Greetings Loyal Airmen, with Labor Day behind us, Fall has pretty much arrived and as ever that brings about all kinds of changes. Not the least of which is schools are open again, from the grade schools on through to high schools and colleges. Here in Fort Collins, the Air Chief is back to teaching his How To Write Comics course at the Front Range Community College and we have our biggest class yet with seven students.  We’ve done two classes thus far and these five men and two young ladies are extremely talented and enthusiastic about becoming comic book writers.

Meanwhile, artist buddy, Mike Belcher is continuing to work on our 40s style masked avenger, Nightshift. Here are two sketches, one of him in his fighting togs and the other as Todd Jones, radio personality. Of course Todd Jones is the name of one of the Air Chief’s best friends. Thought we’d tip our fedora in his direction.

Meanwhile three of the Air Chief’s project are moving along production-wise. Top left is page two of our western, “The Silent Gun,” art by Cesar Madarro. In the center, Pg # 1 of the 3rd and final issue of “Paradise Falls,” art by John Williams and finally on the right is Pg # 2 of the 2nd issue of “Black Lion,” art by Kevin Johnson. As you keep see, the Air Chief is keeping busy not only teaching comics, but actually writing them as well.

Several years ago, our oldest son, Scott, found this Fortier crest on-line.  We always thought it was pretty cool and have always suspected our ancestry goes back through French Quebec and then directly to France. Earlier today the Air Chief was studying the images on the crest and realized those were grapes on the right side of the shield.  Hmm, could our ancestors had a winery. We immediately went on-line, punched in the words FORTIER – WINE and voila up popped these images of wines bottled under the Fortier-Picard label.

Now how cool is that. Next challenge, find out where in France this vineyard is located. Obviously the Air Chief would like nothing better than to take a trip there…and taste the family treasure.

And that’s all for this week, Loyal Airmen, as ever thanks for stopping by. Will see you here next Friday.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, last week I told you about how Spanish artist Cesar Midarro surprised us when he contacted us via Facebook asking if the Air Chief might be able to work with him on a comic project together. Which is such a rarity in this game, i.e. an artist looking for a writer. The end result was the Air Chief let Cesar have his 8 pg western strip, “The Silent Gun,” which he has begun to illustrate.

Here’s a sneak peek at the pencils for pg # 1.  We love it.  Cesar is doing an amazing job with this. So that was last week.  Look and behold, we open our e-mail this past Tuesday morning and find a message from as yet another Cesar.

This time it was a good friend from back east, Cesar Faliciano wanting to know if we would like to work with him on an action spy comic project called, “Jin & Tonik.” Seems Cesar has been developing this idea for a few years and now is at the point where he’d like to start having scripts done so he can start drawing the darn thing…and so he reached out to the Air Chief. And we couldn’t be more flattered…and thrilled.  “Jin & Tonik” are two really great characters, one Chinese, the other Russian; both raised to be deadly, unstoppable assassins. How they come together and what happens next is the crux of the story. Once we read Cesar’s outline, we were hooked and started getting all kinds of new ideas to embellish on the framework he’s built. Stay tuned, comic lovers, this one is going to be a wild ride.

Keeping with the comics themes, recently we’ve become not only good friends, but huge fans of comics creator Mike Belcher. For several years Mike has been working on a graphic novel starring his character, Man in the Mask. It is very much a throwback to good old fashion storytelling as exemplified during the Golden Age of comics. Mike does it all, from art to writing and lettering with his son Aiden doing a fantastic job of coloring. So a few days ago the mailman delivers me a package containing not only the graphic novel, but also the one shot Prelude from which the on-going series will continue. Reading these comics made the Air Chief feel like a kid again. Mike infuses that magic sense of fun and wonder comics were all about years ago…and some how seem to have drifted away from. Man in the Mask is a bonafide hit and if you love comics as much as we do, you really need to pick it up. You can order copies on-line here = (http://www.amkcomics.com/)

Now the Air Chief thought it would be cool to have a picture taken holding up Mike’s great comics. Valerie was about to snap a pix, when our grandson, Alex, who had stopped over from a hard day of landscaping, thought it would be fun to photo-bomb his grandfather. And you know what, Loyal Airmen, as the nucleus of this series surround a boy and his hero grandfather, the Air Chief thought it only appropriate to keep Alex’s shot in this Flight Log. Again, please, pick up Mike’s comic, you’ll be happy you did.

And that’s it for this week.  As ever thanks for stopping by.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen. Last weekend saw the arrival of the 4th Annual Fort Collins Comic Con better know we residents of this fair city as FoCo. And as expected it was another fantastic con providing tons of fun both the guests and the attendees. Valerie and the Air Chief were there of course, along with our Airship 27 Art Director and partner in crime, artist Rob Davis, who drove up from his home in Hallsville, MO to be with us.

Here’s a great shot from the second floor walkway. Looking down at the fellow in the short-sleeve blue shirt, that is none other than pro-artist Gordon Purcell and this was his first ever visit to FoCo. He and Rob later did a panel on Drawing Star Trek for DC Comics we are told was very well received by the con goers.

Another out-of-town guest, though just up north of us, was art teacher and comic creator Chad Blakely from Cheyenne Wyoming. Always great to see Chad. He’s one fun dude.

While Fort Collins own Adriane & Jesse Bonafazi were also on hand. Jesse is a wiz at making custom action figures. A while back, while discussing some of our comic and pulp creations, Jesse put forth the idea of our lovable Mr. Jigsaw teaming up with Brother Bones the Undead Avenger. Honestly, we thought he’d gone off the deep end. Then during the show he rushed over to our tables and gave the Air Chief the above drawing which depicts two little boys dressed up for Halloween as…you guessed it…Jiggy & Brother Bones.  “See,” said Jesse. “They can team up.” We think the sketch is brilliant.

As ever you can always expect to find cos-players galore at these shows, such a Ghostbuster visiting with artist Zane Degaine and Deter the Shark Boy, who was really one cool dude.

Speaking of Zane, he debut his first full comic at the show, FASTBACK, an action packed cops and crime thriller. Here’s the Air Chief getting his own copy autographed by the creator. Keep a look out for the comic, it is going to become a collector’s item.

Of course Zane’s wife, Olivia, wasn’t about to be shown up. She actually had several comics at their table including issue # 1, a new series featuring Raizee the Ram that we created together.  Look for issue # 2 early next Spring.

Olivia was also one of my three students in my Spring Comics Writing Class at the local community college. As we did after the first class, we managed to put out a second issue of FRONT RANGE TALES, as written by the students and illustrated by comic pro-artist. Standing together is happy students and proud teacher, Olivia, the Air Chief, Scott and Max.  They were a great class and will do awesome things in the future. Our next writing class begins Sept. 5th and we’re are told we’ve already gotten 7 writers signed up. Really looking forward to it.

Above are actual pages from Olivia’s tale as drawn by Gary Kato. He gifted her with the pages after the comic was published. Then we have Scott who happily autographed one of his copies to fellow writer Aaron Powers who was in our very first writing class last Fall.

Another guest artist was our friend Jon Bonjour who is now illustrating a brand new Nukla strip that we wrote a few months ago. Nukla was an old Dell Comic series and we are reviving for an independent comic line. Jon has also agreed to do a back up strip for a future issue of Mr. Jigsaw, Man of a Thousand Parts. We’ll certainly be happy to see what he does there. Can you believe he’s only still a senior in high school?

Finally we wanted to leave you with this great shot of this young lady who picked up a copy of our Mr. Jigsaw Special How To Make A Comic Book.  She was delightful and very, very excited about creating her own comic stories. As you can see, this year’s FoCo was another big winner.

Ron- Over & Out!

Greeting Loyal Airmen, lots of fun things to share with you this week, so let’s get right to them. Below is a Press Release with some exciting news from Airship 27 Productions.

SUN-KOH : HEIR TO ATLANTIS

Dedicated pulp fans are aware of the fact that the concept of hero pulps was not limited to the United States. During the 30s and 40s, pulp magazines were popular all over the world and there were hundreds of original crime fighting heroes created in England, France and Germany. One such foreign star was Sun-Koh, Heir of Atlantis written by German writer Paul Muller and clearly intended to be an Aryan version of America’s Doc Savage. Like Savage he was larger than life and throughout his hundreds of adventurers was accompanied by a group of loyal, unique individuals.

Beside the similarities there were also major differences and these were what have created an on-going controversy over this character. Whereas Doc Savage was a man of science and his companions all experts in various technical fields, Sun-Koh was slanted towards mythology and magic. He was supposedly a time-traveler from the sunken continent of Atlantis, a member of the royal family and master of mystic abilities. And although there was plenty of super scientific gizmos in his adventures, it was the magic that took center stage. His aides were also magicians, immortals and religious Hindu assassins. Quite an eclectic mix.

In 2010, in the midst of the New Pulp explosion, Dr. Art Sippo wrote a brand new adventure novel featuring these characters. “Sun-Koh : Heir of Atlantis.” It premiered to rousing acclaim by pulp fans and a sequel was planned. Sadly that second book never materialized and eight years later, the first book is out of print. Now Airship 27 Productions is about to rectify all that. Over the past few days, the Air Chief entered into an agreement with Dr. Sippo to reprint “Sun-Koh : Heir to Atlantis.” We will be giving Dr. Sippo’s book the full Airship 27 treatment complete with interior illustrations for the very first time and a brand new cover. Who knows, this could spur the good doctor to get cracking on that long over due sequel. We’ll keep you posted.

Our newest anthology PULP MYTHOLOGY – Vol One is now out. It features four stories by Barbara Doran, Jamie Evans, Joel Jenkins and Fred Adams Jr. with interiors by Clayton Hinkle and a cover by Zachary Brunner. In this first volume you’ll find stories starring Hercules, Achilles, Beowulf and the Monkey King. As ever the book is available at Amazon in both paperback and on Kindle. As ever, thanks for your wonderful support.

Finally we leave with a little bit of a teaser. In a few months Airship 27 Productions is going to be publish “On Poisoned Ground” by writer I.A. Watson. It will mark the return of a classic pulp hero from the 1920. All of us involved with the project are extremely excited.  Stay tuned. This is going to be big.

Ron – Over & Out!!

Greeting Loyal Airmen, below is a new review of our Brother Bones – City of Lost Souls by fellow writer, Roman Leary.

“If you’re looking for full-throttle pulp excitement in the tradition of Walter Gibson and Norvell Page, you’ll find it here in abundance. What sets the world of Brother Bones apart, however, is the way this particular cast of characters continues to grow and change. Each book in this series can be read as a standalone adventure, but taken together they form an ongoing saga, a tapestry of blood (pun intended) woven of violence, supernatural weirdness, and hard-won redemption. Jump right in with this one, if you like, but I recommend you start with the first volume and work your way up. You’ll be glad you did!”  Roman Leary, author of “Brother Bones – Six Days of the Dragon.”

On the comic side of things, this week saw the release of FUN ADVENTURE COMICS # 9, which features the Invisible Hood story we did with artist Mike Belcher, bringing back a great, golden age hero. You can pick up a copy at Amazon via Kindle or Comixology here (https://www.amazon.com/Fun-Adventure-Comics-Warren-Montgomery-ebook/dp/B07FS697D9/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1534353547&sr=1-2) Hopefully Mike and the Air Chief will get to do more of these in the future.

Over the past few years Airship 27 Productions has had the honor of publishing several new pulp series created and written by Fred Adams Jr.  Among these is his C.O. JONES books, the first two you see pictured above.  Jones is a World War II veteran, who during the war worked for a highly secret military branch that dealt in black magic, using it against the Germans to help win the war. These stories take place after Jones has come home and is trying to get his life back in order.

Pictured above, writer Fred Adams Jr. and a sneak-peek at a new illustration by artist Rob Davis for the third C.O. JONES book, “The Damned and the Doomed.” It takes place in Los Angeles in 1947, and has Jones investigating the death of an orphan in a desert monastery. But whenever Jones is involved, you can rest assured there are dark forces hiding beneath the surface.  “C.O. JONES – The Damned and the Doomed” is another winner we hope to have out in a few more weeks.  In the meanwhile can find the first two at Amazon both in paperback and on Kindle, or audio book.  As ever, thanks for your support, Loyal Airmen.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greeting Loyal Airmen, things have been a bit slow on both the comics and pulp fronts this past week (though trust me, both will pick up again soon) whereas the excitement here has been watching the start of the second half of this year’s baseball season.

Two years ago David Ortiz retired from baseball after a stellar career with our beloved Red Sox as perhaps the greatest Designated Hitter of all time. So last year, as well as the team did, it was always obvious a big piece was missing; an important piece. Thus even with winning the Division for the second year in a row, the Sox simply couldn’t get beyond the first round of play-offs for a second year. Frustrating to say the least. All we Sox fans were well aware of what was needed and early this Spring, after a long winter of waiting, the Front Office went and signed slugger J.D. Martinez to fill that missing piece. Well, if you follow the sport at all, you know by now that Martinez has delivered and is on course to win the Triple Crown of baseball, what with On Base Percentage, RBIs and the killer stat, most Home-runs.  He has re-energized the team and behind him every single player, ala the amazing Mookie Betts, Jack Bradley Junior, Andrew Benendendi, Mitch Moreland and all the others are have an amazing championship season.  Thus far having won over 80 games, 25 of their last 30 and on track to becoming one of the greatest teams in Red Sox history. Believe us, this has been season to marvel at and it is only going to get wilder come October. Oh, yeah!

Two years ago, we released THE DEAD SHERIFF by the late Mark Justice, our good friend and truly gifted writer. At that time we also made a promise to Mark’s wife Norma Kay Justice, that we would complete the second book in this series. At the time of his passing, Mark had written 30,000 words of this unfinished manuscript. Over the past three months, the Air Chief was finally able to pick up the tale and produce another 35,000 words and wrap up what we will eventually be publishing as Mark Justice’s The Dead Sheriff # 2 Cannibals & Bloodsuckers. At present, Canadian artist Art Cooper is doing 9 black and white illustrations for this second book and when done, cover artist Zachary Brunner (who did the first seen above) will also paint the second. It is our fondest hope to have this new book out in a month, two at the tops. Meanwhile, volume is still very much available at Amazon in both paperback, on Kindle and as an audio book via Audible.com – If you enjoy weird westerns we hope you’ll give it a try.

Finally, if all goes well, our next title from Airship 27 Productions should be PULP MYTHOLOGY Vol # 1, which we are all very excited about. It features such classic heroes as Hercules, Achilles, the Monkey King and Beowulf. Above is one of Clayton Hinkle’s wonderful interior illustrations for the book, this one features Hercules sailing off to another adventure. Look for this book in a few more weeks as well.

And that’s a wrap for this week Loyal Airmen, as ever, thanks so much for stopping by.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, this week we want to do another little essay on how some wonderful art is achieved when producing our Airship 27 titles. Recently, as many of you know, we released our 12th Volume of our bestselling series, Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective. The uniqueness of this particular entry was that our own super talented Art Director did all the art for the book, from beautiful penciled interiors to his wonderful cover. But how did that all come about…and where has it led?  Let’s take it one step at a time.

Rob did up two pencil roughs. We looked at both and chose the one you see above. We liked that it showed both Holmes and Watson in a dramatic fashion.

What we knew before hand was that Rob would naturally model his Sherlock Holmes after the late Jeremy Brett who was his favorite Holmes. No surprises there. What was a nice surprise was how he found “his” Watson.

While surfing the internet, Rob found photos of another British actor named David Robb. This fellow perfectly suited the mental image of Dr. Watson Rob had always had in his mind. And so naturally, Rob used him in his drawings.

Next came his detailed pencils and finally the finished, colored cover. Which then became a huge hit with our readers.

Among these was artist Graham Hill, who had already done a Holmes cover for us last year. Apparently Graham was so taken with Rob’s Watson, he decided to paint that figure himself. Above is the finished piece and we absolutely love it. Thanks so much, Graham. Now the Air Chief needs to find a place where we can print this beautiful piece so that the world at large can enjoy.  And that Loyal Airmen is just how one of our covers came together and then went beyond by inspiring as yet another artist.

The mail was particularly fantastic this week finally delivering Scaldcrow Games’ Ron Fortier’s CAPE NOIRE rpg module. Above, included in the packet was a map of Cape Noire, a soft paperback edition of the game, a Bones button and playing dice.

Above is the Hard Copy of the game which we posed next to the Brother Bones bronze statue done for us by the super talented Kenneth Stock. Anyway, the rpg book is just great, detailing so much from all the Brother Bones novels, anthologies and comics. A tip of the pulp fedora to the Scaldcrow Games crew, T Glenn Bane, Theresa Bane and Drew Meyers. They did a fantastic job.

Finally over the past week, the Air Chief has been working with super talented British writer I.A. Watson to reboot a classic pulp hero from the 1930s who appeared in magazines, books, novels and movies. Once we have the kinks worked out, the Air Chief is hoping to get Ian to write a full length novel. If he agrees, then an official announcement will be forthcoming.  Wish us luck. And there you have it, Loyal Airmen, thanks for dropping by and see you here next week.

Ron – Over & Out.

Greetings Loyal Airmen and welcome to this week’s Flight Log. Honestly, nothing pleases the Air Chief more than seeing the continued successes of our writers and artists.  Recently while at the San Diego Comic Con, writer Michael Black won the prestigious scribe award given out by the International Association of Tie-Writers.

Michael won the award for his book, “Don Pendleton’s The Executioner – Fatal Prescription.” Michael has been a valued member of the Airship 27 stable of talented New Pulp writers for many years now.

Among the many stories Michael Black has written for Airship 27, there’s his Sherlock Holmes tale in “Sherlock Holmes – Consulting Detective Vol 6” and his rousing western adventure in “Bass Reeves – Frontier Marshal Vol. 2” All of us wish to extend to Michael our happiest congratulations on this award, truly well earned.

Recently the Air Chief hooked up on Facebook with one our aunts, Mrs. Rose Goodrich, of Sanford, Maine, our mother’s youngest sister. Aunt Rose has been posting lots of old family pictures and last week she posted the one above that we had never seen before. It is our grandparents wedding picture. Dorilla Hamilin wed Donat Richer at Saint Ignatius Catholic Church lo those many years ago. They would go on to have ten children; five girls and five boys. Gabrielle, the second daughter was the first to marry and when she had us, made them grandparents for the very first time. Our memory of them are of course their being much older, which is why the beautiful picture touched us. Both were great grandparents and we pray enjoying their heavenly repose. Family is everything, Loyal Airmen. The true treasure of this life.

Next up, our latest pulp thriller is out. “The Bay Phantom 2 – Feast of the Cannibal Guild,” is a fast paced adventure featuring the Memphis avenger, the Bay Phantom and his genius assistant, Ms Mirabell Darcy. This is one you won’t miss. Cover by is Adam Shaw with interior illustrations by Kevin Paul Shaw Broden. The book is now up at Amazon in paperback and on Kindle.  As ever, thanks for your continued support.

And finally this week we had to show off our newest toy. A Funko-Top Green Hornet. It is really so cool. Now we have to get out there and find a Kato.  As ever, thanks for stopping by Loyal Airmen. See you back here next week as we say good-bye to July and kick-off Aug.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen.  Well last week saw the debut of the first ever Estes Park Comic Con. If you’ve never been to the small Colorado town of Estes Park, you’ll find it nestle in a valley in the Rocky Mountains. A more bucolic setting for a comic convention the Air Chief has never been too.

Upon setting up our table Friday morning, we sat back and this was our view.  Just amazing.

Valerie and the Air Chief (at top left) traveled to the show with our Fort Collins friends, Olivia & Zane DeGaine, (at top right) who it turns out happily were our con neighbors. Which only made the show that much more fun. Olivia had copies of The Wooden Blade # 1, the comic series she and the Air Chief created together. It was a delight watching whenever she sold one and would autograph it. Both she and Zane are wonderful artists who actually met while attending the Joe Kubert School of Graphic Art in New Jersey. If all goes well, the Air Chief will also be doing a project with Zane some time next year.

Of course the fun of such shows is the costume players (Cosplayers for short) and Estes had lots of them, including the five truly creative ladies seen above here who stopped by our tables.

One industrious young lady came to the show every day in a new outfit. Now that’s creativity. So all in all for a first time show, Estes Park was fun and we are hoping they’ll  be back next year.

And while the Air Chief was busy at the con, our Airship 27 Art Director Rob Davis was busy at the old Hanger 27 putting the final touches on our second class comic, Front Range Tales # 2.  As many of you Loyal Airmen are aware, the Air Chief teaches How to Write Comics & Graphic Novels at a local community college. After our first class last Fall, we put together a comic, Front Range Tales # 1 all written by our students. So in the Spring of this year we had the second class, made up of Scott Ladzinski  (photo left to right) Max Williams, and to our left, Olivia Degaine. So each of them wrote a story for the second issue.  Rob drew Scott’s story, Gary Kato did Olivia’s and Kevin Wiggins took on Max’s. The cover is by Rob from Olivia’s story and the comic is now at the printer’s. We will have it at the Fort Collins Comic Con next month (Aug 24-25) at Olivia and Zane’s table. We all hope you’ll come and check it out. Meanwhile the Air Chief is gearing up for Class # 3 which kicks off on the 5th of Sept.

And that’s it for this week, Loyal Airmen, thanks ever for stopping by and we’ll be back in seven

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, last week the Air Chief showed off his new tee shirt showcasing our local comics club. Fort Collins Comics Coffee Clutch Crew. Well last Sat, as we’ve done for the past seven years on the first Sat of each month, we got together for breakfast at the local comic shop, Gryphon Games & Comics. 22 of us were in attendance and one of the first things the Air Chief did was hand out tees to those who had ordered them…then had this group pix taken.  Air Chief in the front, standing behind me left to right, Aryn, Olivia, Shana, Jesse & Adrianne. Behind them Aaron & Scott. Everyone loved the shirts and we’re pretty sure some of the others in the crew will be wanting one once they see these pictures. The fun will be wearing these at local conventions.

Of course when a group of comic book writers and artists get together, you know sooner or later they are going to start making comics and such was the case between the Air Chief and artist Olivia DeGaine. For the past year we’ve been working on a new character, Raizee the Ram. Raizee’s first story had appeared a few weeks ago in Todd Jones’ anthology comics Wicked Awesome Tale. Now he has his own comic, with three complete stories in a black and white 24 pg issue called THE WOODEN BLADE and published via Pulp Fission, the new outfit created by Olivia and her artist husband Zane. Zane will soon have his own comic out there. Olivia and the Air Chief hope to do one Raizee comic a year. Wish us luck.

Of course with most talented people our creators just don’t stick to one format, as is proof by our pal artist Jeff Slemons. Jeff recently finished work on a gorgeous children’s book – BENTLEY GOES TO SCHOOL and here we are holding up a copy at the meeting yesterday.  Note, this coming Sept, both Jeff and the Air Chief will once again be teaching classes at the Front Range Community College here in Fort Collins.  Both classes will be ten weeks long, schedule once a week on Wednesday nights. Ours of course; How To Write Comics & Graphic Novels and Jeff’s, How To Draw Comics. Both of us loving sharing what we’ve learned in our careers with others.

One of our Loyal Airmen recently told me us he enjoyed our movie reviews. So here’s our latest. Sometimes the trailers are spot on. Seeing them for “Ant-Man and the Wasp” we thought this would be one heck of a fun movie and it proved to be so on all fronts. Story was well done, chemistry between leads is there, tons of great FX action sequence perfectly balanced with laugh aloud humor. Not only is this better than the first one, the truth is, the movie Ant-Man is tons way more fun than is comic self. Keep’em coming, Marvel. Big thumbs up to this one.

Meanwhile the latest BROTHER BONES collection “City of Lost Souls” has just been released by Radio Archives via Audible.com – and is read by J. Scott Bennett. Bennett has a flair for the character and the enthusiasm he brings to his narration is infectious. We had a great time writing these stories and we hope you Loyal Airmen will enjoy hearing them like this.

And that is it for this week, Loyal Airmen. As ever thanks for stopping by. See you next week.

Ron – Over & Out!