Greeting Loyal Airmen, we’re very excited that tomorrow is once again Free Comic Book Day across the country.  This is a promotional event created by the major comic book publishers in this country to help promote their products and support comic book shops across the land.  Since moving out here to Fort Collins, CO, the Air Chief has been a participant of every FCBD event at Gryphons Games & Comics, our local comic shop.  Last year the shop was visited by over a thousand people.  Its most successful event ever.  We can only imagine this Saturday’s will be as equally impressive.  The Air Chief will have his table filled with lots of his comic and pulp titles. We’re truly anxious to see many of our old comic friends again and have a great day.

As most of you know, Valerie & Air Chief love movies.  Earlier this week we saw the new sci-fi thriller EX MACHINA.  Unlike the usual action filled blockbusters about to flood the theaters in the next few weeks, this is a slow-moving, thought provoking cautionary tale about a scientist creating a robot with artificial intelligence.  The simple nickname these days is A.I.  It is a suspenseful thriller that builds slowly and forces the viewer to examine his or her own thoughts about the consequences should we, mankind, ever succeed in creating such a thinking, self-aware machine.  It’s really a scare thought.   On a different note, what was also particularly unsettling was that the young lady playing Ava, the robot, (who was excellent in the role by the way) reminded both of us a great deal of our oldest granddaughter, Kristi, now studying for Masters Degree.  There is a strong resemblance between the two of them.  Maybe we can get Kristi to go see the film and get her reactions.

On other fronts, we showed off the release of the Moonstone Books pulp anthology, DAY OF THE DESTROYERS while in Chicago. Well the Air Chief’s copies arrived in the mail the other day and we are really thrilled to have them. This was a great project to work and it features some of the best new pulp writers in the game today. Remember, you can get copy from Amazon and other well known booksellers.

Over the past half-year the Air Chief has been very busy writing lots of pulp projects for Moonstone Books, both prose and comics.  One of the comics, GUNS OF THE BLACK BAT, is a team book wherein the Black Bat recruits well-known pulp heroes to help him battle the forces of evil.  The artist on the series is the amazing Silvestre Szilagyi who is decidedly one of the finest artist the Air Chief has ever had the good fortune to work with.  Every time he turns in a page, we are simply amazed.  Recently Silvestre did up some sketches of Jim Anthony – Super Detective as this character appears in a recent issue of this title and we thought all you Loyal Airmen would love seeing these great sketches.  As for the comic itself, Moonstone is hoping to have the first issue out sometime in the Fall.  Stay tune, as we’ll keep you posted.

And there you have another Flight Log, Loyal Airmen. Thanks for stopping by and we’ll see you back here again next week.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, we’ve just flown back to Hangar 27 after a fantastic weekend in Chicago at the Windy City Pulp & Paper Con and we had so much fun.  Lots to talk about and show off for you, so hang in there.

As many of you know, Valerie and the Air Chief have five wonderful children, the youngest being our daughter Heather who now lives in Chicago.  So this year, after the show, she and a friend drove up to the con so hook up with her Old Dad.  We all went out to dinner and had a great visit.  This shot was taken coming out of the restaurant.  It really is sad that our little ones have to grow up and then move all over the country making these hook-ups all the more precious. Love you, Heather..and miss you already.

2015 PULP FACTORY AWARDS

On Friday night, April 17th, at this year’s Windy City Pulp & Paper Convention, the sixth annual Pulp Factory Awards were presented. These awards spotlight the best in new pulp fiction and artwork from the previous year. The award trophies were presented by the Yahoo Pulp Factory Group Moderator, Ron Fortier and Rob Davis, Art Director for Airship 27 Productions.  The Best Pulp Novel went to Van Allen Plexico for his space opera, “Legion III : Kings of Oblivion from White Rocket Books. The Best Pulp Short Story went to Ian Watson for his “The Fort of Skulls” which appeared in “Pride of the Mohicans” from White Rocket Books.  For the very first time, the Best Pulp Anthology/Collection award went to White Rocket Books for “Pride of Mohicans.”  The Best Pulp Cover went to Mark Williams for his painted cover to “Legion II : Sons of Terra” from White Rockets.  Best Interior Illustrations went to Fabio Listrani for his illustrations in “Zombies Vs. Robots: No Man’s Land” from IDW.

Our congratulations to all the winners and especially to White Rocket Books for their near sweep. The awards themselves reflected nominations from twenty-four new pulp publishers.  Above is Managing Editor of White Rocket Books, Van Plexico accepting one of the two awards he picked up, including the Best Anthology for which he was editor…and as you Loyal Airmen know, the Air Chief has a story in that volume.  We were thrilled by this win.

More pictures from Windy City. Here’s pal Gordon Dymowski with Tommy Hancock of Pro Se Productions.

Airship 27 writers Tim Bruckner & Gene Moyers holding up a copy of our new DOMINO LADY Vol One in which they both had a story.  Note it sold out at the con.

And here the Air Chief with one of our most Loyal Airmen, the one and only John Bodnar. A really good friend. Always great to have him join us at this show.

The newest release from Moonstone Books is their pulp anthology DAY OF THE DESTROYERS.  Above, left to right holding copies, are writers Adam Garcia, Tommy Hancock, the Air Chief and Moonstone’s own Managing Editor, Joe Gentile.  We will most more con photos next week.

A while back we mentioned T. Glenn Bane of Scaldcrow Role Playing Games was developing a pulp rpg based on our Brother Bones series. It’s called, “Ron Fortier’s Cape Noire,” and if you’d like to help get it launched, you can do so by going to the link below and making a pledge.  This looks to be particularly fun and creepy. (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1279968844/ron-fortiers-cape-noire-rpg)  Note, if the campaign is successful, the Air Chief has offered up this extra bonus.  All contributors, no matter at what level they donate, will be put in a drawing and from this pool 3 names will be drawn.  Those 3 people will appear in the next Brother Bones story from the Air Chief.  Just my way of say thanks to everyone who pitched in to make this happen.

And there you have it for this week, Loyal Airmen.  Be back in seven as we get ready for this year’s Free Comic Book Day and share a few more pictures from Windy City.  As ever, thanks for stopping by.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greeting Loyal, Airmen, as you are reading this Flight Log, the Air Chief is in Chicago, along with Airship 27 Productions’ Art Director, attending the 15th Annual Windy City Pulp & Paper Convention.  This is a show we never miss, as it is one of the premier pulp conventions in the country.  On Friday night, Rob and the Air Chief will be hosting the Pulp Factory Awards presentations and we’ll be sure to post the winners right here in next week’s Flight Log.

Also this past week, our third episode of the Airship 27 Podcast wetn live here on our You Tube Channel.  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6r9khuTMQ_I)  We talked about our latest release, DOMINO LADY Vol One and lots of other fun stuff.  We are having a blast doing the show and hope you Loyal Airmen are enjoying them.  Remember, we do love getting our e-mail feedback and questions, which do help us plan future segments.

This past week saw the series wrap-up of JUSTIFIED, a show Valerie and the Air Chief really enjoyed these past six years.  Based entirely on an Elmore Leonard short story, this tale of a U.S. Deputy Marshall, Raylan Givens, trying to capture his old childhood friend turned outlaw, Boyd Crowder, in Harlan county, Kentucky, was always fun.  Oh sure, some seasons were better than others but as the show ended, on what we thought was a solid finale, we are really going to miss Harlan and its oddball characters.

One of the real joys of operating Airship 27 Productions is working with some of the most creative and talented artist in the world. One such is Clayton Hinkle, who, over the past few years have illustrated many of our titles.  Right now Clayton is doing the 9 illustrations that will be featured in a new thriller novel by author Fred Adams, Jr. and we thought you’d like a sneak-peek (above).

And there you have it Loyal Airmen, we have to go finish packing up the old Airship 27.  We’ll see you in Chicago and back here in seven. Till then, stay well.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen.  As you’ll recall, we ended last week’s Flight Log with high hopes this would be a stellar year for our beloved Red Sox.  Well, as the Air Chief writes these words, the Sox have just completed their opening day victory over the Phillies and it was a blow out, 8 to 0.  The biggest problem with last year’s team was their lack of offense, but all that was quickly forgotten with the Sox bats came alive in the very first inning when Dustin Pedroia hit a home run!  It was the first of two he would hit in the game.  Later Mookie Betts with hit one and then Hanley Ramirez.  Finally in the top of the ninth, Ramirez hit his own second, this time a Grand Slam.  Valerie and the Air Chief do not believe hitting is going to be an issue with this year’s team.  Wahoo!!

Many years ago the Air Chief wrote a comic series for Tekno Comics out of Florida based on an old Gene Roddenberry idea called, “The Lost Universe.”  The artist on that book was Mike Harris and he did a fantastic job with it.  After the company faded away, we lost touch with Mike until last year when we hooked up on Facebook and learned Mike is a career Army man.  He also still likes to draw and that being the case, we managed to recruit him to do illustrations for an Airship 27 title;  “Tales From the Hanging Monkey Vol II.”  Yesterday Mike turned in his first of twelve illustrations and we were blown away.  He’s only gotten better over the years.  Welcome to Airship 27, old friend, we are so glad to have you aboard.

Also out this week is our new Airship 27 Productions anthology featuring the one and only Domino Lady.  The cover above was rendered by Ted Hammond and the book features 12 stunning interior illustrations by James Lyle that dress up stories by Greg Hatcher, Gene Moyers, Tim Bruckner and Paul Findley.  Needless to say we are very, very excited about this book.  It’s now available at Amazon in hardcopy and in few days on Kindle.  We hope you check it out.  If we’re lucky, we may have a few copies with us at the Windy City Pulp & Paper show.  All fingers crossed.

And there you have it for this Flight Log, Loyal Airmen. As ever thanks for stopping by and your continued support.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, and here we are already into April. This past week voting closed on this year’s Pulp Factory Awards and the Air Chief is one of three souls who knows the actual winners. Rob Davis is now having the awards trophies made up and they will be handed on April 17th at the Windy City Pulp & Paper Convention in Chicago.  Really hope to see many of you there.

Since our appearance at the FoCo Comics & Gaming Festival last month, many of our new Mr. Jigsaw fans have been writing wanting to know when issue # 14 will be out.  Sadly, the Air Chief, as ever, has so many projects on his desk right now, we have no real idea when we will be able to get back to our loveable Man of a Thousand Parts.  Anyway, pro-cartoonist and huge Jiggy fan, artist Brian Buniak send along the above illustration today and we wanted to share it with all of you.

Last week we mentioned having begun writing the script for our sci-fi mystery thriller, PARADISE FALL # 2.  Well John Willims, our amazing artist on this series, didn’t wasted any time penciling the first two pages of that script.  Above is the Splash Panel for page one that sets up the scene where the action will take place.  John’s cartoony style is so unique, we are blown away every time we see something new from him.  Stay tuned, Loyal Airmen, this is going to be so cool when done.

This week we know Spring has arrived because as of Monday, 4th April, Major League Baseball opens its 2015 Season and Valerie and the Air Chief are more than ready to cheer on our beloved Red Sox, led by the slugger above, Mr. David Ortiz.  Once again, we’re keeping our fingers crossed the team is going to do another worst-to-first season.  For now we’re happy to hear the umpire shout…PLAY BALL!!

Finally, we want to wish all of our Loyal Airmen a truly wonderful..HAPPY EASTER!!!

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, but the time you read this, we’ll just have one week left before voting for this year’s PULP FACTORY AWARDS ends on March 31st.

Then Rob Davis sets up the process of having the five beautiful Pen & Quill statues made with the winners’ names on them.  Note, this year we added the fifth category of BEST PULP ANTHOLOGY.  Once the statues have been made, Rob brings them to the Windy City Pulp & Paper Con in Chicago (April 16th-19th) and on the first night of the show, he and the Air Chief host the awards presentation event.  Believe me, we have such a great time handing out these gorgeous trophies to the winning New Pulp writers and artists.  Note, this year voting WAS open to the public and should you want to vote, simply contact the Air Chief directly and we’ll get an official ballot off to you.

Whenever its possible, we love having some of our writers join us at the pulp conventions. Which is why we are thrilled to announce two of the best, Gene Moyers and Fred Adams Jr. will be joining us at the Airship 27 Productions table on the Saturday of the Windy City Paper & Pulp Con in Chicago.  Gene, who has written short stories for both the Purple Scar and Ravenwood – Stepson of Mystery anthologies will be signing at our table between Noon & 1 p.m. While Fred Adams Jr, author of Hitwolf and Six-Gun Terrors will be signing copies of his fantastic books between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m.  So if you plan on being at the show this year, do make sure to stop by our tables and meet these great, fun writers.

It’s sneak-peek time again, Loyal Airmen.  One of the coolest pulp characters ever created was the Domino Lady.  Although there were ever only six of her adventures ever written by Lars Anderson (the pen-name of the unknown author) she has made a very strong come back since the birth of the New Pulp Movement, with reprints from Rich Harvey’s Bold Venture Press and new anthologies from Moonstone Books, one of which had a DL story by the Air Chief himself.  So finally, at long last, Airship 27 Productions is putting together its very own Domino Lady anthology and above is one of the twelve gorgeous interior illustrations done by artist James Lyle. The book is in the final stages of assembly and with any luck, we should be seeing out in another month.  We will, as ever, keep you all posted.

And lastly, for those of you curious as to what the Air Chief is actually working on these days, well we did mention a few weeks back that we had started work on a new Lady Action novella and now have that underway.  Then last week we finally started scripting the second issue of the sci-fi crime comic, PARADISE FALLS which we released last year (see cover above).   John Williams is the artist and Warren Montgomery the letterer.  Hopefully the three of us can have a second issue out by Fall or early Winter.  Stay tuned.  And as ever, thanks so much for dropping by.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, well what with the recent Fort Collins FoCo Comics and Gaming Festival behind us by several weeks now, we are truly getting into the full Convention Season.  And last weekend, one of the finest such, Planet ComiCon in Kansas City was held to record crowds.

Here’s a great shot of our pal, Todd Jones, who traveled to Kansas City to attend this show with several other Colorado creators. There he hooked up with our own Rob Davis to get this pix snapped. Photo-Bombing our two amigos is Rob’s son, Ryan, a real jokester.  We’ve wanted to attend this show for several years now and considering how much Todd and other local friends had there, we are now going to start planning for next year.  In fact Rob has suggested that if the Air Chief does make an appearance, he will line up a Pulp Panel for us to present.  Now that’s an offer we really can’t pass up. Stay tuned.

Our AIRSHIP 27 PODCAST engineer, Brant Fowler turned in these numbers from our first two episodes.

Greetings Loyal Airmen.  This past weekend was so much fun for the Air Chief and my entire family as my good pal and partner in Airship 27 Productions, Rob Davis drove all the way from his home in Hallsville, MO, to ours here in Ft. Collins, CO, an eleven hour trip, to join me at last Sunday’s second annual FoCo Comics & Gaming Festival held at the Lory Center on the Colorado State University campus.

We asked to give an hour long panel on pulps and their relationship to comics. Something we are acutely aware of since beginning Airship 27 Productions ten years ago.  Above is a picture snapped during that very informal lecture, as the Air Chief and Rob ramble on about the birth of pulps and how they inspired a generation of future comic book writers and artists.  A treat of this talk was having Rob actually do sketches of some of the characters as we discussed them.  You Loyal Airmen with sharp eyes will make out the picture of the Moon Man on that blackboard behind him.

Of the hundreds of comics Rob had drawn in his long career, he is best known for his work on Star Trek Deep Space Nine for Malibu Comics.  Here he holds up an issue for a fan at our tables.  It was truly a blast having Rob visit and be our houseguest over the weekend.  The Air Chief has bent his ears so much in the past about my family and having Rob meet son Alan, his wife Nicole, and kids Cora & Alex was wonderful. And of course they all loved him.  He’s promised to come back someday with his wife, Theresa, for a longer, less hectic visit. We will certainly hold him to that promise.

As the day went on at the show more and more people stopped by our table to check out our books. Here’s the Air Chief, in middle of snacking on a blueberry muffin, conversing with a young reader who was fascinated by our children’s book, JAMIE & THE FISH-EYED GOGGLES.  Behind us is Valerie on her cellphone trying to hear above the din of the crowd and our son Alan, who also came by to support Rob and the Air Chief making it a real family fun day.

And our second episode of Airship 27 Podcast went live this week. You can listen here …(http://www.zone4podcast.com/airship-27-podcast-2-answering-your-questions/) the hour long show is possible because of all the support we’ve received from you Loyal Airmen.  Keep it coming.

On the comic front, we’re thrilled to announce the release of MR. JIGSAW Man of a Thousand Parts # 13. You can buy it here. (http://www.indyplanet.com/front/?product=115960.) Jiggy was a huge hit at the con and we sold lots of his books. Am thrilled to have this latest out at last and it features team up between Jiggy and a little known Steve Ditko characters, Liberty Belle.  We hope you like it.

Not to be outdone by the comics, Airship 27 Productions’ newest title also was released this past week.  SNAKE – Nest of Vipers was written by Michael Vance and introduces pulpdom to a new and dangerous new pulp character.  The action takes place in New York in the 50s and is unlike any other pulp thriller you’ve ever read. Features interior illustrations by Greg Keyzer and a dynamite cover by Ted Hammond. Available now in hard copy from Amazon and within a few days on Kindle.  Do check it out.  You’ll be glad you did.

And finally we end this week’s Flight Log with a truly amazing event.  One of Airship 27 Productions’s finest artist, Pedro Cruz of Portugal, recently was invited to Rome with his wife Catarina and their baby Isasc, along with other missionaries who will soon be going to former Eastern Bloc countries to help spread the Christian gospel. During their meeting with Pope Francis, who blessed them all, Pedro and his family were given the amazing opportunity of having the Holy Father blessed their son in front of this huge assembly.  Knowing of our own Catholic faith, Pedro was kind enough to share this picture with us.  Truly amazing.  Pedro is currently doing the illustrations for our new Houdini title and promises to continue drawing for Airship 27 even while he and his family are on their missionary mission.  They are truly blessed people and we will support them in our prayers.

And there you have it, Loyal Airmen, a truly busy week for us here at Hangar 27, as usual.  Ha. Thanks ever for stopping by and we’ll see you back here in seven days.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, we, as ever, hope you are keeping warm and persevering through this record cold winter season.  For the record, the Air Chief has never bought into the whole “climate change” BS foisted on us scientist who clearly have a political agenda.  All we need do is see the pattern of increasing cold temps year after the year to realize the those people pushing “climate change” are new versions of snake-oil salesmen.  Okay, enough of that stuff.  As you Loyal Airmen are reading this Flight Log, we are less than 48 hrs away from Fort Collins hosting its second comic con; the FoCo Comics & Gaming Festival.  This year it will be held on the campus of Colorado State University right smack dab in the center of our wonderful city.

We are particularly thrilled as our good friend and partner in Airship 27 Productions. Rob Davis, will be joining us at the show.  This is Rob’s first trip to Fort Collins and Val and the Air Chief are so happy to have stay with us over the weekend.  Again, this will be the first time Rob and the Air Chief, as Airship 27 Presentation, will be appearing at a con here in Colorado.  And as part of the day’s festivities, we will be presenting an informative hour panel entitles, “From Comics to Pulps…and Back Again” during the convention.  We truly hope to see many of you Loyal Airmen there.

Speaking of Airship 27 Productions, we are thrilled to announce the following.  Popular comic and pin-up artist, Ted Hammond, has signed on to do the cover to Airship 27 Productions’ new Domino Lady anthology now in the works. Along with Ted’s cover, it will feature new DL stories by Greg Hatcher, Gene Moyers, Tim Bruckner & Kevin Findley along with 12 black and white interior illustrations by artist James Lyle.  Will post further developments as we go along.

Meanwhile on the comic book front, artist Barry McClain continues to work his magic on the new Simon Pryce mystery story, “Man of Ash.”  Above is part of the just turned in pencils for page 11 of this 21 pg comic.  We couldn’t be happier.  Paul Frey will ink her up and Rob Davis provides lettering.

Like pirate stories?  So do we and for the first time ever, Airship 27 Productions is going to be publishing a brand new series starring pirate queen Jezebel Johnstone as created by writer Nancy Hansen.  Above is a quick sketch by cover Terry Pavlet who will be handing that part of the production. We thought you’d like a sneak-peek.

And finally, yesterday, March 5th, Valerie and the Air Chief celebrated our 32nd Wedding Anniversary.  Still in awe of how time as flown by since we made our vows and started our journey together.  They’ve been the best years of my life and the Air Chief can only pray for another 32 with you.

Thanks for stopping by Loyal Airmen.  Next week keep a sharp eye out for the second installment of Airship 27 The Podscast.  Till then be good and bring on Spring.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greeting Loyal Airmen, after a week long vacation in Fort Myer’s Florida, Valerie and the Air Chief are once again back home.  It was a fun vacation, but wow, those first two days there we experience record breaking cold as the temp dipped to the 30s at the start of the week, pretty much killing any plans we had of going up to Orlando and doing the theme parks.

So instead of that, we bundled up in our sweatshirts and headed for the brand new Jet Blue park where our beloved Red Sox were just starting to report in for this year’s Spring Training.  Here’s a shot of the Air Chief and Val huddled together in front of the Ted Williams statue in front of the new ballpark which is an exact replica of Boston’s own Fenway Park.  We are both very, very anxious to see baseball start up again and hoping the Sox will have a bounce back season.

The rest of the week did warm up and we made it to the Fort Myer’s beach where we hooked up with our sister, Ann and her husband Norman for a fun day. Always great to see family again.  Then yesterday, Tuesday, we packed up and headed up.  Of course our luck continued to be sour as we had a three hour delay in Indianapolis and didn’t get home until after midnight.  Vacations are fun, but they are also most tiring.

After a good night’s sleep, we looked through the mail that had accumulated in our absences and the Air Chief was happy to find the latest issue of PAPERBACK PARADE published by our pal, writer Gary Lovisi.  Its jam packed with tons of great articles about old paperback series and a few reviews of today’s books.  Amongst this issue’s articles is one on the old space opera paperback series from Daw Books, CAP KENNEDY.  As the Air Chief was a collector/fan of those books, Gary had asked us to write up a little article to accompany the checklist and we were happy to oblige him. This is a nifty little publication and we recommend it highly.

And finally Airship 27 Productions has released its third title of the year, THE SHADOW OF HER SMILE, a vampire horror novel by writer Jack Beddows.  It features stunning artwork by artist Adam Shaw, both cover and interior illustrations with Art Director Rob Davis handling book design.  The title is now available at Amazon in both hard-copy and on Kindle, as well as a $3 pdf from the Airship 27 home page.  We hope you’ll check it out.

And that’s it for this week, Loyal Airmen.  As ever, thanks for stopping by and let’s all hope for an early Spring.

Ron – Over & Out!