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.

                         MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM COLORADO!

Greetings Loyal Airmen.  Hopefully the picture above of Valerie and the Air Chief says it all.  As we are only a day away from celebrating our first Christmas in our new Colorado home, both of us would like to extend to all of you the Merriest Christmas & Happiest New Year.  This is a wonderful, spiritual time when miracles and dreams do come true, as they have for us this year.  We truly wish you the same happiness in the year ahead and thank you always for your faithful support and endearing friendship.  We owe you all so much. Thanks from the bottom of our hearts.

                       
                                   NOW AVAILABLE !!
And finally, the latest issue of Mr. Jigsaw Man of a Thousand Parts is finally out.  Both artist Gary Kato and the Air Chief believe this is the finest Jigsaw story we have ever produced in the twenty seven years since we created the character.  And we are truly anxious to hear your thoughts on it. Simply go to our AIR FARE page and click on the new Redbud Studio link.  Rob Davis has set up this one page to carry all the books we have done together with him, Gary and other artists.  Do check it out.

Have a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones, take a moment to remember and pray for our men and women in uniform far away from home, serving our country. God bless and keep them safe.  And finally, may Santa bring you all those special surprises you've been wishing for all year long.

God bless, Loyal Airmen –
Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, well here we are only a few more weeks till Christmas and the child in us is really starting to get excited.  Before we get into this week's Flight Log, let me bring you up to date on a couple of medical issues that have been plaguing the Air Chief and his pals.  Last week reported Rob Davis, Art Director of Airship 27 Productions and the head of Redbud Studio had his cancerous prostate removed.  Rob went through the surgery with flying colors, was released from the hospital two days later and is now home recovering slowly.  Reports indicate he is cancer free. The best holiday news of all.  From Rob's e-mails, we know he's anxious to get back to his drawing board as soon as possible. But still, as we've cautioned him, a little forced R & R is good for all of every now and then.  Do keep him in your thoughts and prayers, all of which he truly appreciates.  Let's get into the fun stuff, and we'll get back to the Air Chief's health report at the end.

As you are all aware, Valerie and the Air Chief are truly happy in our new home in Fort Collins, Colorado.  Well it was only a matter of time before we found the local shop here in the Fort.  Our son Alan brought us there yesterday; it's called GRYPHON – Games & Comics and is run by Liana & Sherman Sanders, two of the nicest people we've ever met.  Their store is located off the main avenue,  at 2020 S.College Ave. Suite B.  You can see there card, full address and phone number above.  Their store is one of the nicest, cleanest and well laid out shops the Air Chief has ever been in and we plan on being regulars.  In fact we're hoping eventually all local Loyal Airmen will be able to pick up our Mr.Jigsaw comics & other titles at GRYPHON – Games & Comics.

        
Speaking of our comics, we are still assembling some truly great comic strips starring classic pulp tales form the 1930s which we will be collecting in a whopping huge black and white anthology called…well, see the logo above.  Recently writer Adam Garcia sent us the roughs for the page of his Green Lama story as done by the artist on the strip, the amazing Mike Fyles.  We thought you'd all like a sneak peek.  We hope to have the book available sometime next Feb.

             
                  First Page Green Lama Comic
Looks absolutely fantastic.  Can't wait to see it completed.  Remember Loyal Airmen, this comic will contain eight great comic adventures of well known, colorful pulp heroes.  Some of them appearing in comics for the very first time.  Stay tuned.  More to come.

            
                   ZOMBIE BOOK # 3
Finally on the comic home front, the above little cutey.  Th Air Chief has never been a fan of zombie tales or movies.  But when our good buddy, artist Rich Woodall invited the Air Chief and Rob to do up a short zombie take for this new series from Terminal Press, we couldn't refuse him.  We ended up producing a five page ditty called DEADLINE.  Thus far there have been four editions of this now best selling anthology series. Ours appears in issue # 3 (see above) if you are interested in snagging a copy, simply go to their website at –
(www.TerminalPress.com) –  The price is $10 for 84 full color pages of gory, disgusting zombie fare.

And there you have it for another week at Hanger 27, Loyal Airmen.  Now time for  the Air Chief's latest health report.  The MRI pictures we took last week revealed that the Air Chief has three minor heriated disc in his lower back.  We are now going to consult a back surgeon early next week to discuss what our options are to fixing those; it most likely will be some kind of surgery.  We will keep you posted.  And considering how far medicine has come in the past ten years, we're told this is a fairly common procedure.  Also of note, our family doctor, at Valerie's suggestion, gave us a script for a super steroid drug that is a very powerful anti-inflammatory. Upon getting home yesterday, we took two and within an hour the leg pain that had been bothering us for over a month went away.  We almost cried realizing it was no longer …there.  We have enough of these pills to take us into the New Year to whatever date such surgery would be scheduled.

So there you have it, Loyal Airmen.  Amidst the parties and cards and gift wrapping, we continue to appreciate this as the Season of Peace & Love.  Whatever toys or baubles we share with each other, remember that we, as family, are the greatest gifts to one another.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen. This week, amidst the frantic holiday season, we wanted to talk about friends. There have been millions of jokes and witty sayings on how we can't choose what family we are born in etc.etc.etc.  That is pretty much up to God.  Whereas during our lives we in fact make our own family of those people we choose to associate with, to experience life with on a truly personal level. They are our friends and as we go through life, from childhood to those last senior years, most of us will either have a lot of friends or sadly too few. The Good Lord has truly blessed the Air Chief with many, many true friends, especially in the years since we retired and started up our Airship 27 Productions.  Way too many to name them all here, and at the risk of even trying and forgetting one or two. If you are a regular visit to this Flight Log, you've most likely seen many of them in pictures here. Today we're going to talk about three of them.

            
                                 Chuck Moore & “The Fozn”  Henry Winkler
Some five years ago a fellow named Chuck Moore invited comic book creators to set up their own personal forums on his new website called Comic Related.  The Air Chief took him up on that generous offer and all too quickly learned what a truly remarkable, decent, fun loving person he was.  Since then Chuck and the Air Chief have joined up at big comic cons like New York and small ones like Champion City this past year in Springfield, Ohio. Chuck is that rare individual who truly cares for others and defines what a true and good friend is.  Recently, he was at a con in Atlanta and had the pleasure of meeting actor Henry Winkler who played the ever cool Foznie in the hit TV series, HAPPY DAYS.  When Chuck sent us the photo above, we thought it was priceless, as it brings together two of the COOLEST guys in the world.

            
                      Kevin Noel Olson & Jiggy Comics
When my partner Rob Davis and I were in the middle of launching Airship 27 Productions, we ran into some problems with a publisher who chose to renege on deal to publish our pulp books.  Things looked really bad until one of our first writers, a guy name Kevin Noel Olson, suggested we contact his publisher, Cornerstone Book Publishers. He went to bat for us, helped make that introduction and now our partnership with Cornerstone is stronger than ever.  All thanks to Kevin's wanting to help us.  Since that time he has continued to contribute to our books.  He's a talented writer and has produced series of wonderful childrens books featuring a character called Eerey Tocsin.

               
                       Book # 2 in the Eerey Tocsin Series
If you know young people in your family who are big readers, the Air Chief can't recommend these books enough. You can find them at Amazon, Barnes & Noble on-line etc.  Kevin is another good friend who made so many good things possible in our lives. Check these books out, you'll be glad you did.

        
                            Smiling Rob Davis at Mid-Ohion Con
Finally, we had to mention the guy we regard as our Best Friend, our partner and confidant, Rob Davis.  The two of us first hooked up over twenty years ago via mail correspondence at the time we were both getting our comic book careers going.  Sadly, we were never able to get a project together off the ground back them. Time went along and we lost touch.  Then, by the hand of God, via the internet, we hooked up a second time when the Air Chief was just dreaming of Airship 27.  Without Rob and his talent, his work, support and enthusiasm, that dream would have remained just that, a dream

Earlier this week Rob had surgery to remove a cancerous organ.  We want to thank all our Loyal Airmen who prayed and kept him, and his family, in their thoughts.  We are so happy to report that all went fell, Rob was home two days later and is on the mend.  As he told me in an e-mail, the night before his surgery, “We still have a lot of great pulp books to get out.”  Yes, we do, Rob.  And the Air Chief thanks God every day for a friend like you. 

And so we end this with a little advice, never ever take your friends for granted, Loyal Airmen.  Be aware of the joy, richness and love they bring into your lives…and appreciate them daily.  It is truly a rich man who has real friends.  The Air Chief today is one of the richest of them all.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen and welcome to this week's Flight Log.  Today we're going to be talking about one of the Air Chief's favorite classic heroes, Robin Hood.
 
                          
                                        Errol Flynn as Robin Hood
We don't recall the very first time we saw the movie, “The Adventures of Robin Hood,” starring the greatest screen swashbuckler of them all, Errol Flynn., but we know how much we enjoyed the experience.  In fact to this day it remains our second most favorite movie of all time.  It was our introduction to this classic hero who robbed from the rich to give to the poor, a man who became an outlaw rather than give in to immoral and unjust laws of his time. We never get tired of seeing his story told be it in cinema, television or the printed page.  In movies such stars as Douglas Fairbanks, Richard Todd, Sean Connery, Kevin Costner and most recently Russell Crowe have all taken a stab at playing this wonderful rogue. Still Flynn remains number one in our hearts. Which is why we were so excited last year when British writer, Ian Watson came to us with a brand new trilogy of the legend. 

                 
                             Map Showcasing lands in which the Robin Hood legend was born.
As it turned out, Ian lives only a short distance from Sherwood Forest and wanted to give the readers an historically accurate Robin Hood, but still filled with the same trademark action, adventure and romance we all expect to find in this ageless tale.  He delivered and lots more.  ROBIN HOOD – KING OF SHERWOOD is by far one of the finest books the Air Chief has had the pleasure of reading this year.  We bring this up now because this past week the Air Chief has been reading and editing the second volume in the trilogy ROBIN HOOD – ARROW OF JUSTICE and it is just a terrific as the first book. 

                
                      Cover painting by Mike Manley
When we first put ROBIN HOOD – KING OF SHERWOOD, we were lucky enough to recruit one of the finest artists in the country, Mike Manley, to do our cover.  The Air Chief thought you might like to see it without the logo and text on it to better appreciate Mike's gorgeous painting.  ROBIN HOOD – KING OF SHERWOOD was released in Feb.  We are also very thrilled to announce that Mike has signed on to do the cover for ARROW OF JUSTICE as well.  The Air Chief and his partner, art director Rob Davis, couldn't be happier.  It's much like getting an early Christmas gift.

And it's not too late to pick up a copy of this book.  All you need do is click on to the our Airship 27 dirigible logo to the left of this column and it will link you to our on-line store where this volume is on-sale.  Of course if you are so inclined, you can get it Amazon and Barnes & Noble if you prefer.  And might we humbly suggest, if you have any devoted readers in your family, or would like to fire up the reading bug in your children, you could not give them a better Christmas gift than ROBIN HOOD – KING OF SHERWOOD by Ian Watson.

      
                     Illo by Rob Davis
Of course like all Airship 27 pulp titles, this one had nine beautiful illustration, these by Rob. All of us agree, including the author, that they are some of Rob's finest work.  And before you ask, the answer is, yes, Rob will once again be providing the interior pieces for the new book.  Which, with fingers crossed, we will have out early next Spring.  But before that happens, Rob has to take care of an important health issue.  Next Monday, Dec. 6th he will be going to the hospital to have his prostate removed.  Rob is a spiritual guy and a positive one. Still he would so appreciate all your kind thoughts and prayers come Monday. And should any of you Loyal Airmen wish to send him a get-well card, please drop us a line and we'll pass along his mailing address. Those kind of simple things go a long way in making someone smile when the going gets a little rough.

Which is a good way to segue into our thanks to all of you who have been praying that the Air Chief's back problems will heal up.  We saw an orthopedic specialist this past week and he has us doing some walking exercises before we go back and see him again next week at which time he will schedule an M.R.I. Hopefully this will pinpoint the source of the ailment and we can get things squared away and back to normal. We will keep you posted as ever.

Again, as always, thanks for stopping by, and please, consider picking up ROBIN HOOD – KING OF SHERWOOD.  Your support is always appreciated.

Ron – Over & Out.