Greetings Loyal Airmen, well this past week saw the return of Marvel Comics to network television, something not seen since the days of the old Spiderman and Hulk weekly shows.  But before we get that amazing event, we've a new comic to announce.

The fourth issue of  RON FORTIER'S TALES OF THE MACABRE is finally out with a really wonderful covre by our friend, Olivier Raymond. This one features four brand new stories by the Air Chief joined with four amazing artists. There's a vampire, a werewolf, a femme fatale and robot hero. A cool kind of comics fun mix we hope you'll enjoy.  It's now on sale at (www.IndyPlanet.com)  Give it a go and as ever thanks for your support.
Issue #5 is now in the works.

The cast of ABC's new AGENTS OF SHIELD, the super secret government police agency run by Colonel Nick Fury in the blockbuster Marvel Movies.  In the TV series, which takes place after the events that occurred in the Avengers movie, Agent Phil Coulson, wonderfully played by actor Greg Clarke is assigned to recruit a brand new special operations team to deal with new threats involved “super” beings, good or bad. The premier episode this past Monday night was the biggest audience winner on network television on four years.  Needless to day the Disney company and ABC are thrilled.  Written and directed by Josh Whedon, the Air Chief absolutely loved it and can't wait to see what comes next.

One of the major points in the premier of this series was the fact that Agent Coulson was killed by the vengeful God Loki in the Avengers movie and fans having been waiting a long time to see how Whedon and company would explain his so called resurrection.  In the show he tells us he died but they brought him back.  Considering the wound he suffered in the movie, the Air Chief doesn't buy that for a second.  In fact we believe the real Agent Coulson did die, but that Shield had his entire memories/psyche imprinted on either a clone or android and it was awakened believing it is really Coulson.  Obviously there were some vague clues dished out in the premier and we fully expect to see more of this mystery explored as the series goes on.

Now in a stroke of pure marketing genius, Disney also released their new IRON MAN 3 movie on Blu-ray and DVD on the same day as the Agents of Shield premiered.  On that disc is a special short film starring actress Haley Atwell reprising her role as Agent Peggy Carter, the wonderful young lady who was in love with Steve Rogers; Captain America.  The story shows her working in the US after World War II and how she ends up giving the assignment to head the new top secret group called, Shield.  There have been lots of rumors floating around that ABC and Marvel want to look at a possible Agent Carter TV series.  Well, after seeing and totally loving this short film, we couldn't agree more.  To have a series wherein Peggy Carter (and a few other recognizable supporting characters from the Captain America flim) build up Shield from the ground up would be a perfect book-end series for the new Agents of Shield series.  Let's keep our fingers crossed this comes to pass.

Finally we want to direct your attention to a new digital anthology called LEZ-VAMPS created by super artist Mark Wheatley.  Several months ago Mark posted a stunning picture he'd done a while back and challenged writers to do a story based on the image.  Well so many started sending in scripts, Mark went to a group of his friends, the Air Chief included, and asked them to help judge the entries. The best would be collected into a digital and voila, after all the judging etc, the mag is finished as you can see above.  And it is going to be given away for free during the entire month of October, sort of Mark's Halloween treat to all his fans.  So, if any of you Loyal Airmen would like a free PDF of this truly outstanding horror collection, simply me drop me a line and the Air Chief will be only too happy to send one along.  Oh, and be fore we forget, our dear friend and fellow host of the ZONE 4 podcast, Gordon Dymowski, was one of the writers whose story was accepted and it is his first ever published prose work.  And no, the Air Chief did not judge Gordon's story, so there was absolutely no favoritism here.  But we did read it..after it was accepted and loved it.  Way to go, Gordon.

And there you have it for another week, Loyal Airmen.  As ever thanks for stopping by.
Ron Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, glad to see you back here again this week.  Before going too far into this week's Flight Log, we'd like to say a big THANK YOU to all the wonderful people at Mile High Comics in Denver who welcomed us there last Saturday to do a book signing.  It was a blast and we met lots of great fans as well as fellow creators.  An all around great time.

Though while this was going on, the horrible Front Range Floods continued to wind their way throughout the state causing millions of dollars in damage and loss of life.  Many homes plus major roads were destroyed and simply washed away.  It will take years before the state's infrastructure can be rebuilt, never mind the personal loses of so many people. If any of you Loyal Airmen would like to help the relief efforts, you can do so on-line by going to the American Red Cross and pledging whatever you can donate to help with the Colorado Flood Relief.  As ever, thank you for your support and prayers.

Last week Airship 27 Productions released its 70th title; SHADOW LEGION New Roads to Hell by writer Thomas Deja.  If you are into superheroes and enjoy seeing their adventures translated to prose, this is the book for you.  Its the beginning of a series and this is the opening chapter so you don't want to miss the origin of such great heroes as the Black Talon, Ferryman and the Nightbreaker.  Artist Chris Kemple provides nine beautiful interior illustrations and that colorful cover about is by Pulp Factory Award winning artist, Mike Fyles.  The book is now available at Amazon.com both in hard copy and on Kindle.

We also love to provide you Loyal Airmen with sneak-peeks at some of the projects we have in the works via artwork done in the preliminary stages.  Last year we published a collection of stories featuring Sgt. Janus, Spirit Breaker by writer Jim Beard.  Well, Jim has been very, very busy writing a second collection of eight new Sgt. Janus adventures and these will be spot illustrated by one Zachary Brunner.  Above is his conceptual sketch of the book's two main characters, Lady Janus and her friend, Joshua.  When completed, artist Jeff Herndon will provided the painted cover.  Stay tuned.

As most pulp fans know, there were lots of truly bizarre pulp heroes back in the 30s and 40s.  None more creepy than THE PURPLE SCAR.  The Purple Scar wore a death-mask molded from the face of his dead brother, a police officer shot by gangsters.  He vowed to find them and bring them to justice wearing his brothers ruined face.  Airship 27 Productions is now assembling a brand new Purple Scar anthology and we were truly lucky to snag super talented artist Richard Serrao to do the 12 interior illustrations that will appear in the completed book.  Above is a warm of sketch he sent along for us to see his concept for this horror-inspired pulp avenger.  We truly believe with Richards' accompanying artwork, this book is going to be a big winner for us.

And finally, on a personal note, the Air Chief has been spending the past few months writing a new pulp novel for Moonstone Books starring the classic flying spy, G-8 & His Battle Aces.  Now it was suppose to be a 30,000 word novella, but a few weeks ago we passed that tally with a whole lot more rollicking adventure to tell; so we just kept writing.  Hopefully we will be able to slap THE END on it in just a few more days and submit the completed manuscript just barely making our 1st of Oct. self-imposed deadline.  Only we aren't turning in a novella now, but a full blown novel.  Don't you just hate it when that happens.
Ha.

As ever, thanks for stopping by.  We'll see you right back here in seven days.
Ron Over & Out!

Greetings, Loyal Airmen, this week we take a long, hard look at sad, wasted potential of American Reality Television and what it says about our current culture, none of it very good.

When the Air Chief was a youngster in high school, like many of you, we discovered the amazing world of science fiction literature.  And believe me, back in the late 50s and early 60s it was still frowned about by most of academia.  Still there was a hard core group of fans out here, the Air Chief included, that devoured the works Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbuy and all the others who spun wondrous tales to fire our imaginations.  Science Fiction was the literature of the dreamers, the engineers who would combine to envision the future, build a better world, to travel to the stars and to conquer whatever challenges awaited us as a race.  Sure, it wasn't for everybody, which was cool….because we knew people who enjoyed science fiction were kind of special.

When television arrived on the scene, initially it was filled with variety shows, westerns and private eyes.  All fun fare and produced by some truly talented writers and directors.  Of course we sci-fi fans knew sooner or later someone would tackle sci-fi and bring it to the little box in our living rooms and boy, did they ever.  Along came The Twilight Zone, Alcoa Presents One Step Beyond and the Outer Limits.  Week in and week out we were treated to both 30 minute and hour long melodramas written by some of the finest creators in the field and it was heady stuff.  And to push the envelope even further, there were those kid space shows like Captain Midnight and Space Patrol to delight us.  All of which leading to the classic sci-fi space opera, Star Trek.  Eventually it would be followed by Battlestar Galactica and Babylon 5, again to only name a select few.

 Sci-Fi by the 1980s had become an established genre in the eyes of the entertainment world, enough so that ultimately someone had the courage to launch an entire channel devoted to sci-fi and all of us kept our fingers crossed it might be something worthwhile to move the genre even further.  Of course its early days were rough and we were treated to mostly re-runs of some of those shows we mentioned earlier until the channel could begin producing its own original programing.  Now don't us wrong, the Sy-Fy (as it is called today) has over the years brought us some quality, fun weekly series ala EUREKA, STARGATE (and its spin-offs) SANCTUARY, the late lamented ALPHAS  and the soon to depart WAREHOUSE 13.  For different reason, all winners in one way or another.

But at the same time we were made to suffer ridiculously cheap, stupid Saturday night movies that were simply laughable. Shows like Feat Factor and Ghost Hunters having no business being on a channel supposed devoted to science fiction, but there they were.  About five years ago the channel got the brilliant idea of doing a reality show based on those super talented make-up artists who do all the wonderful make-ups we see in Hollywood sci-fi, fantasy and horror flicks; they called it Face-Off and you know what, its actually worthwhile as we get to see truly creative people working their craft.  Now, based on this success of Face-Off, the Sy-Fy people wanted to come up with another reality series to run with it in a two hour block.  Someone came up with the brilliant (we are being sarcastic folks) idea of doing a show about those people who dress up in elaborate costumes to attend the various comic book and science fiction conventions that have mushroomed like crazy all over the country in the past decade.

So here we go, devoting an entire hour to the lives of people whose main claim to fame is that they can dress up like characters OTHER people have created.  Of course the show is also filled with petty jealousies obviously manipulated by the producers to add drama etc.etc.etc.  In a word, STUPID TV.  But why is the Air Chief devoting an entire Flight Log to such silliness?  Well, here's the answer to that.  You see, at these same conventions the Cosplayers attend there are hundreds of amazing creator panels where some of the finest writers on the planet get together to talk about their work, their visions of the future and how we'll either reach the stars or fail in the attempt.  All too often, many of my colleagues, who could not attend a particular convention will ask if anyone had the foresight to tape these panels. And again, if that even happens, they end up in poor quality clips on You Tube.  Whereas at the same sci-fi gatherings, an expensive, state of the art, camera crew from the Sy-Fy Channel is devoting millions of dollars covering people in costumes….never mind the brilliant discourses going on at the panels.  Obviously creative, intelligent conversations by sci-fi writer isn't worthy of even a 30 minute slot on a channel with the balls to call itself the Sy-Fy Channel.

Which in the end, sadly says more about us as a culture than anything else.  If our focus is constantly on mindless…nay, mind-numbing broadcasting of this of this nature, then the Air Chief truly worries for the video-game addicted generation being fed this junk on a nightly basis while the literature of the future and most likely our salvation goes ignored.  Think about that the next time you turn on the Tube.  And please, do not for a moment think this essay was criticizing those fans who love to Cosplay, there is nothing wrong with that, its fun that does indeed liven up cons.  But a TV series?  Come on people, we all deserve so much more.

Ron Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen.  Have you ever had one of those moments when something happens that makes you take a step backward and reflect on just where you are in your life?  Somehow instantly becoming aware that you are still very much alive and moving forward through this amazing miracle that is your life?  If this sounds a little weird, its because earlier today the Air Chief was invited to sign on to a Facebook page being posted by someone we had gone to high school with. Yup.  High School, way back in New Hampshire at a Catholic regional high school called Saint Thomas Aquinas, in Dover N.H.  We were the first class to graduate from the school in 1964.  Do your arithmetic and that was all of 49 years ago.

The Air Chief isn't one of those guys who enjoys class reunions but we did attend our 40th and realized we didn't know half the 40 or so people who showed up, out of a class of over 200.  Here's the thing, this good hearted soul who started this new Facebook page (STA Class of 64) went and started a listed of all those in that class who have since…..passed away….died.  See what we mean about being stopped in your tracks. Looking over that list, which is still being added to, there are already close to thirty names on it.  Thirty names of people who, 53 years ago were high school freshmen with their lives in front of them, ready to make things happen, ready to challenge all their tomorrows.  And now they are gone and we pray to an even better place with our loving Creator. 

For a second there, we truly did feel everyone of our 66 years.  But here we are, back to writing a Flight Log and working our tails off on all sorts of great new pulp and comic book projects.  So many, we are busier than ever and you know what, the future still seems endless to us.  Oh, we know deep down inside its not, but hey, as long as we are on the road…we plan on laughing, loving and having a blast.  The journey is about what you make it, Loyal Airmen.  We choose to make it an on-going adventure.

Last week we announced our new Airship 27 title, THE BAGMAN vs THE WORLD'S FAIR. Well don't like now, but here's another new one from the gang at Hangar 27.  RAVENWOOD – STEPSON OF MYSTERY Vol II is our second release in just two weeks and features four brand new stories featuring pulpdom's popular occult detective.  Like all our titles, this one is now available at Amazon.com in hard copy and on Kindle for you E-readers.  The cover is by Rob Davis and Shannon Hall.  We hope you'll check it out.

And of course all you Loyal Airmen know how we love to share sneak-peeks of upcoming projects with you. So this week we'll do that twice.  First up, the illustration above is by artist Andy Fish for our new CRIMSON MASK anthology now in the works.  The Crimson Mask was one of those little known, second tier pulp heroes from the 30s and we are having a blast putting this book together with brand new stories. And wait till you see the gorgeous cover Andy has whipped up for it.  Coming soon, Loyal Airmen.

And lastly for those of you old enough to remember, Republic Studio produced some of the best serial cliffhangers ever filmed.  Features like King of the Rocketmen, The Adventures of Nyoka, The Spy Smasher, and hundreds of others thrilled young movie goers for several decades.  Now writer Curtis Ferlund has written a terrific new novel that pays homage to those serials and its called THE QUEEN OF ESCAPES and we will be publishing.  Artist James Lyle will be providing 9 black and white interior illustrations for it…ala the one above…which we absolutely love.

And there you have it, Loyal Airmen.  Thanks ever for stopping by and remember, no matter the white hair, the wrinkles or whatever you see in the mirror, its the age inside that counts…and the Air Chief will forever be young where it counts. God bless.
Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen.  Here we go into the Labor Weekend and the unofficial end of the summer season.
Recently, the Air Chief's home town of Fort Collins, CO was invaded by hundreds of cyclist from around the world competing in the first USA Pro Challenge race; the course winding its way through our town and into the majestic Rocky Mountains.

Local Coloradan horsemen ride along cheering the cyclist in the first ever USA Pro Challenge as they make their way through Fort Collins, CO.  Photo courtesy of the local newspaper.

On the pulp fun side of things, Airship 27 Productions released its newest title this past week; THE BAGMAN vs THE WORLD'S FAIR by writer B.C. Bell.  This is the second book we've put out featuring Bell's humorous pulp hero and his first full length novel.  It's really a winner in every way.  The stunning cover above was rendered by artist Laura Givens with assistance by our Art Director/book designer, Rob Davis. It is getting tons of great comments all over the internet.  The book is now on sale at Amazon.com as a hard copy or digitally on Kindle, as well as a PDF download via our own Airship 27 website.  Please do check out this wonderful book; especially if you are a native of Chicago.

                                      
On the comic book front, the Air Chief and his colleague, writer Bill Gladman, are hard at work on the third Simon Pryce mystery comic book, PRYCE FOR THE ASKING – Man of Ash.  As we did with the previous two books, the story will be run as a weekly webstrip, a new page appearing every single week at (www.ComicRelated.com) until it is completed.  When done it will be collected as a print comic. Above is the cover image by the book's art team, penciler James Taylor and inker Ken McFarlane; Brant Fowler will provides the lettering and when the book is ready, this cover will be colored.  Stay tuned, mystery fans, we will let you know when page one goes up.  We love writing the adventures of this Detroit based private eye.

And finally we thought we'd provide you Loyal Airmen with another fine piece of illustrative artwork.  Ever since starting Airship 27 Productions, our fans, noticing our name and dirigible logo, have always asked us why we didn't do an airship anthology.  Well, after mulling it over for a while, the Air Chief finally decided to give it a go and we are now assembling the first volume our new ZEPPELIN TALES anthology.  Issue one will feature a short story by Jim Beard and a huge novella by Ian Watson.  Artist Mike Fyles has painted the cover and Portuguese artist, Pedro Cruz is providing the twelve interior illustration like the one above.  We are extremely excited about this new title and can't wait to bring it to all of you.  Stay tuned.

As most of  you Loyal Airmen know, this year, we debut our first Airship Crew Premium Patch at both our con visits, Windy City in Chicago and later Pulp Fest in Columbus.  Our fans could get a free book buying two of our titles; or paying $3 for one.  Well, the cons are over and we are finally offering the patches via mail orders for all you Loyal Airmen.  What you have to do is e-mail Art Director Rob Davis and he will let you know the complete price, which will include the $3 plus a some added fee for mailing….and how to pay him, either by check, or digitally via PayPal.  Rob's e-mail is (www.robmdavis@me.com)  Note, we only have a limited supply left, so contact him now and don't be left out.

As you can see things are always busy at Hangar 27.  This past week the Air Chief was invited to be a guest at yet another Colorado comic con; Rocky Mountain Con, to be held Nov. 9 & 10.  Proceeds for the con will go to the Aurora Rise fund, which helps victims of that awful movie house shooting incidents last year.  The con is in its early stages and if you would like to learn more about it, please visit their website (www.rockymountaincon.com) –

And that wraps up this week's Flight Log, Loyal Airmen, as ever, thanks so much for stopping by. See you back here next week.
Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, this past week was rough on all us lovers of pulp fiction as we lost one of the best pulp writers who ever put pen to paper.  Elmore “Dutch” Leonard passed away at the age of 87.

                               
                                                ELMORE LEONARD  Oct 11, 1925 – Aug 20, 2013

He was an American novelist and screenwriter.  His earliest published novels in the 1950s were westerns, but Leonard wen on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers, many of which have been adapted to motion pictures; just as his westerns had.  From his short stories came such classic western movies as 3:10 TO YUMA and VALDEZ IS COMING.   Once he started writing crime fiction, he attracted a huge fan following, among them Hollywood writer/director Quentin Tarrentino who adapted his book JACKIE BROWN.

In the Air Chief's life long love of reading, there have only been a handful of writers who inspired us beyond simply writing good books.  Writers who were so good at their craft, them made it look easy and we wanted to emulate them; to learn from them in any way we could.  About a year ago the Air Chief wrote a short story called THE YELLOW DOG for an anthology called HOW THE WEST WEIRD Vol II – all the while we were writing it, we were keeping Leonard in mind, doing our best to try an copy his terse, economic style of prose.  It helped a lot making the story work so well.

                                          
                                                    Leonard and Timothy Olyphant

Over the years, several of Leonard's stories were the basis of television series; most of which failed and never lasted an entire season….until JUSTIFIED.  This Fox cable series is based on a Leonard's short story, FIRE IN THE HOLE, and the hero is a Kentucky Deputy U.S. Marshal played named Raylan Givens as played by actor Timothy Olyphant.  It is an extremely popular show and as of this writing, is in production for its fifth season on the network.  Happily Leonard lived to see and enjoy its success.

Again, its is always sad to lose our heroes and Elmore Leonard was one of ours for sure. But thank God we will always have his stories to read.  And if you Loyal Airmen reading these words have never had that pleasure, its truly time to rectify that mistake.  Go out and get one of his many books and get ready for a reading adventure of unbridled joy.  R.I.P. Mr. Leonard and thanks from this fan.

                            A PULP TEAM AS BROTHER BONES COLLIDES WITH LAZARUS GRAY

And lastly, we wrap up this week's Flight Log with some truly cool news.  A few weeks back, one of our good pals and colleagues, writer Barry Reese, came to us asking if he could use our character, Brother Bones, the Undead Avenger, in one of his short stories starring his own pulp hero, Lazarus Gray.  Being a huge fan of Barry's work, there was no way the Air Chief was going to nix this awesome idea.  Earlier this week Barry announced the team-up on his own blog much to excitement of both our fans.  As soon as he has finished with it and it becomes available in his new Lazarus Gary collection, we will happily let you know all about it right here.  We can't wait to read this crossover event.

And there you have it for another week, Loyal Airmen.  We've a couple of new Airship 27 Productions titles almost ready for the printers.  Hopefully we'll tell you all about them when you come back here next week. Till then, stay well and do good things.
Ron – Over & Out!

Greeting Loyal Airmen, we trust all of you are well and doing good things in the world.  What with Aug. whipping by, it will soon be Sept. and schools, from kindergarden to college opening their doors again. We truly wish all you wonderful students out there a great learning year ahead.  And as the theme of this particular Flight Log is, never give up, never say die, we hope you'll persevere to the end.

Over the years the Air Chief has written lots and lots and ..LOTS of stories, both prose and comics.  Many, happily, were lucky enough to finally get printed.  Still others, for various reasons never saw the light of day and have remained hidden away in my digital files.  When Rob Davis and the Air Chief launched the black and white comics anthology series, “Ron Fortier's Tales of the Macabre,” one of our goals was to dig out those old comics and finally get them in print for all you Loyal Airmen to enjoy.

Such is the case with LA FEMME LIBERTE, a 16 pg action adventure comic strip the Air Chief wrote a long time ago.  It told the story of a lovely, mysterious French resistance fighter and her people fighting the Nazis in Paris during the occupation in World War II.  It was dynamically illustrated by John Polacek who had earlier done a one shot Brother Bones comic with the Air Chief.  I loved the finished strip but ala, forces conspired against us and the project it was intended for collapsed and it was never printed.  Then a few short weeks ago, while rummaging through old digital files, we happily came across those sixteen pages and instantly realized it was time to get them out!

So we sat down and looked at the strips we had assembled for the next few issues of “Tales of the Macabre” and lo and behold it fit smoothly into issue #5 of that series.  (Note, issue # 4 is now being assembled.)   At the same time, we met a truly wonderful artist on-line named Dana Black who's style  impressed us greatly.  We contacted Dana and explained the anthology series and asked if he would be at all interested in drawing the cover for issue # 5 that will spotlight our lovely freedom fighter.  Dana is now doing up preliminary roughs and was kind enough to send one along (see above).  Stay tuned Loyal Airmen, this is going to be a truly fun comic.

Now on the pulp side of this topic, similar bumps and pot holes do materialize every now and then that interrupt the production of a particular title.  When we began Airship 27 Productions, we had started a series of new Green Lama stories going from an anthology to a full blown novel.  Then circumstances beyond our control intervened to stop production of the series, which was a real shame as he is one of the finest classic pulp characters of them all.  A few months passed and then the Air Chief received a call from a good friend who was personally involved with the character's legal status.  After an amiable chat, we were told that Airship 27 Productions would be allowed to continue our series of Green Lama anthologies.  At which point, Rob and the Air Chief opted to revamp our title and volume number of – THE GREEN LAMA – Mystic Warrior is now in production.  It will reprint two of the stories from the original first anthology and two brand new stories will round out the package.  All the art will be brand new including twelve superb black and white interior illustrations by Neil Foster (see above).  Fingers crossed, GREEN LAMA – Mystic Warrior will be out before year's end.  Wahooo.

And finally, we just wanted to share with you our love for the movie JACK REACHER based on the best selling new pulp books by Lee Child.  And yes, we just called the Reacher novels pulp.  Note, we haven't read any of them, but are still aware, thanks to colleagues who are big fans, (they call themselves Reachers' Creatures) we've learned enough about this hero to realize he is a classic “Lone Ranger” figure who moves across the land helping people in trouble.  Well, one of his many adventures, LONE SHOT, was finally brought to the big screen earlier in the year by actor Tom Cruise and his production company and they delivered one of the best, well paced, well directed and yes, well cast thrillers the Air Chief has seen in a long, long time.  Last week we finally picked up the Blu-ray disc and viewing it a second time, we were just as entertained as when we'd first watched it in the movie house.  Kudos to Cruise and writer/director Ralph McQuarrie for giving us a thinking man's thriller.  Watching the extra documentaries on the film's production, we were truly impressed with the company's respect for writer Lee Child and how they sincerely did their best to bring the heart and soul of his character to the big screen.  Both the Air Chief and Valerie give JACK REACHER major thumbs up.  We truly hope they do another one soon.

And that, Loyal Airmen, is our Flight Log for this week.  As ever, thanks for stopping by and stay well, we will endeavor to be back here next Friday. Till then, take care,
Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, we have a truly mixed bag of news for you all this week.  So much so we're reminded of the Clint Eastwood spaghetti wester, “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.”  Only we've opted to entitled ours, “The Goof, the Silly and the Audio.”  And as much as it hurts, we really need to begin with the Big Goof and get it out of the way.

Two weeks ago we were thrilled to announce the release of our newest Mr. Jigsaw Man of a Thousand Parts.  We had the book at Pulp Fest and sold a few copies there.  Sadly, we never actually looked through a copy and it was only after we came back home that we released there had been a mix-up at the printers and several of the pages were printed out of order.  So when you opened the cover to start reading, you were in fact reading page # 2.  This is bad enough as is, but if you'll recall this particular issue had a time-travel story and it required compete attention to each and ever page.  Talk about being bummed out.  Rob Davis quickly went back to the printers on-line and corrected the files and as of now, any copies you do purchase at (www.IndyPlanet.com) are all good copies.  But if you were unfortunate enough to grab one of those earlier bad copies, we will make it good for you.  Simply drop us an e-mail with your mailing address and tell us on which page in the book the first page actually appears.  Do that and we will send a brand new, good copy of the issue. You may keep the mistake-book.  Who knows, it might be a collector's item some day.

                                           
                                                                 ART BY JIM GALLO
Now for the silly fun, check out the very cool illustration above.  As most of you know, the Air Chief hosts a weekly internet podcast called ZONE 4 along with pals Brant Fowler, Gordon Dymowski and John Wilson. On this particular show we are referred to as Captain Ron.  Well, out of the blue, one of our loyal listeners, while enjoying the show, took out his iPad and did up this digital portrait of us.  We were truly delighted when he posted it on the Zone 4 Facebook page and have shared it with our family and friends.  Valerie thought it was a pure hoot.  Now tell me we don't look ready for adventure.  Ha.

                                        
 
Speaking of adventure, we are thrilled to announced our newest pulp book, SINBAD – The New Voyages Vol II.  The success of Volume I last year was enough encouragement for us to put together this follow up book with three more new tales of this classic hero done in the Ray Harryhausen fashion.  Our Sinbad is black with an international crew we think you'll love.  This volume contains a long novella by Ed Erdelac and two short stories, one by Erwin K.Roberts and the other by Shelby Vick.  It is now on sale at Amazon in both hard copy and as a digital e-book for their Kindle. We hope you'll give it a look see.

And lastly we leave with the really big news of the past week.  We are doing a follow up audio-book with the super folks at Dynamic Ram Audio.  Having received some wonderful reviews of our first Captain Hazzard audio book, “Python Men of the Lost City,” on sale at (www.Audible.com) one of the largest providers of audio book on the internet, plus our respective websites.  Dynamic Audios Chief, Sound Engineer Chris Barnes agreed it was time to do a recording of the second book in the series, “The Citadel of Fear,” which we co-wrote with pal Martin Powell.  The best part of all this was securing the services of the super talented voice actor, Joe Stofko, of Connecticut.  Joe is a veteran theater actor and “Python Men of the Lost City” was his first ever audio book reading and he totally nailed it.  Folks who have it rave about his ability to convey action and suspense throughout.  We've just heard Chapter 1 of “Citadel of Fear” and couldn't be any happier.  We'll let you know when it is done and available for sale.

And there you have it for another week, Loyal Airmen, with its usual ups and downs.  As a famous person once said, every time a positive soul has to take a step backwards, they merely shrug and do the Cha Cha.
We think that pretty much sums it all about.  Take care and we'll see you back here next week.
Ron Over & Out!

Well, Loyal Airmen, another Pulp Fest has come and gone and as ever, the Air Chief had a blast.  It truly is one of the most fun packed pulp shows out there and Rob Davis and yours truly look forward to it every year and are never disappointed by the show and turn out of so many Loyal Airmen.

Here's a good shot of Airship 27 Productions Art Director Rob Davis and yours truly, the Air Chief early Saturday morning after we had set up and before they opened the doors to let in the crowds waiting in the hall.  Look at that, we had THREE tables this year, full of pulps, comics, premium patches and….for the first time ever, boxed sets of our first Airship 27 Audio Book – Captain Hazzard Python Men of the Lost City!! Rob did such an amazing job of putting those together.  Each handsomely designed case comes with four labeled disc containing six hours of audio thrills as read by voice actor Joe Stofko.  Note, as this was our first time offering these, we only brought five to the show.  We sold four!!  Wahoo.

And for the fourth year in a row, the Air Chief hosted the New Pulp Panel, one of half a dozen panels presented over the course of the weekend.  That's the Air Chief up front after having made introductions to my stellar panel.  From left to right on the stage we had writers, Jim Beard, Rich Lai, Frank Schildiner and Win Scott Eckert.  Our topic was The Future of New Pulp and it was a truly lively discussions that covered many thought provoking avenues concerning the media we all love so dearly.  The audience was most receptive and we're hoping this continues to be a regular feature at Pulp Fest.

And of course while we were away in Columbus, our good friends at Pro Se Productions were busy releasing their latest quarterly pulp magazine, Pro Sen Presents # 19 with a Brother Bones cover story as written by yours truly and drawn by Rob.  A tip of the hat to publisher Tommy Hancock, editor Lee Housteon Jr. and designer Sean Ali for a magnificent job.  Note, the book is available at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble on-lines.

And as an extra treat for all of you, here's the interior illustration that appears before the prose, as whipped up by Sean.  The guy has too much talent, ah.  We love this piece too.  Oh, and while on the subject of the Undead Avenger, several nights ago a colleague and good pal, wrote requesting to use him in a new story he is writing about his own pulp hero; sort of featuring Brother Bones as a guest hero.  We were only too delighted to give this friend the green light to use our character.  Not giving away anything yet, as we do want to keep it under wraps until the story is out.

On the comics-front, Canadian artist Olivier Raymond continues to whip up sketches and pin-ups of the character Satin Wei, who will be starring in her own one shot comic special called SATIN'S WAYS.  Olivier is doing all the art and lettering for this 48 page crime caper and we think you Loyal Airmen are going to love it once it is out.

Lastly, today's e-mail brought us a wonderful invitation from the people at Mile High Comics in Denver, the world's biggest comic book shop.  Seems they are having a Comicpalooza on Sat. afternoon Sept. 15th with fifteen comic creators on hand to sign their wares for the fans, yours truly among them.  We'll keep you posted as the date nears and find out who else will be joining us there for the fun.

And there you have it, Loyal Airmen.  Our long traveling plans have successfully concluded for this year on a truly high note.  Who knows what 1024 will bring?  As ever thanks for stopping by, see you here next week.
Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, as we get ready to fly out to Columbus, Ohio, for the annual Pulp Fest convention lots of very, very cool things have happened in the past week that we had to share with you.  Airship 27 Productions now has a Marketing Director!  He is Michael Vance, an experienced writer-editor whose main task will be the marketing and promoting of all Airship 27 Production titles and their creators.

                  
           MICHAEL VANCE AIRSHIP 27 MARKETING DIRECTOR
To that end, Michael will be sending lots and lots…and lots of News Releases featuring articles about our company and interviews with are super pulp writers and artists.  And we'd very much like all you Loyal Airmen to stay up with all this.  You can do so by writing Michael at (miklvance@yahoo.com) and asking him to put you on the Airship 27 News Releases List.  He'll be happy to oblige you.   Believe, Michael's addition to the staff means lots of bigger and better things for the old Airship 27 and the Air Chief and Art Director, Rob Davis, couldn't be happier to have him aboard.

To that end, we've also created a dedicated Airship 27 blog-site where all of Michael's News Releases and other important news item will be posted.  You can find it here (www.airship27.blogspot.com)  We hope you'll check it out.

We would also like to take a moment to thank Loyal Airmen Sarah Shepherdon who took time out for her own busy affairs to write us a truly wonderful letter telling us how much she has enjoyed our Robin Hood series by writer I.A. Watson and all of Rob's wonderful illustrations that graced those three books. This coming after Sarah had read the latest, ROBIN HOOD – Freedom's Outlaw (now on sale at Amazon in both hard copy and on Kindle).  Sincerely Loyal Airmen, WE LOVE getting your letters, please keep them coming.  It's how we know we're doing it right.

                                   
                                          DART & THE BLACK SCORPION
Many years ago, long after the Air Chief had wrapped up his stint on the Now Comics Green Hornet series, he was contacted by Canadian comics writer, David Darrigo about co-writing a black city avenger ala the Green Hornet.  Darrigo wanted to call him the Black Scorpion and his secret identity would be that of a big city newspaper publisher.  Wanting me to help create it, he allowed me to whip up the Black Scorpion's sidekick and the Air Chief invented a white teenage orphan called THE DART.  Then we produced three Black Scorpion comics for Darrigo's Special Studio imprint, both of us writing under the pen-name of George Stryker.  Each issue contained two 16 page stories, one by Darrigo and one by the Air Chief. 

Earlier this past week a friend posted a picture on Facebook showing all three covers of those comics and it truly sent us on a trip down memory lane.  Somewhere in the process of talking about this on Facebook, a friend, one Glenn Porzig mentioned not only having been a big fan of that short-lived series but that he had actually dressed up like the Dart one Halloween.  We were totally shocked.  Never in our long comics writing career had anyone every dressed up like one of our original characters.  Oh sure, we'd seen plenty of Green Hornets etc. but again, no one every wore a costume based on something created solely by the Air Chief and here was Glenn telling us he had done so.  We immediately if he had any photos to which he replied no….but, he did have one of the mask and hat he'd put together.

                               
                                   THE DART'S MASK & HAT
And here it is.  The Air Chief was totally thrilled and we can't thank Glenn enough for sharing this with us.  Sometimes being a comics creator is just too-too much fun.

And there you have, Loyal Airmen, for another week. Thanks as ever for stopping by. We hope to see many of you in Columbus over the next four day.  Take care and we'll be back here in seven days.
Ron Over & Out!