Greetings Loyal Airman, today, Nov. 11th is Veteran's Day, something we Fortiers have always been proud of.  Our father, George Fortier and his brothers Richard Fortier and Noel Fortier all served in World War II, while their older brother Raymond Fortier worked as a welder at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.  During the Korean conflict their younger brothers Robert and Paul Fortier both served in the Navy.  By the time the 60s rolled around, the Air Chief and three of his first cousins all served in Vietnam and our brother George Fortier Jr, served with Naval Intelligence at this same time. About ten years ago our oldest son Scott Fortier served six years in the Army Reserves and today our nephew Jason Cormier is stationed in Iraq.  As you can see our family has never shirked its duty to our great country and on this Veteran's Day the Air Chief wishes to thank ALL the brave men and women, in all the branches of services protecting our great country in all parts of the world.  We never ever take you for granted and you are always in our prayers ever single day. God bless you all, everyone and bring you home safely when your tour of duty is honorably served.  Amen.

    
Last week we posted a rough sketch of the above cover as done by the amazing Michael Wm. Kaluta.  We are thrilled to reveal the full, finished piece in all its dramatic beauty.  The book is by first time writer, Don Gates, and now on sale out our Digital Hangar (merely click on the dirigible logo to the left of this column) and also available at our Print On Demand shop at Indy Planet.  Withing a week it should be available from our publisher Cornerstone Book Publishers through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and all other major book distributors.  CHALLENGER STORM – Isle of Blood is our ninth book of the year.  We have one final release planned Dec. which will bring out catalog of Airship 27 titles to a whopping 43 books!!!  And take my word for it, if you are at all excited by this great looking book, hold on to your hats.  We got lots of great new titles ready to roll out next year.  The old Airship 27 continues to soar higher and higher.

       
                    Space Captain Jain Marlee
A few weeks ago, over on the Comic Related website, the Air Chief made friends with a super talented young artist named Brian Level.  Brian works in a tatoo parlor is married and at that time was expecting their first child.  We were so taken with Brian's drawing that we started kicking around possibly doing a small strip together, but it would have to be that…small.  Brian was worried about what kind of commitment he could give a project once the baby arrived.  Last night, the Air Chief sat down and wrote a 4 pg comic script entitled THE SMUGGLER'S LAMENT and sent it off to Brian via e-mail attachment.  Lo and behold, he replied today after telling us that his baby had indeed arrived earlier in the week and he and his wife were deliriously happy and frantic all at the same time. So much so he failed to tell me the baby's sex, name or any other pertinent details. Ha.  But along with his joyous note was this piece of art which he whipped up hastily after reading my short script, it is of the story's hero, Space Captain Jain Marlee.  Brian loved our script and has agreed, when time permits, to draw it for us. We couldn't be happier.  Once the project is done, it will be published in a future issue of “Ron Fortier's Tales of the Macabre.”  Stay tuned.  We'll keep you posted.

(Just in from Brian – Samuel Burton Level was born at home on Sunday 6th Nov 2011, at 10:39 a.m. and weighed 9 lbs and was 21″ long. He and Mom are doing super and Brian said it was all “…a beautiful experience.”)

Finally, tomorrow, Sat. Nov. 12th the Air Chief will be one of the many guest at the Cowtown Comix Fest located on the Metro State campus, Tivoli Building, Berrensen Room 320 in Denver Colorado between 2 p.m. and 9 p.m.  The show is pretty much devoted to independent artists and their comics and their are almost twenty local creators scheduled to be there. We hope to see many Loyal Airmen stop by.  In thirty five years of being part of comics, we've never done a “night” con before.  It should prove to be most interesting.

And there you have it for another week, Loyal Airmen, as ever thanks for stopping by and again, if you know a Vet, or have one in your family, give him or her a handshake, hug or salute and just say THANK YOU. It means everything!
Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen.  Welcome to a rather important Flight Log with all kinds of cool things happening for the Air Chief in all the facets of his life.  First up, on Sat. 5th of the Nov., we turn 65 years old.  Meaning we will be officially enrolled in the ranks of Americans on Medicare.  Hard to believe when we think about that simple fact. This past year living here in Colorado has been one of our happiest ever and having lost nearly thirty pounds, we feel healthier than ever. Still, 65. It does give one pause.  Five more years to 70 and then who knows. Longevity is not a family trait with my clan. Will we beat the odds?  Who can say?  The thing is for the most part its been a really amazing life thus far and we feel totally blessed. What with Valerie precious love, our five children, all amazing human beings each and every one of them, our six fantastic grand kids, the oldest of whom turns 20 next week, our mothers still very much alive and kicking and our truly wonderful friends.  See what we mean about being blessed.   And our creative productivity has been greater than ever with more new comic projects and prose assignments than we could have ever imagined a decade ago when we retired from G.E.

We do love birthdays, we love the fun, they are a celebration of life, love and gratitude. Thank you dear Lord for every single second, minute, hour and day of this continuing journey.  And thanks for joining me on it.

      
Speaking of amazing journeys, artists Gary Kato & Rob Davis, two of the Air Chief's dearest pals and collaborators have just finished putting the final touches on what is going to be the biggest single issue of MR. JIGSAW Man of a Thousand Parts we've ever published.  Called The Mr. Jigsaw Special, this 44 pg book details, in a very personal and humorous way how the three of us go about making a comic book.  In the issue Jiggy visits with the Air Chief here in Colorado and we talk about script writing.  Then he travels to Honolulu, Hawaii where artist Gary Kato explains the process by which he translates our scripts to graphic form.  And lastly Jiggy arrives in Hallsville, MO, where Rob Davis demonstrates how he scans Gary's pages into his PC and then assembles the files to be sent to our printer.  And voila, a Mr. Jigsaw comic. 

Included in this 44 page treasure chest is an actual script by the Air Chief and its realized graphic version.  Plus a few other visual treats you will not want to miss.  When ready for sale, this entire giant issue will sell for only $3.50 – so, Loyal Airmen, if you know any talented young writers and artists who dream of one day entering this fun career, you are most certainly going to want them to have a copy of this super special issue.  Stay tuned, we'll be posting the cover here when it becomes available for sale.

     
           Cover Rough by Michael Kaluta
Also this coming weekend, Airship 27 Productions hopes to officially announce the release of our ninth book of the year, a novel debuting a brand new pulp hero written by Don Gates called CHALLENGER STORM – Isle of Blood.  It's a terrific book and features the artwork of one of the most well known, respected graphic artist in the world, Mr. Michael Wm. Kaluta.   He contributed nine black and white interior illustrations and a gorgeous color cover you'll have to see to believe.  The Air Chief has posted an early rough sketch of that cover in progress.  Be sure to come back next week to see it in all its completed beauty.  You will not be disappointed.

So this is the Air Chief's big birthday weekend.  On the 12th of Nov we'll be traveling south to Denver to attend the one day Cowtown Comix Fest.  We'll post lots more information on that event in next Friday's Flight Log.
And that's a wrap.  Thanks as ever for stopping by, we'll see you back here in seven.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, here's what most of Colorado, including Fort Collins, looked like Wednesday morning when people woke up and headed for work.  By the end of the day our town had 8 inches of wet heavy snow that brought down tree limbs all over.  Crews have been working around the clock to clean up the mess.  Yup, only days before Halloween and Winter has arrived.

        
                                      Super Artist Nick Runge and the Air Chief
As you all know, the Air Chief spent most of last Sat. afternoon at HEROES ONLY, a great comic shop in nearby Cheyenne, Wyoming, along with his good friend, the super talented artist Nick Runge.  Nick has made a name for himself in the comics industry by his truly awesome covers for IDW, to include work on ANGEL and TERMINATOR SALVATION.   Nick was also responsible for the amazing artwork that graced the cover of MR.JIGSAW Man of a Thousand Parts # 4.  We sold lots of those at the event as fans were anxious to have both of us sign their copies.

        
              P.J. Brown, Nick Runge & The Air Chief
We truly want to thank all the great regular customers at HEROES ONLY for the nice turn out and making us feel so welcome.  And of course a huge thanks goes to owner P.J. Brown who made it all possible.  At the end of the day P.J. graciously made it known that we could come back any time we had a new comic to showcase. We are certainly going to take him up on that kind offer.  And lastly, having the opportunity to catch up with Nick who we had not seen in several years, by the end of the day, Nick agreed to do a cover for an Airship 27 pulp book next year.  We aren't going to spill the beans on which title Nick wanted to tackle, but believe me Loyal Airmen, it will knock your socks off when it happens.  We are really, really excited about this.

And speaking of exciting happenings, our favorite movie of the past summer, CAPTAIN AMERICAN – The First Avenger finally arrived on DVD & Blu-Ray.  And no, the Air Chief did not go out and buy a copy on the day it was released.  You see our birthday is just around the corner, 5th Nov. and a certain lovely lady has made it known this particular Blu-ray movie would be awaiting us on that special day.  Yahooo.  If yo are one of those few Loyal Airmen who missed this at the theaters, do not wait a second longer.  Directed by Joe Johnson, the genius behind THE ROCKETEER, this movie based on the Marvel comic hero is easily one of the most enjoyable action flicks we've ever seen. It will eventually be getting lots of viewing here at Hangar 27.

        
                                  A Scene from Universal's Classic FRANKENSTEIN
So, here we are going into the Halloween weekend, with Sunday evening the scheduled Trick or Treat night. We trust all of our Loyal Airmen have stocked up on candy goods for all the mini ghouls and goblins who will be knocking on your doors.  This is one of the Air Chief's favorite holidays and he looks forward to it every year.  This year, in honor of Halloween, he and his ZONE 4 podcast co-host Brant Fowler, Gordon Dymowski and John Wilson last week recorded a very special little radio drama to kick off episode 138.  So today, Friday 28th Oct, that show will post at (www.ComicRelated.com) later in afternoon.  We urge all our Loyal Airmen to go to the site and listen in as the Air Chief and his pals had a ball creating a little audio play to kick off the show. We think you'll really enjoy it.

And there you have it, Loyal Airmen.  HAPPY HALLOWEEN fun to you and yours and come back next week when we have the pleasure of announcing the release of our 9th Airship 27 pulp title.  Written by Don Gates with art by a truly American legend, you will not want to miss this announcement.  Till then, Trick or Treat!

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, it looks to be a very busy weekend for the Air Chief.  On Sat. we are heading up to Cheyenne, Wyoming to do a store signing at HEROES ONLY, a terrific comic & games shop owned and operated by the affable Mr. Porter J. Brown.  Check out the cool poster P.J. did up for the event.

All the information pertaining to the event is right up there on that oh-so cool poster.  Note, joining me will be Fort Collins own super graphic artist and a really great pal, Nick Runge.  The Air Chief is really hoping to see many Loyal Airmen from both Colorado and Wyoming come down and join in the fun.  And if you are curious as to what kind of goodies we'll have on hand, well check this photo out.

     
                                       The Air Chief & Two of His Latest Titles
On sale at this event will be issues of “Ron Fortier's Tales of the Macabre” # 1 and the recently released private eye comic, “Price For The Asking” #2.  We've got a good supply of each.  Note, we'll also have lots of copies of the ever popular Mr. Jigsaw Man of a Thousand Parts series. At the same time we had a poster made up of the “Tales of the Macabre” cover drawn by our pal Rob Davis.  All those who stop by for the signing and pick up a book from the Air Chief will be given a ticket.  At the end of the day one will be drawn and that poster given to the lucky winner, autographed personally to him or her.  Just our humble way of saying thanks for coming to the event and supporting us.

        
                     Airship 27 Writers Adam Lance Garcia & W.Perter Miller
Speaking of events. as many of you know, last week the big New York Comic Con was held in that wonderful city and over a hundred thousand comic fans attended.  Among them were several of our colleagues to include Airship 27 Productions writers Adam Lance Garcia and W.Peter Miller.  Adam even sat on a panel devoted to the pulps.  During the weekend Adam, who, along with Peter, has written adventures of the classic pulp hero the Green Lama, was thrilled to encounter an enthusiastic fan dressed up as his favorite pulp hero and snapped this photo.

        
                    The Green Lama at the NYCC
Check out the book the Lama is holding tightly, it's THE GREEN LAMA UNBOUND, winner of last year's Pulp Factory Award for Best Pulp Novel as written by Adam Lance Garcia.  Pictures like these clearly show why we love ingconventions, Loyal Airmen.  One never knows who you will run into.  And speaking of Airship 27 Productions, check out our three latest releases.

     
                                   The Air Chief & three new Airship 27 titles.
Thus far this year, Airship 27 Production has put out seven books.  The last three titles we released were WEIRD HORROR TALES – Light's End the novel by Michael Vance, JIM ANTHONY SUPER DETECTIVE in The Mark of Terror by Joshua Reynolds and LANCE STAR -SKY RANGER Vol III, with stories by Van Plexico, Bobby Nash, Bernadette Johnson and Sean Taylor.  As we approach the end of the year, we have three more waiting in the wings which will bring out total to ten books for 2011.  Next up is MYSTERY MEN (& Women) Vol II with stories by Adam Garcia, Derrick Ferguson, Mark Halegua, Andrew Salmon and Greg Bastianelli.  Next month will see the launching of a brand new pulp hero, CHALLENGER STORM – Isle of Blood by Don Gates with art by the legendary Michael Kaluta and we'll be ending Dec. with offering up writer Ian Watson's second ROBIN HOOD adventure, Arrow of Justice.  You will not want to miss any of these great titles. Stay tuned.

And there you have it for this Friday, Loyal Airmen.  Hope many of you baseball fans are enjoying the World Series now underway between the Cardinals and Texas Rangers.  Two games so far and they are tied one to one, both teams being very equally matched.  It looks to be an exciting contest.  And let's not forget, Halloween is just around the corner.  Oh, yeah.  Time to get your spook on!

Ron – Over & Out!

Greeting Loyal Airmen, as you are reading this Flight Log, many, many, many of our comic colleagues are now in New York City for the big four day Comic Con.  The Air Chief attended this mega party about three years ago with friends from New Hampshire and had a blast.  Hoping all our Loyal Airmen in attendance are also having a great time.

               
On the comic front we thought we'd offer you a sneak-peek at the Black Lion, a comic project we've had in the works for many, many years.  Lt. Jamal Lyon is a former Navy Seal who now travels the globe for a wealthy Japanese sponsor, helping people in danger.  We've never progressed more than that set up and writing a few scripts, alas there's no artist affixed to the project.  A week ago a young fellow named Brian Level asked to see my set-up proposal and was taken enough with it to do up the above illustration.  We were bowled over upon seeing it.  This is exactly how we picture the character in our own imagination.  Unfortunately Brian and his wife are expecting their first baby and he's caught up in so many other things, he simply could not commit to doing the project with the Air Chief so, unless a stroke of magic occurs and another great artists comes down the road soon, we will be putting The Black Lion back into the “someday” files again.  Sigh.

Whereas on the pulp side of things, this past week Airship 27 Productions launched a new project.  We will be doing a series of anthologies starring the greatest magician-escape artist of all time, Harry Houdini.  Eight of our regular pulp writers have signed on and soon will begin writing these fictional adventures of this amazing man who was easily one of the first superstars of 20th Century entertainment.  Stay tuned as we'll pass along more information as the first book starts coming together.

And finally, in just a little over a week, the Air Chief will be Cheyenne Wyoming to do a comic shop appearance.  The shop is HEROES ONLY, located at 3151 E. Nationway Suuit K5 and the telephone number there is (307) 287-0632.  This cool shop is owned and operated by P.J. Brown, one really awesome fellow and we hope to see many of our Loyal Airmen at this event.  Joining the Air Chief will be super comic book artist, Nick Runge, known for his Terminator covers for IDW.  So please, if you live in the Northern Colorado, Wyoming border area, marke your calendars for the 22nd of October.  This looks to be a really fun day for all.

And that's it for now Loyal Airmen, as ever thanks for dropping by.
Ron – Over & Out!

Greeting Loyal Airmen, we trust all of you are enjoying the Fall changing of the seasons.  Here in Fort Collins were having nice, cool nights and beautiful sunny days.  A real little slice of paradise beneath the peaks of the majestic Rocky Mountains.

Last evening we heard the sad news of the passing of Apple founder Steve Jobs, who lost his battle with cancer of the young age of 56.  Jobs' had the same pancreatic malady that took our own father over thirty years ago.

            
                                 Steve Jobs…gone at 56.
From everything we've been learning about this man, it would seem he was a true visionary.  Something our worlds has so little of these days.  Too few to lose one this young. His impact on the world will be felt for generations to come and we can only believe his example of pursuing his dreams no matter the obstacles will inspire countless of young men and women to do the same.  RIP, dreamer.

Another visionary far ahead of her time was the late actress, Lucille Ball.  At a time when only men held the power in Hollywood and on television, she was a pioneer who began her own production company and became one of the most powerful, creative forces in the entertainment world.  What the Air Chief remembers most was how our mother loved watching her classic comedy series, I LOVE LUCY.  Now Bluewater comics has published a full color comic bio of this amazing woman and it was written by my good friend, Jaymes Reed.  The book came out several weeks ago and we cannot recommend it highly enough.  If anyone in your family was a Lucy fan, you truly need to get them this comic book.  It is just brilliant.

Speaking of TV, there have been several new shows which recently debuted that the Air Chief has become a big fan of.  The one that truly impresses us the most  is PERSON OF INTEREST starring the always great Jim Caviezel as a rogue government agent recruited by a wealthy financier played by LOST alumni, Michael Emerson.  Seems this man has created a super computer that can identify people who are about to become the center of criminal activity, be they the victims or perpetrators.  From that point on it is the Agent's task to determine which and then prevent the incident from occurring.  It works so much like a classic pulp magazine of the 1930s, we have been really enjoying it and hope it finds a loyal audience.  Please, if you haven't watched it yet, do so.  You will not be disappointed, action fans.

         
                        Mongrel Henderson
Speaking of pulps, Airship 27 Productions is now in the last stages of assembling its eight title of the year,
MYSTERY MEN (& Women) Vol II.  Like the first book in this series, it debuts four brand new heroes created by the best pulp writers in the business today.  And here's a sneak peek at one of the stars of this collection, Mongrel Henderson, created by super pulp writer Derrick Ferguson and illustrated here by Rob Davis.  Look for the announcement of this book's release in another week or two.

And there you have this week's Flight Log, Loyal Airmen.  With a unifying tread of heroes, some real, others fictional.  The thing is, all of us have within ourselves the seed of heroism.  We allow it to grow and  change our lives for the better when we follow the examples of people like Steve Jobs and Lucille Ball. When we dare to dream big and never accept failure when we are rejected.  True heroism comes from picking yourself up and trying again, and again…until you succeed.  Heroes never give up.

And fittingly enough, the Air Chief is gearing up to do another comic shop signing, this one in Cheyenne, Wyoming on Sat. 22nd Oct at HEROES ONLY, owned and operator by P.J. Brown. More on that event as the date nears.  And that's all for another week.  Take care and be back here next week.

Ron – Over & Out

Greeting Loyal Airmen, this week we thought we'd have a little fun showing you several cartoon depiction of the Ye Old Air Chief.  A few weeks ago we informed you that a talented Australian artist named Andrew Law had begun work on a weekly webstrip based on the ZONE 4 podcast the Air Chief co-hosts every week with Brant Fowler and Gordon Dymowski.  Originally when we joined the show, there were four hosts, the other two being Chuck Kennedy and Cary Kelley who have since departed for various reason.  Still as Andrew was starting to plot out his comic adventure, it was the four of us and so what he did was depicted us in our heroic Zone 4 hero guises, thus the Air Chief became Airship Captain Ron.  Well, we are happen to announced the strip went live four weeks ago and you can catch it every single Monday at the Comic Related website.  Above was strip number three which featured this adventure quartet all ready for action.  The Air Chief has been helping Andrew with scripting and Brant is doing the lettering, whereas another Comic Related creator, Lisa Moore is providing the amazing colors you see here.

We truly hope you check out the strip and while you are at it, listen to our show which post on Comic Related every Friday evening.  This week we talk about Freedom of Speech and censorship and are joined by guest host and radio DJ, Mike Luoma.  At the same time you can join the proud ranks of Zone 4 Legionnaires by going to the Zone 4 Facebook Page and hitting the “like” button to join the other 200 folks who have already joined up.

                
                                    Liana & Sherman Sanders of Gryphon Games & Comics

Last week we had the good pleasure of doing a comic shop signing here in Fort Collins, Colorado at Gryphon Games & Comics, a truly cool comic shop with lots of great fans.  We were there at the invitation of shop owners, Liana & Sherman Sanders and they truly rolled out the red carpet for the Air Chief.  We can't thank them enough for helping to make it a fun day.

              
                                      Todd Jones  –  The Air Chief  –  Jeff Herndon

Among the folks who stopped by to support and wish us well were two of the Air Chief's new amigos here in Fort Collins, writer Todd Jones and artist Jeff Herndon.  They were among several of our pals who came in to pick up a copy of our latest comic titles, “Ron Fortier's Tales of the Macabre.”  Speaking of which, even as we pen these words, editor Bill Gladman is busy at work assembling issue number two of this series and has recruited Canadian artist Olivier Raymond to draw and color the cover.  We really do not want to show off that stunning piece of art just yet, waiting until the book is completed to do so.  But as it also depicts the Air Chief, this time in a more whimsical fashion, we thought we shared an early piece of the composition here.

Believe me Loyal Airmen, when you see the final, complete cover with the finished art and knock-out coloring, you will be simply amazed.  Thank you Olivier Raymond.  Bill hopes to have the Twilight Star Edition of the book out by Halloween and we (Rob Davis and the Air Chief) hope to have the Redbud Edition available on-line shortly thereafter.

And there you have it for another fun week, Loyal Airmen.  As always thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend.  We'll see you back here next week.
Ron – Over & Out.

“We hold these truths to be self evident…”

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”

“Our Father, who art in heaven….”

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.”

Greetings Loyal Airmen.  This week our topic is the power of words and believe us, it is a power we are intimately aware of.  Thus we thought it only fitting to begin our Flight Log with Norman Rockwell's beautiful interpretation of one of our country's fundamental rights, THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH.  The Air Chief chose this particular topic this week to underscore a reality of life, no freedom is ever safe in perpetuity, it mus be cared for daily and protected with constant vigilance.  As history has shown us time and time again, any people who take their God given liberties for granted will one day lose them.  Amen.

Tomorrow, Sat 24th Sept, we begin BANNED BOOKS WEEK.   Yes, we know its an odd sounding idea for a week of national recognition and we urge all of you to visit their website on-line at (www.bannedbooksweek.org/) to learn more about this important theme.  The Air Chief would guess most of our Loyal Airmen are unaware that to this very day, censorship is still a threat that is constantly rearing its ugly head in schools and libraries across the land.  Small minded souls attempting to curtail the freedom of speech through whatever means they can devise, all in the guise of serving the general good of the community.  Did you know books like “To Kill A Mockingbird” and certain Sherlock Holmes stories were banned in American at one time or another?  Pretty frightening when you think about, and that's all true.

               
                           Ron Fortier – Writer

The Air Chief has a personal stake in this issue, as all you Loyal Airmen know.  We love words, we love their beauty, their poetry, their ability to educate us, to move us and to make us better by firing our imaginations and making us think.  There is a power in words and one we never take lightly.  When used to spread lies, gossip and evil, words can topple governments, destroy lives.  When used to declare the truths of the heart, they can raise up souls, dispel the darkness of ignorance and prejudice and raise up human nature to a grand nobility of love and self-sacrifice.  Words.  It's how you use them.

Finally, a perfect way to close out this week's Log is to remind you all that the Air Chief will be appearing tomorrow (24th Sept) at Gryphon Games & Comics here in Fort Collins, Colorado, located at 2020 S.College Ave. Unit B (between Drake & Prospect streets) between 11 am & 2 pm.  We'll have copies of our latest title, “Ron Fortier's Tales of the Macabre”, all our Mr.Jigsaw issues and a few other surprises.  We hope to see many of our comic book pals there to help us celebrate the freedom of speech, in all its glories.

“I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

Ron – Over & Out! 

Greetings Loyal Airmen, well the weather is starting to get a wee bit cooler about Fort Collins these days, a sure sign that Fall is here and soon we'll be taking out the heavy clothing again.  Next month rings Halloween, to be followed in Nov. by Thanksgiving and whammo, we're into the holiday season once again. Time has a way of flying past us when we aren't looking.

Last year, in 2010, Rob Davis and the Air Chief put out twelve of our Airship 27 Productions pulp titles.  Which almost killed poor Rob.  The guy does still have a day job, unlike the retired Air Chief here.  So this year we made vow we'd slow thing down a bit. Of course getting our super talented writers and artists to do that….slow down is virtually impossible and here comes our seventh book of the year.

We are sure all  you Loyal Airmen will recall only a few weeks ago we did an entire Flight Log on how this gorgeous cover came together thanks to super talented painter Jeff Herndon.  So now the files have gone off to our Publisher Cornerstone Book Publishers and the official release date for hard copies is the 30th of Sept. whereas you can pick up a digital copy for your Nook or other E-reader for only $3 right now at our Digital Hanger Shop. Simply click on the Airship Logo to the left of this column and you'll be taken to a page where there is an active link to the digital store.  Once there merely scroll down our list of titles till you find this great cover.  And so JIM ANTHONY – SUPER DETECTIVE Vol III – The Mark of Terry by Joshua Reynolds officially becomes our seventh release of 2011.  And yes, the Air Chief and Rob are hoping to get out another three books before the end of the year, bringing our total to ten.  Which will be a sweet victory for two guys who planned to just “take it easy” this year.  Stay tuned.

         
One of the coolest movies we saw earlier this summer was the film adaptation of Marvel's comic book hero, THOR.  A character created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee back in the early 1960s when Ye Old Air Chief was all of thirteen years old.  Thor was always a cool comic book hero and now comes this truly awesome movie version.  Valerie and the Air Chief loved it at the theater, with Chris Helmsford as Thor and Natalie Portman as Jane Porter and Anthony Hopkins as the Norse God Odin, the movie had an epic sweep of adventure to it. Well we picked up the Blu-Ray DVD version this week and last night enjoyed it on our big screen TV.  And let me tell all you Loyal Airmen, seeing it in this high definition was like seeing it for the very first time.  The imagery is so intense, colorful and breathtakingly beautiful, this is truly the ONLY way to watch movies you like.  And we really liked THOR, even more so now.  We can't wait till CAPTAIN AMERICA – FIRST AVENGER comes out next month.

And finally, our own copies of  RON FORTIER'S TALES OF THE MACABRE # 1 arrived in the mail this week from Ka-Blam and they look awesome.  The printing job is amazing and we can't wait to hear the feedback from all you Loyal Airmen.  Again, remember, the book is now on sale at (www.IndyPlanet.com) so go over there and order a copy.  As for the Air Chief, he'll be bringing a bunch to Gryphon Games & Comics here in Fort Collins on Sat. 24th of Sept. to autograph and sell to the local fans.  Should be a grand time.

And that's what we have this week, Loyal Airmen.  Stay away, avoid watching politics on TV, it will only get your blood pressure up.  No matter what side of the aisle you favor, they are both action like idiots these days.  The best police is to ignore them completely.  Trust the Air Chief, you'll sleep better at night.  See you back here in seven days.

Ron – Over & Out! 

Greetings Loyal Airmen and welcome back to the Airship 27 Flight Log. We want to thank all of you who wrote to say how much you all enjoyed last week's How To Make A Pulp Cover entry. The piece, with all the accompanying pictures was so well received, it was actually reprinted at two popular pulp sites; All Pulp managed by Tommy Hancock and New Pulp managed by Mike Bullock. Thanks gentlemen for sharing the fun.

Now this week we are going to talk about two of the Air Chief's special projects for Moonstone Books and one unique cover that truly is a display of one man's abounding courage against a serious, life threatening ailment.  As most Loyal Airmen are aware, beside writing and managing Airship 27 Productions, the Air Chief also contributes short pulp fiction to other publishers, one of these being Moonstone Books managed by our good friend, Joe Gentile.  When Moonstone first obtained the prose rights to the Green Hornet, Joe invited me to contribute a story to their first volume and the Air Chief was only to happy to do so. At the end of last year, Moonstone began planning their second book in this series and this time they invited us to write the introduction to this new collection, a really distinct and flattering honor.

         
                Cover Art by Ruben Procopio
A few days ago THE GREEN HORNET CASEFILES rolled off the printing presses and our copies arrived in the mail.  The book features a terrific cover by the Air Chief's good friend, Ruben Procopio.  Note the book will not be available until the last week of this month, but there is plenty of time for all you Loyal Airmen to pre-order it at Amazon, other book dealers and even through your local comic shop.  Our introduction is called THE OUTLAW HERO and details the Air Chief's experiences writing the Green Hornet comic series for Now Comics back in the early 90s.  Brought back lots of happy memories.

      
                Cover Art by E.M.Gist
One of the Air Chief's favorite classic pulp hero is the Avenger first created by veteran pulp scribe Paul Ernst back in the 1940s.  The Avenger is Richard Henry Benson, a man whose wife and daughter were murdered by criminals sending his life into a dramatic tailspin.  Vowing vengeance, Benson then devotes his life to bringing all manner of villains to justice and establishes a group known appropriately as Justice, Inc.  Now several years ago Moonstone put out an anthology featuring all new Avenger stories but alas we were not invited to that party.  The Air Chief teased Joe about this fact and he said should they ever do a second, we would loved to be called on. Well that very fact has happened and late last year we were asked to contribute to the new book to be called THE AVENGER – JUSTICE INC.  Knowing this had to be a truly special story, we came up with the idea of telling the origin story of Benson's two truly unique weapons, Ike & Mike.  Ike is a perfectly balanced throwing knife and Mike is a small, tubular pistol that fires four .22 caliber bullets. Ernst never fully explained how Benson had come by these two amazing items in his arsenal and the challenge to tell that story was too tempting to ignore.  Thus this week also saw the release of that volume with the Air Chief's story, VENGEANCE IS MINE.  Honestly, Loyal Airmen, its a tale we are extremely proud of and hope you'll check out.  The cover to this book was done by one E.M. Gist and like the Green Hornet title, will only be available at the end of the month through the same sources as mentioned above.  As you can see, ye Old Air Chief does keep busy.

     
                Faux Cover Art by Mike Fyles
And now for the coolest cover of them all.  Several years ago, via our Airship 27 Production books, the Air Chief and Art Director Rob Davis, became acquainted with a super talented British artist named Mike Fyles.  Mike first hooked up with us by painting the cover to our very first Green Lama anthology at the same time he was doing dynamite comic covers for Marvel's Iron Man Noire series.  One of the writers in our GL collection was Adam Garcia and Adam was so taken with Mike's work that when he began writing his full length Green Lama Unbound novel, he asked Mike to do both the cover and interior illustrations for it.  Rob and the Air Chief totally supported that idea and happily Mike signed on.  That amazing book won Adam the 2010 Pulp Factory Award for Best Pulp Novel and for Mike, the 2010 Pulp Factory Award for Best Interior Illustrations.  Both fellows were extremely thrilled and delighted.

Along about this time, way back at the start of the year, Mike became ill and was diagnosed with serious stomach cancer.  All too soon his life was taking a very serious detour.  Mike, his wife and their doctors began outlining a strategy to defeat this dreaded ailment and return him to complete health. The process would start with some powerful chemo treatments to allow him to ultimately be well enough to undergo surgery.  Over the past few months Mike Fyles endured those treatments and they were rough.  Meanwhile all of us who know him were praying daily and sending him our good thoughts, our letters of hope and encouragement.  Adam even flew out to England on a summer trip and personally hand delivered Mike his Pulp Factory Award.  Throughout all this Mike never once faltered or lost hope.  Now the chemo is finished, it did what was necessary and the surgeons have deemed him strong enough for the planned surgery. That is scheduled for next week, the 14th of Sept.  Needless to say, all of us at Airship 27 and the Pulp Factory have underlined that date on our calendars and will be praying up a storm, that the Good Lord and his angels will rain down their love on Mike and his family on that day.

In the meanwhile Mike, feeling like his old self again, decided to go back to his drawing table this past week and make up a very special pulp cover, one in which he would lay out all his fears and expose them for all the world to see.  In that way conquer them, leaving only room for courage and hope in his heart. That art piece he posted on Facebook and when the Air Chief saw it, he smiled from ear to ear and knew he had to share it with all you Loyal Airmen.  Mike Fyles is one of the kindest, bravest souls we've ever known and we have absolutely no doubt he is going to beat the stuffing out of the Big C.  And so we humbly ask all you Loyal Airmen to add your prayers to ours in wishing him a successful surgery and quick, complete recovery.  The world needs his amazing art more than ever.  God bless, Mike…and stay strong!

Ron – Over & Out!