Greetings Loyal Airmen, last week we focused on our latest pulp and comics release, promising when we returned this week we would address our thoughts on Dynamite Comic's premier issue of their new Green Hornet series and we shall do just that.  After this bit of truly exciting news.  Airship 27 Productions has released its twenty-fifth title and the third for this month alone.  Talk about being on a roll.  And it stars as yet another hero who wears green.

ROBIN HOOD – King of Sherwood is a brand new full length novel by British writer Ian Watson.  Ian had written several Sherlock Holmes stories for Airship 27 Productions last year and after those were submitted he brought up his idea of doing a Robin Hood novel, one set against an authentic historical background that would give the old legend a fresh new twist while at the same time keeping all the icon elements.  When we read through the manuscript for this book we were blown away.  Our partner at Airship 27 Productions, artist Rob Davis, had the exact same excitement and agreed this was a truly special book.  To that end we went after a wonderful artist named Mike Manley and recruited him to do our painted cover.  What he delivered knocked our socks off!!!  This by far one of the most beautiful books Airship 27 Productions has ever produced and we sincerely hope all you adventure/action fans out there who love a rousing good story will give it a try.  Simply click on the dirigible logo to the left of the column to link to our on-line store.  Note, the book will be available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and all other major booksellers.  Trust me, Loyal Airmen, this one is a winner start to finish.

You know, it did feel kind of funny for the Air Chief to be picking up a new Green Hornet comic book after all these years.  It is almost exactly twenty years since we wrote the GH series for Now Comics.  Now Dynamite Comics has the license and are going to be doing several books featuring the character, another starring his sidekick, Kato and even a future GH title is in the works.  But rather than get lost all over the place, let's keep this about the six-issue limited mini-series here as written by Kevin Smith and illustrated by Jonathan Lau.  Most fans by now are aware that over ten years ago Smith wrote a GH movie script that he hoped to direct for Miramax Films.  After finishing the script, he opted not to direct it and the script was shelved and ultimately another studio acquired the movie rights to character.  What Smith and Dynamite have done here has taken Smith's movie script and translated it to a comic series.  Which is why when reading it, you should keep that in mind and realize it will be paced a whole lot different than something that was originally meant for graphics.  This opening issue is perhaps the first twenty minutes of what you would have seen on the big screen.  It features the old TV Green Hornet and Kato, only they've been brought to the 1990s.  This is their last case and at the start of the story we see them retiring so that by the end we are introduced to Britt Reid's (the Green Hornet) son, Britt Junior, now in college who will of course become the new GH before our tale is done.  We truly liked the story, we have always been fans of generational sagas and are delighted this series will feature a new female Kato, something artist Jeff Butler and the Air Chief first introduced to the world back in our Now series.  So we're giving this thumbs up and hope you'll check it out.

        
            Art by Ruben Procopio
We would also remind you that come this summer, Moonstone Books will be releasing the first of the its five new prose anthologies starring these characters, THE GREEN HORNET CHRONICLES.  Each book will feature approximately twenty brand new GH short stories as written by some of the best action and mystery writers today.  Ye old Air Chief has a story in the very first volume called THE EYES OF THE MADONNA, and above is the very cool spot illustration done for that story by my good friend, artist Ruben Procopio.  Ruben is doing all the interior pieces for this book and one of the two alternate covers.  Again, look for this in June some time.

And there you have it for this week, loyal airmen.  Spring is here officially and Easter only a few weeks away.  A glorious time of the year. We hope you're all enjoying it to the max.

Ron – Over & Out.