COMING LATE FALL 2012!
Greetings Loyal Airmen. Ever have one of those days when it seemed everything, both good and bad all occurred at the same time?  That was our experience this past Tuesday, March 1st.  There was good news and not-so-good news.  Let's deal with the not-so-good and get it out of the way. For the past few months the Air Chief has been beating the drums about the new mega sci-fi comic project we were doing with Brazilian artist Joe Bennett. Well, certain legalities neither of us had foreseen have arisen which make it impossible for us to release this project before Sept. 2012.  Believe me, no one was more saddened by this news than Joe and the Air Chief, but our hands are tied on this one.  The one shining light here is that the good folks at Moonstone, with whom we had signed a contract, are still one hundred percent behind NEUTRAL WORLD and are willing to wait the extra time.  Rest assured, you will see this comic book, only just a little later now.

          
     PULP ARK AWARD BEST PULP COMIC 2011
The results for the first ever Pulp Ark Awards were handed out Tuesday morning and our graphic novel, THE BOSTON BOMBERS won in the category of Best Pulp Comic.  We were thrilled. We extend our heartfelt thank to all the people of PulpArk and our congratulations to all the nominees and winners.  The wooden plaque awards will be presented at the first ever Pulp Ark Convention in May.  You can bet the Air Chief is going to be there with one wicked big smile on his face.  If you are one of the few airmen who has not yet read this book, you can pick up a copy by going to our LINKS page and clicking on the Redbud Comics logo.  And of course with this win, you can be sure Rob and the Air Chief will have copies for sale at the pulp shows we'll be attending; Windy City Paper & Pulp, Pulp Ark and Pulp Fest. So please, if you are planning on attending any of these, do stop by our Airship 27 table to get your copy.  We will be only too happy to autograph it for you.
And lastly, this great cover by Rob will soon be gracing a brand new, black tee-shirt we will be making available to all your Loyal Airmen, so stay tuned.

          
                              THE AIR CHIEF
The drawing above was done by Allison Brown as a commission for the ZONE 4 crew. Brant Fowler, the creator of this long-running podcast, of which the Air Chief is a co-host. along with Cary Kelley and Chuck Kennedy, had the idea of creating an image depicting each us as our favorite heroes.  Allison drew Brant as a fantasy swordsman, Cary as a Dark Lord of the Sith from Star Wards, Chuck as a superhero and the Air Chief as an honest-to-goodness aviation pulp hero!!  After seeing the figure drawing, beautifully colored by Lisa Moore, we imposed on Rob Davis to draw a flying airship behind us. He was only too happy to comply and Lisa then colored that as well, resulting in the finished image above.  Tell me we aren't having fun.  Ha.

                                  SCREEN CAPTURE FROM LAST WEEK'S SMALLVILLE
Heck, we even have fun when we aren't even involved.  The TV series SMALLVILLE airs on Friday night. Last week during the course of the show, an armored truck was seen with the name FORTIER emblazoned on the side panel.  Now the Air Chief doesn't watch this series but many of his friends do and when they spotted our name, they quickly notified us.  One even went so far as to capture the above screen-shot so that we could see it ourselves and now they weren't making it all up. Ha.

Phew, it truly has been a busy, roller coaster, up and down week.  And we wouldn't have it any other way. Life is an adventure and should be embraced as such. Always.  Thanks for stopping by as always and we'll see you all back here at Hanger 27 next week.  Till then…
Ron – Over & Out!

    
                                     Writer – Editor – DWAYNE McDUFFIE
Dear Loyal Airmen, a few days ago we, like the rest of the comic community were shocked and saddened by the passing of one of the most talented writer/editors to ever work in our field, 48 yr. old Dwayne McDuffie.  Dwayne first entered the business as a writer for Marvel and soon became an editor with them.  Always concerned with improving the comics work place for minority groups, Dwayne and several African American colleagues went on to create Milestone Comics to further their goals.  It was here he created the cool teenage African American superhero, Static.  Eventually DC assimilated the line and Warner Brothers Animation picked developed Static as a Saturday morning cartoon series. It lasted four years and was one of the most exciting an original such shows ever produced. Its success led to Dwayne continuing his association with Warners Animation and in particular writer/producer Bruce Timm who then hired him as a story editor on the amazing cartoon series Justice League and its popular sequel Justice League Unlimited.  Known for it is great animation and marvelous stories, JLU is considered one of the finest animated series ever realized and Story Editor Dwayne McDuffie was a big part of that success.  Ironically, on the day his passing was announced, WB Animation had just released their latest DVD animated release, ALL STAR SUPERMAN, screenplay by Dwayne McDuffie. 

                 
We never had the pleasure of meeting Dwayne, though we were lucky enough to exchange a few messages with him on Facebook shortly after connecting with each other. To a stranger he was courteous and polite and the Air Chief is happy he got the chance to tell him what big fans we were of his work.  Now his unique, thoughtful and creative voice is gone and we as a creative community are wounded by that loss.  Still, it is my hope that all of us involved with comics will remember Dwayne McDuffie and honor his legacy by striving in our own careers to produce only the best we have to offer. He never gave anything less.  Rest in peace, Dwayne.

              
And so we thought it would be fitting to end this week's Flight Log with a sneak-peek at a new 8 pg comic strip we wrote recently for Twilight Start Studios called “The Lonely Guy.”  The art is by the talented Cesar Feliciano and above is page two. The unique feature of this particular strip is that it is told solely through Cesar's wonderful art. There are no captions or word balloons. It is a silent, visual experience and only the second time the Air Chief has ever done this.  As soon as the strip appears in print, we'll let you know in what title it is available and how to procure a copy.

Thanks for stopping as always and we'll see you here again next week.
Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen.  Airships have fascinated the Air Chief as long as we can remember.  There is something stately and majestic about them.  Truly they are the Clippers of the Air. Thus many years ago when it came time to choose an internet I.D., there was no doubt we would choose Airship as part of our tag.  As 27 is a lucky number for the Air Chief, our internet home, e-mail and eventually our pulp producing outfit were all given the Airship designation.   And this week, we added one more such to our family.

        
                        Our  New  Colorado Specialty Plates  AIR-SHP!!!
Shortly after moving here to Fort Collins, CO, Valerie suggested when registering our car that we might get Specialty Plates.  (Back in New Hampshire they were called Vanity Plates)  When we asked her what she had in mind, she smiled and said, “How about Airship?”  Of course there are never any guarantees the name you want will be available, still we gave it a go and were given a form by the Department of Motor Vehicles in which we had to list six variations of the word Airship we would accept.  The second AIR-SHP was found to be available and earlier this week they arrived.  Val and the Air Chief hurried over to the DMV offices to pick them up and get them on.  We think they look fantastic and the Air Chief is thrilled, as if you couldn't tell by the picture above.  Ha.

        
                                        Our Lovely Granddaughter, Ms. Kristi Leclerc
Another cause of much joy this past week was the news that our oldest granddaughter, Kristi, now a freshmen at the University of New Hampshire, having completed her first semester, made the Dean's List with Highest Honors.  Val and the Air Chief couldn't be any prouder.  She is truly an amazing, wonderful young lady who is going to great things with her life.  Way to go, Kristi!  Mem & Pep Love You Dearly!!

Baseball's Spring Training has started and down in Ft. Myers, Florida, this week and the 2011 reloaded Red Sox have arrived and will soon be playing exhibition games.  We are really excited about the new acquisitions to the team and hoping for a much more successful season than the one past. The injuries that riddled the Sox last year were non-stop and eventually kept them from making the play-offs for the first time in six years.  So, fingers crossed, with sustained good health, the Red Sox will get back to their winning ways and take Red Sox Nation all the way this year.  We can't wait for the magic words to echo across the land, THE PLAY BALL!!

      
                       Art by Jesus Marquez
Finally, the Air Chief has been writing a lot of short horror comic scripts lately.  Many of these will be published in comics from Twilight Star Studios during the course of the year to include our own title, which we've spoken of here on these flight logs, “Ron Fortier's Tales of the Macabre.”  We recently penned another of these short, spooky tales. This one is called “The Scarecrow Scares” and illustrating it is a talented young cartoonist named Jesus Marquez.  This is the first time we've worked together and after reading through our script, Jesus sent along the above rough sketches of the characters that appear in the story. We thought you'd get a kick out of seeing them.  We'll let you know when the story is published and how to get a copy.

And that Loyal Airmen is our Flight Log for this week.  Thanks as ever for stopping by and come back next week to see what other fun stuff we've got on the Flight Line.
Ron – Over & Out!      

Greeting Loyal Airmen, another few fun topics to share with all of you this week.  The Air Chief has never been a big football fan, baseball is our game (Go Red Sox!) but we did find ourselves glued to the TV set last Sunday evening to watch the Super Bowl.  No, not because we were cheering either team, but because we were aware that somewhere during the course of that telecast, Marvel Studios would be airing for the first time their official Captain America movie trailer.

Earlier in the week the studio had released the first official poster (see above) for this action adventure film and now we were at long last going to see 30 seconds of clips from the actual movie.  And what an awesome 30 seconds those were.  We saw Steve Rogers, a 90 lb weakling transformed into the one and only Super Solder, Captain America, then off to the European Front to fight in WW II alongside American soldiers such as the Howling Commandos.  To battle the Nazis and the dreaded Red Skull. And let's not forget that all too quick shot of the enemies' Flying Wing.  Directed by one of our favorite directors, Joe Johnson, CAPTAIN AMERICA – THE FIRST AVENGER arrives in theaters July 22nd.  Guess who is going to be first in line to see  this one?

As most of you Loyal Airmen are aware, the Air Chief also writes a review blog called Pulp Fiction Review and every now and then we find a book so entertaining, we showcase it here as well so that you won't miss it.  Such a book is KISS HER GOODBYE by the late Mickey Spillane and his protege, Max Allan Collins.  The book will be released on the 25th May and we recommend it highly.  If you care to read our entire review, simply go to the link posted above this column.

           
                         Check These Out!!!  Mr.Jigsaw Trading Cards
About a month ago, we announced that our good friends at the Comic Related website were in the process of putting together a series of trading cards featuring independent comic characters that were in some way connected with Comic Related.  The result was a 26 card set and earlier this week Darren Mueller and Chuck Moore, the CR dudes who came up with this grand idea, picked up all the cards from the printers and mailed them out to the various creators.  This afternoon the Air Chief received his box of Jiggy cards and they are truly beautiful.  The printing job is fantastic and the color reproduction awesome. Loyal Airmen can expect to see these on our tables at conventions during the coming year.  Rob Davis and the Air Chief haven't quite decided yet how we are going to offer these, whether selling them individually or offering them as a bonus to folks who buy copies of Mr.Jigsaw at our table.  We'll keep you posted.

          
                                         Collect Them All!!
And for those of you comic fans who would like to get a look at the entire 26 cards, check out the picture above.  Darren spread out all the cards to show us all what they all looked like.  Note Comic Related has also printed a # 00 Check List card.  Chuck and the gang will have these check list cards and a limited number of all 26 cards at their tables this summer as they make the comic convention circuit.  Believe the Air Chief when I say this first series is soon going to be a highly sought after collector's set and you will want to get them all.  Good hunting.

Finally, we have to end this week's Flight Log with a somber item.  Last Saturday, publisher Michael Poll of Cornerstone Book Publishers, the fellow who publishes all our Airship 27 Productions pulp books, suffered a mild heart attack. Thank the Lord it wasn't more serious. After a few days in the hospital he was released and is home recuperating.  Doctors believe the attack was brought by hypertension and overwork.  Now Michael is confined to bed rest for the next few weeks, forbidden to do any business or use the phone and his computer.  We keep him in our prayers and wish him a speedy recovery. At the same time, hope his scare will serve as a reminder to all our Loyal Airmen to stay healthy, monitor your blood pressure constantly and regulate your cholesterol levels. You are all important to us and we do want all of you around for a long-long time.  So please, do what it takes and stay healthy.

And there you go, Loyal Airmen, for another busy week at Hangar 27.  As always thanks for stopping by.  We'll be back next week with hopefully more fun things to share with you. Till then, take care.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greeting Loyal Airmen, this week we're talk about two special awards that were announced this past week. Both are focused on pulp creators working in the field today and they their very existences bodes well for the entire field.

        
                                        THE PULP FACTORY AWARDS

Aside from the writing and editing we do, the Air Chief is also the moderator of a terrific Yahoos Group called the Pulp Factory, made up of over seventy pulp artists, writers and fans.  Last year, the Pulp Factory inaugurated the Pulp Factory Awards given out to the best works of pulp fiction and artwork produced the previous year.  Rob Davis commissioned his sculpture friend, Phil Dutcher to created the beautiful trophies you pictured above and at last year's Windy City Paper & Pulp Show, Rob and the Air Chief presented them to the winners; the four categories being Best Pulp Novel, Best Pulp Short Story, Best Pulp Cover and Best Pulp Interior Illustrations.  This past Tuesday morning we announced the official nominees for this year's awards and the members of the Pulp Factory have until the end of March to vote on their favorites.  Once again winners will be announced at the Windy City show in April and the awards presented the Friday night of the con.  Recognizing superior talent is a fun event and one we truly look forward to.

Now in May, the month after Windy City, the newest pulp convention, Pulp Ark, will debut in Batesville, Arkansas.  Pulp Ark is the brain child of our good friend and fellow writer/editor, Tommy Hancock.  Tommy has truly gone out of his way to make the first ever Pulp Ark something truly memorable to entertain all the creators and fans who will be attending.  Including taking a page from the Pulp Factory and devising their own awards, the Pulp Ark Awards.  There are ten categories for these and they were announced, along with the nominees on Thursday of this week.  See what I mean about it being a stellar week for pulp fandom.

Much to the Air Chief's surprise, we found ourselves nominated in three categories, Best Author, Best Revival Character for our series of Captain Hazzard novels and Best Pulp Comic for our graphic novel, The Boston Bombers.

This last nomination was the one that truly excited us the most.  You see, after thirty years of writing comics, there is a handful that the Air Chief remembers fondly and is the most proud of.  The Boston Bombers is at the top of that small list.  It is was a joy to write, most likely because it allowed us to combine our two favorite genres, comics and pulps, into one long adventure tale.  Since receiving that nomination, the book has once again been put in the public eye and we've had several inquiries on how folks can pick up a copy.  Easy enough, just go to our Link page and click on to the Redbud Studio link there. Scroll down the book covers till you come to the one pictured about and click on it directly.  For those of you wanting a direct route, simply go to (www.IndyPlanet.com), that's where it is on sale.  We hope you give it a shot.  We've even had several enthusiastic fans who have already read the book tells us it would make a fantastic film.  We couldn't agree more.  Always nice to have dreams.

And finally, speaking of movies, the one the Air Chief is most excited about coming out this summer is the Captain America movie based on the Marvel comic book hero created by the late Jack Kirby.  We learned today that the first official trailer for that movie will be shown during the Super Bowl this coming Sunday.  So even if you aren't a major football fan, like yours truly, you may want to sit it out to catch this particular first look at what promises to be a great action movie.

That's it for another week, Loyal Airmen.  Thanks always for stopping by. Every now and then one of you will drop us a line, as happened a few days ago.  Please, don't ever hesitate to do so.  We love hearing from you. Oh, and that reminds us, one of our most Loyal Airman, John Bodnar is having knee surgery soon and we want to wish him all the best.  You are in our prayers John for a quick and speedy recovery.

Till next week, Ron – Over & Out.

Greetings Loyal Airmen, we certainly have some really great news to share with all of you this week, so buckle up and let's get to it.

                
Ever since we launched Airship 27 Productions almost six years ago, we have been constantly asked when our great pulp novels and anthologies were going to be available digitally for the new crop of fancy E-readers now sweeping the market.  Although we were always receptive to the idea, the problem lay in the technology simply not being user friendly to our books. The problem was to get our files to be read by these new contraptions, we had to convert them to different formats which always ended up leaving out the artwork.  That was never acceptable to us, as the covers and interior illustrations are a huge part of what make our quality pulp books. Well time marches on as they say and over the past few months a radical change has made it possible for our books to actually translate completely.  You see the new model E-readers now all have the capability of downloading and reading the very popular PDF files.  These are the very same files we use to design and produce all our books.  So a few weeks ago, Art Director Rob Davis opened a digital store where he is systematically posting our Airship 27 titles as pdfs and making them available for sale at $3 each.  All anyone need do is buy a pdf, downloard it to their E-reader and voila, you have the entire Airship 27 title complete with color covers and black and white interior illustrations. To date we have four books on the site.  Hopefully within a few months our entire catalog will be there and all of you with these E-readers will be able to read our books on them.  To visit our new Digital Hangar, simply click on to the familiar dirigible logo to the left of this column, which will bring you to our familiar on-line store.  Read the top paragraphs carefully, as in them you will find the link (highlighted in red) to the new Digital Store.  Simply click on it and away you go.  Please, tell your friends about this. This is big.

          
And now for the second big news of the week.  Thanks to the urging of our son Alan, the compiling and scanning of artwork by Rob Davis and the PC know-how of our son Scott, MR.JIGSAW, MAN OF A THOUSAND PARTS now has his own official website!!!  This was a long time coming and we are really thrilled and excited to have this up and running.  To check it out, simply go to our Links page, scroll down to the picture of Jiggy & Buck and click on it.  The site itself has an intro on Jiggy, a link to the Air Chief's homebase, right here and another to Redbud Studio where all our Jiggy comics are sold.  Please check it out and let us know what you think?

Last week posted the progress of this comic cover showing off the wonderful inks of Rhian Engel over Rob Davis' fantastic pencils.  Above is the third stage of development, the beautiful colors added by artist Mark Saxton.  We were truly taken by this vibrancy of these colors and the cover reminds us of the comics we use to buy and read growing up.

And finally Rob added Twilight Star company logo and the comic's main title designed by our artist pal Mark Maddox and voila, it is complete!!  And the Air Chief could not be any happier.  Right now we're told the book should be out by the start of summer.  It will feature five of our stories by five different and super talented artists.  You do not want to miss it, Loyal Airmen.  And as Twilight Star is a small, independent company, you will not be seeing this sold in comic shop, but only on-line. As soon as we know it is available, we'll post it right here to include the link to the site.  And of course, with fingers crossed, the Air Chief will have copies at the various conventions we attend this year.  Stay tuned.

There you have it, Loyal Airmen, never a dull minute here at Hangar 27.  Thanks as ever for dropping by, stay warm, read a good book, preferably one of our pulps and we'll see you all here next week.
Ron – Over & Out!

Greeting Loyal Airmen, we've got a major announcement for all of you.  Something truly big in regards to a stellar comic project we first introduced to you last year.  If you'll recall we were approached by Brazilian super artist Joe Bennett, to help him develop his mega sci-fi epic, NEUTRAL WORLD.

The Air Chief is thrilled beyond words to announce that two days ago we signed contracts with Moosntone Books, a leading publisher of comics and books, to produce the Neutral World saga for them.  Totaling almost 200 pages of story and art, Neutral World will be presented in three full color graphic novel premiering later this year. All the art will be provided by Joe and his studio, in Belem, Brazil, with lettering by American artist Rob Davis, and the covers to all three volumes will be painted by Mark Maddox.  To better set the table for this ultra fantastic series, Moonstone will soon be releasing a full-color 16 pg preview mini Neutral World Issue 0.  It will contain nine pages of story from volume one plus seven amazing character pages and bios to help familiarize comic readers with this spar-spanning adventure and wet their appetites for volume one.  The preview 16 pagers will sell for .99 cents.

To say Ye Old Air Chief is excited would be a major understatement indeed.  This is by far the biggest comic project we've undertaken since our stint on Gene Roddenberry's LOST UNIVERSE for Tekno Comics ten years ago.  And we are desperately going to need your support, Loyal Airmen, in helping us spread the word about NEUTRAL WORLD.  In these dire economic days, even the best comic book sales numbers are dwindling.  For NEUTRAL WORLD to be a success, we are going to need to reach a specific level of pre-orders once volume one is ready to go.  It is a challenge Joe, Rob and I will only be able to meet with your help.  So start getting the word out, Loyal Airmen.  NEUTRAL WORLD is coming from Moonstone!!  Let's shake things up.  

                 
            RON FORTIER'S TALES OF THE MACABRE

And last week we told you all about the Air Chief's newest comic title, which our good pal, Rob Davis so beautifully pencilled for us.  Over the past week, inker Rhian Engle brougth his own unique art magic to this cover as shown above.  Rhian did a super job here.  Now the cover is being colored and next week we hope to display the finished product.  We trust you are enjoying this peek into the development of a comic cover.

Finally, both Valerie and the Air Chief were delightfully surprised this week by a visit from one of our old friends from New Hampshire, fellow comic book fan and artist, Alex Eggleston.  Alex and the Air Chief had met via a comic shop back in New Hampshire several years ago.  Then two years ago he and his wife moved here and  have since become happy Coloradans.  Learning we had also finally relocated to this beautiful area, he dropped the Air Chief an e-mail and then stopped by, bringing with him a truly wonderful welcome basket filled with all kinds of goodies to eat….and…a super cool DC comics action figure of Alex's own favorite superhero, Captain Marvel.  Also one of my personal favorites as well.  It now sits on my writing desk, resplendent in its red, white and yellow outfit.  The Air Chief loves action figures and this is now a prized addition in my collection.  Thanks so much Alex, and it so cool that we are once again neighbors.

And there you have THE BIG NEWS, Loyal Airmen.  Again, help us shout NEUTRAL WORLD to the entire universe.  Take care, stay warm and we will see you back here next week with lots more surprises.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, mother nature has sure made her presences known this winter, hasn't she.  So many parts of the country, including the deep south, blanketed with snow.  Never mind the blizzards crippling the New England corridor from Conn. all the way up to Maine.  We hope all our Loyal Airmen are enduring and keeping an up attitude. Sometimes inclement weather is a way of nature forcing us to relax and take things easy, so enjoy these Snow Days while you can.

About a month ago we reported that we had just become a co-host of the very fun, comic themed internet podcast ZONE 4.  We certainly hope lots of you Loyal Airmen have been able to listen in to these shows. If you are unfamiliar with the schedule, each new episode of ZONE 4, hosted by Brant Fowler, Cary Kelley, Chuck Kennedy and the Air Chief, is posted every Friday night at the Comic Related website.  There's a link above to this site, as it is there my personal forums are hosted.  So if you ever wanted to drop me a line on-line, that's where you would go.  As for the podcast show, think of it as an internet radio program with four professional comic book guys discussing the latest events and happenings in this genre we've all loved since childhood.  So please, start your Fridays with dropping by to read the weekly Flight Log, then make a note to end your day with listening in to ZONE 4.  Oh, and we've actually been running a neat comics Trivia Contest lately with our listeners able to win lots of cool free comics.  How's that for enticement?  Never mind the fact that you get to hear the Air Chief live for all of you who've ever wanted what we sound like.  You might be surprised.  Ha.

              
                                           Hailee Seinfeld as Mattie Ross in TRUE GRIT
Back in 1968, upon coming out of the army and returning to civilian life, the Air Chief read a book that he considers one of the true American classics of the 20th Century;  TRUE GRIT by Charles Portis.  It tells the story of young girl who, in the early 1870, goes on a manhunt in the Indian Territories of what would one day be the state of Oklahoma with a worn out old U.S. Marshall and a rowdy Texas Ranger, the object of their hunt the man who shot and killed her father.  Mattie Ross is one of the most colorful fictional characters ever created since Huckleberry Finn and critics today are slowly realizing that Portis's book is very much in the same league as that Twain classic.

Of course shortly after the books rise to bestselling popularity, Hollywood came knocking in the shape of producer Hal Wallis who made it into a big budget, spectacular film starring John Wayne as Marshall Rooster Cogburn, the irascible one-eyed fat man who always got his man.  Kim Darby played Mattie and singing sensation Glen Campell was the Texas Ranger.  In this version, glitzed up considerably from the book's rough and tumble reality, Wayne was the shining star and deservedly won his one and only Oscar for his portrayal.
We liked the movie a great deal, but always felt the soul of the book had never been captured.

Jump ahead 41 years and the Coen brothers, known for their unique and original film-making, obtain the rights to  the property and set about filming their version. One we are truly happy to report stayed true to the book and delivered an on screen experience we thoroughly enjoyed. This is the TRUE GRIT we had always hoped to see on the big screen and the new cast is superb, from Jeff Bridges dead-on as Rooster, Matt Damon terrific as the egotistical Texas lawman and the unbelievable Hailee Seinfield as Mattie Ross.  We cannot praise this fourteen year old enough for a performance that is truly Oscar worthy.  She is the star of this new version, as is the character in the novel.  If you have never read the book, we urge you to do so.  And do go see this fabulous, wonderful movie.  You'll be glad you did.

              
Finally, in last week's entry, we announced that Twilight Start comics studio was going to publish a new black and white comic horror title named after yours truly.  It features four of my original stories as illustrated by four super talented young artist.  Well this week we thought we'd show you the cover in progress.  That nifty logo was designed by Mark Maddox and the pencils themselves by our good buddy, Rob Davis.  And yes, that is the Air Chief addressing the crowd.  The art is now being inked by Rhian Engel and will then be colored by Mark Saxton, after which it is off to the printers.  Rest assured, Loyal Airmen, we will keep you posted when it is released and how to get your copies.  We're sure you'll want several; one for yourselves and the others for your comic pals.  It's sure to become a best seller….or so we predict with fingers crossed tightly.  Ha.

And there you have it for this week, Loyal Airmen.  As ever thanks for dropping by.  We enjoy visiting with all of you like this.  Till next Friday, stay warm and go read a good book or see a good movie. Have fun.  Remember, you only go around once in this life.

Ron – Over & Out! 

Greetings Loyal Airmen, we hope and pray 2011 is off to a good start for all of you.  It has been for the Air Chief, that's for sure.  And we've some really exciting news about a new comic book title we are working on for Twilight Star Studios.  TSS is a studio begun over a year ago by our good pal, Bill Gladman, of Springfield Ohio.  Thing is Bill loves putting together black and white horror comic anthologies.  So on a whim, about the time he was starting up TSS, the Air Chief wrote a short tale called THE DINER and offered it to Bill.  They eagerly accepted and asked me for more.  Alright, we know a good thing when we see it.

         
So we sat down and wrote GRASS ROOTS, a Twilight Zone tale and Bill assigned artist Chris Metzen to handle the art chores.  That's page one above.  Now this is scheduled for a future TSS horror title.  After having done two of these, and watched them come to life by such talented artists, we found ourselves getting in a groove with these small comic stories.
 
         
While at the fun Champion City Comic Con last year, we met artist, Kevin Adkins, who was only too eager to show us his portfolio.  Kevin has a unique style of drawing that incorporates a fluid design motif. The Air Chief was so taken with it, he offered Kevin a five pg. script to work on. The end result was DRAGNET, a page of which you see above.  Again, this was offered up to Bill and TSS.  Obviously clear to see the Air Chief was on a role here.

      
Then over the Christmas holidays, artist Jason Copland put up a truly intriguing challenge over on Facebook. Jason drew eleven pages of something, i.e. characters moving and doing whatever, that had no story.  He was challenging writers to download the eleven pages and write a story that incorporated each of them in a linear, narrative fashion. In other words, make up a story that fit those independent pages. Much to Jason's joy, ten of us actually took him up on his challenge.  In the end, he was thrilled with our script, which we called UNCLE NICOLAUS, and has allowed us to publish it with Bill in a future TSS title.

Okay, so now Bill comes to the Air Chief with this revelation.  It seems we've given him twenty pages of story and art all total.  If we could give him one more four page comic story, he would, after they've all appeared in other titles, put them all together in a single comic book ….named after the Air Chief.   Yup.  Bill was offering the Air Chief his own comic title. This sounded just so freakin' cool, we scrambled back to Facebook and contacted another wonderful talented fellow we had just met there.

       
The result of which was CATCHING THE BUS, a short tip of the hat to the old EC Comics by the Air Chief and the remarkably gifted Mark Saxton.  And there you have it, Loyal Airmen.  We'd actually filled up the first issue of, are you ready?   RON FORTIER'S TALES OF THE MACABRE!!!   Believe me, we are just wound for sound, Loyal Airmen.  Over thirty years in this business and now we are going to have our own comic title.  How cool is that?  My hats off to all these great artists for bringing my stories to graphic life and of course to Bill Gladman for wanting to do this. Oh, and stay tuned as it all comes together.  Artist Mark Maddox is designing our logo, while my good buddy, Rob Davis has signed on to draw the cover to issue number one (and yes, it will feature the Air Chief..hahahah) and Mark here is going to color it when done.   With this team, you have to know it's going to be awesome.

There you go, Loyal Airmen. For the first week of the New Year, 2011 is off to a rocking start. See you back here in seven, so hang in there.
Ron – Over & Out

Greetings Loyal Airmen, to our Flight Log for the momentous year, 2010. A year that saw us pack up the old Hangar 27 and move it half-way across the country from Somersworth,NH, to our new home base here in Fort Collins, Colorado.  And a road trip with son Scott we will never forget. Thanks again, Scott. Well, the year certainly had  its ups and downs like they all do. Early back in Jan., Rob Davis and the Air Chief took it upon themselves to try and produce twelve Airship 27 Production pulp titles. An ambitious goal for our little two man operations, but we had an idea we could do it, after having released ten titles the previous year.  Well, today, despite some major roadblocks along the way, we did it! Our twelfth and final book of 2010 is now officially available for sale.

                 
RAVENWOOD – Stepson of Mystery, features four brand new stories of this little known, classic occult detective from the 1930s pulps.  Our volume has stories by B.C.Bell, Bill Gladman, Bobby Nash and Frank Schildiner. All of them are fantastic adventures of the supernatural. The book is profusely illustrated by artist Charles Fetherolf and sports a gorgeous painted cover by Bryan Fowler. This is the first time both these two gentlemen have contributed to Airship 27 Productions and we hope it won't be the last.  Both Rob and the Air Chief are extremely proud of ever single book we put out this year and tip our pulp fedoras to our always supportive publisher, Michael Poll of Cornerstone Book Publishers. We could not do this without Mike and Cornerstone.  And remember, Loyal Airmen, you can grab a copy by clicking on to our dirigible logo to the left of this column. It will take you to our on-line store where all our titles are available at a discounted savings, our way of saying thanks for your continued support.

In regards to the pulp world, 2011 will see the awarding of the second annual Pulp Factory Awards.  Nominations start in Jan. and final ballots will go out to the members of the Factory in Feb.  Awards, as last year will be given out at the Windy City Paper & Pulp Show in April 15 -17.  And this year, Rob and the Air Chief will be bringing Airship 27 Productions to three pulp conventions.  After Windy City we head for Pulp Ark in Batesville, Arkansas which debuts in May and finally we wrap things up at Pulp Fest in Columbus in Aug. There is a true renaissance of all things pulp happening the world and we couldn't be happier.

            
        Painted cover by Chales Binger for THE PUSHER by Ed McBain 1957-
To highlight that claim, we were recently notified that there will be a gallery exhibition in Los Angeles of the paintings of artist Charles Ashford Binger, who between 1940 and the early 70s painted many of the paperback covers that graced drugstore spin-racks. Binger was a master of pulp as indicative of his piece above, from an 87th Precinct novel by the late Ed McBain.  If any of you Loyal Airmen are in the Los Angeles area, you really take the time to check this out.  It will be held at the La Luz de Jesus Gallery – 4633 Hollywood Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90027. You can learn more at (www.info@laluzdejesus.com)

         
And finally, we wanted to let all you Loyal Airmen know how much fun the Air Chief is having with his new Blu-Ray player.  Loving film as much as we do, seeing them to vibrantly brought to visual life before our eyes along with the crystal clear reproduction of sound has been just amazing and heightened our enjoyment of watching these movies.  One such we recently enjoyed was THE PHANTOM, from the sci-fi mini-series that was aired on the Sci-Fi Channel earlier this year.  We initially thought we wouldn't like this modernization of the classic Lee Falk comic hero, but received the biggest surprise of they entire year when we were totally entertained by it. The story was respectful to the Phantom lore, the acting and directing very well turned in and the action lots of fun. The Blu-Ray copy pictured above was a welcome Christmas gift. We recommend it to all you Loyal Airmen who haven't had the fun of seeing it yet.

And that's it, Loyal Airmen.  2010 is gone, with all its joys and heartaches.  We wish you all the Happiest of New Years ahead.  Thanks for taking the journey with us.
Ron – Over & Out.