12:30 PM  FRIDAY 12-12-08

Greeting Loyal Airmen.  As I write this Log Entry, the scene outside is one of a glazed countryside covered with a thin layer of ice.  Most of New England was hit by a severe ice storm during the night and this morning most businesses and schools are shut down as road crews continue to lay down salt and sand over all byways.  Most of the bare trees are bent like ancient stick people, the weight of the ice causing many to break and lots of them have come down over power-lines with obvious, disastrous results.  Fortunately, our area still has power.  With fingers crossed and lots of prayers, it will remain unaffected.  What most non-New Englanders do not realize is how crippling ice is. We are prepared to handle mountains of snow, but a thin sheet of ice simply cannot be managed save for the weather temperatures rising to a melting degree.  So we stay huddled in our homes and wait.

Which is not a bad thing in that your old Air Chief has a few things to cover this week.  One of them being the fantastic model railroad display envisioned and realized by our son, Scott.  See picture above.   Scott, who resides in Bethel, Conn.,  built this layout to be auctioned off for the SCOTTY Fund, at its 7th  Winter's Eve Gala Dinner Dance & Tree Auction Last Friday.   The SCOTTY Fund, Inc.  was established in 1996 in  memory of Scott Anderson.   Scotty was a three year old who lost his life to cancer.  Wanting to do something special for this cause, Scott had the idea to built, from scratch, an entire railroad diorama.  And so for many, many nights, after coming home from work, he would go out to his garage and create this truly beautiful layout.   By the time he was finished, the cost in miniature buildings, landscape, tracks, trains etc. had climbed into the hundreds of dollars, never mind the labor hours involved. When all was said and done, the above was finished and donated.   He has not gotten back to me yet on how well the auction went or at what dollar amount it sold for.  I'm hoping it was in the thousands, as it should have been.  Scott did a magnificent job here and for a truly great cause.  We in the family are all so proud of him and wanted to share his marvelous efforts with all you Loyal Airmen.  Take bow, Number One Son.

                    
                               Forrest J. Ackerman (1916-2008)

When I was about ten years old, I discovered a newstand magazine all about old horror and science fiction movies called FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND.  It changed my life forever.  It was the product of  one man, writer/editor Forrest J. Ackerman.  Every single month it was jammed packed with little known facts about all these classic old films.  Over the years, as I read and collected this super terrific periodical, I realized I was actually getting an education in the culture of the fantastic.  Each issue fired my imagination and the things I learned in FMOF inspired me to want to do cool things, like write comic book and pulps.  And believe me, Loyal Airmen, I wasn't the only one growing up in the late 50s and early 60s who was being shaped by Uncle “Forry.”  George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, John Landis and countless other dreamers were all devoted followers of this amazing magazine.  To say he shaped an entire generations of dreamers would not be a lie.

Beside producing this great magazine, Ackerman also collected film memorabilia from all this great old movies until his California home was so packed with these cinema treasures, it became a real museum and he called it the Ackermansion and would open its doors every Saturday morning to fans.  Thousands walked through its halls and beheld one-of-kind artifacts from classic Hollywood epics.  Uncle Forry was truly one of a kind himself and last week, at the age of 92 years young, he slipped away into that land of eternal dreams.   Some four years ago, while attending a Horror Convention in Baltimore, I finally got to shake his hand and thanking him personally for inspiring me and being such a huge part of my growing up.  Rest in Peace, Uncle Forry.  And one more time, from one of your most devoted readers, THANK YOU.

And speaking of dreams, Uncle Forry would have loved books like our latest release, SECRET AGENT X – Volume III.   A few weeks ago I did up an entire Log Entry on how we devised this awesome cover by Rob Davis and Shane Evans.  Well it is now officially available for sale and I hope all you'll Loyal Airmen will check it out.  It is the third in our on-going series of all new adventures of pulpdom's greatest super-spy.  This collection features stories by John Bear Ross, Frank Schildiner, H.Jarrod Courtemance and Andrew Salmon, every one of them an action packed pulp thriller.  This title should be posted at our on-line store (see dirigible logo to left of this column) by the end of the day.  This book is the last 2008 release from Airship 27 Productions.  We think we're going out with a winner.  It has been an incredible year for Airship 27 Prod. and we now have ten titles in our ever growing catalog.  But believe me, Loyal Airmen, the best is yet to come.  We've got some great new titles planned for 2009, so stick around.  We couldn't do it without your continued support.

Which pretty much wraps up this week's Log Entry.  Valerie and I are packing as we will be flying out to Colorado at the start of next week to spend the holidays with our son, Alan, and his family.  Usually that would mean shutting down Hangar 27, but not so this year.  I'm bringing along our wi-fi laptop with us and will continue to dispatch new entries from the Rocky Mountain state.  So come back next week, if you can spare a few minutes from all your hectic holiday errands.

Till then, stay sane, remember the true origins of this holiday and do something nice to someone.  This is a time of giving, and I don't mean things.

Ron – Over & Out.

Greeting loyal airmen.  The above picture is highly representative of what my spirit went through this past week and is only now recovering.  After having posted one of our most popular Log Entries last week (and thanks to all of you to took the time to write and tell us how much you liked it), I was flying pretty high.  Then I received a letter from one of our Airship 27 Prod. writers, Andrew Salmon, telling me there was a major printing mistake in our recently released Captain Hazzard # 4 – The Cavemen of New York.  Somehow, through some totally weird voodoo glitch in our computer programs, the text for page 182 was swapped around for the text on page 185 and vice versa!!! And none of us caught it!  Your old Air Chief takes full blame here for not sitting down and re-reading the entire book when it was printed.  After having spent months with the script, and then seen multiple pdf versions as Rob put it together, I was lazy and although I did look through the book, I did not actual read it.  And so was done in!  Crash and burn big time.

Andrew was set to write a review for Amazon and asked me how he should proceed.  As sick as this entire affair made me, I realized, in complete deference to all you loyal airmen (& and our readers) we simply could not ignore this.  That's like ignoring an elephant standing in the middle of one's parlor.  Nope, we would not do that ever.  We value all of you and your support too much.  So I asked Andrew to write his review as planned and add an epilogue explaining the printing error.  In the meantime, Andew has also volunteered to go through the entire book one more time and he and Rob are going to assembe an entire new pdf for our publisher, who stands ready to delete the corrupt old files for these new ones.  In the meantime I wish to make this up for all of you who have already bought this book.  Simply write to me and tell me the last word in the novel to confirm you do own the book.  I will in turn digitally send you (free of charge) a copy of the clean pdf files so that you can at least have a clean version in digital format.

By the start of next week, those bad files will be history and people buying the book will get clean copies. All of us involved with Airship 27 Prod. and Cornerstone Book Publishers are truly sorry for this snafu.  It is never our intention to produce anything but the highest quality books.  Granted, this is an imperfect world and you will never ever see a book free of a single typo or mispelling etc.  It's impossible.  But that does not excuse them either.  After several days of discussing this situation, all of us decided something concrete had to be done to prevent any reoccurences.  To that end we recruited a communication professional (and long time loyal airmen) John Bruening to assume the role of our Official Proof Reader.  John is a great guy and dedicated typo hunter/destroyer. When we offered him the job, he responded immediately, rolling up his sleeves ready to charge out of the gate at once to tackle his new assignment.  All of us feel lots more confident with John added to the team.  In a way, this negavtive event was the inspiration for us to work harder and make our process even better.

Finally, should any of you ever pick up an Airship 27 Prod. title and find a similar error, never hesitate to inform of us such.  Again, none of us here claim perfection and your aid and support are always valued. 

                              Kristi  – Valerie – Chelsea –  Alex – Cora
On a much happier note, while out in Colorado for Thanksgiving, Valerie took lots and lots of pictures.  One of the joys of the trip was in bringing our two Maine based grand kids, Kristi & Chelsea (along with their mom, our daughter Michelles) so that they could at long last meet their Colorado cousins, Alex and Cora.  The wonderful picture above was taken just prior to all of them sitting down to a super Thanksgiving meal.  Valerie's smile still hasn't left her face.  It was a super trip and the cousins totally enjoyed each others company.  The greatest gift God gives all of us is family.

Meanwhile, with Turkey Day behind us, life at Hangar 27 is one frantic beehive of activity.  Val and I only have a few weeks before we fly back to Colorado for Christmas.  And a hundred and one things to do before then.  Its going to drive us crazy, but hey, it's a fun crazy.  Stay tuned…and sane.

Ron – Over & Out

Greetings, Loyal Airmen, we trust you all had a terrific Thanksgiving yesterday and are all properly satiated with good loving company and delicious food.  So sit back and enjoy this behind the scenes step by step making of our latest pulp cover for the soon-to-be released SECRET AGENT X – VOL III.

                                 
Of the four new stories we accepted for this new volume, one was called THE MASK OF MEDUSA and was written by Frank Schildiner.   Like all our entries, it's a rip-roaring, action thriller.  The thing with this particular tale is that its plot (& title) offered up an immediate visual image to your old Air Chief.   What if we were to place our hero in front of a giant female head wearing the title head-piece?   As I am always scouring the internet for old pulp covers and when found, keep them in a specific file aptly titled ..PULP ILLOS.   Amongst my collection was the above image with the central figure in exactly the action pose I wanted.  With that found, I had to then find the other two elements we would need.

I needed to find a visually striking mask.  I proceeded to surf the internet again, this time going to Mardi Gras sites as that is where you will find the most beautiful and original such visages.  Happily I found the above image, the center mask being the one that completely won me over.  Now on to step three.

                       
Medusa, as most of you will recall, was the creature from mythology who had living snakes instead of hair and when men looked upon her, they turned to stone.  Finding this classical picture on-line tool me all of five minutes.  So, I had all three parts of my imagine Secret Agent X cover.  Our hero, the woman wearing the mask, and a decent picture of Medusa.   I then digitally sent all three of the above to my partner, and Airship 27 Prod. super duper art director, Rob Davis.  I explained to Rob my idea for the completed composition and left everything in his more than capable hands.  Rob went to work immediately and in two days….

  …sent me this collage he put together using his Photo-Shop PC program.  And here it was, the exact composition I'd envisioned from the start, complete with our familiar X logo.  I let Rob know he'd hit the bullseye and this was exactly the image we needed him to capture in pencil.

When I saw this finished pencil drawing, I nearly cried, it was so damn beautiful.  Rob completely took these various borrowed elements and turned them into a truly powerful, and original pulp cover drawing.  You have to realize at this stage of the development, I was really getting excited.   This was clearly going to evolve into one of our best covers ever.   So now that we had Rob's drawing, it was time to digitally send it off to Shave Evans in New Zealand to work his color magic over it.

Shane is a true craftsman at digital painting, as is quite evident by his embellishment of Rob's pencils.  I'm just sorry tech limitations don't allow me to show this off larger so that you can fully appreciate the nuances of Shane's color work.   It is truly a thing of beauty, and totally captures the essence of Frank's Secret Agent X adventure.   So now all that remained was for Rob to add the final touch, the title logos and writer's names etc.

VOILA!!!  The official cover to SECRET AGENT X – Vol III.   Note how Rob continued to play with the finished art by having several of the snakes slide over the logo bar giving them a 3D feel.  Simply dynamic work on his part from start to finish.   In the end, this cover is ten times what I had dreamed up at the start, thanks to Rob and Shane.  I cannot thank them enough.   And you, my Loyal Airmen, will soon be the beneficiaries of all this hard work, as hopefully we'll be announcing the release of this book in just another few weeks.  Stay tuned.

And there you have it.  I hope you've all enjoyed this little how-to log.  Of course not all our Airship 27 Prod. covers are put together this way, but often this is the route many of them will take to fruition.  As always, I hope you'll stop by our on-line store, if you've not done so before (see dirigible button to upper left of this column) and check out all our titles for sale.  If you've got readers in your family, books make wonderful Christmas gifts.  And on that note, I'll sign off for this week.

Thanks as ever for stopping by. 
Ron – Over & Out

Greeting loyal airmen.  Here we are less than a week from Thanksgiving and I find myself thinking one of the wonderful things that I will be giving thanks for next week, on that holiday, will be ALL OF YOU!!  Last Sunday I was a guest at Ralph DiBernardo's amazing Portsmouth Comic Convention.  It was by far the most fun I've ever had at a small, one day show.  And the reason for that fun was all the tremendous super people I met during the course of those six hours; many of which were loyal airmen who drove up from far off locales.  From the second they opened the doors, my table was never quiet, meaning I was constantly bombarded by old friends, new friends and just plain Airship 27 Prod. fans.  Just amazing.

First thanks have to go to Ralph for hosting such a super show.  Ralph and I go back well over twenty five years together.  When we first hooked up, he's was just a scrawny teenager who loved comics and I was a struggling writer starting to break into the field.  Ralph was the first real fan, other than Valerie, who not only supported my efforts but made sure I always had a place in his burgeoning comic enterprises, whether it was doing store signings at various shops he managed over the years or being a guests at all the fun shows he's put on in this area.  Ralph is truly Mr.Comics in our neck of the woods and I'm truly honored to be his friend.  (And jealous as hell that twenty-five years later, he's still as skinny as ever!  How does he do it?)

Okay, now I'm going to rattle off lots of names here, only because I want to thank those special loyal airmen who came and said hi to the Air Chief and made his day special.  Steve Haggar takes first place in that he drove all the way up here from Penn., telling me he was up at 3 AM to be in New Hampshire for the show's opening at 10 A.M.  Amazing!  Steve came down with several copies of our pulps for me to sign and then proceeded to surprise me by revealing, under his shirt, that he was wearing a Captain Hazzard tee-shirt form our on-line shop!!  Hot dog!  He thus became the first ever Loyal Airmen to so!  What a trooper, and truly all around nice guy. Sure hope we meet again soon, Steve.  Then came Henry Lopez who hails from Miami, but is now living in nearby Concord where he's attending Law School.  Henry runs a gaming company and was a pure joy to talk to. We share a passion for pulps.  Mike Lynch, a local cartoonist stopped by to say hi, as did my old amigo, Randy Buccini.  Larry Young, fellow writer from across the bridge in Maine, was my con neighbor as he had the table next to mine and was promoting his new comic creation, ANGELICA -DEMON HUNTRESS. (Go to IndyPlantet on the web and pick up a copy.  It's good stuff.)  Jarrod Courtemanche, one of my newest pulp writers who has a story in our soon to be released SECRET AGENT X – Vol III, came up with his son Marcus and had a great time.  Jarrod's X story is a winner and I've been pestering him to do more, he's a super talented dude who, in his spare time (ha) also makes short independent films.  Now that's an all around talented guy.  Another Jared who made a visit to our table was Jared Cantin, another writer with whom we hope to be working shortly.   Pulps are all new to Jared, but he's learning fast. And I can't forget Andy Brown.  Last week I did that store signing at the Barnes & Noble in Manchester.  Well a young woman showed up to represent her husband, who couldn't get away from his job that day.  That woman was Samantha Brown and Andy is her writer husband.  What truly great people, both of them.  Andy made it a point to come to meet me Sunday and now he's a bonafide Airship 27 writer.  Yahoo.  Like I said, this list could go on and on and I worry I'll end up posting it and forget someone.  So up front, my apologies if I do so.  Everyone who stops by here every week to read these log entries IS a loyal airmen, and you are all incredibly wonderful people.

Now a question for you.  Who on earth would create a fantastic science-fiction action comic book hero based on a soda pop?  Answer, Portland, Me. writer/artist, Jap Piscopo, that's who!  Within a few minutes of the comic show being in progress, this excited fellow comes up to my table, hand out stretched and tells me he's a friend of Rick Lowell (Rick is an old pal who owns and manages Casablanca Comics, two of the finest comic shops in all the country) and that he loves my Captain Hazzard pulps.   He then proceeds to tell me about this venture he's promoting based on a beverage company out of Portland that produces CaptN Eli's Root Beer!  No lie!  Somehow the people making this product got it into their head that getting a comic book out there with the same name would be a unique marketing tool.  It was their good fortune to find Jay Piscopo.  Jay's an industry professional who has talent coming out of his ears.  He knows the ins and outs of graphic storytelling like the pro he is and when offered this job, he immediately upped the ante by inventing a character that is so much fun, he harkens back to the classic live action cartoon series, JONNY QUEST.  Eli, his dog and parrot are just so cool, I could spent this entire log ranting about their exploits.  So far Jay and company have produced two issues (that's number 1 above with the gorgeous Steve Rude cover).  If you love a rollicking good adventure, filled with awe and wonder, and you have kids, you have to get them these books.  Simply Google the title and go find them.  Trust me, you will thank me.  I'm getting extra copies for my grandson Alex for Christmas, that's how much I love CaptN Eli.  Oh, and part of the supporting cast includes a pulp-like hero named Commander X.  Well, after hooking up for the very first time at the show, I came home and write a very short Commander X pulp story that will eventually get published either in a future issue or at their website.  Now that's just too cool.

One of the finest instructional magazines on the market today for would-be comic book creators is called SKETCH and one of its editors is a fellow named Bill Nichols.  Over the life of the magazine, emphasis has been slanted on the art of comics and teaching it.  Ergo, there's been little focus put on the writing end of things, which is where your old Air Chief comes in.  Recently Bill put out a call for articles of any kind relating to the making of a comic book.  As it turns out, I am in the middle of putting together a presentation package for a possible new mini series with the help of a Brazilian artist named Danyael Lopes.  I contacted Bill and asked if Sketch would like to publish our proposal as we put it together, step by step and he thought that was a super idea.  So this current issue, now on your the newstands, has my idea, how I came up with it and then worked it into a full blown plot summary plot to send to Danyael.  Next issue will showcase the first actual character sketches he had sent in based on this summary.  In future installments you'll get to read my 5 page sample script and see how Danyael turned them into rough thumbnails and then full blown, completed comic pages.  So, loyal airmen, if you, or someone you know, has ever wanted to know how comic book professionals put together a presentation to submit to publishers, please, pick up a copy of SKETCH # 37, they are usually available at most comic shops.

And that's it for the Friday before Thanksgiving.  Valerie left for Colorado yesterday with our daughter Michelle and granddaughters, Kristi & Chelsea.  They are spending Thanksgiving with our son, Alan and his family.  Its the first time the four cousins meet and the first time Alan and Michelle have seen each other in over ten years.  Val called last night to tell me the airport reunion last evening was something truly beautiful.  So I couldn't be happier. As to why I'm not there enjoying all this, well the Air Chief has two very special dates for Thanksgiving dinner next week, Val's mother, Lorraine and my own Mom.  I'm taking both these lovely ladies to a marvelous local restaurant for a delicious, home style turkey dinner.  Yum! 

So a few words here to wish all of you a truly HAPPY THANKSGIVING.  All of you will be in my prayers that day, when I thank God for my life and blessings.   And finally, be sure to be back here next Friday for a really special Log Entry.  I'm going to show you how Rob Davis and I put together the cover for our latest Secret Agent X pulp.  I promise, you'll will all get a kick out of this. Till then, be happy, and don't eat too much turkey…you have to save room for the apple pie!!

Ron – Over & Out.
                             

Greetings loyal airmen, well the store signing at the Barnes & Noble in Manchester, NH, went off extremely well this past Tues. evening, Nov. 11th.

The store Events Manager is Karen Creed and she is one of the nicest people your old Air Chief has ever had the good fortune of meeting.  Karen went out of her way to make me feel welcome and had everything ready to go when I arrived.   My participation was part of a high school fundraiser hosted by the football team of Raymond High School, where my brother-in-law, Norman Cormier is the coach.  Which is why you see a few football jerseys in my audience above.  To start everything off, they had me do a reading.  I chose the prologue from WITCHFIRE and seemed to muddle through okay.  Although I have to confess, its a whole lot easier writing those words than it is standing up in front of people and reading them aloud.  Swear and cuss words never seem so awkward on the printed page, but when you are verbalizing SH*T and BI**H aloud, well that's a whole other thing.  Ha.  Still, we managed to push through.

                                            Your old Air Chief and Events Manager Karen Creed

Once the reading was all wrapped up, I, and all the books Karen had ordered for the signing, were carried to the front entrance of the store and set up anew.  Of course it was helpful to have a half dozen strong football players along for that task.  Took them all of five minutes to get this moved and ready.  Once there, I then spent the next two hours greeting Barnes & Nobles customers coming into the store, as well as saying so-long to those leaving. I like to be an equal opportunity greeter.  Ha.  Karen had gotten in twenty copies of BROTHER BONES, WITCHIFRE, CAPTAIN HAZZARD # 3 (CURSE OF THE RED MAGGOT) and # 4 (CAVEMEN OF NEW YORK) plus the PHANTOM CHRONICLES anthology from Moonstone Books with my story in it.  Ergo, a full 100 copies of my writings.  Wow!! I have never seen so many of my books together like this.  It was both daunting and humbling.  And of course it was now my job to sell them all.  Ha.  Not likely.  Although, in all honesty, we did move quite a few, which was awesome as I got to meet and chat with so many truly wonderful people.  All of them readers.  In other words, my kind of people.  I got to promote the gospel of pulps and maybe made a few new converts while I was there.  Time will tell.

At the end of my visit, Karen invited me to return in Jan. when she will be hosting a writers forum specifically for local teachers groups.  She became very excited when I informed her of my thirty five years of writing comic books and the lectures I've given to teaching groups in the past.  That done, she had me autograph a good portion of the unsold copies and we bid each other farewell.  My first ever bookstore signing had been a tremendous success and on a personal note, just tons of fun.  Writing is a lonely task, so the opportunity to get out and meet fans is the icing on this cake.

Speaking of such, don't forget this coming Sunday, loyal airmen.  Your old Air Chief is going to be one of  dozens of wonderful comic book creators all appearing at the one day Portsmouth Comic Show in the Best Western Motel located on the Porstmouth Traffic Circle.  Show is from 10 AM to 3 PM.  I really hope lots of you loyal airmen will make the tirp down, or up, as the case may be.  This is going to be a truly great show.

On other fronts, the past few days has seen an electrical evolution here at Hanger 27.  Valerie and I are planning on spending the last two weeks of the year out in Ft.Collins, CO. with our son, Alan, and his family.  Realizing I would still need to be connected to do my editing chores for Airship 27 Prod. Valerie made the decision to get a wireless account for our laptop PC.  So as of now, we are wired to the world.  Very cool.  Meaning, I'll most likely be writing several of these log entries from Colorado and able to wish you all timely seasons greetings.  Too cool.  What with this being done, I decided it was high time I got with the program and agreed at long last to go and get a cell phone.   Your Air Chief is old fashion in many things and I never completely bought into the fact that people have to be connected every single minute of the day to the point of carrying a telephone with them.  There seems to be an inflated concept of self-worth that comes with such a toy.  People thinking they are so important that others want to contact them all the time.  Believe me, I've never had that mistaken illusion.  Ha.  Yet, in the coming months I am planning on doing some serious traveling to various conventions, including the big Comic Con in New York City come the start of Feb. 09.    I realized the logistics of this trip would be tricky as I'm traveling with one group of people and staying with another group.  Coordinating this trip could be a real hassle and worst scenario, leave your old Air Chief stranded in the Big Apple without a ride home.  A cell phone of my own was the obvious solution and so I bit the bullet.

Thank God I've got teenage granddaughters who can show me how to use it!!!  I tried reading the accompanying manual and all I did was get a headache, yet Kristi (who turned 17 yesterday) simply picked up my little new gizmo and instantly began using it, added names and phones and showing me how it all functions.  It truly is their world now, all these fancy new marvels we've come to take for granted.  Simply amazing.

And there you have it, loyal airmen.  Thanks as always for stopping by and have a great week.
Ron – Over & Out.

Greetings, loyal airmen.  Another week has rolled on by and with many, many changes, both public and personal.  The last time I posted a log entry it was to wish all of you a Happy Halloween as Valerie and I headed down to Bethel, Conn. to spend the weekend with son Scott, his wife Katie and grand kids, Taryn & Logan.  It was a truly gorgeous train ride down the eastern coast, both ways, and we had a great time.  In fact, while Scott and Katie took the kids Trick or Treating Friday night, Valerie and your old Air Chief manned the candy station by the front down and for several hours confronted dozens of scary ghosts and goblins of all shapes and sizes.  Let me tell you, it was the most fun we've had in ages.  Our own home sets on the outskirts of town and save for family and a few other kids, we really don't get any of this kind of activity.  So we thoroughly had a great time.  We did take some pictures but I don't have them readily available right now.  Thing is, Taryn opted to go out in the same original costume her father built for her two years ago…as a birthday cake!

So I dug out this two year old photo out of the files.  Taryn, amazingly, is much taller, but her growth spurt seems to have been in her legs, as she was actually able to fit her torso into the costume with absolutely no problems. All of us were amazed.  Scott has those two candle lights hooked up to batteries and when she was walking along the street in the dark, both were lit.  It's a truly ingenious costume and you can see why she, and the rest of us all loved it.  Oh, and if you are curious, younger brother Logan went in his doctor's scrubs.  He was so cute.

Now the birthday theme has relevancy for your old Air Chief, but let's work that in with the proper sequencing.  We got home early Sunday afternoon and on Tuesday morning, Nov. 4th, used our daily hike to walk downtown to the polls and vote in the election.  It ended up being an historical event as Barack Obama become the first black American to win the office of president.  Have you ever wished you wrong about something?  I didn't vote for Senator Obama because I did not believe he was either qualified or experienced enough to be president. Now that he has won that office, it has not changed my opinion.  The only difference now is that I very much want to be proven wrong.  Before anything else, Republican or Democrat, we are all Americans and as such, I will support this man totally, praying every day that he rises to the overwhelming challenges that face our great country.  It truly is time to put the bickering of politics aside, roll up our sleeves and get to work fixing those problems that confront us all.

On Wed. Nov. 5th, your old Air Chief became 62 years old.  And Valerie set out to make it a very special day all around.  My favorite food in the entire world is crepes and every year, on my birthday, she makes me a stack of these delicious, thin and sweet breakfast treats.  A little butter, some maple syrup and your Old Chief was in seventh heaven.  Oh, yeah.  Then spent the day together getting some errands run, going out for lunch and just having a wonderful time.  My e-mail was filled all day with lots of wonderful birthday well wishes from friends and family. Thanks to each and every one of you for taking the time to send those greetings.  They mean a lot to me. Your Air Chief is truly a blessed soul when it comes to the marvelous friends I have in you loyal airmen.

It was towards the end of that fun day that I discovered that one of my farovirte writers had passed.  The only sad note to my celebration.   Science fiction and thriller bestselling novelist, Michael Crichton died of cancer at the age of 66.   I was a huge fan of his books like JURASSIC PARK and EATERS OF THE DEAD, TIMELINE and CONGO to name only a few.   Crichton had a way of exploring scientific themes that question the morality of our society and asked the right questions in the process.  They were thought provoking as well as action filled and he stood head and shoulders above his peers.  His passing was a great loss to all who love to read.  66!  That's just too young.

Finally I wanted to share with all you loyal airmen one of my surprise goodies.  Valerie and I are both suckers for good, uplifting sports movies and this past week we latched on to one that is just terrific.

It's called THE FINAL SEASON and stars Sean Astin and Powers Boothe.  It tells the true story of Norway,  Iowa, a small town that for twenty (2-0!) years won the state baseball championship!  That has got to be the single longest sport team record ever completed!  The movie tells the story of their final season, and how state officials set about closing the school for heartless economic reasons.  What your old Air Chief loved about this story is that although it is about a baseball team and its players and coaches, the underlying theme exposes the continuing extinction of rural American small towns; the once moral cornerstone of our society.  Thus it is both a sad and feel-good movie all of you should see.  Sadly it was never released to theaters and I was just lucky enough to read about on-line months ago so that when I saw this copy at a local store, I scoffed it up sight unseen and am delighted to have done so.  This is a truly one of a kind story.

Also, for all you techy airmen, Scott has added that RSS Feed at the top of the column.  He tells me this will allow of you to subscribe via your I-pods or whatever to this blog.  How cool is that?  Thanks, Scott.

And there you have it, loyal airmen.  Before signing off, let remind you that I will be doing my first ever bookstore signing this coming Tuesday (Veteran's Day) 11th Nov. at 3 PM at the Barnes & Noble on South Willow St. in Manchester.  If you are anywhere nearby, please stop on in and say.   Your Air Chief could use all the support he can get. Ha.

Ron – Over & Out.

Greetings loyal airmen.  Valerie and I are jumping aboard Airship 27 bright and early tomorrow morning and sailing down to Bethel, Conn. to spend the Halloween weekend with our oldest son, Scott, and his family.  Meaning we'll get to Trick or Treat with our grand kids, Taryn (7) and Logan (3).  We are really looking forward to this trip.  Ergo, there will be no Friday log entry this week.  But we didn't want to Up Ship without wishing all of you loyal airmen a ghoulishly fun holiday weekend.  Now don't go eating too much candy, and don't scare the old lady who lives next door.  Ha.

                                       HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO ALL LOYAL AIRMEN

Ron – Over & Out!

Greeting loyal, airmen.  After a truly hectic, all out week (as reported in our last journal entry) the past seven days have returned us to a semblance of normalcy and routine.  Much to our satisfaction. The new leaf vacuum that I mentioned last week is working like a dream and the yard has never looked better.  Which I'd have had one of these years ago.  Speaking of Fall Classics, here we are in the midst of Baseball's World Series and our beloved Red Sox are not there.  After a truly valiant seven game effort, the Walking Wounded (and I've come to call them this season) just didn't have enough gas left to defeat the powerhouse Tampa Rays.  So our applause to the Rays for a great series and well deserved American League Championship Pennant.  As for the Sox, we also applaud their winning season and some truly amazing baseball memories.   For them its time to take the winter off, heal and relax.  As the old baseball goes, “Wait till next year!”

On the home front, your old Air Chief is gearing up to make a few personal appearances at the start of next month.  On Tuesday, 11th Nov.  (Veteran's Day) I will be doing my first ever bookstore signing at the Barnes & Nobles in Manchester, N.H.   Their address is 1741 So.Willow St.  This was all arranged by my brother-in-law, Norman Cormier.  Norm is the football coach at Raymond High School and this will be part of a bookfair fund raiser to help his sports program.  Folks can pick up a voucher and when making purchases that day, Barnes & Noble will donate a portion of each sale to that sports program.  So it's a real worthy cause.  I will be there at 3 P.M and am scheduled to do a reading, followed by an answer and question period and the actual signing of whatever of my pulp books they will have on hand.  At this point, I don't even know.  The Barnes & Nobles event planner informed me they would be ordering several of my Airship 27 Prod. pulp titles for the signing.  So I really have no clue which of my books they will have there.   Your old Air Chief is has done tons of comic book conventions in the past 35 years, but this will be my first book signing, so I'm a wee bit excited. Ha.  And I sure hope lots of you loyal airmen in the area will be able to make it down.  Should any of you desire copies of the voucher above, simply drop me an e-mail and I'll get them off to you pronto.

Six days after the Barnes & Nobles signing, I will be one of dozens of comic book creators appearing at the Portsmouth Comic Book Show to be held at the Best Western Motel on Sunday 16th Nov.  That's located in the Portsmouth Traffic Circle and it looks to be one hell of a great show.  Promoter, and good pal, Ralph DiBernardo has really lined up lots of great comic book talent to include two of my personal favorite artists, Scott Wegener who does Atomic Robot and Craig Rousseau of the Perhapnauts.  And please, don't fret that my name isn't on that poster.  Ralph truly does have so many guests, he simply could not put them all up and still have a visually decent poster to show off.  This is really going to be a great show.  I plan on having copies of my new Brother Bones comic and Daughter of Dracula (for adults only) graphic novel on hand, plus many of my Airship 27 pulp novels.   And don't forget, anyone who comes to my table wearing any Airship 27 gear (from our on-line shop…see icon above to left), they will get any one item for half price.  Just my way of saying thanks for your support.  We also have Free Passes to this show, so if any of you would like some, again, drop me a letter quick and I'll get them off to you.

So there you have my calendar of personal appearances for Nov.  Of course between now and then we've still got Halloween coming up, one of my favorite holidays.  Then within days of Halloween comes the British version, Guy Fawkes Day, on Nov.5th.  Which you knowledgeable airmen will know is my birthday and I'll turn 62 years young!  Yahoo. Can't wait to see what the next 62 will bring!

Take care, have a great week one and all.
Ron – Over & Out.

Greeting loyal airmen.  Sitting down trying to decide what I was going to write this morning, the realization hit your old Air Chief of just how much happened in the past few days.  Sometimes you can go through days and days of the same old routines, not to say that is a bad thing mind you, but there's nothing to report on.  And then suddenly, WHAM!  A week comes along that is so filled with non-stop activity from every aspects of one's life, it seems like an avalanche of experiences.

MONDAY 13th Oct.  Better known as Columbus Day.   After twenty-five years of dealing with a kazillion leaves every single Fall, we finally discovered a solution to our yard care woes.  It's called a BILLY GOAT.  No, not a real four legged one.  Ha.
 
                                       

It arrived Monday afternoon, having purchased it from a nearby small engine shop.  We were given a thirty minute operation demonstration and then it was all mine.  Sorry if this sounds like a bloody commercial, but airmen, I love my new Billy Goat.  This little machine works like a dream and it means no more raking, no more bagging and most of all no more paying constantly rising fees to lawncare outfits.  We have cleaned up the yard several times since its arrival and will most likely do it lots more before all those brightly colored leaves come down.  But now we watch them sailing to the ground and we smile.  It's such a nice feeling.

TUESDAY 14 Oct.   Valerie and I were up at 5 AM to have coffee and get ready for our sunrise drive up to Raymond NH.  Our destination, Raymond High School, where, at 7:30 AM, I have the fun of speaking to the Art Class about the history and production of comic books.   Kathy Mutch, the art teacher there, is an old friend and she had called me a few weeks ago asking if I would come down and talk to her talented kids.  Several of them are very interested in pursuing a career in comics and I hope my ninety-minutes with them helped inspired them to follow that dream.  Having worked in comics for the past thirty-five years, I can attest to the satisfication of working on the things you loved as a child all your life.  It's very much a dream job.  So thanks to all you wonderful students at Raymond High for making us so welcomed.

WEDNESDAY 15th Oct.   Valerie and I were up at 7 AM.  By now your old  Air Chief was wondering what part of retirement covers these early morning rising that are a killer.  Well, airmen, one of the candidates I am supporting on Election Day was coming to New Hampshire for the very first time and there was going to be a rally at nearby Dover, High School.  Normally we would have let this pass, having never attended anything like this before, but this year we had a connection.  You see, somebody we know is working for our candidate and had told us they could get us into any such event if we ever chose to attend.  It was too good an offer to pass up, as neither Valerie or I had ever participated to this extend before.  So off we went bright an early to Dover High.

By the time we got there, the place was mobbed and line stretched down the road for several miles.  We would later learn that over 1,200 people had come hoping to get into the gym.  They were only going to allow 500 to enter.  When we saw that line, Valerie took out her cell phone and called our “contact”.  He told us to walk around to the back of the gym and wait there.  Which we did, stopping at the barricades to chat with the police officers on duty.  A few minutes later our friend came out, ushered us in the hall (we were screened by security) and then he brought us to the first row of empty seats directly behind the podium where our candidate would speak.  There was NO ONE ELSE in the hall!!   Not too often in life has your old Air Chief ever had this kind of VIP treatment.  It was sweet.  After about a half hour, they finally started letting 200 school students in and then filled the rest of the seats with those lucky folks in the front of that line pictured above.

Out candidate, due to flight glitches, was almost an hour late, but by the time she arrived, the mood was one of excitement and enthusiasm, as all of us were yelling, screaming and cheering to the top of our lungs.  They don't call these things rallies for nothing.  It reminded me of my own high school days and those familiar pep rallies before the big sporting games.  Anyways, this is not about politics, as it is about how much fun Valerie and I had in participating in the process.  Which is what I hope all you loyal airmen will do should you ever have a similar opportunity.  Sometimes democracy is just getting out there and cheering for your political home team.  It truly was a fun experience we will never forget.

And Wed. ended with a call to my son, Kevin, to wish him a very Happy 35th Birthday.  Poor guy had a cold, but was in good spirits and delighted with the Batman Pez dispenser set Valerie and I got for him, along with his more traditional gift.  All my children have a weakness for toys (gee, wonder where they get that? Ha.)  And Kev is a big Pez collector. 

THURSDAY  16th Oct.  Fenway Park, last night.  The Red Sox are behind in the American League Pennant race, 3 to 1 against the monster machine that is the Tampa Rays.  All the Rays need to do is win this game and they are on their way to the World Series.  And they come out swinging, getting home run in the very first inning .By the seventh inning, they are beating the Sox 7 to 0.  It looks bad.  Very, very bad.

And then in the seventh inning, with two outs, David Ortiz hits a two run homer and everything changes.  The seventh ends with the Sox having 4 runs.  By the end of the 8th, Coco Crisp ties it all up at 7 to 7.  Then in the bottom of the 9th, the miracle is completed as J.D. Drew hits a line shot into right field to score Kevin Youkalis and the Red Sox win the greatest play-off comeback in all of Major League history since 1929 with a score of 8 to 7 and stymie Tampa's championship dreams!!   It was a night no one in Red Sox Nation will ever forget, when those amazing, walking-wounded somehow dug deep and once again found victory on the steps of defeat.  Now its on to a Game Six in Tampa tomorrow night.  We continue to keep our fingers cross.  It ain't over until the last and final out.  GO SOX!!

So here we are, loyal airmen, Friday 17th Oct. a wee bit tired, but happy as can be.  What a great week.  Hope yours has been as pleasurable.  In the coming weeks, your old Air Chief will be making some personal appearances to promote some recent work in both comics and pulps.  On the 11th of Nov. (a Tuesday) Veteran's Day, I will be at the Barnes & Nobles bookstore in downtown Manchester, NH. doing a book signing.  Soon as I have further details, ala times and which of my pulp titles will be available, I'll let you know right here. Then six days later, Sunday, 16th Nov. I'll be one of many guest at the new Portsmouth Comic Convention to be held at the Best Western Motel in the Portsmouth traffic circle.  The show goes from 9 AM to 4 PM, so if any of you loyal airmen are in the Southern New Hampshire area that weekend, come on down and say hi. As always, we'd love to meet each and every one of you. 

And that's a wrap.  The Air Chief needs a nap.  See you all in seven.  Ron – Over & Out.                       

Greetings loyal airmen.  I'll bet the last thing you ever expected me to tell you is NOT to buy one of my books.  But that is exactly what I'm saying in regards to something I discovered only yesterday afternoon.  A kind fan dropped me a nice letter saying he had just finished our new pulp GHOST SQUAD and hoped we would do more of these.  Then he went on to ask if I was aware of how much some of our older titles were selling for on-line at Amazon.com.  Eager to learn what he was talking about, I logged on and discovered someone was asking $258 for a copy of our second Captain Hazzard book, The Citadel of Fear.  Pictured above.  Wowser!  That's just nuts.  Then I found some enterprising book dealers were asking $262 for a copy of our first Hazzard pulp, Python Men of the Lost City!  So what exactly is going on here and why am I trying to raise a red flag warning you away from these sellers.  Let me explain in detail.

Airship 27 Prod. started publishing through Wild Cat Books and for a year and half they were the folks who put out all our books.  Then, as happens in life do, things changed and WCB opted not to continue its partnership with us.  It was a friendly parting of the ways and they agreed, as of Jan. 1st, 2008, to stop printing any more of our titles.  Which they honored.  So as the year went on, places like Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com continued selling what titles they had in their inventories.  As each stock was depleted and new orders kept coming in, these outfits would go back to the publisher to buy more copies.  Only in the case of these Airship 27 Prod. they were told by WCB that the books were no longer available.  Another way of saying, out of print.  Of course it was never our intention at Airship 27 to keep these books out of the hands of our loyal fans and soon as the new year kicked in, we had made a new deal with Cornerstone Book Publishers to become our new publisher.

Then came the balancing act of both producing brand new books, while at the same time working on reprinting the old books in new, deluxe editions.  As this past year rolled on, we made lots of progress along that reprint goal.  But of course there were still orders coming in at the book sellers' sites and they had to keep telling would be buyers that they no longer had the product.  Which is when other sellers (usually small book stores) who did have some copies realized the demand was much greater than the current supple and so in good economic fashion, they started jacking up the prices.  Which is what is now reflected at those sites.  The thing is we ARE going to reprint those books and when we do they will be sold at our usual low, retail prices.  The last thing we want is our fans having to shell out ridiculous amounts for these books.  Oh, sure, I do understand the nature of collectibles and am aware some people do place a higher value on first editions.  So, in a sense, every time we do a second edition reprint, it does raise the asking price of the older books.  We get that.  But I've never ever bought any book except to read it.  Not save it because it's a first edition. And keep in mind, when people pay these kinds of monies, not one cent ever goes back to the writers and artists who made the book. There's something very wrong about that too.  I would trust most of you loyal airmen feel the same way. 

Finally, should anyone ever walk up to me at a con and hand me one of these WCB editions and brag about “how” much they had to pay for it, look out!  Why?  Because if they can spend over a hundred dollars for a book we sold at $18, I promise you I am then going to charge them $30 for my autograph.  Count on it!  Ha.

The Red Sox are still alive!  Unbelievable as it seems, our beloved Sox beat the Anaheim Angels in the first round of play-offs, 3 games to 1 to move on to the American League Pennant Championship against the super strong Tampa Rays. The same Rays who won the division in the first place.  The Sox are banged up bad, with several of their key players out of the line up to include Mike Lowell at third base, and our star slugger, Dustin Pedroia (in photo) only had one decent hit in the Angels series.  Not what you'd call comforting.  But again, this October baseball where anything can, and usually does, happen.  Game one in Florida tonight.  GO SOX!!

When not watching baseball, your old Air Chief has been sampling some of the new fare on the boob-tube and I thought I'd share some of my new and old likes.  Cartoon network is now running the Star Wars Clone Wars series, which kicked off with the feature film this past summer (poster above).  I've caught several episodes and have to say they are a lot of fun.  The animation is great and the stories all pack a good 30 minute punch.  And if that wasn't enough, Cartoon Network has slotted a truly wonderful family action series THE SECRET SATURDAYS before it.  This one is so much like the old Jonny Quest series and is a rollicking good time.

On the more serious side, I've already mentioned how much I'm enjoying FRINGE and now LIFE is back.  The latter was the shortened cop drama about a detective who spends 11 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit and when released, is given his old job back.  Now he's out to find the real criminals and those in his own department who framed him.  It sounds deadly sober, but the twist is that while in prison, this fellow learned Zen philosophy and it helped him survive his ordeal.  Now he uses it to keep focused on his mission.  It's really a refreshing, different kind of cops and robbers show and I really like it a lot.   Enough good stuff to keep me occupied until LOST comes back at the start of next year.  Oh, yeah.

And finally, as you'll recall, I recently posted here that I was looking for new pulp writers to help with our ambitious plans for the future of Airship 27 Prod.  Well I am so happy to report we've had a huge response to that plea from some truly terrific young (and mature) would be pulp writers.  You'll soon be seeing their fantastic work in our titles. Thanks to one and all for answering the call.

And there you have it, loyal airmen.  Hope all of you have a great Columbus Day weekend and see you back at the hangar next week.  Ron – Over & Out.