Greetings Loyal Airmen, we kick off this week’s Flight Log with a salute to the King of Action Toy Figures, Captain Action, who turns 50 this year. In lieu of that fact, the good people at Captain Action Enterprises have some very cool things in the works. As most of you Loyal Airmen know, in the past two years, working with them, Airship 27 Production has produced two Captain Action pulp novels written by the amazing Jim Beard and to celebrate Cap’s 50th Anniversary, Jim will be penning a third novel which we hope to get out later in the year.

Then just a few short weeks ago, Radio Archives released an audio version of that first novel, “Riddle of the Glowing Men,” as read by voice actor Fred Wolinsky. We’re happy to report the book is doing great and getting terrific reviews. So much so that Fred is now busy are work recording the second book. “Hearts of the Rising Sun.”

And leave us not forget that last year, Ye Old Air Chief himself wrote the first ever Lady Action novella, “The Sands of Forever,” which we are happy to report will also get the audio book treatment.

And as much a writing Lady Action proved to be a challenge, it ended up being one of our most enjoyable writing experiences. Enough so that when the folks at Captain Action Enterprise came around asking if the Air Chief would be up to writing a sequel, we, after some serious hesitation, said “Okay.” You see, Loyal Airmen, as much as hitting a home run with the first book was a rush, hitting a second homer in a row is a real daunting task. One we hope we can pull off.  “The Sands of Forever,” entertain so many of you and that is what we hope to do again. All fingers crossed. We’ll keep you posted as things develop.  But for now, Happy Birthday Captain Action and company.

We recently heard from T. Glenn Bane of Scaldcrow Games with the latest update on the role-playing-game model based on our Brother Bones stories. It seems an error was discovered in the rules listings, one that requires a major re-writing of the project and so the hoped for end of Feb. release is impossible. Glenn and his people are dedicated to making this the best product possible and one easy for gamers to play and enjoy, thus a new March date has been set. Obviously we are a little disappointed but then again, appreciate their dedication to quality. We’ll continue to keep you posted.

On the independent comicbook scene, my long time pal, Larry Young of Maine, writes a great western sci-fi series about a bounty-hunter called SHADOW RIDER.  He’s just published his second issue (see cover above) and its terrific. You can buy a copy from www.IndyPlanet.com – Check it out.

And finally we are happy to announce the release of our second pulp title of the year, TALES OF THE BAGMAN Vol 3 by B.C. Bell.  Another collection of zany adventures of this unique hero based in Chicago in the 1930s.  Bell’s stories are full of action and humor. The interior illustrations in this one are by Canadian artist Art Cooper and the cover comes New Zealander Shane Evans. Talk about an international team. It now available at Amazon in hard copy and then on Kindle in a few days and eventually as an adio book. We hope you’ll give a look see.  And that, Loyal Airmen wraps up one busy week. See you back here in seven days.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, it looks like Mother Nature finally took out her long Winter White Gown and dropped it over the North East this past weekend.  Kind of a dramatic introduction to the season. Then again, she’s never been known to be subtle. To all our friends and family still digging out, we send “warm” wishes for an early Spring.

Meanwhile, our good friends at Radio Archives continue to release wonderful audio book versions of our Airship 27 titles. The most recent just released this week is writer Jim Beard’s CAPTAIN ACTION – Riddle of the Glowing Men. Believe me, our friends Ed Catto and Joe Ahearn at Captain Action Enterprises LLC were thrilled when we told them it was available. The book is read by voice actor Fred Wolinsky who, like all Radio Archives readers, does a fantastic job. These audio versions can be found by simply going to the Amazon page where the book is sold. The Air Chief thinks, if you are one of those souls who has to commute to and from work every day, these audio pulps are the perfect way to enjoy the ride.

One of the Air Chief’s favorite series currently on TV is AGENT PEGGY CARTER, now in its second season. This year the writers sent the cast off to have an adventure in glamorous Hollywood circa the late 1940s. There Peggy runs into her dear friend, genius inventor Howard Stark, who, as any Marvel fans knows, will eventually father Tony Stark, aka Iron Man. Well in last evening’s episode, Peggy finds Howard on a movie studio directing a western.  But not just any western, rather one based on the highly popular comic series of the time, KID COLT OUTLAW. And not only does Howard hold up a cover mock to show Peggy, later in his office we see two issues of the comic on the bookshelf behind them. And the Air Chief was ecstatic.  Why? Well simply because the first comic book my father ever gave me, at the tender age of five years old, was a Kid Colt Outlaw.   And trust us, Loyal Airmen, if you know real comic book fans, we all somehow remember our very first comicbook.  And the Air Chief is no exception. And so a tip of the hat to the good people at ABC and AGENT PEGGY CARTER.  You picked a winner for this charming little scene, one near and dear to us, and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.   Below is a snap from the actual scene; red shirt and pinto vest identified him immediately.

And finally, wrapping up our last Flight Log of January 2016 (…and hey, where did the month go?) we wanted to applaud a science fiction series we’ve really been enjoying these past few weeks.

When the SyFy Channel was first born, it promised the potential of some great television for all us sci-fy fans and then within a few years had deteriorated into giving us old recycled shows from the networks or foisting gawd-awful made-for-TV flicks such as the uber ridiculous Sharnado titles. Then last year there were rumblings on the internet that there was new management at the channel and they were serious about program new, adult sci-fi series of quality.  Well, the Air Chief is here to report they’ve made good on that claim with THE EXPANSE, a brand new, gripping, sci-fi political thriller based on a popular series of novels. The cast is top-notch, the FX top-of-the line and the story complex and intriguing. It never insults the viewer and the directing is spot-on with a pace that has never lagged once. In fact next week is already the two-hour first season finale and we were shocked upon realizing how fast it had come upon us. If you like good sci-fi, you need to find THE EXPANSE.  Believe us, you will not be disappointed.

And that’s our Flight Log for this week.  See you next week…when Feb rolls around.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen and as you can see by the cover image above, we are thrilled to announce our first pulp title of 2016!  “Motor City Manhunt,” by R.A. Jones and Michael Vance is a taut suspense crime thriller that takes place in Detroit in 1935.  All the art for the book, both cover and interior illustrations was provided by Jesus Rodriguez of Mexico and is outstanding.  As ever, our Art Director Rob Davis provided the book’s over all design. It is always a great feeling to get the first book of a new book out. Note the book is available at Amazon in both hard copy and on Kindle and eventually will be available as an audio book via Radio Archives.  We hope you’ll check it out.

One of the things the Air Chief is most grateful for is that our town has a Second Run theater. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, it simply means when a new movie is released, it is sold to First Run movie houses and will stay at them for as along at the theater manager feels it is making money. When that period expires, the movie company will then put out to Second Run houses for a cheaper fee…which these theaters pass along to their customers.  Ergo, if you see as many movies and Valerie and the Air Chief, it can tend to get expensive and sometimes, for various reasons you’ll wait until a feature comes to the Second Run theater.

Thus was the case with “In the Heart of the Sea.” Since seeing its trailer months ago, we’d very much wanted to see this spectacular man-against-nature epic filmed by Ron Howard, one of the best directors in Hollywood today.  Based on the book by Nathanial Philbrick, the movie tells the true story of the Essex, a whaling ship out of Nantucket, Ma. that was attacked and sunk by a whale in the Pacific Ocean. When the tale got out to the public, even though the Maritime Commission did its best to suppress it, one of the many intrigued by it was writer Herman Melville. Melville traveled to Nantucket and interviewed one of the survivors of the Essex and from his notes wrote his classic adventure novel, “Moby Dick.”  The film here opens with the writer meeting the old sailor whom he is going to interview, brilliant played by Brendan Gleeson.  He is a man haunted by what happened aboard that ill-fated ship and voyage and as he begins to relate his tale, we are thrown back in time to the actual events.  This is a powerful story and one beautifully filmed, though we suspect its lackluster performance profit-wise is most likely due to the brutally honest depiction of whaling in all its gory savagery. Watching those harpoons rip into those magnificent beasts is not for the weak of heart whereas the attack of the white whale is itself frightening to the core.  “In the Heart of the Sea,” is story of its time and the courage of those men who cast their lots to the merciless seas.  If you missed it at the theaters, do yourselves a favor and catch it when it comes to cable. It is very much worth your time.

Next up we are happy to report that our character, Brother Bones – The Undead Avenger is getting some nice publicity in different venues these days.  A few years ago we wrote a story “The Butcher Blues” in which Brother Bones teamed up with a new hero, the Pulptress, the creation of our good pal Tommy Hancock of Pro Se Productions. Well, that anthology has just become an audio book and is available via Amazon or by going directly to Audible.com – So if you ever wanted to “hear” the grim avenger’s stories, here’s your chance.  Note previous three Airship 27 Brother Bones will also be soon available in this fun format.  While in just another few weeks the good people at Scaldcrow Games will be releasing their Brother Bones role playing game module to be called, “Ron Fortier’s Cape Noire.”  And we can’t be more excited.  Above is the latest sketch of our highly popular character by Scaldcrow Game’s own head honcho, T. Glenn Bane and we love.

And lastly we’ve join the staff of “The Digest Enthusiast” as a contributing writer. Issue # 3 (see cover above) has just come out and is available in hard copy and on Kindle from Amazon.  They’ve printed several of our recent book reviews in the issue and a short sci-fi story of ours called, “The Rail City Rolls.”  We think you’ll enjoy it.  Phew, as you can see we do tend to keep busy this time of year.  As ever thanks for stopping by and we’ll see you all back here next week.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen.  Well, earlier this week, we at Airship 27 Productions reached a very cool landmark, one that caught Ye Old Air Chief totally by surprise.  We were over on our Airship 27 Facebook adding some new piece of promotional date, the primary reason the page was created in the first place, when we happened to glance up and look at the number that indicates how many “likes” the page has received since its creation.  Imagine our pleasant surprise when we read 1003!!  Yup, sometime within the last week, we’d hit the 1,000 Likes mark on Facebook. Now that’s just too awesome and the Air Chief is thrilled.  We, and partner Rob Davis, plus all our talented writers and artists, are dedicated to making our little company the best New Pulp publisher on the market today.  If we are anywhere achieving that on a daily basis, in all honesty it is because of the never wavering support of all you wonderful Loyal Airmen. So from the bottom of our hearts, we say THANKS.  And let’s keep this family growing!!

Earlier this week Valerie and the Air Chief went to see the new movie The Revenant about the ordeal of Mountain Man Hugh Glass, who left for dead in the Rocky Mountain wilderness of Montana, after having been mauled by a grizzly bear, managed to walk over one hundred miles through frigid temperatures to return to civilization and survive. The film, beautiful film, captures both the majesty and the threat of the wilderness in all its glory.  Hell, people to this day, who go into those mountains unprepared, still lose their lives.  Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy give outstanding performances.  This is really one movie you need to see on the BIG screen.  No TV monitor will ever do it justice.

And finally, we want to end this week’s Flight Log with prayers for both entertainer David Bowie and actor Alan Rickman who passed away, each from cancer and each only 69 years of age. A truly sad week for British entertainers. We liked Bowie from what little we saw, but Rickman was a personal favorite and as a heavy he had no equals.  Half the fun of the Harry Potter’s movies was his portrayal of Prof. Severus Snape.  Rest in peace, kind souls, and thanks.

Ron Over & Out!

Greeting Loyal Airmen, and here we are with another Flight Log as the New Year rolls along.  The of the Air Chief’s favorite thriller series are the Special Agent Pendergast novels as written by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. We devour each new book as they are solidly what we consider new pulp and Special FBI agent Aloysius Pendergast a modern day Shadow.

So you can imagine both our surprise and delight when we recently discovered artist Tiffany Stafford had done a Pendergast coloring book called “The Bad Habit Coloring Book” with the authors’ permission. It contains pages featuring many of the recurring characters in the series, both good and bad. Now this phenomenon of a coloring books is a new fad that began a few years ago with psychologist suggesting the act of coloring as therapeutic for those people who lead highly stressful lives. They argue it is another form of creativity which allows the person, who may not have any drawing or painting skills, to relax and forego any tension brought about by work or other living situation to melt away as they spend quiet moments coloring images that they will personally enhance through the process. The Air Chief has fond memories of his mother, Gabrielle Fortier, teaching him how to color as a child and the many nights we spent together at the kitchen table working on various pictures of the Lone Ranger, Tarzan or other adventure coloring books that were our favorites at the time.

Well rest assured, the Air Chief has bought a copy of “The Bad Habit Coloring Book” (available for $10 at Amazon) and will soon be heading out to pick up a new box of Crayola Crayons.  Who says you can’t revisit once childhood? Not us.

And after weeks of waiting, the Air Chief finally received his own copy of the giant 776 page LEGENDS OF NEW PULP FICTION.  You’ll recall this was benefit book we put together and edited for fellow writer/editor Tommy Hancock of Pro Se Production. It features 62 brand new stories by some of the finest in new pulp fiction today, each illustrated by amazing artist and featuring a stunning painted cover Doug Klauba.  Book weighs in a 3.5 lbs.  Its a wonder the mailman didn’t get a hernia delivering it.  Book is available at Amazon in hard copy and on Kindle…and believe it or not, Radio Archives is producing an audio-version to be ready by New York voice actor Kevin Finch that will run 41 hours when finished.  Amazing.

We are now working on our first Airship 27 pulp book for 2016.  Fingers crossed we’ll have it out for you by this time next week. Till then, stay warm and enjoy the New Year.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, as we wrap up the year that was 2015, the one overriding thought on the Air Chief’s mind is what a traveling time we had. From the beginning we were hustling all over the country far and wide; starting with the local CSU comic show, then on to the Windy City Pulp & Paper show, the Louisville Kentucky Comic Con, Pulp Fest in Columbus, our first Fort Collins Comic Con, the trip back home to New Hampshire to see the Fall Foliage and then finally wrapping it all up with the Nov. stop in Akron for as yet another comic show (the Air Chief & Rob Davis above.) and through it all, we kept pumping out books and comics non-stop.  Trust me, it was a whirlwind year that just sped by and left us with tons of great new memories we will cherish forever.  Still, here’s hoping 2016 takes things a wee bit slower. Ha.

Well, we finally went to see the new Star Wars movie. If you still haven’t seen it, then you might want to skip the following as we are going to talk about various elements to clarify our thoughts. First of all, it was strange being in a full movie house again. The Air Chief and Valerie have gotten spoiled by attending senior matinees during the week when most people are working and kids are in school. So we love having the theater pretty much to ourselves. Still, there was some energy in having all these Star Wars fans surrounding us. One thing we’ve been saying all along was that the appeal of this film would attract not one or two generations, but actually three. The Air Chief clearly remembers taking his little ones to see the first ever Star Wars, then go back with them to see the release of the 3 prequel films and now then are bringing their children to this one. Now that’s staying power.

So, what did we think of this new entry? We liked it a great deal, but that’s because from the first opening strains of John Williams familiar music score theme, we had this instant feeling that we were about to revisit some old friends we’d met long ago in a galaxy far away and who doesn’t like to catch up with old friends…and along the way meet new ones as well. Which is what The Force Awakens does easily enough. And seeing Han Solo and Chewbaca back in action aboard the Millennium Falcon is a delight, no matter how you slice. The sad twist about his son being the new Dark Sith, Kylo Ren really much of a surprise but it certainly added dramatic weight to the story leading to the tragic death of Solo.  Powerful stuff.

Still, after leaving the theater we couldn’t help but wonder if in focusing so much of his effort in recapturing the “old” Star Wars, writer/director J.J. Abrams didn’t inadvertently make it inaccessible to non-Star Wars fan. Upon reflection, if you had never seen any of the other films, the Air Chief has to believe you’d be totally lost within a few minutes of this movie starting. It depends so much on what has gone before that there is no way it can stand on its own…by itself.  Oh well, for us devoted fans, it  was great reboot and we’ll be most anxious to see Episode VIII and the return of the Last Jedi, Luke Skywalker. Stay tuned, sci-fi fans.

And finally, the Air Chief is thrilled to announce our 18th and final title of the year, BASS REEVES – FRONTIER MARSHAL, four gun-blazing tales of western action based on the greatest lawman that ever lived, Bass Reeves. That’s a photo of him above. In his 30 yr career as a U.S. Deputy Marshal under Judge Parker in the Oklahoma territories, he brought in over 3,000 felons, was in 14 major shoot-outs and never wounded once. In our collection, writer Gary Phillips, Mel Odom, Andrew Salmon and Derrick Ferguson have offered up for fiction yarns inspired the man himself. Rob Davis provides great interior illustrations and Marco Turini did that amazing cover.  The book is now on sale at Amazon in both hard copy and on Kindle and eventually will become an audio book from Radio Archives. It’s one of those titles the Air Chief is very proud of.  And we think a grand way to close out the year that was.  As ever, thanks to all your Loyal Airmen for your continued loyalty and support. In the end we couldn’t any of this without you.

Happy New Year!!

Ron – Over & Out!

MERRY CHRISTMAS LOYAL AIRMEN!!  The Air Chief wishes all of you a truly super wonderful Christmas, hoping each and everyone of you is able to spend it with family and loved ones. That Santa has been able to surprise you with some fun gifts under the tree this morning.  And to all our brave service men and women in the military, whether protecting us at home or on foreign soil, God bless you and and thank you for your patriotic service. You will always be in our prayers.

And now it’s time for the Air Chief to offer all you Loyal Airmen a truly amazing gift. If you’ve been following us all year, you’ll recall that half-way through summer it was learned that our good friend, Tommy Hancock, writer/editor of Pro Se Productions was in ill-health. He’s since had corrective heart surgery and is doing much better but none of that lifted the burden of heavy hospital and other medical bills that started piling up on Tommy and his family. He’s got several kids and this last half of the year has been really rough on all of them. Well, again repeating what you probably already know, the Air Chief, Rob Davis and Associate Editors Jaime Ramos & Todd Jones decided to produce a giant benefit book and put out the call to the entire New Pulp Community. With a few days we had 62 writers signed on to write stories and we ultimately found 31 artists to help illustrate each and every single one of them. In the end we ended up with a book that counts in at 830 pages. Airship 27 Productions’ biggest title ever. And we were blessed to get super painter Doug Klauba to paint the cover for us.  (See above.) It is of a writer being inspired by a muse. Well, Loyal Airmen, we wrapped up the entire project a few days ago and LEGENDS OF NEW PULP FICTION is now on sale at Amazon in both hard copy and on Kindle. It sells for $25.99 – with every single penny of profit made on the book going straight to Tommy and his family. So, dear kind and generous Loyal Airmen, if you’d like to help out a struggling family and at the same time obtain what is by far the grandest treasure chest of New Pulp fiction eve assembled, then head on over to Amazon right now.  And THANK YOU.  Oh, and before you ask, yes, the Air Chief does have a brand new story in it; one featuring our Undead Avenger, Brother Bones.

And finally, happy holidays greetings from Valerie & the Air Chief. to all of you. It’s been a great year. See you back here in seven when we greet the new one.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, and as we draw closer to Christmas, the Air Chief is going to continue his own reminiscences of this marvelous holiday.

As a child growing up in the 1950s in southern New Hampshire, the winter world was pretty much a Currier & Ives affair.  Many are the nights the Air Chief and his brothers and neighborhood pals would spend sledding down a hill at the end of the street or some of the more nimble footed of us would go ice-skating at a nearby frozen pond. We were all bundled up in heavy winter clothing, gloves, scarves, woolen hats etc.etc. We’d stay out until after dark and then, cold and hungry run for home and the delicious French Canadian food that awaited us.

Our mother had learned to make gorton, a pork sandwich spread from her mother and this was very much a traditional French Canadian dish.  Spread on bread or toast cold, it was yummy with a hot cup of cocoa.

Whereas if you wanted this same pork mixture served hot, then French Canadian ladies filled it into pie shells and baked them to become the famous Pork Pies. Now a hot slice of one of these with a dollop of ketchup and a glass of milk was as near heaven as a frost-bitten youngster could ever get in those days. Alas, these foods bring back so many joyous memories to the Air Chief’s mind.  Mom is 91 now and her cooking days long…long behind her. And it is doubtful we’ll ever again taste a bite of gorton sandwich or piece of authentic pork pie. But whenever Christmas rolls around, so do these warming memories.

Last week we informed you that Moonstone Comics had begun promoting our new comic pulp series GUNS OF THE BLACK BAT.  Since then they have released the official covers for the book and the press release solicitation that will appear in this month’s Diamond Catalog. Here it is below. Note, this issue, which you have to order now, will be released in April 2016.

DIAMOND CATALOG SOLICITATION

GUNS OF THE BLACK BAT # 1
Story: Ron Fortier, Aaron Shaps
Art: Silvestre Szilagyi
Cover: Michael Stribling
32pgs, gray, 7” x 10”, $3.50
UPC: 685239899047

Dateline 1938. Hitler and the Nazis have begun their plans to conquer the world. In the states, the crimefighter known as the Black Bat encounters German spies exhibiting strange, unworldly powers. Have aliens infiltrated the Third Reich and is the threat to mankind greater than imagined? Hurriedly the Bat assembles a team of specialists to help him confront this unknown foe: Airboy, Domino Lady, Moon Man, Golden Amazon, and more! They will become known as The Guns of the Black Bat.
***RETAILER INCENTIVE: If you purchase 4 or more copies of Guns of the Black Bat #1, you will receive 1 FREE variant issue!

And there you have it for this week, Loyal Airmen. Before we sign off, we want to wish all of you and your loved ones a truly MERRY CHRISTMAS.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greeting Loyal Airmen, we hope you are surviving the holiday season. Seems like each new time we go shopping, even for groceries, there seem to be twice as many people crowding the stores. Oh, yeah, it certainly is that time of year.  Ha. Anyway, lately we’ve been devoting a great deal of talk to the marvelous new audio-book version of our Airship 27 Productions’ pulp books.  Last week, the Air Chief managed to spend a little each time each day listening to our own book, GHOST SQUAD – Rise of the Black Legion, co-written with Andrew Salmon, and honestly, it was truly fun experience.  Over seven hours long, the narration is by one J. Scott Bennett and he does a truly amazing job reading the book. In fact, so enthusiastic was he in his reading, there were lots of times when the Air Chief would get lost in listening to the action that we would momentarily forget we’d actually written the darn thing! That’s how much fun these books are.  We hope you’ll get them a try. Again, all those currently available can be found on the book’s Amazon.com page. Last week Radio Archives released the first Sherlock Holmes book from our catalog of Holmes titles and believe, Loyal Airmen, we can’t wait to give that one a listen.  Oh, yeah.

In keeping with our Advent theme which we began last week, we wanted to share with all you Loyal Airmen the Air Chief’s favorite Christmas story; Charles Dickens’ A CHRISTMAS CAROL.  We only read the actual story a few years ago having been introduced to the tale via many of its movie and TV adaptations. The story of Ebeneezer Scrooge, Bob Cratchet and Tiny Tim resonated with us upon first viewing. Elements are quite frightening, as it is very much a ghost story, but one with a message of redemption in its climax. That despite a life of bad choices, Scrooge is still granted the ultimate blessing, time enough to change his ways…for the better. Now if that hopeful message isn’t what Christmas is all about, then nothing is.

Of course, as mentioned about, there have been dozens of film versions of this tale. The most notable is the classic black and white movie with Alestair Sims (in the center above) and then there was the TV special with Patrick Steward and even our beloved Muppets did their own CHRISTMAS CAROL with Michael Caine wonderfully touching as Scrooge. And no, we haven’t forgotten George C. Scott’s take either. In fact it would be fair to claim, the Air Chief has enjoyed all but one of the adaptations we’ve seen over the years.  That one sour note, SCROOGE with Bill Murray. Don’t get us wrong, we do like Murray as a comedian, but this picture just doesn’t hold and carries no emotional weight at all. Whether it is because it takes place in modern times (a really bad decision on the filmmakers part) or that Murray just can’t help mugging the role…it is a mess and after only one viewing, we do our best to avoid it at all cost. Whereas the recent animated version starring Jim Carey in the major roles won us over completely and we hope to added to our Blu-Ray collection some day.

And lastly for this week some major news concerning one of the two new pulp comics the Air Chief has been writing for Moonstone Comics.  GUNS OF THE BLACK BAT #1 will be solicited in the pages of the next Diamond Catalog, and above is the first official promo picture from that announcement. This art was done by Michael Stribling, who did all our covers, while the interior pages are by the amazing Silvestre Szilagyi. We cannot tell you how much fun the Air Chief has had working on this series and how beautiful the pages are. So if you are a comic collector and get the Diamond catalog, do keep your eyes peeled for that solicitation.  We’re counting on your support, Loyal Airmen, to make this a winner.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen. This week we kick of our Flight Log with the great news that the good folks at Radio Archives have just released a brand new audi-version of our first Captain Hazzard adventure, “Python Men of the Lost City.’ It’s read by theater actor Joshua Nicholson and is available from Amazon at this link.  (http://www.amazon.com/Captain-Hazzard-Python-Lost-City/dp/B018IUJMXY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1448916742&sr=8-1&keywords=Captain+Hazzard-Python+Men+of+the+Lost+City+audio)   We’ve been listening to it all week and it is superbly done. We hope you’ll give these Airship 27 audiobooks a try, we really think you’ll enjoy them.

As we have officially entered into the Christmas season, the Air Chief thought it would be fun to share with all you Loyal Airmen some of our thoughts and memories of this wonderful time of the year; keeping in mind Christmas is a Christian holiday instituted by our ancestors who rightly identified the United States of America as a predominately Christian nation…and it remains so. It is a time when Christians around the world, not only here in America, but everywhere celebrate the birth of Jesus, the Son of God, sent down to live amongst us and thus become our savior and prophesied in the Old Testament.  Jesus would become man, live and then die on the cross to save the world from sin and reopen the gates of Heaven. It is a marvelous, miraculous time when we marvel at the amazing loving Our Creator has for us.

Of course the season is filled with all manner of traditions and festivities to include joyous songs and music.  All of us have our particular favorites. The Air Chief has two. One of these being Little Drummer Boy which tells, in song, how a shepherd boy was with the first group to visit the stables in which Jesus was born and pay him homage. But fearful that he had no gifts of worth to give the babe, he offered him his talent to play his drum. And therein lies the message of wonder and hope. Our Loving God doesn’t demand gold or any such wealth from any of us.  In fact he doesn’t demand anything tangible that this world prizes but rather he ask our love and that we, in this life, be the best we can be as his creation; that we devote our hearts, as he did to the service of others through the use of our own unique skills and talents. The little drummer boy played his drum for others via Jesus.  Whereas the Air Chief prays daily that his love for his family and friends is truly expressed through all the words he writers, offering the gift of writing back to Our Lord as our personal devotion to Him who made us all.  So, what is your special talent?  And how do you use it? Hopefully for betterment of all those you love in this world.

On the comic front, the Air Chief is currently working with talented artist Barry McClain in doing a short 9 pager called DEATH DERBY. It’s an over the top manga style racing mayhem strip and features two tough-as-nails female racers, Black Betty and Kathy Kadaver as seen above. Recently inker Arrick Church joined our team and embellished Barry’s wonderful pin-up pencils. When completed the strip will appear in a future issue of RON FORTIER’S TALES OF THE MACABRE.  Stay tuned, Loyal Airmen.

And finally, after having recording ten episodes of  our AIRSHIP 27 PODCAST, we are proud to announce that we’ve become part of the Comics Podcast Network and you can now find all our episodes at their website. (http://comicspodcasts.com/category/comic-podcasts/zone-4-podcast/airship-27-podcast/) Plus those of dozens of other great comics related podcasts shows.  As ever, we thank you for listening in and Rob and the Air Chief are hoping to get in one more episode before year’s end.

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

Ron – Over & Out!!