Greetings Loyal Airmen, before we launch into this week’s news, the Air Chief wants to thank all our wonderful fans who stopped by Gryphon Games & Comics here in Fort Collins, last Saturday, Free Comic Book Day, to say hi and to buy some of our titles. By day’s end we’d completely sold out of The Boston Bombers Vol 1, Daughter of Dracula in regards to comics, and the first Brother Bones The Undead Collection, plus lots of other titles. Our local fans never let us down and the day was a real joy for the Val & the Air Chief.  Again, many, many thanks.

JIN & TONIK ALMOST HERE!

JIN & TONIK creator/artist Cesar Feliciano has started putting together the promotional package for the funding campaign which he hopes to launch for issue one within the next week or two. Above is a sketch of Daray Tonikova, one of the lead characters in this action packed spy thriller. Stay tuned, Loyal Airmen, the second that campaign launches, we’ll be posting the link all over the internet.

R.I.P. DAVE DARRIGO

We learned this past week that our old friend, Canadian comic writer Dave Darrigo has passed away.We first encountered Dave when he created and wrote the independent comic series, “Wordsmith.” It told the story of a 1930s pulp writer living in New York City and was brilliant. Every issue our protagonist would get a new writing assignment for various pulp titles and was always having to imagine the adventure stories of pirates, cowboys or masked avengers. Taken by the series, we wrote Dave and soon became correspondent buddies. After the Now Comics Green Hornet series that we’d been writing folded, Dave wrote me suggesting the two of us create our own modern hero in the Hornet mold and call him The Black Scorpion. Each of us would write one story per issue, both of us using the pen name George Stryker. Dave published three issues under his Special Studio banner. He was truly one of the good guys.  May he rest in peace. (https://joeshusterawards.com/hof/dave-darrigo-1954/)

BOSTON BOMBERS Vol 2 Issue # 2

Artist Rob Davis is nearing the completion of Issue # 2 of THE BOSTON BOMBERS Vol 2 and is producing by far the most beautiful work of his long career. Every single page, ala the one above, has been gorgeous. With only four pages left in this issue, the Air Chief is getting more and more anxious for all of you Loyal Airmen to see the final comic. Stay tuned.

MAN IN THE MASK REBORN

A few years back comics writer/artist Mike Belcher produced a fantastic original graphic novel called “Man in the Mask.” It was, and remains, one of my all time favorite comics. Mike’s ability to tell a dramatic story about believable characters is wonderful and shines in this particular setting inspired by his own family. So imagine all our surprises when we learned last year that Mike wanted to re-do “Man in the Mask” and expand it in a deeper, more relevant retelling. Now that’s not something you hear off in this business. Mike sincerely felt there were other subplots that needed to be examined closer and in more detail and so at the start of the year he launched into this retelling project. Thus far two issues have been released (see covers above). They are wonderful and totally prove his idea had tons of merit. We like “Man in the Mask” even more and we think you Loyal Airmen will as well. You can purchase these two issues at (www.IndyPlanet.com) or learn more about Mike’s projects at (amk-comics.weebly.com) or (facebook.com/amkcomics). Tell him the Air Chief sent you.

REMINDER

And that’s it for this week, Loyal Airmen, save one final reminder.  The funding campaign for JIN & TONIK is now less than a week away. More info on how you can sign on to support us next week.

Ron – Over & Out!