Greetings Loyal Airmen, well here it is Thursday morning and the Air Chief is writing up his Flight Log a day early as we've got the old Airship 27 loaded and leave this afternoon for Chicago and the Windy City Paper & Pulp Show.
But before we talk a little more about that, we are thrilled to announce the release of our latest pulp title for 2012.

DR.WATSON'S AMERICAN ADVENTURE by Erwin K. Roberts is the second book we've published starring Sherlock Holmes' loyal and loveable companion, Dr.John Watson.  In this tale, Watson and his wife Mary travel to the US on a mission involving her family's past. Once in New York, they meet the soon to be Police Commissioner, Teddy Roosevelt.  From that point on Roberts spins a great yarn that goes from the Catskills of northern New York to the mountain ranges of Montana.  This is a truly fun read.  Features nine interior illustrations by Pedro Cruz and a cover by Rob Davis and Shane Evans.  The book is now available as a $3 digital download on our Airship 27 Hanger website.  (Click on to the dirigible logo to the left of this column.) In a few weeks it will be available at Amazon and then (www.IndyPlanet.com) – We hope you give a try. Oh, and the Air Chief is thrilled to say we will have copies on sale at Windy City tomorrow.

         
                           PULP FACTORY AWARD TROPHIES FROM 2011

As usual, we will once again be announcing the winners of the 2012 Pulp Factory Awards and presenting the trophies to the winners at Windy City on Friday evening before the auction.  The kind promoters of the show have allowed to use this venue since the awards were created and this will be our third year of handing them.  Official Press releases will be sent out announcing the winners as soon as we return.  Always an exciting time.

Last weekend Rob Davis was in Batesville, Arkansas for the second annual Pulp Ark and there picked up our Pulp Award for Best Pulp Comic Book for our black and white Airship 27 Presents ALL STAR PULP COMICS # 1.   We were thrilled to accept this, our second win in this category, and do want to thank all our Loyal Airmen who supported us and voted for us.  Rob and the Air Chief have several new pulp comics coming from Redbud Studio this year, let's see if we can make it three wins in a row.  Ha.

Finally, upon our return, the Air Chief will start getting ready for this year's Free Comic Book Day happening on May 5th.  We'll be at Gryphon's Games & Comics here in Fort Collins that day and hope to see lots of local friends stop.  Okay, the Hangar speaker is calling the Captain.  Time to UP SHIP.  See you next week.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, as we pen these words, it is one hundred years ago today that Fenway Park opened in Boston, Massachusetts and is the oldest major league ballpark in America today.  Happy Birthday Fenway and may you be around for another hundred years.

Which seems like the appropriate time to remind you the Air Chief has a story in FINAL FENWAY FICTION released at the start of the year and is still very much available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other major book sellers.  It's a grand collection of stories, essays and poems featuring our beloved Fenway and the Boston Red Sox.  If you're a sports fan, pick up a copy and see for yourself.

        
                            LARRY, CURLY & MOE
Growing up in the 50s & 60s, the Air Chief was first introduced to the Three Stooges via their 20 minute shorts for Columbia Pictures which still played at the local movie houses. Then when television became popular in homes across the country, they their comedies were feature there.  We loved their wild and wacky slapstick antics and have remained life long fans of the brothers Moe & Curly Howard and their wild haired partner, Larry Fine. We've collected most of their films on DVD and whenever we need to laugh, watch them over and over again.  Recently a new movie was released based on them.  The other day, after long hours on the phone, Valerie told me to grab my jacket and hat, we were off to the movies to see the New Three Stooges.

          
We had been seeing the trailers for this and were anxious to renew our acquaintances with the Stooges.  And both of us loved it.  No, it's not the great comedy every made, but be series, neither were any of the original shorts. What it really is, is a great homage that perfectly captures the zany antics of the Stooges. Ever since its debut, the Air Chief has been bothered by all the so called “purist” on the internet criticizing this movie because these three actors, Will Sasso, Chris Damantopoulos and Sean Hayes aren't the “real” Three Stooges.  Which got the Air Chief thinking about all that idea.  People, get a life. There were no “real” Stooges.  The dimwitted, naive trio portrayed by the Howards and Larry Fine were CHARACTERS they portrayed on screen, period! Those actors were trained on the stages of vaudeville and their crazy slaps, punches and eye-gouges were all routines they taught themselves in perfecting their act.  But it was an act.  Moe Howard was a brilliant man, Curly a comic genius and Larry a gifted musician.  The were not the simple innocents they played on camera.  And neither are these new actors, who do a terrific job in recapturing the essence of those fictional characters and bring them back to wonderful life for today's audiences.  The Air Chief is told children all over are loving this movie, enough so that they are now wanting to find the old shorts and watch them again.  We guess one has to be truly young at heart to continue one's love affair with the Three Stooges.  That includes us, and we'd guess, many of you Loyal Airmen as well.

           
                      FROM TWILIGHT STAR STUDIOS
In the year since the Air Chief moved to Fort Collins, CO, we've made some truly great friendships with many of the local comic book creators here. Two of these are pro artist Felipe Echevarria and writer Todd Jones. Todd have pretty much become the Air Chief's protege and we were only too happy to hook these guys up with our good buddy, and Managing Editor of Twilight Star Studio, Bill Gladman.  The result of that hook up was the newest issue of Twilight Star's Pandemonium Spotlight which features a story, “Gabriel's Last Testament,” by this talented pair and Felipe even did that magnificent cover you see above.  So hit up the old internet, go find Twilight Star Studio and get yourself a copy.  This is Todd's first published comic work and we were thrilled to help get it published.  He has a truly bright future in this business.

Finally, later this week the Air Chief will be a guest at the Rocky Mountain High School here in Fort Collins, for their annual career day on April 24th.  We'll be talking to juniors and seniors about the business of writing and truly looking forward to our visit. 

That's it, Loyal Airmen.  Next week the Air Chief and his partner, Rob Davis, will be in Chicago for the Windy City Paper & Pulp show, one of our favorite conventions.  We hope to see many of you there as always. Till then, take care,

Ron – Over & Out!

Greeting Loyal Airmen, we hope all of you are enjoying Spring and the fun outdoor activities this time of year brings. There's also a glut of new Hollywood action flicks coming to your local cineplex, including a big screen blockbuster this very weekend from famous French director, Luc Besson, called LOCK-OUT.

Now the plot premise of this film goes something like this.  In the future all of the meanest criminals on Earth will be locked away in a prison satellite orbiting the planet. Somehow the prisoners get loose and take over the place and in the process take the President of the USA's daughter as a hostage.  The government then goes out a recruits a hard case named Snow to go up there and rescue her.  All of this is made crystal when watching the trailers for the movie. Upon seeing them, the Air Chief had the feeling he'd seen this story done before, albeit in a slight different way.

In 1981 John Carpenter made a movie wherein the entire island of Manhattan had been turned into a maximum security prison for the most vicious criminals in America.  Somehow the President of the United States ends up there as a hostage and the government goes and recruits the worst hard case of them all to go in and rescue him. This cult classic is of course ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK and started Kurt Russell as Snake Plisskin.  In LOCK OUT, an obvious rip-off of the same plot, Guy Pearce is the hard case Snow.  Now don't get us wrong, we still have every intention of seeing LOCK OUT, it's very much our kind of movie.  Still seeing what an obvious rip-off the story is, we found ourselves thinking how Hollywood has done this kind of thing time and time again.  Here are a few samples we'll never forget.

          
In 1939 director George Stevens filmed a boisterous, fun adventure movie based loosely on a famous poem by Rudyard Kipling called GUNGA DIN.  In 19th Century India, three British soldiers (Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen and Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) and a native waterbearer (Sam Jaffe) must stop a secret mass revival of a murderous Thuggee cult before it can rampage across the land.  To this day its considered a classic with the noble Gung Din (Jaffe) being gunned down as he plays his bugle atop the temple to warn the arriving troops of the ambush set for them.  Of course one would have expected if Hollywood wanted to remake this movie, they would simply do it in the same setting and era.  Ha.  Not so.  Would you believe some Hollywood genius had the crazy idea of doing this story as a western?

        
In 1962, at the height of their popularity, the famous Rat Pack, led by Frank Sinatra, convinced a studio to redo GUNGA DIN as a western with them in the leads.  Thus veteran director John Sturges took the helm of SERGEANTS 3, a wacky western comedy with Frank, Dean Martin & Peter Lawford playing the three cavalry buddies and Sammy David Jr. as the black wanna-be hanger-on.  This time the heroes stumble upon a secret Native American society of dog-soldiers ready to stir up trouble on the frontier.  The movie itself is a joke and a truly sad rip-off start to finish.  Still, the one such movie swipe that truly bowled over the Air Chief was one which started out as a very popular comic book series from Dark Horse Comics.

Barb Wire starring Pamela Anderson Lee in came out in 1996 based on the comic book of the same name. In the movie, Barb runs a strip club in what is left of the Free America Zone located in the Pacific Northwest, most of the rest of the country having been taken over by a fascist dictatorship.  One of her old lovers shows up with his wife, who is now a well known political freedom fighter and they need Barb's help to escape into Canada.
Half way through watching this movie, the Air Chief realized he seen it all before…many, many, many times.  These people were ripping-off one of the most famous classic films of all time!

Directed by Michael Curtiz in 1942 and staring Humprhey Bogart & Ingrid Bergman, CASABLANCA is described in the data files as follows – Set in unoccupied Africa during the early days of World War II, an Ameircan expatriate meets a former lover with unforseen complications.  Now go to that exact same data file and punch up BARB WIRE and here's the quote – “A post-Apocalyptic remake of “Casablanca” set in a strip club.Talk about nerves of steel!  Using a movie classic to whip up a B-flick.  Proving once again, when it comes to Hollywood these days, there simply is nothing they won't do for a buck.

Still we do love the movies.  Till next week, save us the aisle seat and pass the popcorn.
Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, here we are at the end of Holy Week and about to celebrate Easter once again. This is such a holy time for most Americans as it is a time of prayer, reflection and renewal all tied to the changing season where Mother Nature erupts with new leaves, flowers and abundant life all around us.

Spring also heralds the arrival of baseball, still America's favorite pastime sport.  And with it, our beloved Red Sox once again take to the playing field with renewed vigor and excitement.  Eager to put the tragic ending of last season behind them and start afresh.  Led by a dynamic new coach in Bobby Valentine, we once again start looking ahead and not backwards.  Although losing their first game to the Tigers 3 to 2 was not the result we had hoped for, it in no way dampens our enthusiasm for the season ahead.  GO SOX!

     
                                       HE HAS RISEN, OUR LORD AND SAVIOR
It is the Air Chief's deepest wish that all our Loyal Airmen, of whatever faith or denomination will find true grace and blessing on this Easter Sunday.  That our fellow Christians will once again renew their hearts and lives to the service of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, and through that commitment, learn every day to love and respect one another. During his last days with his apostles, Jesus made it so clear, he was to forever be our example on how to live; never for ourselves, but for others.  He carried that love for all of us to his cross, and today, on Good Friday we bow our heads and give thanks to our God of Love, unworthy, but ever ready to learn anew.  Spring brings renewal, Easter the promise of salvation and eternal life.

God bless you and your loved ones and have a wonderful and HAPPY EASTER!!!

Ron Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen. Recently we announced there were lots of new Brother Bones projects in the works and we were not kidding.  And to add to the fun, our artist pal, Delfin Barral whipped the awesome banner proclaiming that fact.  We think its dynamite.  Besides the new full length Brother Bones novel coming from Roman Leary for Airship 27 Productions, there will also be short stories appearing in various pulp magazines printed by Pro Se Productions, a great New Pulp outfit created and operated by our amigo, Tommy Hancock.

            
                                   The Pulptress Takes Aim At Writer Bobby Nash
Last year, as many of you pulp fanatics know, Tommy launched his own pulp convention in Batesville, Arkansas, aptly called Pulp Ark.  At that show, he also introduced a masked lady portraying New Pulp's newest spokes person, the Pulptress.  Tommy thought it would be extremely cool to have appear at shows and even in stories written by many of today's writers.  The Air Chief thought it was a grand idea and came home from the show to write, “The Butcher's Festival,” our first new Brother Bones story in ages.  In it the Pulptress is tracking down a psycho bomber in Cape Noir and crossed path with the Undead Avenger.

                        
                               The Pulptress Meets Brother Bones
Upon completing the story, we sent it to Rob Davis who sketched up the gorgeous illustration above.  Oh, and of course Tommy accepted for the brand new Pulptress digest magazine was going to put together.  Earlier tonight he announced on Facebook that is finished and will hopefully see print next month. It contains a half dozen Pulptress adventures including ours.  We'll let you know when it is available right here.

At the same time, our new long Brother Bones adventure, “The Bruiser From Bavaria” will be featured in Pro Se Presents, a New Pulp monthly mag Tommy publishes.  Look for it to be cover featured in their July edition.  As we promised, lots more Brother Bones is truly on the way.

And finally this Sunday is Palm Sunday and for Christians around the world the beginning of Holy Week, which will culminate on Easter the following week.  We wish all our fellow Christians a blessed, prayerful week ahead.
God bless one and all.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, we're getting a late start this week.  Been  a crazy week for the Air Chief and we're just starting to get things back to semi-normal.  Valerie had a really bad toothache all last weekend and we learned on Monday that she needed a root-canal as an infection had set in on certain roots. So back and forth with several doctors and finally managed to get that taken care. Long gone are the days when all you needed was one just one dentist to do it all. Ha.

           
                                         AIRSHIP 27 ART DIRECTOR ROB DAVIS
Those of you heading out this week-end to Kansas City for the annual comic show, Planet-Comic-Con  do make a point of stopping by Rob Davis' table to say hi and check out the cool stuff you'll find on his table, both comics and a few of our pulp titles.  This is one of Rob's favorite cons and he makes it every year.  This year he'll be accompanied by his teenage son, Ryan, so again, if you are planning on attending this really fun show, do make a point to see him and say hi.  Next month Rob will be representing Airship 27 in Batesville, Arkanasas for the second Pulp Ark; which all starts the 20th of April. Wish the Air Chief could be there, but alas, not this year, Loyal Airmen.  Our first show will be the following week at the Windy City Paper & Pulp show.

On the home front, we've been very busy writing and editing this past week.  Earlier in the week, we got in three new pulp tales; a new Ghost Boy story by Terry Alexander, a new Crimson Mask by C.W. Russette and one of our regular writers, Greg Gick, sent in a new character, The Brown Recluse, who will make his appearance in “Mystery Men (& Woemn) Volume III.  No sooner had we edited these three wonderful stories then writer Brad Sinor sent in his new Sherlock Holmes adventure which we are now going through.  It's absolutely great.

    
                            BROTHER BONES IS RETURNING IN A BIG WAY!

At the same time we've started writing our Operator 5 adventure for Moonstone Books.  About a month ago we did a new Spider for them, now this Operator 5 thriller and later this summer we're scheduled to do another Spider.  Makes you wonder when the Air Chief ever sleeps.  Hahahaha.  Also on the writing front we've got some pretty awesome news.  Not only have we personally started writing new Brother Bones stories, at the constant demand of the Undead Avenger's multitude of fans, but a very talented writer named Roman Leary approached us with an idea for a full length Brother Bones novel.  After seeing how talented this gentlemen truly is, we gave the project thumbs up.  So stay tuned, Loyal Airmen, there's lots more great pulp adventures on the way.

Hope by now everyone of you has gotten to see the movie JOHN CARTER at least once.  We're hoping to go back and see it again this weekend.  And yes, it is that good.  Who are you going to believe, those internet critics who wouldn't know a good action movie if it ran over them, or your ever faithful Air Chief?  Go see this movie, you can thank me later.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greeting Loyal Airmen, we have a full boat of topics to cover and share with you this week, so let's jump right into them first with the latest book release form Airship 27 Productions.

                 
                         Cover by Mark Wheatley
Several months ago New Pulp writers Bobby Nash & Sean Taylor came to the Air Chief with an idea to create a brand new 1930s private-eye character like the old classic detectives ala Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe.  They called their character Rick Ruby as homage to Richard Diamond and both of them agreed to each write a story if we went ahead and produced an anthology. We liked the idea so much, we gave them the green light to write up a series bible and then we offered this to our gang of writers at Airship 27 Productions.  Andrew Salmon & William Maynard signed on immediately to write the remaining two stories. Then we were amazingly lucky to have the legendary Mark Wheatley agree to do our cover and gifted artist Rob Moran to provide the interior illustrations.  This pasts week THE RUBY FILES debut on our Airship 27 Hangar site and at Amazon and the POD shop at Indy Planet.com – you can find links to these locales by clicking on our Airship 27 logo to the upper left hand corner of this log entry. We are truly excited about this book and if you are an avid private eye mystery fan, so will you be. 

Note, both Bobby & Sean are going all out to promote this super book and Sean actually created a Rick Ruby website. This is the URL for it (http://rickruby.blogspot.com/)  Check it out. We think you'll be very impressed. And as ever, we hope you'll give the book a try.

             
Over a hundred years ago, Edgar Rice Burroughs, perhaps the greatest pulp writer who ever lived, wrote an amazing sci-fi fantasy called, “A Princess of Mars.” It told the tale of an ex-Confederate soldier named John Carter who somehow was magically transported to the dying planet of Mars and there experienced a truly outstanding adventure.  He would meet the green martians, known as Tharks and not only become their fighting ally, but ultimately unite their warring tribes. Then he would discover the human-like red martians, among them the beautiful Deja Thoris, Princess of Helium City.  By the book's finale, John Carter battled overwhelming odds to win her hand and love in the greatest epic adventure ever conceived.  The book, upon its release, became a instant success and the publisher demanded sequels from Burroughs.  Eventually his Baroom books, the name the martians called their planet, would become just as popular as his Tarzan books.

The Air Chief, and many of his contemporaries, first read this book back in 1960 when he was only 13 years old. It totally fired up our imagination beyond belief and we immediately purchased all the sequels we could get our hands.  For over 52 years, “A Princess of Mars” has remained one of all time favorite books. And now Pixar and Disney have produced a truly amazing movie, JOHN CARTER, that is so true to the book, we are overjoyed.  We viewed it this past week and will be going back to the theater to see it again shortly.  It is very much THAT GOOD.  Director Andrew Staton has brilliantly adapted all the major elements from Burroughs'yarn and where necessary improved on them visually.  Here is that exact same tale that so inspired us in our youth.

          
                       John Carter & Deja Thoris – Princess of Mars
Everything about this movie is stellar, including the casting of Taylor Kitsch as the Virginian ex-soldier, John Carter and the lovely Lynn Collins as the warrior princess who steals his heart.  So you can readily see the Air Chief is giving this film our highest recommendation.  What we also need to do is warn all our Loyal Airmen to be aware of an actual conspiracy by rival communications companies who have been doing all they can to destroy this movie. How so? By spreading the falsehood that the movie has not been doing well at the box office. That is a blatant lie. All real reporting states the film made over 100 million dollars world wide in its opening weekend. The same naysayers have said it has been critically ill received. Again, a major falsehood. All the most popular film critics from the New York Times to the L.A. Times and Rolling Stone have called JOHN CARTER a terrific action blockbuster worthy of your attention and support.  So again, why would anyone purposely want to make it flop?  Simple, when you trace where these lies are emanating from. Their sources are the media groups that also own the Star Wars & Avatar franchise.  Their purpose is to destroy something they immediately recognize as a competitive threat to their money making machines. 

During the past week the Air Chief has become a vocal member of the John Carter fan base spreading this truth throughout the internet, urging people not to listen to the lies; to go see the movie and if they feel as we do, then tell their friends what a real treasure it is and even go back for multiple viewings.  We are also a part of the Facebook campaign called “Take Me Back To Barsoom” attempting to make Disney Studios admit the film is a real financial success and to go ahead with their plans for sequels.  Great movies like this are rare and the Air Chief is calling on all Loyal Airmen to do their part in spreading the word. Together we can turn back the tide of lies and let a true cinematic treasure shine brightly.

                  
                                     ECO – TEEN
And finally, we'd like to bring to your attention a truly fun internet webstrip created and illustrated by our good friend, Carlos Henrique Silva. It's called Eco-Teen and is a manga styled sci-fi strip filled with lots of action fun for young and old alike.

                
                                                    ENGLISH VERSION OF STRIP
As this strip is produced in Brazil, it is presented in both Portuguese and English.  It really is a beautifully done strip with amazing colors.  If you wish to check it out, their URL is (http://ecoteenwebcomic.blogspot.com/) Be sure to tell them the Air Chief sent you.

And there you have it for this week, Loyal Airmen.  We hope you'll pick up a copy of THE RUBY FILES and some time in the next few days, if you haven't seen it yet, please, go to your local movie house and see JOHN CARTER.  If you've already seen it and agree with us how great it is, then go and see it again.  And with that we'll bid you ado until next week.  Thanks ever for stopping by.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, we hope all of you are doing well and keeping creatively busy.  Last week seemed like slow week at Hangar 27 HQ, and wouldn't you know it, that all got changed around real quick.  This week have two new releases to tell you about and a special sneak audio peek.  Yes, you read that correctly.  But let's get to it starting with our newest Airship 27 Productions release.

The Moon Man Vol One collects five brand new stories of one of the coolest classic pulp heroes of the 1930s. The Moon Man in reality was Detective Sgt. Steve Thatcher of the Great City police.  He was so sickened by the effects on the poor by the Great Depression, he donned the one way Argus globe and became a then modern day Robin Hood, robbing only from the very rich and then, through an accomplice, distributing the money to local charities and churches.  He was created by Frederick C.Davis for Ten Detective Aces magazine and appeared in seventy five stories.  Now we add another five, as penned by Andrew Salmon, Erwin K.Roberts, Gary Lovisi(who did two) and Ken Janssens.  The book is now available at Amazon via Create Space and at our digital store found by clicking on the Airship picture to the left corner of this blog.  We hope you'll give it a try. On, and that gorgeous cover is by Rob Davis & Rich Woodall.  Enjoy.

On the comic front, the Air Chief is thrilled to announce the re-release of a kid-friendly title called DAYS OF THE DRAGON, put together by the Air Chief and his artist pal, Gary Kato, of Mr.Jigsaw fame.  In this set up we tried to imagine a world where dinosaurs did not go extinct and continued to be the dominate, intelligent life on their world…and we are now in it's Middle Ages. And there you have DAYS OF THE DRAGON. The book contains three complete stories which we know children of all ages will enjoy. It was first published many, many years ago by another outfit and had long since gone out of print. So Gary and the Air Chief brought it to Rob and Redbud Studio to get it back in print and on sale for a whole new audience.  You can find the book at (www.IndyPlanet.com) or by going to our Redbud Studio link found on the link page.  If you've small children just getting into reading, we guarantee they'll love this comic.

Finally, for the past few weeks we've told you Loyal Airmen how Airship 27 Productions was working with Broken Sea Audio to do audio versions of several of our books.  The first of these will be an audio version of “Captain Hazzard – Python Men of the Lost City,” by the Air Chief and Chester Hawkes; the house name under which pulp writer Paul Chadwick first penned it.   The book is being read by veteran actor Joe Stofko and the sound engineer on the project is Chris Barnes.  Recently Chris put together a small five minute preview tape for us to share with all of you.  To give you a tiny sample of what the finished book will sound like. Note when it is completed, we will be selling it both as a digital download on our Airship 27 Hangar site and as a packaged multi dics set you can order by mail for your car stereo or PC.  To say we are excited about this venture would be a silly understatement.  So without further ado, here is the that sample audio.

               Play Captain Hazzard Audio

And there you have it, Loyal Airmen.  Sounds amazing, doesn't it? We truly hope you've enjoyed this little audio bonus. A big thanks goes to our son, the PC guru and site manager here, Scott Fortier.  The Air Chief could never have made this fly or anything else without Scott's efforts.

Next Valerie and the Air Chief are very excited to see the new JOHN CARTER movie opening this weekend across the country.  The Air Chief grew up on the books of pulp master Edgar Rice Burroughs and his Martian series, from which this movie springs, was one of our favorites.  Can't wait to see it up on the big silver screen. Take care and have a great week.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, and here we are into the month of March with things popping right and left for us here at Airship 27 Hangar and the Air Chief has never been busier.  We've got lots of cool pulp projects in the work, both from Airship 27 Productions and those individual jobs we'll be writing for other companies.  And before you ask why is the Air Chief is always glad to work for outfits that are in fact our main competitors in the New Pulp community, the short answer is our participation is about making the entire pulp fan community stronger any way we can.  As the old adage goes, the same tide raises all our boats.

  
Truly one of the coolest classic pulp heroes of the 1930s was ace spy Jimmy Christopher, better known as Operator 5.  His magazine was published by Popular Publications and among the writers who detailed his adventures under the house-name of Curtis Steele were Frederick C.Davis and Emile C.Tepperman, two of the finest pulp writers of their time. He appeared in 48 stories from 1934 to 1939.  Now Moonstone Books is assembling a brand new Operator 5 anthology and has recruited some of the best known writers currently working the filed today.  Both editors Joe Gentile & Gary Phillips will be joined in writing new Operator 5 adventures bu Win Scott Eckert, Jeri Westerson, Tommy Hancock, Eric Fein, Aaron Shaps, Will Murray, Martin Powell and Ye Old Air Chief.  To say we are thrilled with this assignment would be a gross understatement.  We are wound for sound.  Of course as the project progresses, we'll keep you posted.

            
                    Cover by Brian McCulloch
One of the finest titles Airship 27 Productions released last year was the third volume in our every popular “Sherlock Holmes – Consulting Detective” series.  These books are truly loved by Holmes fans around the globe. The super talented artist who provided us with the stunning cover above was Brian McCulloch.  Fortunately we were able to coax Brian into doing as yet another great cover for a new Airship 27 book we hope to release by the end of this year.   It will be the second volume in our “Dan Folwer G-Man” series.

          
               New Cover for Dan Fowler G-Man #2
Knowing you Loyal Airmen like sneak-peeks of forthcoming projects, we thought we'd let you see Brian's truly gorgeous new cover before Airship 27 Productions' Art Director, Rob Davis, does his design magic to it when it is ready for publishing.  That is still going to be a while yet.  Although we do have all four brand new Dan Fowler stories ready to rock and roll by Aaron Smith, Derrick Fergson, Joshua Reynolds & B.C. Bell, we are waiting on the accompanying twelve interior illustrations that will grace this new book.

          
                            Art by Neil T. Foster
Turning in his first illustration job for Airship 27 Productions on this terrific new gun-blasting anthology is artist Neil T. Foster.  Above is a sample of his terrific work, an illustration from Derrick Ferguson's story which kicks off the volume.  Needless to say, Art Director Rob Davis and the Air Chief both think we have as yet another fantastic winner on our hands.  Just one of the many we hope to release throughout the year.  So do keep coming back here, Loyal Airmen, because in all honesty, if you like this stuff, you ain't seen nothing yet.

Take care and see you back her in seven days.
Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, this week we're talking about a few odds and end things we've been developing and want to share with you.  Earlier today, the Air Chief had the fun of visiting the Polaris Expeditionary School here in Fort Collins, Colorado and speaking with Mr. Ryan Grindel's class about writing comics.  We had a great time and the kids were wonderfully enthusiastic and asked a lot of great questions.  Hopefully we'll be able to do this again often. We do love sharing our love of comics with the next generation.

Mr.Jigsaw Man of a Thousand Parts #10 is now being drawn by Gary Kato.  It will have two stories in it, one which will feature the winner of our Zone 4 Podcast contest, “Git Jiggy With It,” Ms. Lisa Moore.  In having her name chosen, Lisa won the privilege of becoming a character in a Mr.Jigsaw comic story and so she appears in the book's second story, “A Helping Hand.”  We're always having cool contests like this on Zone 4 and you can follow the show by “liking” our Zone 4 Facebook page.  Fingers crossed the issue will be out by the end of March.

                             
                                            Cover by Rob Davis

On the pulp side of things, the Air Chief has been extremely busy with several different projects.  Many of our fans have been asking when we were going to do another collection of Brother Bones stories.  Last summer we wrote our first new Bones story in several years for Tommy Hancock and his Pro Se pulp magazines called “The Butcher's Festival.”  It hasn't been published yet.  We do love this character and this past week sat down to begin as yet another story, this one called, “The Bruiser From Bavaria.”  Our plan is to continue writing a series of Brother Bones short stories and having Pro Se publish them individually in their monthly magazine, “Pro Se Presents”.  When we have enough to fill a book, Airship 27 Productions will release a second volume as you've all been demanding.  Oh, and here's an exciting news flash, one of our new Airship 27 writers, Roman Leary, is currently in the process of writing a brand new, full length Brother Bones novel.  Stay tuned for further details.

                            
                                        Cover by Mark Maddox
Meanwhile, Airship 27 Productions has entered into a partnership with Broken Sea Audio out of Australia for them to produce audio versions of some of our titles.  They are now recording two of them; “Captain Hazzard – Python Men of the Lost City” by Chester Hawkes & the Air Chief, and “Witchifre,” again by yours truly and my recently deceased mentor, Ardath Mayhar.  When the audio versions are completed, they will be sold at our new Airship 27 Hangar website as digital downloads or on disc in an attractive plastic case.  We haven't determined what the cost will be yet.  Soon you'll be able to listen to our pulp books on your car stereos or PC or other listening devices.  We've heard the first there chapters of “Python Men of the Lost City,” as recorded by actor Joe Stofko and are blown away.  This is really amazing stuff.

Beside this the Air Chief has taken on several new writing assignments for both Moonstone Books and Pro Se productions.  Although we aren't at liberty to tell you what these projects are, we are extremely excited to be involved with both and a part of these writing teams.  One is of a classic pulp hero and other a brand new pulp type action adventure series.  So stay tuned.  As soon as we can divulge more, we'll gladly do so right here.

As you all know the convention season is also right around the corner.  Although the Air Chief will be unable to attend the second Pulp Ark happening in Batesville, Arkansas on the weekend of April 20th, our partner, Rob Davis will be there representing Airship 27 Prodcutions and having most of our great pulp books and some comics available at the table.  The very following weekend of the 27th, we'll both be in Chicago at the Windy City Paper & Pulp Show, this being our seventh trip back.  Wow.  Sure hope to see lots of you Loyal Airmen there.  And later in August it will be off to Columbus, Ohio and Pulp Fest 3. Again, looking forward to hooking up with all our great pulp amigos.  If you've never been to a pulp show, you really should give it some serious thought and start making plans to attend at least one. The Air Chief guarantees you'll have a blast.

Finally, as most Loyal Airmen know, we are major Red Sox fans and are excited to see the new 2012 team now in Fort Myers, Florida at their new Jet Blue park, which is a mini-version of their homebase in Boston, Fenway Park.  In eight more days the team starts exhibition games.  The beauty of baseball is no matter how bad the memories of last year are, Spring brings with it brand hew hope for a winning season.  It's a nice metaphor for life, eternal hope.  As ever thanks for stopping by and we'll see you back here next Friday.

Ron – Over & Out!