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!

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!