale, a whole lot of them were sold.

Of course one of the biggest reasons we do this show every year is to hook up with all our pals. A treat for us was in having Brooklyn based writer pal Derrick Ferguson at the show for the very first time. The photo on left above is of Derrick with Pro Se publisher Tommy Hancock (in the middle) and writer Jim Doherty (on the right). Later Rob took the one on the left as the Air Chief made sure to get one with his dear friend. Sadly Derrick could only be with us Friday, but trust us, he made the most of his day at Windy City.

Another welcome face was that of young writer Dexter Fabi. Dexter came to the show last year, introduced himself to us, and said he wanted to write for Airship 27. After exchanging contact information, Dexter began sending us script and to date we’ve published several of his fine stories. And per this get-together, Dexter has promised us lots more of his wonderful work in the future.

One of the best traditions of Windy City is that after the show on Friday night, the New Pulp crew heads over to the Fudruckers Hambuger join and this year was no exception. While enjoying our dinner, writer Van Plexico pulled out his cell-phone and snapped this crazy selfie of the crew. Going around the clock starting on the left, we have Gordon Dymowski, Rob almost totally hidden behind him. Then Tommy Hancock. The fellow in the background middle is Gene Moyers, then the Air Chief in his baseball cap, followed by Aubrey Stephens, Derrick Ferguson and finally Van himself. Honestly, getting together with this bunch is just too much.

With dinner over, we all headed back to the convention for the annual Pulp Factory Awards Presentations. This year our pal Derrick whipped out his cell-phone and actually video recorded the entire presentation. That video is posted on one of his pages and you can cut and paste this link to see it completely.

(https://fergusonink.com/2019/04/13/dispatches-from-windy-city-3-the-pulp-factory-awards/?fbclid=IwAR3Hom3i05xTjeixOkiKr9KN8wjczQrDrAG-XYiS0cyt1mR-b5jN2BYDtqA)

Above is writer Gordon Dymowski who won for Best Short Story – Knights of the Silver Cross which appeared in Pro Se Productions – 50s Western Roundup.

Winner for Best Pulp Novel was Van Allen Plexico for his crime thriller – Vegas Heist from White Rocket Books. And here’s a shot of him and Gordon together.

Winner for the Best Pulp Anthology went to Pro Se Productions’ Tales of the Interstellar Bartenders Guild from an idea by Aubrey Stephens (at left) and edited by Tommy Hancock (at right.) Then it was time to celebrate our two artists. Ed Catto won for Best Interior Illustrations and Ted Hammond for Best Pulp Cover.

To the left above is one of Ed’s illustrations from the novel The Adventures of Captain Graves by Thomas McNulsty and to the right is the cover by Ted of Nancy Hansen’s Jezebel Johnston – Mourning Star.  Both books from Airship 27 Productions. And so we congratulate all of this year’s winners and look forward to what new stories and art will emerge throughout 2019.

With awards handed out and the event concluded, Saturday saw us returning to the fun of getting together with old friends. Pro Se posted their anthology award at their table for all to see, while pulp writers extraordinaire hooked up like the photo on the left; with Gene Moyers, Fred Adams Jr. and Van Allen Plexico.

At top left is writer Doc Dwight Decker and the Air Chief, while at right, showing off their Samson like locks, are Rob and artist Mark Wheatley.

At left is veteran publisher Tony Tolin and the Air Chief.  Then we have to the right, writers Greg Gick, the Air Chief and writer Michael Black.

At left, western author Thomas McNulty stopped by the Airship 27 tables, and on Sunday we snapped the pix to the right featuring our con neighbor, and good pal, artist Doug Klauba with the Air Chief.

Sundays at the con are devoted to New Pulp and this year featured three truly amazing panels.  Starting the ball rolling at top left was Christopher Paul Carey’s talk featuring the coming plans for the Burroughs Inc. publication. Christ was recently hired as their new Managing Editor and has great things plans for the many characters created by the amazing Edgar Rice Burroughs. We do not know the gentlemen to Chris’ left, but after him you had artists Mark Wheatley and Doug Klauba, both who will be doing art for the books. And at far right was Mr. Garcia, a pulp historian and book designer.

After that panel, there was the one on Pulps in the Movies, photo to the right. Seated left to right we have writers Daze Cozort, Tommy Hancock (who also served as moderator) Andy Fix and Dexter Fabi.

And the last panel was Pulps as Bestsellers, left to right are writers David C. Smith, Fred Adams Jr, Michael Black and Gordon Dymowski who served as moderator.  All three panels were truly amazing and much fun for the folks lucky enough to attend.

And that Loyal Airmen wrapped up this year’s truly awesome Windy City. Again both the Air Chief and Chief Engineer Rob Davis extend our thanks to everyone who made the show so damn amazing. We’ve so many wonderful memories to cherish as we go through 2019 and look forward to next year’s show. Hoping lots more of you Loyal Airmen will make the effort to join us. Trust us, you’ll never regret it.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, as you are reading these words, the Air Chief and partner Rob Davis, are once again in Chicago setting up the Airship 27 Productions tables at the Windy City Pulp & Paper Con. This is one of the finest conventions put on today and we always have such a great time there visiting with old friends, and meeting new ones. Hopefully many of your Loyal Airmen will be on hand to join us as well.

Last Friday night, Valerie and the Air Chief had the sheer delight of seeing Jay Leno at the Lincoln Center here in Fort Collins. For an hour and a half he kept us and the rest of the packed house laughing uproariously. The King of Comedy easily showed why he is still the Master, and all the current hosts of late night shows are such pale imitations. He skewered Obama and Trump and the Clintons equally, took terrific punches at Political Correctness and pretty much left us all going home much happier than when we first entered the theater. Laughter is the best medicine and it is truly sad with what we are left with on today’s shows. Long Live the King!!

Meanwhile artist Cesar Feliciano continues to do up sketches of Jin & Tonik, the two heroes of our proposed graphic novel series which he hopes to begin drawing in mid-summer. To date the Air Chief has written the first two chapters in this mega action-adventure saga and they total 80 pages. Cesar tells us he has loose laid out the first 60. Wow. As ever we’ll keep you posted when the on-line funding campaign begins to make this project a reality.

Artist Gary Kato just turned in all 34 color illustrations for BARRY BASKERVILLE & THE BURIED TREASURE. This is the 6th entry in our children’s book series featuring Barry Baskerville, the boy who wants to grow up to be Sherlock Holmes. In this piece, the Air Chief thought he was greeting Art Director Rob Davis. With luck, we’ll have this book assembled and out shortly after we come home from the Windy City Pulp & Paper Con.

And that’s it for this go round, Loyal Airmen.  Next week we’ll have the results of the Pulp Factory Awards winners and hopefully some fun photos of the con. Till then, have a good weekend and see you back here next Friday.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greeting Loyal Airmen, it has been a while since we brought you any new updates on our third issue of Front Range Tales. As you’ll recall, this is the comic series completely written by our writing students at the Front Range Community College. Last winter we wrapped up our third ten-week class and each of our seven student turned in their six-page scripts. The Air Chief then sent them off to seven professional artist to illustrate. To date five have been completed and we are awaiting the last two strips to put the comic together.

Above is a page from Terry Crowley’s sci-fi story as illustrated by fellow student, and amazing artist, Zane DeGaine. When the Air Chief reported to the class that finding seven pro artist to do these strips  (for free) would be difficult, Zane told me after class that he would gladly volunteer to draw one of those stories.  Meaning, not only would he write a script himself, he would also draw one written by one of his classmates. And that’s who Zane DeGaine is, a truly wonderful, kind and super talented fellow. His work for Terry’s story is nothing short of stunning and we should be see it completed by the end of the week. In the meanwhile, we need to bug artist Sivlestre Szilagyi to finish his tale…the one that Zane wrote.  We’ll keep you posted.

One of the things the Air Chief has always loved about the classic pulps were the truly fantastic villains put forth in those yellowed pages. Perhaps none so representative of the “dastardly bad-guy” as Paul Ernst’s creation, Doctor Satan. Ernst invented Satan as an assignment from the editor of Weird Tales who thought having an on-going series of such a character would help sales. And so along comes the red-clad, horned helmet wearing menace who uses both science and dark magic to threaten society.  Of course Ernst also gave us the dashing occult Detective Ascott Keane to combat the red-scourge. In the end, fans, use to the diversity of stories in each of the popular magazine, cried long and loud in their displeasure and after only a few tales, Doctor Satan was no more. No more, that is until the advent of New Pulp.

Having discovered Doctor Satan via a small reprint booklet published by the late author and pulp historian, Robert Weinberg, we convinced New York fantasy & horror writer Gordon Linzner to join us in writing a brand new Doctor Satan wherein he battles the Moon Man; another classic character for the pulps only this one a hero. The end result, first pen almost fifteen years ago, was the novella THE HOUNDS OF HELL. When Rob Davis and the Air Chief kicked off Airship 27 Productions, it became one of our very first titles. One of the first fans of that effort was our colleague writer Barry Reese. Barry also took a shine to Doctor Satan and soon added him to his own pulp series featuring the Peregrine.  He would do so several times and each new story a gem. Of course we were not unaware of these stories and often thought about some day writing the character again. That opportunity finally arrived last year when we were putting together the latest collection of Brother Bones stories. A germ of an idea surfaced wherein Dr. Bugosi, the mad scientist of Cape Noire, wanted to build/clone a superman who would be able to defeat the undead avenger. To do so he needed not only scientific know-how, but a little arcane magic as well. Thus he recruits none other than the mysterious Doctor Satan. Writing the story that became “The Synthetic Man” was a hoot from start to finish as it was pretty much like old-home-week for the Air Chief. And reuniting with this legendary villain a “hellish” delight.  Both “The Hounds of Hell” and “Brother Bones – City of Lost Soul” are available at Amazon. If you’ve never read either, maybe now is the time to do so.

File this under seeing double. Jamie Bonjour (on right above) recently returned home after doing missionary work in South America. While there she met a gentlemen who reminded her totally of the Air Chief.  Hmm, maybe our stunt double, you think? They say all of us have a look-alike in this world. Obviously this fine fellow is one of mine.

Finally, we’re going to end this week with a western illustration by artist Jeff Sherwood.  Jeff heard we at Airship 27 Productions are always on the hunt for new illustrators and approached the Air Chief a little while ago saying he’d be interested in working for us. As we are looking to get another volume of “Masked Rider – Tales of the Wild West” into production, we asked Jeff to do us a cowboy sketch and here it is. Needless to say, that piece won us over and Jeff is now working the actual illustrations for that book.

And there you have it for this week, Loyal Airmen.  As ever, thanks so much for stopping by.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen and welcome to this week’s Flight Log.  As many of you have already noticed, Airship 27 Productions has been in high gear since the beginning of the year and we’ couldn’t be happier. So here’s the news of our latest release. Number 8 thus far this year to those of you counting.

“IKE MARS – Bloody Key,” is the first in as yet another private eye mystery series by the uber prolific Fred Adams Jr. Set in Pittsburgh, in the 50s, Ike Mars has the distinct honor of having been struck twice by lightning and survived both hits. Whereas the two jolts of nature’s electricity left his face muscles so malleable that he can actually shape his face to look like someone else for a short while. Not a bad talent to have if you are a private eye. In “Bloody Key,” a small time crook stumbles into Mars on the streets one night having been shot. Before the man dies, he gives Mars a key. Which leads Mars with several questions. Who was the killer? Was the fellow shot because of the key? And now that he possesses it, is his life in danger?  The answers to all these questions propels Mars into a suspenseful thriller that is a joy to read.  As ever the book is available from Amazon in both paperback and on Kindle. And we thank you Loyal Airmen for your continued support.

Meanwhile we have more news on the Sherlock Holmes anthology in which we have a story. “Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Was Not” is now up at Amazon’s Kindle store for pre-orders. The actual hard copy will be out in June. (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07Q3Y6BXS?tag=rpbookredir-20) Is the link to the page.  We’ve teased friends and family about how this may well be the only Sherlock Holmes tale we will ever write..and we had a great time doing this one. Very, very anxious to hold this one in our hands.

Often times in the past, the Air Chief has given you Loyal Airmen a little glimpse in how ideas for our pulp covers come together. Not being an artist, when an idea pops into our imagination, what like to have people pose for pictures that relay the composition. That way we can send that particular photo to the artist who will then do the actual drawing, using the photo as a guide. Well, the other day the Air Chief went and recruited his grand kids, Alex and Cora and asked if they would pose for such a picture and they happily agreed. It’s not the first time they’ve helped us out like this. Whereas we needed TWO young ladies in the picture, we merely did a mirror copy of the original, then cut and pasted the section with Cora to the left of her brother….thus giving us Cora 1 and Cora 2. Both thought the final result was hilarious.  We aren’t going to tell you what title this was all done for, but do promise that when that book is published, we’ll re-post the picture above and let you Loyal Airmen see the final results.

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

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen. We thought we’d kick off this week’s Flight Log with as yet another gorgeous illustrations by Cesar Feliciano of his characters from the graphic novel JIN & TONIK.  And most of you know, Cesar approached us last year with this idea for a graphic novel series about two deadly assassin. The first was trained in the disciplines of Asian martial arts and mysticism named Sammy Jin Zhu. The second, a beautiful woman born of science, i.e. an artificial womb wherein her body was completely enhanced thus making her pretty much super-human, her name Darya Tonikova. How these two become assassins, survive in two equally brutal environments and then ultimately find redemption is all part of what the Air Chief has been creating with Cesar. Honestly, we can’t wait to see this comic book come to life.

We are also very happy to announced the release of the “Domino Lady Vol 3.” This third anthology featuring the sexy classic masked avenger, features five new stories. One each by Adam Mudman Bezecny, Brad Mengel, Samantha Lienhard and two by Gene Moyers. Happing we brought back the art team from the first two volumes meaning James Lyle provided all the great interior illustrations and Ted Hammond the stunning cover above. Domino Lady is one of those classic pulp characters we loved doing at Airship 27 and we hope you will enjoy this new entry. Available from Amazon in both paperback and on Kindle. As ever, Loyal Airmen, thanks for your support.

Years ago, when starting our comics writing career we had the fun of doing a Popeye comic for a small comic outfit out of Rhode Island called Ocean Comics. Bob Palin, the owner hired us to write the script and then recruited a fellow named Ben Dunn, out of Texas to do the art. To this day, it is a comic the Air Chief has always been very happy to have done. And of course it began our friendship with Ben. Shortly after the Popeye project, Ben started his own comics company called Antarctic Press and two of the most popular series he both wrote and drew for it were Ninja High School and Warrior Nun Areala. The Air Chief soon became a fun of both series and collected them all. We have several Warrior Nun action figures on our bookshelves in the office.  So why are we bringing all thus up you ask? Well last year, a film producing outfit which now owns the rights to Warrior Nun sold a ten part Warrior Nun series to Netflix and it is currently being filmed in Spain. Several weeks ago this company flew Ben and his wife out to Spain to see the sets and meet the cast prior to their start up.  After getting home, Ben began posting pictures and the one above is of him and the nearly all female cast. Ben reports being delighted with what he saw and everyone he met and says the show will adhere to the story he created so many years ago. He feels pretty much like a kid in a candy store now, seeing his comic come to life.  And we couldn’t be any happier for him. He’s worked so hard all along to make his dreams come true and is an inspiration to all of us. Trust us, when the show does air on Netflix, the Air Chief and Val will be watching. We hope you are as well, Loyal Airmen.

And there you have it for this week, Loyal Airmen, as ever, thanks for stopping by. See you next week.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, we’re going to kick off this week’s Flight Log with the news of our latest Airship 27 Productions title wherein we bring back a classic pulp hero.

This was the top secret project we started hinting back in the early Fall of 2018. For the uninitiated, Hugh “Bulldog” Drummond is a British fictional character, created by H. C. McNeile and published under his pen name “Sapper”. The first of his ten Drummond novels was published in 1920. He would later write four short stories, four stage plays and a screenplay before his death in 1937. The stories were then continued by his friend Gerard Fairlie between 1938 and 1954. A Bulldog Drummond radio series ran on the Mutual Broadcasting System from April 1941 to January 1949. There were 24 Bulldog Drummond movies made between 1922 and 1969 with fifteen actors playing the part of Drummond.  John Howard holds the record at seven made between 1937 and 1939.  Other actors included Ronald Coleman, Ray Miland, Walter Pidgeon and Richard Johnson.

Ours is a modernization of the old series, as devised by the Air Chief and writer I.A. Watson. Whereas the original novels were terribly racist, and a product of their times, it was thought the smartest way to leave that ignorant bigotry behind was to simply update the characters. In the first book of what will be an on-going Airship 27 series, we meet retired British Captain Hugh Drummond and the rest of the cast, made up primarily of his team from the British Special Forces known as the SAS.  After retiring from the Army, Drummond is bored with civilian life and post an ad in the London Times stating he is “looking” for adventure…and in the end gets more than he bargained for.  “On Poisoned Ground” is a cover to cover action roller coaster ride we are thrilled to offer our Loyal Airmen. In other words, Bulldog Drummond is back!

Our second Airship 27 Productions release of the week is “FRED ADAMS JR – Pulp Writer ” and it showcases the work of New Pulp’s most talented and prolific writer, Fred Adams Jr.  A retired college teacher, Adams burst on the New Pulp scene several years ago with his novel “Hitwolf,” from Airship 27 Productions. It tells the story of a Green Beret captured by Mob in the 1970s and turned into a werewolf assassin.  Later Fred sent us his very first novel, a mystery entitled, ‘Dead Man’s Melody,’ and we happily put that out.” What we didn’t realize at the time was both books were intended to be the first entries in on-going series.

By the time Adams had submitted “Six-Gun Terrors,” a story about two Texas cowboys who encounter supernatural monsters, the writer’s master goal had become obvious.  He wanted to produce as many on-going series as he was capable of writing.  Following on the heels of those first three series debuts, Adams then offered up C.O. Jones, a World War II veteran who, during the war years, belonged to an elite squad that dealt primarily with magical threats to the Allies.  After several C.O. Jones novels, came  “The Eye of Quang Chi,” a mystery set in San Francisco during the turn of the century and starring the co-joined Chinese-American Smith Brothers.

Adams latest pulp series features Ike Mars, a 1950s private eye who was struck twice by lightning. The result of these near-death events left his face malleable enough that he can mold his features to look like other people for a short time.  It soon became clear to the Air Chief and Airship 27 Art Director, Rob Davis, that Adams prodigious volume of great pulp stories should be showcased in a way as to draw attention to all these various series. The answer to that challenge was to produce a “sampler” collection and they put the idea to Adams. He was only too happy to participate and thus, the new “Fred Adams Jr. – Pulp Writer” features six brand new pulp thrillers culled from his current six on-going Airship 27 series.

We had a blast putting this book together. Rob did all the interior illustrations and the cover. It is our hope the book will show fans of his work some of the other series they may missed, as well as make him lots of new readers.  The astounding epilogue here is that Adams is currently creating a seventh series. Fred Adams Jr. is very much pulp writing machine! As ever the book is now available at Amazon in paperback and on Kindle.

Finally, we thought since this week’s Flight Log was showcasing our two latest titles, we’d give all you Loyal Airmen a peek at the interior illustrations available in each book.  Above to the left is an illo from the Bulldog Drummond book by artist Howard Simpson. To the right is an illo by our own Rob Davis from Fred Adams Jr – Pulp Writer. Interior illustrations are one something we take great pride in with Airship 27 Productions.  Enjoy.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, one of the things the Air Chief and partner Rob Davis are always happy to see is one of our Airship 27 creators achieve success in their chosen field, be it art or writing.  Several of the years have gone on to bigger and better things and we were just reminded of that recently.

One of the first cover artist work with us was Mark Maddox and his cover for our very first Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective even won him a Pulp Factory Award. Mark did several other covers for us before moving on to bigger and better gigs. Over the years we’d see his work on the covers of several popular sci-fi and horror magazines. Then the other day, we saw the above Blu-Ray DVD cover for a soon to be released Hammer Film Horror Classic and immediately we recognized the style. Sure enough, upon inspection at the lower right hand corner we found Mark’s signature. We’re truly happy for Mark, he’s only gotten better and better.

Last week we related how the partnership between Airship 27 Productions and Radio Archives had expanded so that they are now producing audio CD sets of our books. We also displayed the cover for that first set, CODENAME – INTREPID. Well this week, Radio Archives’ Managing Director, Tom Brown, kindly send us one of these beautiful sets. We couldn’t be happier. Radio Archives has been producing Old Time Radio packages for a long time and they are considered the best such studio in the business today. We are thrilled and honored to be working with them.

Both Valerie and the Air Chief have been delighted at the opening of Spring Training both in Arizona and Florida and we’ve even watched a few Grapefruit Leagues with our beloved Red Sox. The World Champions of 2018 seem to be in good shape and most of their roster is back this year. Something that doesn’t happen too often in this age of Free Agency. Of note is the return of the best outfield squad in baseball, the Killer Bs; Andrew Benentendi at left, Jack Bradley Jr. at center and Mookie Betts at right. Last year, Bradley and Betts walked off with the Golden Glove awards for playing their respective positions. No team has ever had it’s outfield battery win all three spots. With Benentendi’s continued maturity in playing the Green Monster, there does exist the possibility that this could be the season that record is finally achieved. We shall see, with fingers crossed.  GO SOX!

The official ballot for this year’s Pulp Factory Awards has been announced. Congratulations to all the nominees.

BALLOT FOR TENTH ANNUAL PULP FACTORY AWARDS OFFICIALLY RELEASED; VOTING NOW OPEN UNTIL 3/15/2019

AWARDS TO BE GIVEN OUT AT WINDY CITY PULP & PAPER CONVENTION, APRIL 12

Lombard, Illinois – March 6, 2019

With April’s Windy City Pulp and Paper Con approaching fast, the ballot for the 2019 Pulp Factory Awards – the Tenth Annual, to be handed out at the conference – has just opened up for voting by the reading public.
The ballot can be found online at https://goo.gl/forms/SnofAQANqFmOLW1l1 Voters have until Friday, March 15 to vote. You may vote in as many of the five categories as you wish, but you are limited to one vote per category. We are again using electronic ballot via Google forms.

Nominees in each category are as follows:

BEST PULP NOVEL

• The Bay Phantom: Feast of the Cannibal Guild – Chuck Miller (Airship 27)
• Jezebel Johnston: Mourning Star – Nancy A. Hansen (Airship 27)
• Premium Delivery to the Centre of the Earth – I. A. Watson (Chillwater Press)
• Vegas Heist – Van Allen Plexico (White Rocket Books)

BEST PULP COVER

• Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective, Vol 12 – Rob Davis (Airship 27)
• The Moon Man, Vol 2 – Mike Fyles (Airship 27)
• Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective, Vol 11 – Laura Givens (Airship 27)
• Jezebel Johnston: Mourning Star – Ted Hammond (Airship 27)
• The Bay Phantom: Feast of Cannibals – Adam Shaw (Airship 27)

BEST PULP SHORT STORY

• “Glass Devil” – Mel Odom – Bass Reeves, Frontier Marshal Vol 3  (Airship 27)
• “The Hangman’s Daughter” – I A Watson – Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective Vol 12 (Airship 27)
• “Knights of the Silver Cross” – Gordon Dymowski – 1950s Western Roundup (Pro Se Productions)
• “The Scotland Yard Murder” – I A Watson – Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective Vol 11 (Airship 27)

BEST PULP INTERIOR ILLUSTRATIONS

• Ed Catto – The Adventures of Captain Graves (Airship 27)
• Rob Davis – Jezebel Johnston, Mourning Star (Airship 27)
• Rob Davis – Secret Agent X, Vol 6 (Airship 27)
• Rob Davis – Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective, Vol 11 (Airship 27)
• Rob Davis – Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective, Vol 12 (Airship 27)
• Clayton Hinkle – Pulp Mythology (Airship 27)

BEST PULP ANTHOLOGY

• The New Adventures of Richard Knight, Vol 3 (Pro Se Productions)
• Secret Agent X, Vol 6 (Airship 27)
• Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective, Vol 11 (Airship 27)
• Tales of the Interstellar Bartenders Guild (Pro Se Productions)

After March 15, the committee will tally all of the electronic votes viahttps://goo.gl/forms/SnofAQANqFmOLW1l1 and the winners will be announced at the Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention at the Westin Lombard Yorktown Center, outside Chicago, IL, on April 12, 2019.

Questions and concerns should be directed to PulpAwards@gmail.com. This will insure a more prompt response than reaching out to individual committee members. Thank you for your interest, and looking forward to your votes!

And there you have it for this week’s Flight Log Loyal Airmen. As ever, thanks for stopping by.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, for the past few weeks we’ve discussed the new volume of our best selling series, Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective.  As of today, that book, Vol 13, is now up at Amazon.

The book itself features stories by I.A. Watson, two in fact, then one each by S. Subramanian, Fred Adams Jr. and Dexter Fabi.  All are terrific Holmes & Watson mysteries. As always, Art Director Rob Davis did the great interior illustrations. The fun of this volume was artist Michael Youngblood’s cover in which he pays homage to the late illustrator, Sydney Page, who did so many of the illustrations for the original Conan Doyle stories in The Strand Magazine. We saw this as a way for all of involved with the series to acknowledge the artistic contributions Mr. Paget made to the history of the Great Detective. As ever the new volume is on sale at Amazon in both paperback and on Kindle. We thank you all you Loyal Airmen for your continued support.

It is obvious by now that artist Cesar Feliciano loves how the Air Chief is developing his original graphic novel concept “JIN & TONIK.”  Above we have Russian commando turned assassin, Captain Darya Tonikova. She is one tough cookie and we too are eager to see this project develop. Once Cesar actually starts work on the first two chapters we’ve penned, then his plan is to start a funding program on-line to pay for everything. At which time, whether this comic sees publication or not will depend entirely on our fans.

For the past several years Radio Archives, a leading audio book recorder, has been partnered with Airship 27 Productions. In that time, Radio Archives has produced 125 Airship 27 audiobooks and made them available via Amazon-Audible.com.  Effective Friday March 1^st, 2019, Radio Archives will take over complete production of future Airship 27 titles and for the very first time sell them via their own popular website. Not only will New Pulp fans be able to purchase digital copies of these books, but CD sets as well. This is a first for Airship 27 Productions.

Our association with Radio Archives has been nothing but beneficial to our little company. With their recordings they have greatly increased our fan base. In fact this new evolution of having our books available on their site immediately opens 27 new distribution channels previously out of our reach. Naturally that number 27 is a definite good omen for us.

The first Airship 27 title to sell on the Radio Archives web store will be the recently released “CODENAME – INTREPID” by author Robert J. Mendenhall and is read by Paul Curtis. Fans can purchase either the digital download or the CD beginning on Friday. Also worth noting, all new titles will sell at a discounted 50% off cover price only during the first six days of the book’s posting. We urge our Loyal Airmen to take advantage of this truly amazing deal and to also sign up for the Radio Archives Newsletter so that they do not miss future title releases.

RADIO ARCHIVES (https://www.radioarchives.com/Default.asp)

And that’s it for this week’s Flight Log. Thanks for stopping by and see you next Friday.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen. Years ago, when our granddaughter Chelsea, was small, we’d sit with her and watch the Disney cartoon series, Kim Possible. The idea focused around a teenage girl who just happen to fight crime with the aid of her friend, Ron Stoppable, and a naked mole rat named Rufus. The animation was excellent and the stories tons of fun. So jump ahead a decade or so and now Chelsea has graduated from college and is a working young lady. Meanwhile, Valerie and the Air Chief are surfing the TV channels the other night when much to our delight we discover Disney has made a new, live action Kim Possible movie. We sat back and enjoyed it immensely. Just as much fun as the old cartoon series.

File this one under never say never. As most Loyal Airmen know, the Air Chief has been a Sherlock Holmes for ages. And having the fun of publishing the bestselling series, “Sherlock Holmes – Consulting Detective,” has been a special joy the past ten years. Still every now and then a fan would inquire as to why the Air Chief didn’t write a Holmes tale. Well, the answer was simple enough; we just didn’t feel comfortable capturing Dr. Watson’s voice. Of course everyone knows, Holmes creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, wrote most of the stories in first person as told through Holmes trusted companion Dr. Watson. Thus for any writer to write a new Holmes story, they first have to capture that very distinct voice. Happily lots of super talented writers can do that, much to all Holmes fans, including the Air Chief. Whereas we simply cannot. It’s beyond our style and approach to writing. Then several years ago, New Zealand writer and editor, Christopher Sequeira wrote saying he was putting together a brand new Sherlock Holmes anthology in which there would be NO Dr. Watson. Meaning that all the stories had to feature Sherlock Holmes accompanied by a “different” doctor. Christopher, knowing of our Airship 27 series, sought us out inviting us to contribute a story. At first we were ready to politely decline. Happily the Air Chief began to rethink the whole Dr. Waton’s voice element. This book would not have that limitation at all. After a few days mulling it over, we came up with an idea totally different (we hope) than had even been done before and asked Christopher is our approach would be acceptable to his concept. To our delight, he said our idea was totally fine for this anthology and gave us the green light to write the darn thing. Early this week, Christopher announced on-line that the book would be released on June 14th and provided a peek at the cover. (See above.) Joining the Air Chief will be this amazing crew of writers; Dennis O’Neil, Nancy Holder, Will Murray, Rafe McGregor, Andrew Salmon, I.A. Watson, J.Scherpenhuien, Brad Mengel, Philip Cornell and Julie Ditrich. Rest assured Loyal Airmen, when the book is published and available, we’ll let you know right here.

The good folks behind the Comicfest Denver/Starfest Convention have started promoting on social media for this years show. Again to be held at the Marriott Denver Tech Center from April 26-28. Above is a picture of last year’s show, with the Air Chief talking with fans. Val is hidden behind us, and that’s artist Bob Hall to our right. Beside yours truly, the other comics guest this year will include David Ross, Dan Green and Vic Carrabotta. We had so much fun at this show last year and are looking forward to going back.

Our pal, artist Cesar Feliciano is experimenting with different drawing style in preparing to start work on the first chapter of our new comics series, JIN & TONIC.  Above is one such sample.  Personally, we love it.

And that’s it for this week, Loyal Airmen. Thanks as ever for stopping by.

Ron – Over & Out!