Airship27

HOLIDAYS & HOUDINI

  • On 27 Nov | '2015

Firework streaks in night sky, celebration background

Greetings Loyal Airmen, we truly hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving and were able to share it with friends, family and loved ones. And that you took a little time during your day to give thanks to all our brave men and women far from home on these holidays protect our country and our cherished freedom.  By now some of you must be wondering why the Air Chief chose that celebration image above to kick off this week’s Flight Log. Well, earlier in the week we were given some truly awesome news. As many of you will recall, this past year we had to miss attending the Rocky Mountain Con due to a scheduling conflict.  RMC is our Home Con, and in its third year…and we truly hated not being there with all our fellow Colorado comics pals. To that end, we asked con promoter, Tim Moret, to give us an early heads up on the date of the show for 2016 and he did just that.  The 2016 Rocky Mountain Con will be held on the 5th & 6th of Nov.  Upon seeing that, we shouted out, “Wahooo!” Why? Well because Nov 5ht is out birthday and on that day next year the Air Chief will turn 70! And honestly, we can’t think of a better place to celebrate that momentous day then at RMC with all our comic amigos.  Wahooo…indeed!

Air-119

Finally, after almost a year and a half in production, we are thrilled to announce the release of our newest Airship 27 Productions pulp anthology, “The Amazing Harry Houdini.” This awesome books starts perhaps the most famous magician-escape artist of all time in four fictional adventures set against the backdrop of his world tour that took place in 1924. The first two stories are set in London and written by Jim Beard and James Palmer, the third has Houdini in Paris by I.A. Watson and finally writer Roman Leary puts him on the Nord Express bound for Berlin. The cover art is by Carl Yonder with beautiful interior illustrations by Pedro Cruz. To say we are proud as punch about this book would be a gross understatement. As ever it is now available at Amazon.com in both hard copy and on Kinle….and eventually some time next year as yet another of our Airship 27 Audio titles. Now let’s see you Loyal Airmen escape from that much fun and adventure.

IMG_1504

So look what came in the mail a few days ago!  Our copies of Airship 27 presents = ALL STAR PULP COMICS # 3.  The Air Chief has some good reading ahead.

And there you have it, Loyal Airmen, the start of the holiday season is upon us. Stay warm, be nice to people, especially store clerks. Never hurts to be polite and gracious to others. You’d be surprised at the dividends a smile can bring.

Ron – Over & Out!

UP ON THE WALL

  • On 20 Nov | '2015

Greetings Loyal Airmen, this week we want to show off the latest artwork adorning the Air Chief’s office.

Img_1487Img_1489

IMG_1491

As you’ll recall, super artist and pal, Douglas Klauba sold me the painting he did for my book NIGHTHAWK, which Moonstone Books published earlier this year. Well Valerie had it matted and framed at a local Hobby Lobby for my recent birthday and we picked it up this afternoon.  So there it now rest, on the wall to the left of my writing desk, kitty-corner with my gorgeous painting of BROTHER BONES by Tom Floyd.  Oh, yeah, now that’s how you dress up a pulp editor’s wall.

badlands1

One of the hallmarks of pulp fiction was their mashing together various genres. Such is the case with a new television series that premiered last Sunday night. It’s called Into the Badlands and stars one Daniel Wu.  It’s part sci-fi, western & martial arts all done with a real flourish. The action sequences in the first episode were really great and the background setting fun. The Air Chief is hooked and looking forward to see how things unfold in its premier season.

GGCOVERAUDIBLeE

Our sixth Airship 27 title to be done as an audio book is GEORGE CHANCE – THE GREEN GHOST Vol One…as read by Roger Price.  You can find this one and the other five by simply going to their Amazon page where you’ll find the link to the audio versions. The Air Chief has listened to several of these and the folks at Radio Archives are doing a great job with them.  Also, to that end, we’ve begun a new Facebook page called Pulp Radio where, from now on, we’ll be posting news of all the New Pulp outfits and their audio book releases while at the same time letting you Loyal Airmen know where and the when the next pulp-related podcasts will be aired. At present Rob Davis and the Air Chief are getting reading to record episode # 10 of the Airship 27 Podcast and it should be up on-line some time next week.

The_First_Thanksgiving_cph.3g04961

And finally, we want to wish all you Loyal Airmen, and your loved ones, a truly wonderful Thanksgiving.  Amidst the start of the holiday season, we hope you’ll forgo the ridiculous shopping frenzy that is Black Friday and instead focus on joining friends and family in coming together to give humble thanks for all the blessings you possess; regardless of your personal faith, we can all look about us and be truly grateful for the people in our lives.  Appreciate these blessings while you can and tell the special people in your lives how much they mean to you…while you still can.

Ron – Over & Out!

AKRON ROCKED!!

  • On 13 Nov | '2015

RobSolo

Greetings Loyal Airmen, well we have some photos to share with you this week from our awesome trip to the Akron Comic Con last weekend. It was a great show and our hat goes off to Michael Savene and his fine staff who put on one hell of a great show. Above is our Art Director Rob Davis having just set up our tables on Sat. morning before the crowds arrived.

ConTwo

Speaking of which there must have been close to 5,000 people who filled that hall over the weekend. Above is a shot, you can just see the Air Chief at the bottom left hand corner. People were friendly and very excited about New Pulp and our titles.

Ron& Rob

And here’s the Air Chief and Rob up close. Though Rob apologizes for this cranky look, he hadn’t had his second cup of coffee yet.  Ha.

Jim&John

Right across the isle from us were writer Jim Beard and editor John Bruening by the main entrance…waving frantically here. Sorry if the pix is a little blurry, was the first time the Air Chief got to use his new Smartphone as a camera.

Rob&Paul

And finally here’s a nice pix of writer Paul Storrie and Rob.  Paul and Rob produced the graphic novel ROBYN OF SHERWOOD many years ago and only just re-released it in graphic novel form last year via Rob’s Redbud Studio. You can snag a copy up at Amazon. It’s really a great comic.  And there you have our pix of the Akron Comic Con.  What a way to end a great year of cons!

IMG_20151111_070340

On the weather front, Winter has officially arrived in our home town. This is a pix I snapped looking down from my office window at the driveway and our vehicles under a few inches of just fallen snow. Thing is by midday the temperature had risen to 60 degrees and most of it was all melted away.  Which pretty much explains why we love living here in Fort Collins, CO.

Air-118

And wrapping up this week’s Flight Log, the Air Chief is happy to announce the release of our latest pulp title from Airship 27 Productions.  SECRET AGENT X Vol 5 features four new adventures of the Man of a Thousand Face; Frank Schildiner, Andy Fix, Frad Adams Jr. and J. Walt Layne. It features a stark cover by Ingrid Hardy which is our homage to those garish Men’s Adventure Mags of the 1950s and twelve black and white interior illustrations by Rob. The book will be available this weekend on Amazon in hard copy, on Kindle and ultimately as an audio book.  Secret Agent X has always been one of our favorite classic pulp heroes and we’d like to think our Loyal Airmen think so as well. Thanks as ever for your continued support.

And that’s it for another week.  Take care and we’ll see you all here next Friday.

Ron – Over & Out!

ON TURNING 69

  • On 5 Nov | '2015

Greetings Loyal Airmen, as most of you are reading this Flight Log, the Air Chief is flying off to Akron Ohio to be a guest, along with Rob Davis, at the the Akron Comic Con which runs Sat and Sun this weekend. We invited to be guest by Michael Savane, one of the show’s founders and tomorrow, at 11 a.m. we’ll be offering a one hour panel presentation on how comics evolved from pulps and now have brought up the evolution of New Pulp. Joining us on this panel will be our writing pal, Jim Beard. Looks to be a fun time and show.

MB.Nighthawk.FAlre

Now yesterday was the Air Chief’s 69th birthday, and one of the most beautiful gifts we received was the original Doug Klauba painting of my character Nighthawk the Flying Spy which was the cover to my Moonstone Book released earlier in the year. Knowing how much we loved that gorgeous painting, Valerie bought it from Doug and is going to have it framed and put on a wall in our office. Doug sent the painting along last week and other day we went to the local Hobby Lobby here in Fort Collins to have it matted and framed.  You should have seen the eyes of the young clerk double in size when we revealed the painting. Within minutes one of his co-workers, another framer, came out of the back room to see what all the oohing and ahhing was about.  Both of them were blown away by how beautiful the piece was. During our discussion with the young man, his name was Justin, he was showing us varies colored mat pieces, frame colors etc. all of us trying to match what would good perfect with the painting’s palette. Somewhere in this back and forth, Justin inquired as to what the book itself was all about and the Air Chief began to tell him about the plot, the character and ultimately New Pulp in general. We could see this young man was intrigued beyond mere curiosity and he eventually told us he was a writer and tabled in short horror fiction. At which point we gave him our Airship 27 business card and urged him to contact us later on. It looks like our trip to Hobby Lobby may have unearthed as yet another New Pulp creator.  We’ll keep you posted. And once the painting is framed and on our wall, the Air Chief will snap a few pix and posted them right here, Loyal Airmen.

Dad

We have so few pictures of father, George Joseph Fortier.  Wish we had more, but we do love this one, which was taken only weeks before his passing.  Dad was in the Army in World War II and served in the South Pacific where he came down with malaria…which nearly killed him. Upon his return stateside, he married Mom and proceeded to have a family of three boys and one girl. Our memories of him are all good ones and he was a kind, generous soul with a heart as big as the world. Sadly the malaria he endured would have lasting negative effects on health throughout the years and he would always tease us that he would never live to reach 60 and collect Social Security. And was right, as he passed away of pancreatic cancer at the young age of 59. We miss him every day and he is always in our thoughts. Thus you can imagine how we looked at reaching that particular age with a slight degree of trepidation. And now, this week, we’ve actually added another decade to our own history. We’ve often wondered what experiences we might have been able to share with Dad had he gotten ten extra years. In looking back on the past decade, the Air Chief is filled with wonder and gratitude. Not only did we and Valerie get to retire, move to Colorado and enjoy watching all six of our grand kid grow up, our personal career reached unbelievable new heights of satisfaction with the creation of Airship 27 Productions and the graces of all the people we’ve come to know and befriend in those ten years has been nothing but a blessing to our lives.

69 years old.  Wowser.  Of course being people of faith, we often think what it will be like some day to be reunited with all our loved ones in heaven.  And that’s what make us chuckle, you see, our Dad is actually going to be younger than us.  Now there’s food for thought.

AllStarPulp3CoCVR

And finally, what the Air Chief considers his own personal birthday gift, Rob Davis finally, after days of dealing with the folks at Amazon, finally manage to upload the third issue of  AIRSHIP 27 presents ALL-STAR COMICS.  Cover above is by Rob with colors by Warren Montgomery.  We think its our best issue yet and here’s the line up of pulp comic strips you’ll find inside.

“Sinbad and the Isle of Stone”
Scott “Doc” Vaughn

The Black Bat in “Blind Justice”
Ron Fortier & Eric Johns

The Purple Scar in “Breaking Point”
Percival Constantine & Carl Yonder

Lance Star Sky Ranger in “Gods of the Molten Sea”
Bobby Nash & Rock Baker & Jeff Austin

Mars McCoy Space Ranger in “Crazy Horse”
Mike Baron (with Ron Fortier) & Eric Hurley & Warren Montgomery

The Crimson Mask in “Killing Rain”
Aaron Smith & David Nehaus

The Moon Man in “Dance of the Black Flamingo”
Michael Leonard & James Lyle & Greg Keyzer

You can order a copy here:

Available at Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0692569537)

We think you will love this issue.  As ever thanks for your support and for stopping by. Till next week, take care and be good.

Ron – Over & Out!

MARCHING BAND WIN

  • On 30 Oct | '2015

Greetings Loyal Airmen, as most of you know Valerie and the Air Chief spent two fun weeks back in New England earlier this month visiting with family. Our first week was spent in Bethel, Conn with our son Scott and his family, wife Katie and children Taryn and Logan.

12039641_10153649410922243_1837634386690762160_n

Taryn started high school this year and joined the school marching band. While there we had the fun of watching her march.  Once at a public event and another during an actual band competition. Taryn plays the trumpet. Well last Friday her band was in another such competition and they won several awards including First Place.  Above is a great pix of Taryn holding the trophy.  We couldn’t be more proud of her.

Air-117

After a slow up this year, the Air Chief is happy to report that Airship 27 Productions is once again putting out new titles at a steady pace.  Last week we announced the released of our newest Sherlock Holmes title. This week we are happy to tell you about BLACK BAT MYSTERY Volume 3. It features four new stories of this classic pulp hero from Greg Hatcher, Gene Moyers, Gordon Dymowsky and Erik Franklin. It has 12 interior illustrations and a fantastic cover by Graham Hill (above). As ever the book is on sale at Amazon in both hard copy and on Kindle…and eventually there will be an audio version. As ever, we thank you so much for your continued support.

61SxT8v-S7L._AA300_GhostSquadCVRAudible

Meanwhile Radio Archives continues to turn our titles into excellent audio books. The latest two now available from (www.audible.com) are Black Bat Mystery Vol 2 and The Ghost Squad – Rise of the Black Legion. Both are tons of fun to download and listen to on your PC or portable devices.

10993954_847546951953595_1497339154007802232_n

And lastly, the 9th episode of our AIRSHIP 27 PODCAST went up this past week. If you haven’t listened in yet here’s the link.  Once again Rob and the Air Chief talk about what we’ve just released, what’s coming down the road and where we are heading in the next few weeks.  A solid hour of New Pulp goodies for all you Loyal Airmen. (http://www.zone4podcast.com/airship-27-podcast-9-secrets-of-the-dead/) And do keep in mind, if you have any questions at all you’d like us to answer on the show, send them along. We do love feedback from all you Loyal Airmen.

And that wraps up this Halloween edition of the Flight Log.  Have a great Halloween and be safe out there Trick or Treating.  We want you all back here next week.

Ron – Over & Out!

ANOTHER SHERLOCK NOVEL

  • On 23 Oct | '2015

Greetings Loyal Airmen, with Fall in full autumn regalia, we’ve got the Hangar 27 all decorated for one of favorite times of the year, Halloween.  Time whip up new costumes, read a little Edgar Alan Poe and stock up on tons of candy for those little spooks and goblins who’ll come Trick or Treating.   Fun times for sure.

Air-116

And keeping up with the horror theme, it’s with a giant smile on our face that we announce the release of our latest Airship 27 title, SHERLOCK HOLMES – Secrets of the Dead by writer Jack Beddows. This is an incredible, full length starring the great detective and his ever present loyal ally, Dr. Watson, as they unravel a deep, dark mystery which takes them to the notorious London cemetary/rail station known as the Necropolis. Believe me Loyal Airmen, once the Air Chief started reading this, he could not put it down. The book features a gorgeous cover by artist Adam Shaw and has nine black and white interior illustrations by our own Rob Davis. It is available now from Amazon in both hard copy and on Kindle. A perfect reading experience for the season.

IMG_1423

The Air Chief has always had a fascination with aviation in all its forms and one of the most fun days while on our recent vacation back east was visiting with our sister-in-law Sandy and her husband, Andy Fagan. Andy is into model airplane flying and took us along one morning to a nearby field where he and the members of his model plane club gather.  That’s him and the Air Chief above as he prepares one of his two planes. This one being a traditional prop model.

IMG_1424

Up next was his red and white jet plane. Watching this beauty cut through the air was a real hoot.

IMG_1427

Here is she about to take-off.  Both models were radio-controlled by a hand-held controller and it takes a really deft hand to handle these amazing models once they are airborn. We cannot thank Andy enough for allowing us to spend those great few hours with him and his pals. Truly wonderful memories we’ll cherish over the winter months when the cold sets in and snow covers the ground. Oh yeah.

As ever thanks for stopping by and we’ll see you all back here next week.

Ron – Over & Out!

TRIP BACK EAST

  • On 16 Oct | '2015

IMG_1395

Greetings Loyal Airmen, here we are back at Hangar 27 after two glorious weeks back in New England. Valerie and the Air Chief had a great time visiting with family and friends. And we took lots of pictures to share with all of you. Like the one above of a giant lobster sculpture on the back of a flatbed truck we passed on the highway. Obviously going to be set as an advertising piece from a seafood restaurant.  And yes, Loyal Airmen, we did have some great seafood meals while there…to include fresh Maine lobster. Yummy.

IMG_20151001_144228_2CS

We started our vacation in Bethel, Conn visiting with son Scott, his wife Katie and our two awesome grandkids, Taryn and Logan. Here’s a great shot of 14 yr old Taryn who is now a freshmen in high school. She belongs to the school’s marching band and Valerie and the Air Chief actually got to see them performance twice. She’s becoming a beautiful young woman and so talented.

IMG_20151003_144331

And not to be outdone by the girls in the family, here’s a fun shot of son Scott, grandson Logan (9) and the Air Chief. The three amigos. Logan’s in Cub Scouts and he and his dad enjoy their time together. Scott is really a great father we are so proud of him. Our week with them went by all too fast.

IMG_1407

Soon as we got into southern New Hampshire, we realized we had gotten into peek foliage season and snapped dozens of great photos showing Mother Nature’s autumn quilt.

IMG_1398IMG_1405

The colors were simply breathtaking.  We also made a point to head out to the coast. As living in Colorado, we do miss seeing the beaches and the mighty Atlantic.

Img_1394IMG_20151007_103632

Above is a shot of the Nubble Lighthouse on York Beach, Maine, the place where Valerie and the Air Chief had their very first date. Great shot of her there, it was such a beautiful, glorious day.

IMG_1409

Of course one of our major reasons for our trip was to see Mom, Gabrielle Fortier, who will be turning 91 on Nov 1st. She is doing great and that’s us together in her room with one of her many beautiful paintings on the wall behind us. We saw her every single day that second week in New Hampshire.

IMG_1451

On our last night there, we hooked up with some of Valerie’s family and went out to dinner together. Our friendly waitress was kind enough to snap this group shot. Left to right, the Air Chief, Andy Fagan and his wife Sandy (Valerie’s younger sister) Gus Pappajohn and his wife Barbara (Valerie’s older sister) and of course Val. A wild and crazy bunch. We had a great time seeing them all again. Of course we visited with our daughter Michelle and her husband Chris and saw our dear friend Linda and Justin. All in all a truly awesome trip.  We miss them already.

Ron – Over and Out!

 

PREMIUMS

  • On 9 Oct | '2015

Greetings Loyal Airmen, and welcome back to our second October Flight Log. We thought it might be fun to talk about give-away premiums this week. A few years ago, while planning our convention trips, the Air Chief and Art Director Rob Davis got to talking about what kind of Airship 27 branded premiums we could produce economically and offer as give-aways at these shows.

PatchFlyerPatch

The first one we came up with was our Airship 27 Productions cloth patch. Rob even whipped up a gorgeous flier to advertise them. We had 100 done up and over a two year period either sold them or gave them all away.  The idea of any premium is to work as an incentive to the customer at the same time be something to help advertise the company. For the patch, if any of our Loyal Airmen bought two or more of our titles at a convention, they would get a “free” patch.  Should they simply wish to buy one, we sold them for $3 each.  Needless to say they were a big hit among all our Loyal Airmen.

CUPS

Last year we thought it was time to try doing coffee cups.  Unlike the patches, we could only sell these, so we conservatively had 5 made up. We sold the first four at the Windy City Pulp & Paper show and the last one went at PulpFest. It would be nice to do these again some day. But high priced items are always a tricky sell.

Dice3

So what about next year, 2016?  Well, keeping in mind that Scaldcrow Games will be releasing their rpg module “Ron Fortier’s Cape Noire” game based on our Brother Bones series of pulp books, we started thinking it might be nice to do up some custom dice. Rob found a company on-line and began working with them to create the perfect set.  Eventually they came up with two designs.  One die would feature the Undead Avenger himself, Brother Bones and the other our dirigible log. See above. The middle die was that with the logo and sadly, the process of shrinking it down to fit the die made the lettering on the bottom banner undecipherable. After some back and forth, the production agent suggested the third image, that with our company name wrapped around the bottom of the logo. That works and so that will be the second piece to accompany the Brother Bones die.  Like the patches, these are cheap enough where we will either sell them for $3 a set, or give a set away for free to anyone who buys two or more of our titles.  We think they will make a very cool premium and hope please our Loyal Airmen.

These kind of things are fun to whip up and the Air Chief hopes all you Loyal Airmen appreciate them. We are always open to new ideas for such, so feel free to let us know. As the patches are all gone, we’re looking at new a brand new one for 2017.  What do you think?

Ron – Over & Out!

WINNING WHEN YOU LOSE

  • On 2 Oct | '2015

Greeting Loyal Airmen, with the regular baseball season coming to an end and the start of the play-offs just around the corner, we thought we’d look back on this season and the up and down struggles of our beloved Red Sox. If you aren’t into sports, feel free to skip this week’s entry and we’ll see you back here next week.

XanderBogaertsBoston Red Sox v Seattle Mariners

XANDER BOAGEARTS                      &           BROCK HOLT

After last year’s disastrous season, it was general accepted it was the Sox lack of hitting that doomed them thus over the winter months between 2014 and 2015, management set about bringing in more sluggers and thus picked up Hanley Ramirez and Pedro Sandoval to join Mike Napoli and Shane Victorino in backing up its regulars ala David Ortiz, Dustin Pedroia.  What was obvious from the start was the fact that no real focus was put on going after super Ace Pitchers.  It became a regular debate in Spring Training. Could the Sox bat their way to victory with a mediocre pitching squad.

mookie-bettsRusneyCastillo

MOOKIE BETTS                                 &        RUSNEY COSTILLO

When April came along, the mixture of old players with new was almost 50/50.  Xander Bogaerts returned to play short-stop with the hopes that this season his hitting would improve. Brock Holt returned as a super utility player who could play most of the outfield and infield positions. In fact the only two positions he didn’t play that first half was pitching and catching. He would ultimately get picked to play in the All Star Game.  Mookie Betts, the speedy outfielder also returned along with Rusney Castillo and Jackie Bradley, Jr. Unfortunately Jackie was in a hitting slump and sent back down to Triple A soon.  Of course as all of us know, the season start was an abject failure, as the pitchers just weren’t up to winning games and all too soon the Sox were dropping to the bottom of the AL East.  Then they lost Pedroia to the Disabled List and their primary catcher, Vasquez for the entire season.

BlakeSwihartjackie-bradleyJr

BLAKE SWIHART                             &          JACKIE BRADLEY JR.

Blake Swihart was brought up from Trip A to be the new catcher and he delivered. Not only could he play in the big leagues, but his hitting was great. By the All Star Break Victorino was let go and Napoli soon followed and Ramirez, a total failure in left field was injured and sidelined.  So Bradley Jr. was brought back from Triple A and he was a totally different player.  Now the outfield was guarded by three of the finest young players in baseball, Rusney Castillo in left, Jackie in center and Mookie in right and just like that the outfield was one of the finest in all of baseball.

TravisShaw

TRAVIS SHAW

And with Napoli gone from first base, as yet another rookie was brought up. This time it was power hitter Travis Shaw who would be put in the line up after Ortiz and there deliver constantly.  When Pablo Sandoval came down with pneumonia, Brock Holt was set there thus giving us an infield of Hold, Boagearts, Pedroia (back from the DL) and Shaw.  Again, top notch, super talented young players.  And somehow the enthusiasm these seven rookies brought to the team was infectious as the lackluster pitching also started turning around with both Porcello and Miley at long last finding their groove.

Thus for the second half, we Red Sox watched a team with absolutely no hopes of making the play-offs go out night after night with nothing to lose…play their hearts out.  And guess what, they started winning…against the top tier teams.  Night after night putting such amazing displays of hitting and jaw-dropping defensive catches to make us once again cheer and smile.  Yup, the losing first half of this 2015 season was certainly brutal, but its end result, with these Magnificent Seven rookies has been so much fun to watch.  We only pray Red Sox management is paying attention and will hold on to this roster for next season, while being smart enough to go out and find some Ace pitchers to deliver solid outings.  If they can do that, then, if only by sheer whimsy, they’ll have taken victory out of defeat.  GO SOX!!

Ron – Over & Out!

NEW TV SERIES

  • On 25 Sep | '2015

Greetings Loyal Airmen, we’re coming to you a wee bit late today, but still making our Friday morning posting.  This week we thought we’d share a few reactions we’ve had to the new shows that started up on the various TV networks this past week.

minority_report___tv_series_folder_icon_v2_by_dyiddo-d96no6a

First up is Minority Report, one of two sci-fi series that actually spun off major movie features.  The movie, “Minority Report,” starred Tom Cruise, was directed by Steven Spielberg and was based on a book by the late Philip K. Dick. This series picks up about five years after the events of that show.  It takes place in Washington D.C. of the future and deals with a lady copy teaming with a fellow who has the psychic abilities to see crimes before they happen.  Again, if you liked the movie, as the Air Chief did, you might want to catch this one.  If not, then take a pass.

blindspot-poster

Up next we had the highly anticipated Blindspot.  Anticipated because it stars the beautiful Jamie Alexander, who some of your Loyal Airmen will immediately recognize as Lady Sif from the three Thor movies Marvel Studio put. In this one she plays an amnesiac who is found naked in a bag in the middle of Times Square New York. She has absolutely no memory of who she is or how she got there, BUT…her entire body is covered with recently added tattoos…one of which is the name of a particular FBI agent.  He is called on to the case and before the first hour is over, one of the mystery woman’s tattoos has been instrumental in help to foil a terrorist attack. Now this is a twisty style mystery show and we did enjoy the first episode. We only hope the writers are playing fair with as and have an actual solution to everything.  Oh, and fans of the Cinemax series Strike Back will be happy to note that one of the two male action heroes of that old series is playing the FBI agent.  Forget his name.  He’s the fellow who starred in the recent 300 RISE OF AN EMPIRE.

295743-2

Next up we have the second of our sci-fi entries and also another movie spin-off, Limitless.  In the feature film, Bradley Cooper played a down and out writer who is given a miraculous pill that allows him to use 100% of his brain capacity, thus making him an instant genius. The pitfall was the drug had disastrous effects in aging people rapidly to the point of eventual death. By the movie’s end, Cooper had funded a lab, came up with a counter drug that, when taken once a year, nullified the bad effects of the genius-pill and he is the new state senator of New York.  The TV show picks up about a year later and with another down and out fellow, this time a would be rock musician. When, through a series of events, he ends up with the same pill, he immediately uses it to save his father’s life, the gentlemen being sick from a rare malady the doctor’s can’t diagnose properly.  Oh, and he also gets wrapped up in a murder investigation and helps the FBI solve the crime. At the end, Bradley Cooper makes a rare TV guest appearance as the senator, now with ambitions to be president some day. He tells the young man about the antidote making him swear to never reveal its existence, thus he can continue to take the pill and help the FBI with his new found brain power.  A lot of fun, with charismatic actors in the various roles and the series will attempt to do what the movie never did, find out where the genius-pill came from in the first place.

1200.2x1

Of course as much as the Air Chief loves sci-fi action tales, we also like to laugh and in this case that included the brand new Muppets show. Rather than repeat the old set up where everything revolved around their actual variety show, in this one they do a rift on reality shows in that Miss Piggy has gotten her on late night talk show, and Kermit is the show’s producer.  Problem is the two have broken of their romantic relationship and that traps all the familiar characters in the middle of that awkward day to day tension.  Honestly, we loved this show and it had us in tears. The scene with Fozzy Bear, in love with a real young lady, has dinner with her parents and the father brings up the question of what would have if they had children, was hilarious. Major thumbs up for the new Muppets.

the-player-nbc-051115

And finally, remember that actor from Strike Back we mentioned being in Blindspot, well his partner from the Cinamax series also debut his own new project this week. The Player is a fast paced action series set in Los Vegas and proposes that the world’s richest people, being bored with all their wealth, have established a game wherein they bet on crime; that is crime that is about to happen.  In the set up Alex Kane, a former secret agent with a dark past, is recruited to be the Player whose job it is to foil these would be crimes.  His support team is a lovely young tech expert who represents the dealer, where as Wesley Snipe, in his first regular TV series, plays the House representative muscle, the Pit Boss.  Thus the rich folks either bet on Alex foiling the crime, on on the criminals succeeding. If you catch this opening episode you’ll see how Alex is pressured into becoming the Player. There is a mystery involving the murder of his wife that is at the core of his manipulation and will obviously be revealed as the series progresses from week to week. Again, an intriguing set-up and lots of cool action.  We’re going to give it a go.

And of course we had old favorites come back as well, in particular Castle and the Big Bang Theory.  Next week our favorite comicbook series return in Arrow and the Flash and we are eagerly awaiting the premier of the new Supergirl.   As for Gotham, we’ve dropped it.  Having stuck out its premier season, we decided it is really nothing we could get excited about.  Here’s hoping you’ve found some new favorites as well.

Ron – Over & Out!