Greetings Loyal Airmen, well here were are for another installment of our Flight Log with both good and bad things to report.  Last week, feeling poorly, the Air Chief, at Valerie's nudging, went in to see his doctor. We were expecting to be told we had a bad case of the flu. Not so. As it turned out we discovered we actually had a very bad kidney infection and had we not stopped in for that visit, we most likely would have ended up in a hospital a few days later.  So happily that was averted and we were put on a very high dosage antibiotics treatment that will last for thirty days. In the meanwhile we are going back in to see the doctor for a follow up and to make sure the drugs are working to clear things up.  Quite honestly, we are feeling a whole lot better and are again extremely grateful to Val for getting us in to see the doctor when we did.  Spending the holidays in a hospital bed would have been no fun at all. Ha.

                              
                                        WRITER JOE BONADONNA
Just a little over a week ago, Airship 27 Productions released its 15ht book of the year, a space opera entitled THREE AGAINST THE STARS by Chicago based author, Joe Bonadonna.  Well Joe was so thrilled with how his terrific book came out ( a tip of the hat to Art Director Rob Davis ) he had this photo snapped of himself with his books when they arrived.  The dazzling cover is by the truly gifted Laura Givens and the interior art is by Portuguese artist Pedro Cruz.  We hope you'll pick up a copy either at Amazon (& on Kindle) or at our (www.Indyplanet.com) site as well.  Its truly a rousing sci-fi adventure.

                                 
                                                       THE AIR CHIEF IS READY FOR BEAR!!
Speaking of artist Pedro Cruz, the above image of the Air Chief by Pedro is from a new Zone 4 Comic Book that is now in production. Pedro illustrated one of the strips in the book and that panel is part of his gorgeous work. Note the final comic, when it is available early next year will be in full color.  Anyway, during the past weekend, dealing with my illness, the Air Chief was doing his best to stay optimistic and smiling.  Then out of the blue comes this truly great e-mail from Pedro asking if we would be interested in creating a brand new comic book graphic novel with him?  Trust me, it didn't take us long to answer in the affirmative.  Pedro is such a great artist, we hurriedly sent him half a dozen ideas that have been gathering dust in our files and he immediately latched on to one and said, “Let's do this one.”  Note, the idea Pedro chose is based on an historical event and our graphic novel will tell a “true story” many of you are going to be amazed by.  It's one the Air Chief has been waiting to tell like this for many, many years.  And now we've got the chance. Stay tuned for further development as it all starts to come together; from idea to conception.

                     CHARACTER SKETCHES BY ARTIST JOE ARNOLD
And finally, this coming Sunday the Air Chief will be giving his eight and final class in his HOW TO WRITE COMICS which has been going on at the local comic shop here in Fort, Collins, Gryphon Games & Comics. This will be our last meeting with our students Kristine & Ben and to help brighten the occasion, once again local artist Joe Arnold did up two more very cool drawings based on characters from their respective stories done in the class. The past few months working with these two imaginative young people has been a pure joy for the Air Chief.  Both Kristine & Ben are great writers and you can fully expect to see their comic stories coming your way soon. That's a prediction we make with confidence.

And there you have for another week, Loyal Airmen. Thanks as ever for stopping by, be careful out there this holiday season, lots of people rushing to and fro to get their last minute gift-buying done. Take a second to be a little more cautious so all of you can be around come Christmas morning to join in the fun.
Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings, Loyal Airmen.  It certainly has been a unusually busy week at Hangar 27 HQ.  And wouldn't you know it, the Air Chief got sidelined by a case of the flu two days ago.  Yup, those old familiar aches and pains. Yuk. Been getting lots of bed rest, drinking tons of fluids and praying it will pass in a few more days.  So please excuse the brevity of this entry.

As you'll recall, The Boston Bombers something that Redbud Studio published two years ago and then went on to win the Pulp Ark Award for 2010 for Best Pulp Comic.  But up until now the only place you could get a copy of this fast paced sci-pulp adventure was through Redbud's website on-line.  Now, the good people of Wild Wolf Entertainment, especially their Managing Editor, Sean Collins, in conjunction with Redbudy, have put out their own edition and IT IS AVAILABLE right now at both Amazon and Barnes & Noble on-line.  We couldn't be happier.  Check it out if you haven't done so already.

At long last, the every first Captain Hazzard book I wrote way back in 2006 is now available as four and a half hour audio book thanks to the creative people at Dynamic Ram Audio.  The book is read by stage actor Joe Stofko and he does a truly great job with it.  You can download a copy by going to our webstore.  Hopefully by next year we'll have CD editions to sell at cons.  (Note – We inadvertently put down the name of another audio company, BrokenSea Audio. A dumb mistake that will be corrected.  Again, the audio book was produced by Dynamic Ram Audio.  Sorry about that.)
(http://robmdavis.com/Airship27Hangar/index.airshipHangar.html#PythonAudio)

And last but certainly not least, we have just released our 15th Airship 27 Productions title of the year, THREE AGAINST THE STARS; a rollicking Space Opera action-packed novel by Joe Bonadonna.  It features a stunning cover Laura Givens and interior illos by Pedro Cruz.  The book is available right now as a $3 download on our Airship 27 Production website.

Hard copies can be had at Amazon's Create Space (https://www.createspace.com/4072461)  In another week it should be up at Amazon proper and also Kindle.  And in another two weeks you'll be able to pick up a cheaper copy at (www.IndyPlanet.com).  We've said it before, this has been a banner year production wise for Airship 27 and we aren't done yet.  We've got one more title coming in another two weeks.  Stay tuned.

Thanks as ever for stopping by and all your support, Loyal Airmen.  Now the Air Chief is going to go and get some chicken soup.
Ron -Over & Out!

                                         

Greeting Loyal Airmen, as you are reading this, Thanksgiving has come and gone and many of you are probably caught up in the Black Friday shopping frenzy. First of all, let me say the Air Chief hopes all of you and your loved ones had a great day yesterday, ate lots of good food and said thanks for all your blessings.  We here at Hangar 27 HQ consider all our Loyal Airmen a blessing. We couldn't do what we do without your continued support, so God bless each and everyone one of you during this wonderful season.

So now, let's see what the Air Chief's been up to, beside stuffing himself with delicious goodies.  How about our latest writing project which we just put THE END to a few days ago.  It seems like for the past several weeks we've been surrounded by Tough Guys.

                                       
                                                Actors Lloyd Nolan & Jan Wiley

Being the movie buff that he is, the Air Chief has always loved the gangster movies and those Private Eye thrillers that exemplified the black and white movies of the 1940s & 50s.  Cruel mobsters, hot women, Tommy Guns, car chases and non-nonsense G-Men.  All were iconic characters in many Warner Brothers movie featuring actors like Edward G.Robinson, James Cagney, Humphrey and Lloyd Nolan seen in the picture above.  So when writers Bobby Nash & Sean Taylor created a new tough-guy Shamus from the 1930s named Rick Ruby and inquired as to whether Airship 27 Productions would like to chronicle his exploits, we totally jumped at the chance and earlier in the year released the first volume of THE RUBY FILES.

Along with Bobby & Sean, writers Andrew Salmon William Maynard joined the party and contributed stories,
and thus we had our four stories.  Mark Wheatley provided the cover, Art Director Rob Davis did up the
back cover and off to the presses we went.  Oh, and let me not forget, providing the amazing interior illustrations
was a new discovery for us, artist Rob Moran.

The book did extremely well for us and immediately Bobby & Sean began discussing a sequel. Along that time
Sean dropped me a line and knowing of my enthusiasm for the character suggested the Air Chief write a Rick
Ruby story.  Now, having been the Managing Editor of Airship 27 Productions, we had written our own novels
and story collections from the Captain Hazzard books to the Brother Bones volume but the one thing we had
never done was contribute a story to a regular anthology such as this.  Still, the temptation to play in this world of
tough guys was too great to pass up and we accepted Sean's gracious offer.  Earlier this week we wrapped up
a Rick Ruby story entitled THE LONG KILL which will see the light of day sometime in 2013, so stay tuned.
We had a blast writing it and hope you'll enjoy it.  THE RUBY FILES Vol II will also feature a story by Alan
Porter and another each from Bobby & Sean.  Looks to be another great package.

                                 
                                             Illustration by Ron Moran

Now you'll recall we mentioned the artist who provided the interior illustrations for THE RUBY FILES was Rob Moran.  Above his one of those gorgeous piece.  Rob has a truly love of those old black and white gangster movies and was the perfect choice to round out this book's creative team.  People who've seen his art are just bowled away.  About the same time we were releasing this book, a New York writer named Terrence McCauley submitted a gangster novel to us called PROHIBITION that took place in the 1930s.  After reading the first few chapters, we gladly accepted it for publication, although we weren't sure it would see print this year.
While editing this superior work, we kept remembering Rob Moran's work and knew once again he would be the one and only artist to do justice to McCauley's tough guy yarn.  So eventually we approached him and much to our delight, Rob agreed to take on the assignment and promised to being work on it starting in November.

So here we are, almost done the month and we are thrilled to announce Rob not only honored his commitment and has completed nine truly wonderful pieces but since then agreed to do our cover as well.  Rob Davis and the Air Chief couldn't be any happier.  And so it looks like PROHIBITION  will be out some time in mid-Dec, making it our 16th title of the year.  Before it, we've still got a super-duper space opera called THREE AGAINST THE STARS coming your way in just another few weeks.  Sixteen titles in one year!!  A new record for Airship 27 Productions.  Not too bad for just two guys with a fondness for the old pulps.

So that's how the Air Chief has kicked off his holiday season, with turkey and tough-guys. And has loved every bit of it. Stay tuned for more info as the book nears publication and as ever, thanks so much for stopping by.  Be safe out there and see you back here next Friday.
Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, it looks like the year is whipping past us are warp speed.  Here it is the middle of November already.  The month began with my mother's birthday, four days later it was mine, then earlier this week our granddaughter Krisit turned 21 and yesterday it was Valerie's mother's turn.  Then on the 27 of the month, my baby sister Ann will turn 56.  As you can see, the month of November is rather big birthday-wise in our family. Ha.

The big news here at Hangar 27 is the release and availability of our third Brother Bones audio adventure as produced by Dynamic Ram Audio in conjunction with our Airship 27 Productions.  Once again voice actor Mark Kality does a tremendous job in reading this tale of terror wherein the Undead Avenger, Brother Bones takes on weird Lovecraft like alien monsters in a story written by the Air Chief.  It is only $2 a download on our website (http://robmdavis.com/Airship27Hangar/index.airshipHangar.html#brotherbones)  So please stop on by and check it out.  Ultimately all seven of the Bones story from that first book collection will get this audio treatment.  Reports from other Loyal Airmen who have downloaded the previous two stories have all been most positive.  No surprises there. Dynamic Ram does a great, quality job here.

Finally this week we wanted to give a tip of our pulp fedora to a TV show both Val and the Air Chief have been enjoying a great deal.  It's ELEMENTARY, the fun, modern re-imagining of Arthur Conan Doyle's detective hero, Sherlock Holmes set against the backdrop of today's New York City with a lovely female Dr. Watson played by Lucy Liu.  British actor Jonny Lee Miller takes on the role of the eccentric Holmes who helps the police in a consulting capacity.  The shows are fast paced, extremely well written with the just the right balance of both humor and drama.  Miller & Liu have the perfect chemistry together and it is lots of fun watching their friendship and mutual admiration for each grow week to week.  Of course this isn't a traditional take on the character, but that is no reason to ignore it outright.  Accept it for what it is, a variation and just have fun with it. You might be, like us, pleasantly surprised.

And there you have our ramblings for this week, Loyal Airmen.  As ever thanks so much for stopping by.
Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, been a busy week what with the Air Chief celebrating his 66th birthday this past Monday. We've always enjoyed the fun of the event and being surrounded by family and friends. We lost count after nearly four hundred well-wishes on our Facebook Page.  Unbelievable. It is a humbling feeling to be so well thought of by so many great people.

              
                                           THE AIR CHIEF and ROCKIN' RON
Valerie made a scrumptious Black Forest Cherry Chocolate cake for the after dinner party that was so yummy then we got to the serious business of opening presents.  Lots of cool stuff like Season Three of our favorite TV series FRINGE on DVD and a few sheets of Post Office Commemorative Stamps to include the Edgar Rice Burroughs stamp and the Famous Hollywood Film Directors sheet.  Then amidst all this was the toy above, a mash of giant robot toy and our beloved baseball team, the Boston Red Sox.  It is such a cool toy and we've dubbed it Rockin' Ron.  It now sits with other Red Sox toys and collectibles on our office shelf.

We are also very happy to announce the 14th title from Airship 27 Productions today; MYSTERY MEN (& Women) Vol III.  This is the series that debuts new heroes created by our writers today in the mold of the classic pulp heroes of old.  This issue features the Skein by Kevin Noel Olson, the Brown Recluse by Greg Gick, Kiri by Curt Fernlund and the return of Mongrel by Derrick Ferguson.  The amazing beautiful cover (see above) was painted by Marco Turini and the book features interior illustrations by our Art Director Rob Davis. It is now available at Create Space and our own Airship 27 webpage.  We hope as ever you'll check it out.  It's been a record breaking year for us and we've still a few more titles to bring you before the year is out so stay tuned.

                                         
                                                             ART BY ROB MORAN
Almost a year ago a talented New York City writer named Terrence McCaulley brought us a gangster novel called PROHIBITION which dealt with the Irish Mobs during the 1930s.  We accepted it for publication immediately and then began looking to find just the right artist to do it justice design-wise.  Earlier this year we released THE RUBY FILES, a private-eye book which showcased the talents of artist Rob Moran, an artist with a penchant for drawing gangster scenes inspired by the old black and white crime movies from Warner Brothers.  Rob did such a great job with the private-eye book, we all but begged him to take on PROHIBITION for us and happily he agreed.  Above is his first illustration for that book. There will be a total of nine in all and today we learned Rob will be doing the cover as well.  We are thrilled.  Recently Rob put together an art book of his work and we had the honor of writing an Afterword to the collection.  We'll let you know when it is published where to find it and pick up a copy.  Likewise, you can expect to see PROHIBITION from Airship 27 Productions early next year. Again, we'll keep you posted.

And that's it for this week's news from Hangar HQ.  With snow blanketing the East Coast in the past few days, we can safely say Winter has arrived.  So stay warm and be careful on those icy roads. We want you back here next week, all safe and sound.
Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, and here we are, only a few days after Halloween and the spirit of ghosts and goblins sitll hangs in the moon.  Here in Fort Collins, Colorado we've been enjoying a whopping fat harvest moon that sat up in the cloudless skies watching over all the little Trick or Treaters last night.  Really puts one in the mood of the holiday season.

                 
                             BROTHER BONES by artist Joe Arnold
And seeing that half this Flight Log was going to center around monsters, we thought we'd share the latest Brother Bones illustrations done as part of the new comic script the Air Chief wrote for the second issue of ALL STAR PULP COMICS.  The artist is a local fellow, one Joe Arnold, and he's extremely gifted. We've been having a blast working with him. The story is called NEEDLE JUSTICE and the black and white anthology it will be a part of showed be out by Redbud Studio early next year.  We'll be sure to keep you all posted.

And keeping on the theme of monsters, the Air Chief's latest fiction has just been published in the anthology pictured above.  Earlier in the year fellow writer Jim Beard approached us about contributing to a new pulp book he had created.  The stories would take place after World War One and involved a group of mysterious people, four men and a women, who traveled the globe hunting down monsters and destroying them.  They would be called MONSTER ACES.  Jim wrote up a bible and sent it along with his request.  It reminded the Air Chief of a classic DC comic book series he'd enjoyed as a youngster, CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN.  So we sat down and wrote a Monster Aces' adventure entitled THE GHOUL.  The book was released last week from Pro Se Productions with a really gorgeous cover by Terry Pavlet and beside our entry features stories by Barry Reese, Van Plexico and two by Jim.  Honestly, the Air Chief is thrilled to be a part of this line up, as we consider these writers the best in their field.  MONSTER ACES is now on-sale at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and available on Kindle.  Please, if you enjoy horror with a good dose of fast-paced pulp adventure, go pick up a copy now.  You'll be glad you did.

Segue into a more serious topic, our hearts still go out to all the Americans living along the Eastern Seaboard who were so adversely impacted by hurricane Sandy.  We keep them all in our prayers daily and urge all Loyal Airmen to do the same and if possible, help with the relief efforts any way you can, to include contributed to the American Red Cross.  Despite this horrific event, we continue to marvel at the indomitable spirit of those people we seeing in TV interviews vowing to get back on their feet, rebuild and reclaim their lives and homes.  They do us all proud.  God bless them all.

                    
                                            A GUY FAWKES MASK
Finally, in another few days two dates of significant occur and ironically they both have a connection to each other.  The first is Monday, the 5th of November and the Air Chief's 66th birthday.  Yup, we're getting up in years, Loyal Airmen, time truly dragging as along for the ride. Ha.  Of course it is always fascinating to see who else shares one's birthday.  In our case the 5th of November was also the birthday of the King of Cowboys, Roy Rogers and legendary comic book artist, Jim Steranko.  And, whereas we just finished celebrating our fall holiday in Halloween, our British friends celebrate Guy Fawkes Day on …the 5th of November.  It is accompanied by a famous rhyme ala “Remember, remember, the fifth of November and the gunpowder plot….”
This relates the story of Guy Fawkes, an anarchist who attempted to blow up Parliament because he believe the government was corrupt and not representing the will of the people.  He was caught before he could light the fuse and on November 5th hanged to death and thereby forever became an outlaw hero to the British people. It was this story that proved to be the inspiration for comic writer Alan Moore's classic graphic novel (turned movie) called V for VENDETTA.

Now the Air Chief mentions all this, not only because he shares his birthday with the death of this infamous rogue, but also because the very next day is Tuesday, Nov 6th, which is Election Day.  Keeping in mind that a people must be ever vigilant that its elected officials do in fact represent them and never give away their personal freedoms to any government, no matter its duplicity and arguments.  We remain a free people by protecting our God given rights as set down in the Declaration of Independence and by exercising our democratic power to vote for the people who will serve us…and not the other way around.  So please, regardless of your party affiliations, do the American thing and go out and vote.  And as ever, GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!

Ron – Over & Out!!

Greeting Loyal Airmen, well Halloween is just around the corner and as promised, we've managed to release the second gripping Brother Bones audio adventure from Dynamic Ram Audio as read by voice actor Mark Kalita with sound engineer Chris Barnes.

“SHIELD & CLAW' pits the Undead Avenger of Port Noir against a mob werewolf assassin and Mark and Chris pull out all the stops to provide fans with a fantastic listening experience just perfect for this Halloween season and its only $2 a download available at our on-line shop. Simply click on the Airship blimp to the upper left of this column.  We promise listening to this mp3 audio tale, you'll have a howling good time. Ha.

                              
                                                JOHN FARRELL
Another Fall classic is of course the World Series and this year's contest got rolling in San Francisco this week between the Giants, the National League champs and the Detroit Tigers, the American League champions.  Hopefully it will be a rousing good series  with some great baseball moment to hold us through the winter.  As most of you who follow the sport are well aware, our beloved Red Sox had a truly horrible year and Bobby Valentine wasn't able to change the losing course of the franchise, this terminating his one season as manager.  The Boston front office wasted no time in announcing his replacement, former Red Sox Pitching Coach, John Farrell, who for the past two years as been the manager of the Toronto Blue Jays.  Most fans, this one included, believes Farrell is a good fit as during his tenure in Boston as the Pitching Coach, he had a great rapport with all the players and management.  Now, with two years of managerial experience under his belt, some of it admittedly rough, he's back with an organization that he liked working for and in return valued him.  One can only hope this return will finally begin fixing some of the major woes of the current club and get them back to their winning ways.   In baseball, it's always, “Wait till next year.”

And finally this week, we want to share with you just how much we are enjoying the fifth and final season of the TV sci-fi series FRINGE.  The Air Chief has been a fan from day one and now, five years later, is seated on the edge of his chair every Friday night and Dr.Bishop, his son Peter and FBI Agent Olivia Dunham lead a revolt against the bald-headed observers from the future in one final desperate battle to save mankind.  Created by genius story teller, J.J. Abrams, FRINGE has entertained us greatly these past five years and we are going to be sad to see it leave.  But for now we're enjoying one hell of a great final ride.

And that wraps it up from Hangar 27 this week, Loyal Airmen, as ever thanks for stopping by and get out those costumes.  Time to go TRICK OR TREAT!!!
Ron – Over and Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, and welcome to this week's Flight Log.  Every since starting Airship 27 Productions one of our most successful series starring a golden age pulp hero has been the SECRET AGENT X books.  Created by veteran pulp scribe Paul Chadwick, SECRET AGENT X had his own title which ran for 45 issues.  Not bad for a second stringer.  He was tagged as the Man of a Thousand Faces because no one knew his true face, he was a master of disguise and very much an inspiration for all the spy-heroes who would follow ala James Bond and all the others.

Whereas he was public domain, one of our first titles was a brand new SECRET AGENT X anthology which had four brand new tales of this super patriotic warrior.  The book sold extremely well and we soon followed it up with a second and then a third.  All were equally well received and since then our Loyal fans have been clamoring for more. This past week we finally put together a released the fourth book in this highly successful series.

As the other three previous volumes, Art Director provided the majority of the art for this book.  He drew all the 12 black and white interior pieces and the pencils for this dramatic over which was then digitally colored by Shane Evans of New Zealand.  The book features four brand new Agent X tales and they are fantastic.  Bobby Nash has him confronted by mysterious mountain men in Europe. Jarrod Courtemanche pits X against a man who manipulates fear; Kevin Noel Olso has him fighting the famous French pulp villain Fantomas and lastly, writer Frank Schildiner offers up an early exploit wherein the daring American spy allied himself with Lawrence of Arabia; the inspiration for our cover.

The book is now available at Amazon in both hard copy and on Kindle, as a PDF digital download from our website and soon as a cheaper Print-On-Demand edition from (www.IndyPlanet.com)  However you choose to pick up a copy, we don't think you'll be disappointed. X is back and in big, big way.

Speaking of our website, over the course of last weekend, Rob reported having some problems with the cart functions being reported by some of our customers.  So the Air Chief put out a call to our personal PC Guru, our oldest son, Scott.  Scott took time from his busy schedule to examine the program on which our Airship 27 Hangar site is written, found the errors in the code and corrected them on the spot.  Within minutes, everything at the website was working like a charm. So thanks a million, Scott, we truly appreciate your helping us out.  And to any of our Loyal Airmen who experienced problems trying to purchase a file there, we apologize and tell you those snafus have been eliminated permanently.

Speaking of which, our BROTHER BONES audio tale continues to sell and we're getting such wonderful feedback from those who've downloaded it.  Dynamic Ram Audio is nearly finished recording the second story in the series and we fully expect to have it on sale by Halloween.  So stay tuned.

My new comic writing teaching class is moving along better than the Air Chief had hoped.  We've always enjoyed sharing our love of comics the tricks we've picked up over the past thirty-five years.  Early next year, artist Rob Davis, and the Air Chief, will be guest at the Oklahoma Writers' Conference were we will be giving two ninety minute presentations on the creations of graphic novel. Both of us are looking forward to that event with much excitement.  We'll keep you posted as it all develops.

Have a great week and thanks for stopping by as always.
Ron – Over & Out!

Greeting Loyal Airmen, well another fine Fall week has slipped by us and as ever its been a busy one around the old Hangar 27.  Earlier in the week the Air Chief finally picked up the new Warner Brothers DC animated movie, BATMAN – The Dark Knight Returns (Part One) based on the classic graphic novel by Frank Miller.  We make no secret of our love of WB animation movies.

And it is a bit ironic how Marvel Studios is producing some of the best live action comic book movies ever, as evidence by the just released mega-hit, AVENGERS, but can't produce any decent animated flicks.  The joke is, they are owned by Disney today, one of the greatest animation giants in the business.  Yet somehow, time after time, the folks at DC-WB animation outshine them at every turn, doing these beloved characters brilliantly.  This one is no exception and Peter Weller (the original Robo-Cop) voices the elderly Batman coming out of retirement to save his beloved Gotham City from the ravages of street gangs.  Although sold as a Part One, be aware Bruce Time and his team do give us a complete story with a beginning, middle and effective end, so we aren't left with a cliffhanger awaiting Part Two that will be out in a few months.

                                 
                                             Superhero Green Arrow in ARROW
Speaking of Warner Brothers, their television network this week also hit another bullseye (sorry, couldn't resist the pun) with the debut of their new superhero series, ARROW.  This is based on the second string hero from DC Comics, the Green Arrow.  Created as a back-up feature in the late 1950s, the Green Arrow was very much a Batman want-to-be with a Robin Hood fixation.  Like Batman he had a kid aid, his names Speedy and whereas the Batman has the Batmobile and Batplane, Oliver Queen had his Arrowcar and Arrowplane.

The back story was millionaire playboy Queen is shipwrecked on a South Seas island for a number of years where he teaches himself archery to survive.  When rescued and returned to America, he does the green costume to become a costumed hero, again, much like Batman.  So for many, many years he was a secondary character few fans gave any real attention to.  Then in the mid-sixties, writer Denny O'Neil and artist Neal Adams revamped him entirely, adding a mustache and blond goatee, they made Green Arrow a left-wing liberal who came to be the champion of all kinds of social causes prevalent to that decade.  One that transformation took place he became a much more interesting character and quickly acquired a loyal fan-following to this day.

Now comes this new television interpretation that wisely takes elements from his origin tale and then mixes it with more contemporary elements making him a great deal grimmer and savage than any of his comic personas.  This character, upon his return to his corrupt home city, is not afraid to deal death to the scum who have infested his community.  He is truly a dark avenger more connected with the 30s pulp figures than any of his earlier comic appearances.  After watching the premier episode, we were hooked.  Hopefully this series will remain this fast paced and fun to watch.

                                
                                          HOW TO WRITE COMICS
And finally a week ago Sunday, we began our new teaching class at the local comic shop here in Fort Collins.  This is something the Air Chief has been wanting to do ever since moving to this wonderful city.  We have two students, both eager to learn the art of writing graphic stories and novel and our first night was fun.  For the next seven weeks the Air Chief will be providing them with the tricks of the trade he has acquired over a thirty five year career.  One we have never tired of and still continue to enjoy to the max.  Our goal is nothing less than to see both Ben & Kristine (our students) get published by the end of the course.  And trust me, we will make that happen.

As ever, thanks for stopping by and get out those ghost sheets and skeleton dolls.  Halloween is just around the corner.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greeting Loyal Airmen, here we are in the merry old month of October and across the land Fall has settled in with her splash of colors.  Winter is on the horizon, Halloween will soon be upon us.  What a fitting time to be focusing on one of the most fanciful characters we've ever had the pleasure of creating.

Since its release, BROTHER BONES – The Undead Avenger has been of Airship 27 Productions' most popular and successful books.  Demand for more of his adventures keep coming into the office and this past year we had the good fun of doing two new Bones tales that appeared in two Pro Se Production titles.  For the uninitiated, Brother Bones is a former mob assassin in the Northwest port city of Cape Noir.  When he is killed, his soul is not allowed to leave this mortal plain, rather it must remain in his dead body and do the bidding of the Fates as their agent of avenging justice.  The tales combine the fast paced thrills and colors of traditional pulp fare while mixing in elements of fantasy and horror.  Like we said, a perfect hero for Halloween.  Well, now you are going to be able to hear his very first adventure in a brand new audio recording.

This past week the talented folks at Dynamic Ram Audio released the very first Brother Bones tale from the book collection as produced by Sound Engineer Chris Barnes and recorded by voice actor Mark Kalita, with accompanying music and special sound effects added.  Initially our plan was to have them produce all seven stories from the book and then sell them at our website as a digital mp3 download for the price of $9.99 – the same price we offer our first audio title, WITCHFIRE.  Still, economic hard times being what they are, the closer we came to Chris and Mark wrapping up the origin story, The Bone Brothers, we started to rethink our original marketing strategy for something that might be lots more reasonable to our fans.  We opted to sell each story individually once they were completed for the very low price of $2.  Yup, you heard correctly.  Right now you can go to our website and for the price of a Statbuck's coffee, download The Bone Brothers; 74 minutes of audio thrills and chills.

Honestly Loyal Airmen, the first time the Air Chief listened to this recording, we were blown away by how great a job Dynamic Ram Audio did with our creepy tale of murder and supernatural mayhem.  When Kalita, in his reading, becomes Brother Bones….he BECOMES BROTHER BONES!!  The transition in his voice is eerie to day the least and riveting.  Truly this audio story is well worth your attention and support and for two bucks, how can you go wrong?  (http://robmdavis.com/Airship27Hangar/index.airshipHangar.html) 

The audio tale went on sale four days ago and already it is quickly becoming one of the most successful products we've ever put out.  Those who have bought it have been truly enthusiastic in their praise of the recording.  We are thrilled by the response and hope you'll join in the fun.  Note, Chris and Mark inform us that the second tale in the series is almost finished.  With fingers crossed we hope to have that one available to you about a week before All Hallow's Eve. Stay tuned.

Finally, in three more days the Air Chief will begin teaching a HOW TO WRITE COMICS course at a local comic shop here in Fort Collins, CO.  It will be an eight week course detailing both the history of American comics and how to write them in a professional manner and should help any new scribe put together a presentation package publishing houses will want to look at for consideration.  We taught a similar course ages ago back in New Hampshire and had a blast doing it.  So here's hoping lightning strikes twice.  We'll keep you posted.

And that's it for another week here at Hangar 27. As ever thanks for stopping by.
Ron – Over & Out!