Greetings Loyal Airmen.  As the Air Chief writes these words, many of our friends and colleagues are in San Diego attending the big, big..BIG COMIC CON.  We wish all our Loyal Airmen at the show a great time and we can't wait to hear all the news about what comic companies are going to surprise us with next.  And speaking of surprises, we at Airship 27 Productions revealed a beauty this past week across the internet.

Ever since the Air Chief and his pal/art director, Rob Davis, began Airship 27 Productions, we focused solely on using public domain characters for our books.  Being a small, two many operation, we hardly had the cash need to acquire rights to most licensed properties out there, especially those that would fit into the mold of pulp action hero. Then late last year, one of our new writers, Jim Beard, came to us with an intriguing offer.  It seemed Jim had been speaking with the owners of Captain Action Enterprises, Inc. LLC, Joe Ahearn and Ed Catto about the idea of writing a Captain Action pulp novel.  Okay, so before going any further with this story, here's a little history about this character.

                 
Captain Action began life back in the mid-1960s as an action toy figure.  The unique thing is once a boy or girl bought a Captain Action figure, they could could out and buy other costumes for him; costumes that would turn him into other heroes such as Batman, Superman, Spiderman, the Lone Ranger and the Green Hornet to name only a few. This ability to change one hero, simply buy changing his outfit, was extremely well received and the toy was a big hit. 

In fact Captain Action became so popular, he eventually got his own comic title from DC comics and lots of great artists such as Wally Wood and Gil Kane worked on the short lived series.  Then after the 70s, he slowly drifted away into obscurity as do a lot of one popular toys.  Then in 2004, as mentioned above, Joe Ahearn and Ed Catto acquired the rights and began working diligently to make Captain Action a household name once again. Part of that effort was launching an entire new comic series, this time from Moonstone Comics out of Chicago where he fared rather well.

Then a new toy company began issuing brand new Captain Action figures with all new costumes, this time to include Captain America and Thor.  We're told in the very near future there will be an Iron Man outfit and a Rocketeer outfit. You can sign us up for that latter one. Now that's crossing over into true pulpdom which brings our story full circle. You see, with all this success in the toy and comic fields, the one venue Captain Action had yet to conquer was that of prose fiction and that is exactly what writer Jim Beard was proposing to the owners last December. 

When they turned out to be receptive to the idea and asked to hear more, Jim then directed them to the Air Chief and Airship 27 Productions, truly going out of his way to describe us as one of the leading quality publishers in the New Pulp Movement today.  Joe and Ed looked over our titles and ultimately contacted us via a remarkably friendly conference call which, when it was all over, we had agreed to produce for them the first ever Captain Action pulp novel.  Of course Jim was set to be the writer and he got to work immediately.  Our choice for interior illustrator was easy, none other that Rob, our super talented Art Director and genius book designer. The challenge was to find the best possible cover painter and after putting our heads together, Rob and the Air Chief knew the only person we wanted for this project was super talented artist Nick Runge.  Nick is a personal friend and several years ago painted a Mr. Jigsaw cover for our comic series by that name that people still drool over whenever they see.  So we contacted Nick and much to sheer joy, he signed on readily to paint the cover.

           
                          COMING SOON!
And there's that glorious cover pictured above for Jim Beard's thrilling novel, CAPTAIN ACTION – Riddle of the Glowing Men.  The actual book is in the last stages of production and will debut at this year's Pulp Fest in Columbus, Ohio, 9th to 12th Aug.  Note, Jim will be at the Airship 27 table on Sat. morning, 11th Aug to autograph copies of the book.  Obviously we full expect the appeal of this book to both pulp fans and toy collectors will make it a very highly sought collectible and hope you Loyal Airmen will grab a copy soon as they become available.  Rest assured, the day they go on sale, we'll notify you right here on where to purchase yours.

And that Loyal Airmen, is how an action toy figure became a bonafide pulp hero.  To say the Air Chief isn't excited would be a whopping understatement.  We think this book is a winner and trust you'll agree.  As ever, thanks for your continued loyalty and support.  See you back here in seven days,

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, well here we are, just about a month from our trip to this year's Pulp Fest in Columbus, Ohio. Hope to see lots of you pulp fans there. The con has a new hotel venue now and it looks to be bigger and better then where they've held the show the past two years.  The Air Chief has been asked to moderate another New Pulp panel and we were only too happy to accept this invitation.  Some of the New Pulp writer who will be sitting in are Jim Beard, Rick Lai, Win Scott Eckert and Tommy Hancock. Tommy is a good pal and the owner manager of Pro Se Productions.  Recently two of our newest pieces of pulp fiction have appeared in Pro Se tittles.

We received our copies this afternoon in the mail and they are truly great looking books.

The Pulptress digest book stars a new female pulp hero created by Tommy. This volume features five of her adventure as written by Tommy, Terry Alexander, Erwin K. Roberts, Andrew Judy and the Air Chief. Our story, “Butcher's Festival,” has her teaming up with our Undead Avenger, Brother Bones.  Whereas the second, average size book is a brand new anthology of Rook stories edited by his creator, Barry Reese and David White. Barry invited five of his colleagues to write a Rook tale and he added a sixth. Beside yours truly, the other writers in this great collection include Bobby, Nash, Mike Bullock, Percival Constantine and Tommy Hancock. Both these books are tons of fun for any lover of pulp fiction. You can find them at Amazon, Barnes & Noble on-line etc.  Give them a try. We think you'll like them.
             
Of course we at Airship 27 Productions have been keeping busy and if all goes well, we will be releasing two new titles this month.  The first is SINBAD – The New Voyages and above is picture of the famous sailor and his international crew.  It was drawn by Ralf van der Hoven who did twelve black and white illustrations for the book itself. We were lucky enough to have this one colored by our friend Casey Beamis.  This series will feature stories much in the same vein as the old classic Ray Harryhausen movies.  Having finished reading and editing the stories for this first volume, we can tell all of you this book is a real winner.

Our second book is the Top Secret project Rob Davis and I have been keeping under wraps since the start of the year.  For the first time ever Airship 27 Productions will be publishing a book starring a well known, license property.  We'll be announcing all the details in another week and not only we'll we have copies of this book at Pulp Fest, where it will make its debut, but the author will be there to sign copies as well.  We will also be raffling off two posters of the cover painting. A true work of beauty.  Anyone buying a copy of the book will have their name put in for a chance to win one of these two posters.  Looks to be a lot of fun.

And that's what we've been up to these past few weeks.  Lots of cool stuff as ever.  Thanks for stopping by and we hope you're all enjoying summer.  Till next week….
Ron – Over & Out!

Greeting Loyal Airmen, while we were away at the super Denver Comic Con, our 9th Airship 27 Productions pulp title of the year was released and is selling like hotcakes.

JUNLE TALES  Vol One features three new adventures starring the classic Ki-Gor Jungle Lord as written by Aaron Smith, Duane Spurlock and Peter Miller. It is graced by an amazing cover by artist Bryan Fowler and also has twelve black and white interior illustrations by Kelly Everaert.  As you can see, we are fairly excited about this book and hope you'll check it out. As ever, you can find it Amazon or get it at our Airship 27 Hangar as a $3 PDF download file by clicking on to the dirigible logo to the upper left of this column.  Nine books so far this year.  Believe me, Loyal Airmen, we're on a roll.

Last week we also promised you we'd be sharing lots more pictures taken at the Denver Comic Con and here we go. Above is Valerie, son Alan, TV actor Bruce Boxleitner and Alan's wife Nicole. Boxleitner has been a favorite of our ours ever since he played the lead role on Babylon 5.  We're happy to report he's one hell of a great human being was only too happy to talk with all his fans.

The highlight of Saturday night at the show was the Costume Contest. Above was a fellow in a really cool Captain American that we really liked a great deal.  The winner was a savage barbarian in a homemade outfit who called himself, The Scavenger and looked like a Frank Frazetta painting come to life. Alas, no photos of him.  Sorry.

             
                     
As most Loyal Airmen know, the Air Chief is best known for writing the Green Hornet comic series for now comics in the early 90s.  When we saw this figure draped out like that character, we had to stop and check it out. The vendor who was selling authentic TV Green Hornet mask and gas-gun replicas suggested we try on one on and Val snapped the accompanying photo. This was a hoot.

No never knows what one is going to find at a comic con and lo and behold, this Police British Police Box just popped up in a corner.  We thought we'd seen it before somewhere and before it up and vanished again, son Alan and his wife Nicole made sure to get a shot in front of it.  All our Dr.Who fans out there, this was just too wild you can bet there is a photo of the Air Chief and the Tardis in our private albums as well.

And finally this little R2 D2 unit showed up following the Air Chief around one day.  Have to admit, he was a great conversationalist.

And there you go for another week, Loyal Airmen.  Thanks ever for stopping by.  And please, we are sure all of you by now are well aware of the horrible and devastating forest fires that have been burning here in Colorado for over three weeks now and have destroyed hundreds of private homes both in the north and south. Please pray that we do eventually get cooler weather and much needed rain, and remember all those brave fire fighters who have been on the front lines since they one.  They are real heroes to all of us here.  God bless each and everyone one of them.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, well here we are, having survived the amazing, super-duper, wonderful premier of the ever mega Denver Comic Con held at the Denver Convention Center last week. Although we don't have any official tallies, estimates have something like twenty-two thousand people attended this amazing three day show, the first of its kind in the Mile High City.  Our utmost thanks and praise to all the people who we've been told have been working for over three years to make this show a reality.

      
                            Valerie & the Air Chief at Table #41
Of course we were thrilled to be invited as one of the dozens of local Coloradan creators to be guests for this debut con.  And we extend a heartfelt thanks to all the great people who came by to say hi and by the end of the three days had bought nearly 80% of our stock of comics.  Truly awesome.  Mr.Jigsaw was a big, big hit and we are sure now has some truly dedicated new fans. Between us and our Fort Collins crew, we took lots and lots of photos and in the coming weeks will be sharing them with all you Loyal Airmen.

     
                            The Air Chief & Jasika Nicole of FRINGE
If you are a regular visitor to this Flight Log every week, then you already know our favorite television series these days is J.J.Abram's FRINGE on Fox, which wrapped up its fourth season a few months ago.  One of the shining lights of that cast is the lovely Jasika Nicole who plays F.B.I. agent, Astrid.  When we first discovered she was going to be one of the “big” Hollywood guest of the convention we were thrilled but never in our wildest imaginations did we think we'd actually get to meet her.  Sure enough, early Sat. morning as the staff was beginning to set up the events before opening the doors to the public, in walks Ms.Nicole being ushered to her table by one of the con volunteers.  Seeing there was no one around yet, Valerie nudged the Air Chief to go up and say hello. Fighting off our sudden attack of shyness, we approached the table and introduced ourselves and confessed to being a huge fan of both the show and her role in it.  If you've at all ever seen FRINGE, then you will already know the character she portrays is pretty much the heart of the team that investigates weird, paranormal activities.  Lo and behold, much to the Air Chief delights, Ms.Nicole is just as warm and friendly as the character she portrays and happily agreed to post with us for the photo above. In leaving, we once again thanked her sincerely for coming to Denver and making Colorado's first big show something special with her presence. This was truly the highlight of my weekend, Loyal Airmen, and one we will never forget.

     
                    Jeff Herndon, the Air Chief, Todd Jones & Felipe Echevarria
Another of the real joys of being part of this con was being able to share it with many of our Fort Collins colleagues to include the three you see pictured above with the Air Chief; artist Jeff Herndon (who has already done several beautiful covers for Airship27 Productions) writer Todd Jones, our protege and pro artist Felipe Echevarria (who is also working on a cover for Airship 27).  Both Felipe and Todd were actually across the aisle from our table. Missing in this shot is pal, Mike Baron, who was seated to our right with his wife Ann all weekend.  Sharing this weekend with these amigos was simply icing on the cake.  And we don't want to forget artist Nick Runge, another Fort Collins native who joined us.  As you can see, there was LOTS of comic talent at this show.

         
                        Cora & the Wonky Robot
Of course one of the coolest activities seen at big cons such as this one is the many, many fans who come to these shows decked in out elaborate costumes of their favorite comic, fantasy or movie heroes.  They are now called COSPLAYERS, a merging of the words COSTUME – PLAYER.  We saw dozens of them all weekend long and Valerie snapped lots of great photos of many of them.  We thought we'd display one of our favorites, the wonky robot here posting with our beautiful granddaughter, Cora.  Our son Alan, his wife Nicole and our grandkids, Cora and her brother, Alex, joined us both Sat. night and all day Sunday.  It was the first time Cora, Alex and their mother had ever attended a big comic con.  They had a blast.

And finally, while we were all in Denver having such a great time at the con, our latest Brother Bones short story entitled “Butcher's Festival,” was released as part of the new Pulptress digest anthology from Pro Se Productions. This is the first new Brother Bones story in over five years and we were thrilled to have it be a part of this very cool little book. You can find it on Amazon and Barnes & Noble and all major book sellers.  We hope you'll check it out. The idea behind the book is the Pulptress, the First Lady of New Pulp, teams up with a different pulp character in each of the five stories features in this anthology.  The book is a winner and we hope you'll pick up a copy soon.

And there you go, Loyal Airmen.  The Air Chief has attended, and survived, our first ever giant Colorado comic con.  Again our hats off to the promoters and dreamers who made this all happen and hopefully we'll all be back next year to do it again.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, as we go into the Father's Day weekend, there's lots of things going on here at Hangar 27 HQ, so let's get cracking.

Over last weekend we released our 8th Airship 27 Productions title of the year, TALES FROM THE HANGING MONKEY.  A new series of South Sea island adventures created for Airship 27 by writer Bill Craig. It all takes place around a small island called Mortugra where an ensemble of ship captains and pilots gather looking for their next paying job, most of which lead to all kinds of exotic adventures.  Joining Bill in this first collection are fellow pulpsters Joshua Reynolds, Derrick Ferguson and Tommy Hancock.  The book is available at Amazon.com, and www.IndyPlanet.com plus our Digital Hangar website found by clicking on our dirigible logo to the upper left of this column.  The cover to this book is by Daniel Ibanez and the interiors are by Clayton Hinkle.  We hope you'll give it a try.

We've been mentioning quite often recently that one of the most exciting new aspects of pulps these days are the audio book recordings of classic old pulps.  RadioArchives.com out of Spokane Washington is one of the leaders in this field and we had the good fun of listening and review their new title – THE SPIDER – Wings of the Black Death.  Four and a half hours of pure pulp thrills as wonderfully read by Nick Santa Maria and Robin Riker.  For our full review go to our Pulp Fiction Review blog linked above this column.  You'll be glad you did.

Finally on the comic side of things we thought we'd tease you with this panel from our eight page Black Bat script we wrote for Excelsior Comics out of Spain. They are publishing this new Black Bat anthology and were kind enough to invite the Air Chief to contribute a strip. The art is by the amazing Eric Johns.  We had a great time creating this adventure called “Blind Justice” and as soon as the comic is available, we'll let you know right here.

Finally, and staying on the comic thread, Valerie and the Air Chief will be in Denver all weekend as guest of the new, big Denver Comic Con being held at the Denver Convention Center 15ht to 17th of June.  We will be found at table #41 in artist alley and hope to see many of our Loyal Airmen in attendance.  We've lots of comics to show you.  Should be a blast.

Oh, and least we forget, a truly Happy Father's Day to our all Loyal Airmen who are Dads.  Being a parent is the hardest and most rewarding job in the whole world. For all you Loyal Airmen who are great and loving Dads, we tip our hats to you and say, God Bless.

Till next week, Ron, Over & Out!

Greeting Loyal Airmen and welcome back to Airship 27 HQ.  Happily this week we have two new comic titles to tell you about and our latest short story based on a very cool, original pulp hero is also on sale. So here we go.

Our very popular and successful series; MR. JIGSAW – Man of a Thousand Parts continues with the release of issue #10.  This one contains two stories, “The Missing Mom Affair,” and “A Helping Hand,” both written by the Air Chief and all art by the super talented Mr.Gary Kato.  Note, the second story is that which features the winner of our Get Jiggy With It contest that we ran on the Zone 4 Podcast over at Comic Related.  To enter people had to write in saying why they enjoyed listening to our weekly show. The winner's name was drawn from all the entries submitted and it was Lisa Moore.  Her prize was being written this story as a supporting character and we are sure by Lisa must be very tickled to see herself interacting with Jiggy and his crew.  It was fun to write and we hope you'll check it out.  This book is available on-line at (www.IndyPlanet.com)

Also out this week from Redbud Studios was the third issue of the Air Chief's own title, RON FORTIER'S TALES OF THE MACABRE.  We've been very happy with the response this series has received from all you Loyal Airmen and this new issue features four brand new tales all written by the Air Chief and drawn by different art teams; some of the best new talent in the business today.  And our good pal, Gary Kato, signed on to do the fun cover above, showcasing a typical night at home in the castle for Uncle Ron.  Again, copies of this comic and the previous two issues can be obtained at (www.IndyPlanet.com).

Note, this time next week the Air Chief and Valerie will be down in Denver getting ready for the premier of the big DENVER COMIC CON, which opens to the public at the Denver Convention Center Friday June 15th for the entire weekend.  There are going to be literally hundreds of guest from the comic world, movies and television so we hope to see many of you Loyal Airmen there. Do stop by our table to say and check out the dozen or so comics will have on display for sale, including the two mentioned above.  Looks to be a grand time for sure.

On the pulp front we are very, very excited about the release of  TALES OF THE ROOK from Pro Se Productions recently.  The Rook is a new pulp hero created several years ago by our good friend Barry Reese and we've enjoyed every single Rook title he's put out.  Towards the end of 2011, Barry approached the Air Chief and four other writing colleagues inviting all of us to write a Rook story for his new collection, as seen above. This was a real privilege and honor to for the Air Chief and we had a blast writing our Rook adventure, called, “The Miss Beantown Affair.”  We're told its the first story in the collection. We can't wait to get out copy to read with the other writers offered up.  They include Mike Bullock, Percival Constantine, Tommy Hancock, Bobby Nash and one for Barry himself. Lots of great New Pulp fiction from some of the best in the field, excluding yours truly.  The book is available at Amazon.com – Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy now.

Finally, one of our favorite movies of this year was JOHN CARTER from Pixar & Disney, it being a live action adaption of Edgar Rice Burroughs classic pulp sci-fi fantasy adventure, Princess of Mars.  Despite what you might have read, the movie was great and was never a flop, having earned back its initial costs and continues to bring in profits for the studio. Why they chose to call it a failure has more to do with inner-studio politics than true box-office accounting.  Still, that is neither here nor there, the movie is awesome. This week it came out on DVD and Blu-ray.  We picked up the latter and watched it on our big screen TV.  It is the third time the Air Chief has watched it and we enjoyed just as much, if not more the third time around.  Mark our words, this movie is a classic.  If you haven't seen it yet, or don't own it, shame on you.  You are missing a real winner.

And there you have it for this week, Loyal Airmen.  Again, if you live anywhere near Denver, do try and make the show next week.  We'd love to see you there.
Ron – Over & Out!

Greeting Loyal  Airship 27 Airmen. Every week the Air Chief enjoys getting together with all of you to detail what we're up to here at Hangar 27.  Well this week, it seems we've been recruiting all manner of new Airmen and we thought it would only be fitting to shine a light on some of them.  All of them are cook people and we are thrilled they have come to support our efforts.  It's really an international group.

                         
                                      TANJA & THE RUBY FILES VOL ONE
Ms. Tanja Schumacher is a journalist from Hamburg, Germany,  She is also a huge fan of British illustrator, Rob Moran, whose recent art was featured in our book, “The Ruby Files.”  When Tanja heard of this, she went and ordered a copy of the book and then upon receiving it, had the above photo snapped and put it up on Facebook for Rob to see.  Thank you so much, Tanja, and trust you enjoy the four Rick Ruby adventures in this collection. Welcome to the ranks of Airship 27 Loyal Airmen.

                 
                                       SCOTT P DOC VAUGHN & KANE GILMOUR
A few weeks ago, comic and pulp fans gathered in Birmingham, Alabama for the Pheonix ComiCon. Among the creators there were artist Doc Vaughn and writer Kane Gilmour who together produced one of the coolest pulp comic strips on the internet today, “Warbirds of Mars.”  But don't take my word for it, Google this amazing strip and hang on for a wild and original pulp ride. Recently Kane saw a picture of the Air Chief wearing his Airship 28 baseball cap and asked where he could get one of those. We pointed him to our Cafe Press page and lo and behold he bought one immediately…and that's what he is wearing in this picture. Way to go Kane and welcome to the ranks of Loyal Airmen. Continued success with all your great projects.

        
                               JOE BONADONNA & A FEW AIRSHIP 27 TITLES.
As it would turn out, someone else on Facebook saw Kane's request about the official Airship 27 baseball cap and went out and grabbed one for himself as well. Writer and goof pal, Joe Bonadonna ordered one and when it came in, he had this picture taken wearing it and showing off his terrific collection of Airship 27 pulp books.  Way to go, Joe!!  We are truly so appreciative of you…and all our Loyal Airmen. Without you wonderful people there'd be no reason to keep the Old Airship 27 flying. Thanks ever and we promise to continue bringing the best quality pulp titles we can.  Speaking of such, take a look at our seventh title of the year.

“Sgt. Janus – Spirit Breaker,” by Jim Beard is our latest release, arriving over last week's Memorial Day Weekend. Sgt. Roman Janus is British, living outside London during the Edwardian period. He is an occult detective with the ability to deal with ghosts of all kinds. The fun of this eight story collection is that each of the tales is told to us by his clients. Thus we get a new first person narrative in each story and get to see our hero from eight different perspectives. Its a neat writing approach and Beard pulls it off beautifully. Only released a single week and sales are already brisk and rising. The book features a stunning cover by artist Jeff Herndon with eight interior illustrations by Eric Johns. The book is available in digital download format by clicking on to our dirigible logo to the left of this column, or you can order a hard copy from either Amazon or www.IndyPlanet.com –  We hope you'll check it out.

And that wraps it up for another week, Loyal Airmen.  It was a pure joy turning the spotlight on you this week and if you'd like to pick up one of our classy Airship 27 baseball caps, just go to Cafe Press on-line and write in the search block (Airship 27 Productions).  Remember, anyone coming to our table at a convention wearing one of these will get 50% off any one item on our table. Our small way of saying thanks for sharing our fun.  And there you have it.  See you back here in seven days.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen.  As most of your will recall, a few months ago we posted an audio peek to the Broken Sea audio book version of “Captain Hazzard – Python Men of the Lost City,” as read by Joe Stofko.  Well at the time we also mentioned Broken Sea was producing a second audio book from our pulp line. They are doing WITCHFIRE as penned by the Air Chief and his dear friend and mentor, Ardath Mayhar, who passed away at the start of the year. To the best of our knowledge, Ardath never had any of her previous novels done as an audio book.

WITCHFIRE is the story of  a modern white witch, Morgan Rein, who must confront a sadistic warlock attempting to gain control of a giant international corporation.  It is one of Airship 27 Productions' oldest titles and we are truly excited to see it coming to melodramatic life as an audio book read by Fiona Thraille, a remarkably gifted voice actor.  Click on the link below to hear a short audio snippet.

            WITCHFIRE AUDIO PREVIEW

Let us add that the sound engineer on this project is Chris Barnes, another super talent and all around great guy. Working with Chris on these two books has been a real pleasure and we can't wait to have them completed and make them available to all of you soon.

On another front, we are constantly grateful for all the many wonderful fans we have come to know over the years since beginning Airship 27 Productions.  One of our most Loyal Airmen is Melvin Creston Williams who happens to think our character, Brother Bones – The Undead Avenger is a terrific pulp hero. So much so that Mel recently commissioned a fellow named Marshal on E-Bay to make him a one of a kind, original 13″ action figure of our gruesome avenger. He was gracious enough to ask our permission and after we gave him the thumbs up, send along several great pictures.  Below is one of these.

        
               BROTHER BONES – The Action Figure
Hey, we wouldn't mind seeing one of those under our Christmas tree some day.  Honestly, the work is gorgeous and we particularly love the detailing ala Bone's dirty and torn jacket.  Now that is one creepy gun blasting hero.

And there you have it for another week, Loyal Airmen.  We want to wish all of you and your families a truly grate Memorial Day weekend.  While enjoying all those great outdoor family activities, do take the time to pause and recall the brave men and women in uniform, living and gone, who have served our land so nobly To all of them we give a huge thanks and keep them forever in our daily prayers.  God bless them and America.

See you back here next week.
Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen and our apologies for not being able to post an entry last week.  A very unexpected situation arose that compelled us to fly back east to New Hampshire.  Nothing serious mind you, and once taken care of, Valerie and the Air Chief were able to enjoy our visit with our moms on Mother's Day plus seeing other family members to include our two granddaughters, Kristi & Chelsea. We had such a great time with them and also enjoyed meeting Kristi's (a sophomore at the University of New Hampshire now) boyfriend, Taylor Hodgdon who just happens to be a huge Mr.Jigsaw fan.  Small world, isn't it?

         
                     Our Friend Lisa Moore Contest Winner
Which is an excellent segue into our next topic here.  As most of you Loyal Airmen will recall, earlier this year we ran a contest on the ZONE 4 weekly podcast in which our listeners had to write in telling us why they enjoyed listening to our show.  At the end of several months all the entries names were put in a hat and our co-host, Brant Fowler drew one name to be the winner.  The prize we promised was that they would then appear in the very next issue of our comic book series, Mr. Jigsaw Man of a Thousand Parts.  Well, the winner was our dear friend from Texas, Ms.Lisa Moore, one of the premier colorist in our medium.  Once Lisa had won, she was kind enough to send me several photos of herself such as the one above, which we then gray scaled and sent off to artist Gary Kato along with our script in which she would guest star.  We are very happy to report that Mr. Jigsaw # 10 is now complete and at the printers even as we write these words.  It features two stories, the second called “A HELPING HAND” is the tale in which Lisa appears.  Below is part of a page from that story.

     
Gary did a great job capturing Lisa's likeness and we made her a research engineer who develops prosthetic limbs for our wounded soldiers coming home from the Middle East.  With fingers crossed this issue will be on sale soon and of course we'll post a cover image as soon as that happens.  And a special thanks for Lisa for playing our contest and again congratulations on your win. We truly hope you like your appearance in this story.

And finally, unless you've been hiding out in a cave the past few weeks, you will be aware the biggest, best, most fantastic comic inspired movie blockbuster of all times is now out at theaters.  We are of course referring to Marvel's AVENGERS, the culmination of a series of spectacular movies begun with IRON MAN and then followed over the past four years with HULK (2), IRON MAN (2), THOR and then CAPTAIN AMERICA.  All of which were actually one massive tale and for the first time in movie history offered us a shared-world scenario exactly as the comics have featured since Marvel was born in the early 1960.  Kudos to Marvel Studios for their vision, for their determination to stick with such a phenomenal project and for bringing together such incredible talent both in front and behind the camera.

AVENGERS brings such a wonderful ensemble cast, each perfect in his or her role.  Robert Downey Jr. has the right smirk to be Industrialist genius Tony Stark (Iron Man). Chris Evans totally wowed us in his role in CAPTAIN AMERICA and he reprises it with ease in this cinematic sequel. Of course one of the biggest surprises of all in this movie was the big green guy, the Hulk, with Mark Ruffalo becoming the third actor to play the split personality behemoth on the silver screen, following Eric Bana and Edward Norton.  And after seeing AVENGERS twice, we believe Ruffalo is by far the best Bruce Banner since the late Bill Bixby portrayed him on television. By the time this film rocks into its final, all out battle in the last thirty minutes, the Hulk takes center stage is is simply awesome to behold.

These fine actors are aided and supported by Chris Helmsowrth (Thor), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow) and make his debut in this series, Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton (Hawkeye).  Returning are the stalwart Samuel L. Jackson as the tough leader of Shield and the ever brilliant Tom Hiddleston as the mischievous villain Loki who plans on ruling the Earth….until the upstart Avengers get in his way.

AVENGERS is the pinnacle of adventure fantasy film-making and we applaud writer/director Josh Whedon for his masterful control of what could easily have been a train-wreck.  That he could shine a light on all these magnificent heroes and yet at the same time make them work smoothly as an ensemble cast was sheer genius.  No surprise the movie is making KAZILLION dollars world-wide. Seeing it brought the Air Chief back to the days of his youth,when in 1961 he purchased a copy of Avengers # 1 and thought it was by far the coolest comic book in the whole world.  Now it has become the coolest movie ever.  God bless everyone who had a hand in bring this dream to life.

Oh, and if you'd like to “hear” the Air Chief wax lovingly and long about this movie, be sure to tune into ZONE 4 now when it is posted at the Comic Related website later today, as co-host Brant Fowler, Gordon Dymowski and John Wilson join us in discussing AVENGERS like the loveable geeks we are.

Till next week, go see Avengers.
Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, it is great to be home again at Hangar 27 after a super whirlwind trip to Chicago last weekend for the Windy City Paper & Pulp show. It being our seventh time there, Airship 27 Productions rocked the con and it proved to be the biggest and most successful show we ever had there.

           
                        The Air Chief and Rob Davis with writer David Smith in background.
Our table was overflowing with pulp books and comics and our eager, Loyal Airmen were soon swarming all over them.  We sold so many of our titles, Rob had to keep re-stocking the table all weekend long.  Of course with nearly fifty titles in our catalog now, one table gets pretty filled up fast.  We've been talking about adding another table at next year's show to give us enough room to properly show off our wares. Stay tuned.

          
                                         THE PULP FACTORY AWARD TROPHY
Of course of the big highlights of this convention is the Friday announcement and presentations of the winners of the annual Pulp Factory Awards.  Awards given to the best writers and artists of work produced in the new pulp field during the previous year.  We are delighted that two of Airship 27 Productions' were honored this year.

               
                    PFA BEST PULP NOVEL OF 2011

The winner of the Best Pulp Novel went to Charles Saunders for his wonderful and history making book, DAMBALLA pictured above.  This is the book that introduced the world to the first ever, 1930s African American avenger type pulp hero.  This was truly a well deserved victory.

              
                  PFA BEST PULP COVER of 2011

Legendary artist Michael Wm. Kaluta became the first ever creator to win two awards for the same book.  He took Best Pulp Cover and Best Interior Illustrations, both his truly stunning work on Don Gates' novel, CHALLENGER STORM – Isle of Blood.  Honestly, that was by far one of the closet races in the competition this year, but Kaluta's work proves good artists only keep getting better.

         
                THE HAPPY AIR CHIEF WITH MOONSTONE EDITOR JOE GENTILE

The one category Airship 27 Productions did not take this year was for Best Pulp Short Story.  Ironically, the Air Chief actually won that award for his Avenger tale, “Vengeance Is Mine,” which appeared in last year's Moonstone title, THE AVENGER – The Justice Inc. Files. edited by our good friend, Joe Gentile and the late Howard Hopkins; who passed away last Dec. It was a bitter sweet honor receiving this award from our peers and we so wish Howard could have been there with us. Though we are sure he was looking down on the event with a big smile on his face; the Avenger was his favorite pulp hero.  You see this very same book won writer Barry Reese the Pulp Ark Award for Best Short Story for his entry, “The Devil's Workmen.”  Like we said in accepting this award, Thank You Howard.

Note all three books are still very much on sale and available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other major booksellers.

And that was our stellar weekend in Chicago, Loyal Airmen.  Now we prepare ourselves for a second in a row momentous weekend. As you are reading this, Friday 4th May, Marvel Studios has release perhaps what will become the biggest comic book box office movie smash ever, AVENGERS.  For the first time in any single motion picture, half a dozen of the great comic book heroes come together to defeat a twisted god of evil and defend the Earth.  Based on the Marvel comics of the same name, it features Captain American, Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye and Nick Fury of SHIELD.  We hope to catch an early morning viewing at our own local cinaplex.  We were 13 years old the summer this book appeared on the newstand. We loved it then and expect to feel the same way about this flick.  Save us an aisle seat.

After which comes Saturday, 5h of May, National Free Comic Book Day across the country and Canada.  The Air Chief will once again be spending the day at Gryphon's Games & Comics here in Fort Collins, and we hope to see lots of our fellow comic fans there as well.  Looking forward to a great day.

Phew, all this excitement is certainly making the Spring of 2012 one we won't soon forget.  Hoping all you Loyal Airmen have a great, fun weekend too. 

Ron – Over & Out!