I don't know if sunning is a verb, loyal airmen, but it should be.  Ha.  It's now the evening of 4 March 2008. Outside it is cold and raining.  Tomorrow we fly out to Orlando, Florida, that magical land of warmth, sunshine and beaches.  The picture above is worth a million words.  Forecast for the next seven days…WARM!!!  As the photos from last week's log entry showed, we've had snow up to our eyeballs, both literally and figuratively.  Time for ye old Air Chief and his Lady to head south.  See you all back here 15th March.  Till then, adios.
Ron – Over & Out.

Greetings loyal airmen, on this rare 29th of February in a Leap Year.  All of you airmen celebrating a birthday today, many happy returns.  Always was a source of humor when we were kids to think of someone only having a birthday every four years.  Anyway, if you are one of those exceptional souls, a sincere wish for a truly fun filled day.  Me, I'm dealing with lots of things this morning, some good, others not so good.  The latter case being the year 1873 and its significance to us today in New Hampshire.   You see, back in 1873, the weather bureau recorded an all time snowfall of 122 inches.  I bring that up because sometime tonight, after midnight, in the  middle of yet another snow storm, we are going to break that record.  Joy, oh joy!!!  Not.  If you are having trouble wrapping your head around that number and what it means over a period of several months, let's put up some visuals here to help you better comprehend what we are dealing with.  The picture below was taken in January of this year, after we had experienced one of the snowiest Decembers ever!

This photo was taken from the dining room window facing down the driveway to Buffumsville Road, where we live.  That's ye old Air Chief with his trusty Ariens Snow-blower attacking the white stuff.  I'd like you to take note of two things in this picture.  The first is the lampost in our yard.  It stands five feet high.  As you can see the snow level is nowhere near the top of the pole.  Also looking right over you'll note I'm blowing the snow up over the hill mound, which is maybe four feet high back there.  At that level we could go down the drive, stop and just barely see if anything was coming up from the right.  Now take a gander at the pix Valerie shot yesterday as I was preparing to go out and snow-blow again.  I think for the 30th time this season!

The snowbank at the bottom of the hill is now approximately NINE FEET HIGH!!   It is impossible to see anything over it.  Pulling out into that main road is a real danger every time we do it.  And the lamp post, well that pretty much speaks for itself, doesn't it?   And this all within one short month.  Oh, and did I mention the weather men (those sadist in three piece suits) are saying we've another storm coming in tonight!!  Quite honestly, the snow is now a real threat as all our roadways are shrinking into smaller lanes because the city plows simply cannot push it back off those paths any further.  I'm kidding my neighbors that soon all our roads will be one lane, but in all seriousness, that's not a joke.  There simply is no place else to put the damn stuff.  For the longest time Valerie and I dreamed of some day visiting Alaska.  After this winter, I think I'll pass.  Ha.

Next week, Wed. 5th of March, we're escaping and flying down to sunny Florida for an entire week.  Yahooo.  Warmth, sunshine and beaches for seven whole days.  Both of us are so looking forward to this getaway trip.  Stop by next Wed, I'll most likely post a final log entry before we leave.  Speaking of Florida and sunshine, most of you know Major League Baseball's Spring Training camps have opened and our Red Sox have started playing once again.

The best pitcher in baseball last year, Josh Beckett, our ace, pitched off the mound for the first time yesterday and reports are that he has lost absolutely nothing of his control and firepower.  Oh yeah, look out American League hitters, Beckett is back!! Speaking of the 2007 World Series Champions, we finally picked up the 2 hour MLB DVD documentary covering the play off season, highlighting the Sox's victories through to their winning the series in Denver with their sweep of the Colorado Rockies, a really remarkable team in their own right.  Was fun watching this excellent movie and really got us into the mood for baseball.

                              
Another bright spot in our wintery world has been the end of the writer's strike in Hollywood and the return of our favorite TV shows.  Topping that list for me, LOST.   This year, although it will be appreviated, has been the best ever with the stories finally beginning to open up the secrets of that mysterious island.  The writers of this show are so talented as was evidenced by last night's amazing, heart wrenching episode.  Desmond, as seen above, was somehow caught in a bizarre time loop which kept sending his consciousness from the present to the past, 1997 to be specific.  So violent were these back and forth flashes, it soon became evident that unless he could calm his mind with something stable, it would simply rupture and kill him.  And the thing that saved his life, the single constant that was forever in his thoughts and heart throughout all the intervening years?  It was his love for Penelope.  And true enough, he manages to contact her and the second he hears her voice on the phone, his time-jumping mind stops it erratic behavior and he is saved….by the power of love.  What more can I say.  This show is simply awesome.

Finally I want to end this week's entry by recommending to all of you a new pulp adventure novel, TO BATTLE BEYOND written by my good buddy, C.J.Henderson.   For most of his career, C.J. has written horror and private eye thrillers.  A few years ago I introduced him to pulp fiction and he took to it like a duck to water.  After writing a short Black Bat story for an anthology I was planning at the time, he then got really ambitious and decided to write a full length novel that would team up several classic pulp heroes to include, Black Bat, Domino Lady and Ravenwood, Stepson of Mystery, all battling an alien entity intent upon dominating the world of mankind.  When it was finished, the smart folks at Marietta Pub. in Georgia picked it up immediately and even invited me to write an introduction, which I was only too happy to provide.  I love the cover they've slapped on it too.  Anyway, loyal pulp-loving airmen, the book is out and available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other fine book sellers.  Pick up a copy, it's a terrific action packed adventure. 

And speaking of pulp thrillers, I want to thank all of you who have clicked on to our dirigible icon here and visited our new on-line store.  Many of you have written saying how you like the layout and even more of you have been ordering our books.  I am so grateful for all your continued support.  I have the best fans in the world.  That's it for this week, airmen.  I hope wherever you hang your caps, the weather is decent and all of you are bearing up well.  Spring is REALLY just around the corner.

Ron – Over & Out.

Greeting loyal airmen, some exciting news for you this week.   That's Captain Kevin Douglas Hazzard above, the hero of my pulp adventure series, giving the thumbs up to the announcement that our AIRSHIP 27 STORE is now open for business!!

See that familiar flying dirigible icon to the left of this log, the one flying of the Airship 27 Prod. banner.  Well that is your link to some of the most exciting, pulse-pounding pulp thrills ever put to paper.  Go ahead, click on it and check out our spanking new storefront.  The set up is the work of our publisher, Michael Poll, and chief designer, Rob Davis.  Currently the store is offering four titles, two of them new and two claissc reprints.  The two new offerings are WITCHFIRE (my suspense novel with Ardath Mayhar) and the pure pulp, BROTHER BONES, which we only released a few short weeks ago and its selling through the roof.  Thanks to all of you.

The two reprint editions are CAPTAIN HAZZARD # 3 – CURSE OF THE RED MAGGOT, which I spotlighted here last week, and THE MOON MAN by Lance Curry as shown above.  The thing to keep your eye out for, airmen, is our dirigible logo as it will help you distinguish between the new books and the reprints.  All reprint volumes will have the words NEW EDITION – UPDATED & RE-EDITED scrolling around the dirigible for all to see.  The new books will not.   Please keep in mind, we are not merely just reprinting old files here, but have made it a point to go over these books and clean them up.  At the same time we've added new essays, introductions and artwork.   Several will ultimately have brand new covers.

Regardless of old or new, all books offered to you at this line store will always be discounted 25% off the retail prices you would pay in bookstores and other outlets.  That's our small way of saying thanks to all of you who have so generously supported us these past two years and allowed Airship 27 Productions to grow and become successful.   It is our goal to eventually have nine of the original ten books back up for sale before the end of this year, at the same time adding many more exciting new titles.  We've some exciting plans that will blow you away.

I also want to thank all of you who answered my call to tell us where you purchased our previous Airship 27 books.  Lots of you were kind enough to write in and tell us and that information is truly helpful in our planning how we distribute our future books.  Your answers told us were we obviously have a strong presence and where we need to make new inroads.   Please, this is one of those surveys that is ongoing, so if you didn't response already, please do so now.  Where do you buy our books?  Let us know.  And again, to all of you who helped out, many thanks.  You are still the finest bunch of airmen out there and it is a joy share my love of pulps with all of you.

Finally, the Red Sox are all back in Ft.Myers, Florida, and Spring Training for the 2008 baseball season is finally underway.  The year ahead looks terrific for the Sox, as they have almost 99% of their roster back from last year's World Series Winning squad.  That truly bodes well.  I'm not too thrilled with the news of Schilling's ailing shoulder and really think the organization is going down the wrong road not allowing him to have surgery now.  They tell us he will be out for the first few months of the season, as he undergoes a vigorous strengthening program and we shouldn't worry, as they have dept in their pitching rotation.  Well, hell, if that's the case, then why not let the guy go get his surgery and if he can, come back to the team at the end of the season.  If we have enough depth to deal with his loss.  My prediction is, without the surgery, Schill's arm/shoulder will give out half way through the season and then they will really lose him for good.  But hey, what do I know?  I'm just a fan.

Take care, airmen, again, hang in there, visit the store and have a great week.
Ron – Over & Out.

Greetings loyal airmen.  Sorry to be riffing off a classic Spaghetti western, but the truth of it is, the range of subject matter I will be discussing this week covers a lot of that ground.   After my somber comments last week, my good friend and colleague, Mark Justice, wrote to let me know my information on the grade school teacher attacked in her classroom wasn't complete accurate.  Happily so, as she did not die and is recovering even as I write these words.  Her messed up husband though, did climax the horror by taking his own life.  Now all of this started an exchange of e-mails between myself and Mark which led him to report what investigators uncovered during this entire sad affair.  The gentlemen who went nuts had several years earlier been prescribed the drug Oxycntin and become addicted to it.  It then went on to take over his personality and entire life.  In the end he was so eratic, his wife, the teacher, had no recourse but to file for divorce and then it was just one tragedy after another.  Mark went on to detail how crimes in his neck of the woods, small town America, have risen greatly due in part to people needing cash to buy more drugs.  Perscription drug abuse is a national catastrophe that truly threatens every aspect of our lives.  It is absued by the doctors and drug companies to are more interested in getting rich than actually treating us, and by people themselves, too lazy to do anything but pop a pill and believe it is the panacea sent from heaven.  From the Ridlin we dope our children to the rise of autism in those same kids.  We are drugging ouselves to death!!!  This was not the way I'd hoped to begin this week's entry, but then yesterday a student some Illinois college west of Chicago took a shotgun to school and went on a killing spree.  As of this morning, I'm hearing six lives are lost, not counting the shooter.  Now here's my bet, when all is said and done, what to do you want to bet we will all be told the fellow was…..on medication!

Getting away from the horrors of the every day world we live in, I want to offer my condolences today to the family of Steve Gerber, who passed away earlier this week.  During the 1970s, when Marvel Comics was exploding with vibrancy and creativity, giving the entire comics industry a much needed lift, one of its premier writer/editors was Steve Gerber.  I never met the man personally, but I was a fan.  I liked his work a great deal, especially his run on the team book, THE DEFENDERS.  Steve seemed to have a special knack of infusing characters with an odd humor that was completely human and ream.  He died of a lung disease in Los Vegas, he was only 61 and will be greatly missed by all of us who love comics.

                             
And speaking of that media, allow me to point you in the direction of a truly terrific new title soon to be available from AC Comics, GREEN LAMA.   The Green Lama was a pulp hero from the 30s who appeared both in his own pulp monthly but eventually jumped over to the comics as well.  Now, after many years absent, he is back in a brand new, thrilling adventure by my good friend, artist James Ritchey.  Jim has spent over the last two years of his life meticulous researching this classic hero and writing/drawing the maspterpiece of his career.  Hell, that cover alone shoule be enough to get you diehards to go and grab a copy of this soon be classic.  Way to go, Jim.  I hope the Green Lama is back to stay for a long, long time.

So, loyal airmen, question for you, where do you buy most of my novels?  Recently our new publisher of Airship 27 Production pulps, asked that very question.  “Where do people go to buy your books?”  Do they go to Amazon, do they go to Barnes & Noble, or do they go to Lulu on the net?  Of course from what I've been led to understand, most of the airmen here have either gone to Lulu or Amazon, but that's just guess work on my part.  We would really like to know, so you can consider this an informal survey.  Please, if you have bought any of the ten pulp classics I helped produced over the past two and a half years, drop me a line and let me know where you purchased it.

The real reason for all this is that, as we promised you months ago when those old titles were deleted from our former publisher's catalog, we are going to reprint most of them in new editions and we have begun that very work.  As in evidence from the reworked cover below.

We are just about ready to open our brand new official AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTIONS LULU STORE.  Come back next Friday for the big announcement and the actual link to this spiffy new pulp store.  We've high hopes for this venture and hope all you loyal airmen will continue to support us.  Till then, have a great week,  Spring is just around the corner.  As for the dark threads that began this column, always keep in mind, good wins over evil when YOU do good things.

Ron – Over & Out

Greetings loyal airmen.  Well here we are in February already and 2008 is moving along at rather good clip.  When I awoke this morning, I was still undecided on what my subject matter was going to be this week.  There seemed lots of things of interest going that might ramble on about.  Case in point, the political campaigning and Mitt Romney's truly noble decision to leave the race before a protracted contest did damage to his party and his country.  My respect for this man had only grown because of this.  I'm also delighted that my personal choice for president, John McCain, is now assuredly the Republican candidate come November.

On the other hand I could have also made some comment about the sudden rash of violence across the U.S. in the last few days, from a grade school teach being brutally murdered in front of her classroom, to the idiot who
ran into a Missouri city council meeting last night and shot  the Mayor and other officials before being gunned himself.  It seemed in the last 48 hours I couldn't turn on the TV or get on-line without some awful incident of senseless violence being reported.  My prayers go out to the victims and the families of all those touched by these random acts of evil.  And let us not forget that in the midst of this blood-letting, we were all shown video tapes of small children over in the Arab world being trained by the terrorist groups to be junior killers.   The people warping those young minds are the truest definitions of the word…monster.  No movie or TV vampire or werewold could come close to this kind of merciless cruelty.

Of course I could also have discussed the surprise and disappointing news from the Red Sox front office that veteran pitcher, Curt Schilling has an ailing arm/shoulder and may not be able to report to Spring Training as planned.  Now there is some debate between the club and Schilling as to what course he should pursue.  Surgery would most likely put him on the disabled list for the entire season, whereas playing with a bum arm doesn't seem a logical alternative.  Does it?  Stay tuned for further developments.

As I was flipping through the TV channels yesterday afternoon, in search of more information concerning Romney's exit from the campaign, I by good fortune came to the launching of the space shuttle Atlantis a mere five minutes before blast-off.   I stopped channel surfing and sat back to watch the show that, to this soul, never gets old.  Watching that magnificent craft rocket off into the heavens on a trail of roaring fire once again had me feeling like a kid, and remembering the optism that is inherent in our exploration of outer space.  As a religious person, I simply refuse to believe the Good Lord made the splendor and vastness of the universe around us just so we could ogle it through a telescope.  That is just silly.  The heavens were made for us to climb to and explore, expanding our knowledge of God and this wonderful reality He created.

When compared to the problems and woes we face on this big blue planet, the awesomeness of this endeavor dwarfs those issues immediately.  To conquere the final frontier, we have to work together a one people.  The space lab is the result of dozens of countries working hand in hand to achieve that dream.   The Atlantis was taking a new addition to the Space Lab that was built in Europe.  The next package to join that fantastic station is now being constructed in Japan.  The images above were from the last flight of the Endeavor and if you look closely at the crane arm, you'll see it was made in Canada.

The drive to explore and solve the mysteries of the universe is the greatest, most noble quest of mankind in the 21st Century.  It is one all of us should applaud and support in any way we can.   And that loyal airmen, is our log for this snowy week in Feb.   Thanks for stopping by as always and hope to see you back here next week.  Till then keep your chins up and keep looking at the skies.

Ron- Over & Out.

Greeting loyal airmen.  We start this week's log with some sad news.  But first a little history.  When I came home from Vietnam back in the summer of 1968, I quickly got back into comic book collecting, a hobby I'd put aside my three years in uniform.   Soon I began to realize that a huge fandom had grown up in America and from it all these wonderful fan publications we called fanzines.   I began buying them and discovered a small segment were actually devoted to the old pulp heroes.   Writer Robert Weinberg put out a great series of reprint digests in this vein, many sporting stunning covers by a pen and ink artist named Frank Hamilton.  Over the years I became a huge fan of his work, as seen in the two covers above.  Frank was a master of the art of stipling, a slow technique using tiny dots to shape a pattern or image.  Earlier this week, my colleage, Howard Hopkins of Maine, a personal friend of Frank's, informed the pulp community that Frank had passed away this past Monday at the age of 90.   He leaves a huge empty hole in pulp fandom and he will be sorely missed.  Rest in peace, Frank, a peace you so richly deserve.

On a much a happier note, allow me to say welcome to our newest airman, John Bruening of Ohio.  Seems while surfing the web this week, John managed to trip over the old Airship 27 Hangar and stopped in to take a good look.  Then he graciously sent me a wonderful letter saying how much he enjoyed our site.  John is way too young to know about pulps and classic golden age comics, but somehow he does and so he truly got a kick out of what we do here.  Nothing makes me happier than to know these weekly ramblings amuse and entertain such nice people as John and all the rest of you airmen.  It's why I'm here. Thank you all so very much.

Unless you've been living in a mountain cave the past few months, you all know that Presidential politics have been filling the media.  The recent Florida primary has proven to be very telling in which candidates are emerging as the front runners as the field in both parties narrow.  John McCain is clearly striking a chord with Republicans and I'm truly amazed at the bashing he is getting from extremist in our party.  Yes, I'm a Conservative Republican but I'm also an American who, like McCain, is fed up with twenty years of in-fighting that has so taken over Washsington.  Our representatives, from both parties, are so caught up in beating their opponents across the aisles, nothing ever gets done!!  McCain openly advocates moving to the center and compromising and I for one applaud that.  Likewise I see Senator Obama doing the exact same thing among Democrats, realizing we have to stop party politics once and for all or none of the issues that plague this country will ever be resolved.  Its only when we work together as one people that things get done.  Obama is very much another agent of change as opposed to the old guard Clinton so clearly represents.  It is my fervent hope that come November the contest for the White House will be between the two best candidates, McCain and Obama.  Now that will be a campaign worthy of the American people.

Finally I can't end this week's entry without telling you how thrilled I was to see the return of my favorite TV show last night, LOST is back!  It remains the most innovative, original and exciting drama on the boob tube.  I'd rather watch reruns of LOST than 99% of those stupid reality shows.  Sometimes I wish we could take AMERICAN IDOL and SURVIVOR, put them on a boat and LOSE them!!

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

Greeting loyal airmen.  Well the cover above pretty much tells you what has your old Air Chief is all wound up about this week.  After months of hard work and planning, we've finally gotten BROTHER BONES released.  It is one of the first of our new Airship 27 Productions titles.  (That's me and artist Rob Davis bringing you as much pulp goodness as you can handle.)  All these titles are being published by our partner in this venture, Cornerstone Book Publishers.  They publihsed our WITCHFIRE last year.

This book had a bumpy road to this day.  Oh yeah.  Some of you veteran airmen will remember I started my pulp career years ago with another character molded along these similar “grim” lines.   That book did extremely well for all involved, including the publisher we were then associated with.   When Rob and I began making plans to rerpint that older title as part of our new Airship 27 Prod. launch, we were dismayed to learn we could not obtain permission from the rights holder.  I won't bore you with the complexities of it all, but in the end we were left with six terrific pulp stories and nowhere to use them.  The solution was to simply change the names in those tales and create a brand new pulp hero, this one we would own all rights to.   Rob was willing and we pressed onward.

From that point on, things really livened up.  Rob was eager to do a full out painting of this BROTHER BONES avenger and he delivered a stunning masterpiece, in my humble opinion.  Looking at that smiling face here.  Is that a happy artist or what?  Ha. Folks who are now seeing this cover are ranting and raving, as they should.  This is pure pulp!  Meanwhile I remembered a story that had never made it into the old volume and immediately dusted it off, made the necessary changes and we added it to this new book. It's called GHOST TRAIN and is a Brother Bones adventure no one has seen until now.

So, something old has morphed into something very fresh and new.  The book is available at Amazon on-line, simply go to the Air Fare page here to find the link.  Also at bookstores around the globe.  All of us invovled with BROTHER BONES hope you'll check it out and then drop us a line.  We very much want this to be the first in a series of his adventures.  So let us know what you think of the gruesome avenger who haunts the streets of Cape Noire.  We're listening.

Ron, Over & Out

Greetings loyal airmen.  Most of you who stop by here on a regular basis are familiar with the comic book above.  It is Days of the Dragon which I did with my good friend, artist Gary Kato, and we had published several years ago.  You can still buy copies of this kid friendly book on our AirFare page.  But as of today, you can also download it digitally for free thanks our publisher, James Taylor, and an outfit called Wowio.   Wowie works like this.  They sell advertising space on their huge website, then they post comics there, hundreds and hundreds of them.  These they make available free to anyone who registers with them (at no costs) and all you have to do is simply download the files to your own PC.  Wowie makes their money from the advertisers and actually pays the book's creators every time their title is downloaded.  It's pretty much a win-win situation for everyone.

But there are some limits.  Certain mail provider accounts like those from Yahoo can't register, nor can people living in other countries.  Hopefully as time goes by, Wowio will address these factors and change them.  Meanwhile if any of you loyal airmen would like to download Days of the Dragon and help me and Gary make a few coins, its really simply.  Go to my AirFare page, click on to the Wowio post of this cover  and it will bring you to its site at Wowie.  There you click on HOME, and proceed to register as a member.  You'll have to take a small survey, but again, there's no charge for any of this.  Once done you simply wait 24 hours to be notified your account has been accepted.  Then you can log on and download up to 3 comics every single day for FREE!! Which of course I hope you'll do.  Taylor informs us the book has been available for downloading for over a week now and 20 fans have already done so making us $10!   I think somebody's finally figured out how to make the internet a commercial success.

The latest Captain Hazzard pulp novel, CAVEMEN OF NEW YORK is really flying through pre-production these days and all of us at Airship 27 Prod. and Cornerstone Book Publishers are getting excited.  My partner in crime, artist Rob Davis, has most of the books interiors all laid out and ready go and a few days ago, cover painter supreme, Mark Maddox, sent along the about crude sketch of what will ultimately become our cover.  When I first got the idea for this particular adventure and the name popped into my head, so did this very distinct image.  It was of Hazzard squaring off against a gigantic, hairy caveman on the snow-covered steps of a modern edifice.  I detailed this scenario to Mark and God bless him, he totally nailed what I was after.  Of course this is what we call a rough sketch used primarily to give both the editor and artist a starting base from which to work and progress the actual cover.  There are elements in this sketch that I've already asked Mark to change or alter slightly.  It is a far cry from what will evolve into our final, gorgeous, eye-popping pulp cover.  Still I thought you loyal airmen would get a kick out of seeing how the process works.  As the painting moves through various stages, I'll try to post them here so you can watch it “become” the cover.

That's it for this week, loyal airmen.  Mother Nature saw fit to dump a slushy mess of rain and snow on us last night and in a few hours I'll be once again getting cold and wet while clearing up the driveway.  Here's hoping for a really early Spring.  Ha.  Oh, and I don't want to forget giving the New England Patriots a huge Airship 27 Hoorah for this continued perfect season.  Only the San Diego Chargers remain to be dealt with before they go to the Super Bowl.  Go Tom Brady and the Pats!!  They've made a miserable winter lots more bearable.

Air Chief Ron, Over & Out.

Well the Political Circus that is the Primaries has left New Hampshire in search of greener broadcast pastures.  Good luck to all, and our personal tip of the hat to Senator John McCain on his victory here in the Granite State.  I voted for Senator McCain and am truly hoping he eventually gets the party's nomination and is our next President of the United States.  Okay, now back to the fun things we all get a charge out of.

In course of a thirty-five year career in writing comics and adventure novels, I've had the good fortune to meet many, many people.  A few have gone on to become truly good friends.  One of these was a young man I met lots and lots of years ago who lives nearby in Maine.  His name is Larry Young.  Larry at first wanted to get into comics as an artist/inker and he worked very, very hard at it.  Alas, it just didn't seem to be going anywhere and I could sense his frustration as time went on and he simply couldn't crack the art market.   Then Larry met Heidi, fell in love, married and started raising a family.  Today they have a handsome teenage son and a beautiful young daughter.  Larry earns his living working at a nearby factory.  Its hard work, but he doesn't complain, as he's not that kind of guy.  He a loyal husband and father.  But he's also still a would be comic book creator.  A few years ago, Larry confided in me that he was shifting gears and was going to try his shot at writing comics instead.  I encouraged him to go for it and began telling him about all the very cool on-demand printing companies coming into existence via the internet that now made it possible for anyone to produce comics, at a very affordable price.  Larry was all ears and pretty soon he was locked into doing just what I had suggested; producing his own comics.

                   
Larry hooked up with several artists on-line, most of whom live overseas, and began commissioning them to do artwork based on his short comic scripts.  The first of these was a black and white manga style adventure called Legends of the Spellbinders.  See the color cover above.   Larry also named his company High Voltage Comics. That's a very cool.  Once he had this project under way, he wasted no time starting a second.

                               
This time Larry whipped up a western-science fiction 16 pager called Shadow Rider.  This one is completely in color and a really terrific package.  For the price, you simply can't go wrong.  This week both these titles have gone on sale at (www.indyplanet.com), the same outfit where you can get our Daughter of Dracula graphic novel. I cannot recommend these books strongly enough and not applaud Larry for his indomitable will of never giving up on his dream all these years.  A couple of years ago, Heidi gave him a surprsie 40th Birthday party and invited me to along.  Oh yeah, my young protege has gray hair these days, but that hasn't diminished the childish gleam in his eyes whenever he starts talking about comics.  Please, take a second and go to Indy Planet and check out these two new comics from a truly gifted fellow.  He truly deserves all your support.  Larry, keep it up.   I'm sure this is only the beginning.

Meanwhile, should any of you wonder what new paths of imagination I've started along recently, well here's a very early sneak peek.  The wonder of the internet to the comics community has been how it has made it truly international.  Remember I told you Larry recruited artists from the far corners of the globe, well a few years ago I made contact with a French outfit called Makma Studios run by one Edmond Tourrial.  Edmond's a talented comics creator and he was very eager for us to work together.  We started one particular project that stalled on us for a while, then got sidetracked.  Still wanted to do something with me, Edmond proceeded to send me the following artwork by a fellow named Sam.  The character is a sexy, galactic bounty hunter with a passion for vanilla ice cream.  Edmond asked if I'd like to write her adventures?

One look at this illustration and I was hooked, line and sinker.  Within a week I wrote out some ideas for a background history and sent them off to Makma.   Both Edmond and Sam loved what I had come up with and will soon be busy doing up a presentation proposal.  It is our hope to sell VANILLA VINYLE to a European comics company.  The market for comics overseas is huge and they appreciate a wider variety of subjects unlike our American market that seems perpetual trapped in a super-hero mode.  Anyway, should this concept fly we do eventually plan on having it released stateside as well.

So there you go, loyal airmen.  My association with a fellow from across the river and another from across the ocean.  Both fun, worthwhile and exciting.  It really is a small world.

Take care, Ron, Over & Out

Greeting loyal airmen.  I reported last week being down with a bad cold.  Well, it's almost gone.  Not quite completely, after an entire week, but I am slowly starting to feel like my old self again.  And speaking of old things, have all of you been paying attention the presidential politicing going on?  Iowa wrapped up their circus last night and early next week, we here in New Hampshire will have the joy of kicking them out too.  No more mail-boxes stuffed with cards, letters and gaudy colored fliers that simply go straight to the trash bin.  What a waste of America's time. 

And please don't give me any guff about how good all this insanity is for our civic well being.  Our election process sucks and every four years we repeat it over and over again like mindless sheep.  Don't agree, well here at two little words that will win my argument every time, ELECTORAL COLLEGE!  One of the most outdated, antiquated voting processes still in existence today and where?  Right here in the good old US of A.  Have you already forgotten that just two elections ago we put a President in office who did NOT win the majority of votes?  Oh, how we screamed and cried about how awful this Electoral College thing was.  People by the thousands all said it had to go.  Then four years later, it was still there.  Still ready to screw over the will of the people.  And here we are, another four years have passed and once more we face the same unfair process.  Why doesn't anyone have enough courage to do something about it? Well, my guess would be that the only people who can change it, our elected officials, are the exact same people who have a vested interest in seeing that it stays the same.  And so, here we go again, trapped in a two-party system that has such a strangle hold on the process, any true governement of the people, for the people and by the people today rings rather hollow.  I look at this year's batch of candidates, praying that maybe just one of them will be honest and courageous enough to admit the process is broken and set about correcting it.  Anyone who could do that would get my vote, and earn my undying gratitude forever.  Now that would be a man or woman worthy of our trust and loyalty.  Amen.

Meanwhile, back in the world where I do have some control (ha), the new year has rolled in and as I informed you weeks ago, Wild Cat Books has ceased publishing the ten titles I, and aritst Rob Davis, produced for them over the past few years.  Those books are no longer available for sale.  You'll note they are no longer posted on our Air Fare page.  Kaput.  Gone.  But don't despair, loyal airmen.  With WCB relinquishing all rights to those titles, Rob and me, under our own Airship 27 Productions have joined forces with Cornerstone Book Publishers to reprint, in brand new editions, at least seven or eight of those titles.   The first of these will be our revamping of the Brother Grim book.

                              
Only now he's morphed into a brand new pulp avenger called BROTHER BONES.  The new book will feature altered versions of the original six stories, plus the addtion of a seventh brand new story and a brilliant new painted cover for Rob which I can't wait to show you all.  As soon as BROTHER BONES is available for sale, I'll let you know right here.

We do very much plan on reprinting the first three Captain Hazzard books and shortly we'll be releasing the fourth adventure, CAVEMEN OF NEW YORK.  Rob is nearly done with the interior artwork and will soon begin assembling and design the book for pre-publication.  It will feature a dazzling cover painting by Mark Maddox, the same fellow you wowed you with his cover for our DAUGHTER OF DRACULA.  Below is one of Rob's nine interior illustrations for CAVEMEN.

Rob has turned in some of his finest work ever on this project and I am really anxious for all of you see it.  We have big, big plans for 2008 and Airship 27 Productions and we hope you'll stick with us.  Bigger and better things are on their way.

Take care, stay healthy and warm, and until next week, airmen,  this is Air Chief, Ron, Over & Out.