Greetings Loyal Airmen, as most of you are reading this Flight Log, the Air Chief is flying off to Akron Ohio to be a guest, along with Rob Davis, at the the Akron Comic Con which runs Sat and Sun this weekend. We invited to be guest by Michael Savane, one of the show’s founders and tomorrow, at 11 a.m. we’ll be offering a one hour panel presentation on how comics evolved from pulps and now have brought up the evolution of New Pulp. Joining us on this panel will be our writing pal, Jim Beard. Looks to be a fun time and show.

Now yesterday was the Air Chief’s 69th birthday, and one of the most beautiful gifts we received was the original Doug Klauba painting of my character Nighthawk the Flying Spy which was the cover to my Moonstone Book released earlier in the year. Knowing how much we loved that gorgeous painting, Valerie bought it from Doug and is going to have it framed and put on a wall in our office. Doug sent the painting along last week and other day we went to the local Hobby Lobby here in Fort Collins to have it matted and framed.  You should have seen the eyes of the young clerk double in size when we revealed the painting. Within minutes one of his co-workers, another framer, came out of the back room to see what all the oohing and ahhing was about.  Both of them were blown away by how beautiful the piece was. During our discussion with the young man, his name was Justin, he was showing us varies colored mat pieces, frame colors etc. all of us trying to match what would good perfect with the painting’s palette. Somewhere in this back and forth, Justin inquired as to what the book itself was all about and the Air Chief began to tell him about the plot, the character and ultimately New Pulp in general. We could see this young man was intrigued beyond mere curiosity and he eventually told us he was a writer and tabled in short horror fiction. At which point we gave him our Airship 27 business card and urged him to contact us later on. It looks like our trip to Hobby Lobby may have unearthed as yet another New Pulp creator.  We’ll keep you posted. And once the painting is framed and on our wall, the Air Chief will snap a few pix and posted them right here, Loyal Airmen.

We have so few pictures of father, George Joseph Fortier.  Wish we had more, but we do love this one, which was taken only weeks before his passing.  Dad was in the Army in World War II and served in the South Pacific where he came down with malaria…which nearly killed him. Upon his return stateside, he married Mom and proceeded to have a family of three boys and one girl. Our memories of him are all good ones and he was a kind, generous soul with a heart as big as the world. Sadly the malaria he endured would have lasting negative effects on health throughout the years and he would always tease us that he would never live to reach 60 and collect Social Security. And was right, as he passed away of pancreatic cancer at the young age of 59. We miss him every day and he is always in our thoughts. Thus you can imagine how we looked at reaching that particular age with a slight degree of trepidation. And now, this week, we’ve actually added another decade to our own history. We’ve often wondered what experiences we might have been able to share with Dad had he gotten ten extra years. In looking back on the past decade, the Air Chief is filled with wonder and gratitude. Not only did we and Valerie get to retire, move to Colorado and enjoy watching all six of our grand kid grow up, our personal career reached unbelievable new heights of satisfaction with the creation of Airship 27 Productions and the graces of all the people we’ve come to know and befriend in those ten years has been nothing but a blessing to our lives.

69 years old.  Wowser.  Of course being people of faith, we often think what it will be like some day to be reunited with all our loved ones in heaven.  And that’s what make us chuckle, you see, our Dad is actually going to be younger than us.  Now there’s food for thought.

And finally, what the Air Chief considers his own personal birthday gift, Rob Davis finally, after days of dealing with the folks at Amazon, finally manage to upload the third issue of  AIRSHIP 27 presents ALL-STAR COMICS.  Cover above is by Rob with colors by Warren Montgomery.  We think its our best issue yet and here’s the line up of pulp comic strips you’ll find inside.

“Sinbad and the Isle of Stone”
Scott “Doc” Vaughn

The Black Bat in “Blind Justice”
Ron Fortier & Eric Johns

The Purple Scar in “Breaking Point”
Percival Constantine & Carl Yonder

Lance Star Sky Ranger in “Gods of the Molten Sea”
Bobby Nash & Rock Baker & Jeff Austin

Mars McCoy Space Ranger in “Crazy Horse”
Mike Baron (with Ron Fortier) & Eric Hurley & Warren Montgomery

The Crimson Mask in “Killing Rain”
Aaron Smith & David Nehaus

The Moon Man in “Dance of the Black Flamingo”
Michael Leonard & James Lyle & Greg Keyzer

You can order a copy here:

Available at Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0692569537)

We think you will love this issue.  As ever thanks for your support and for stopping by. Till next week, take care and be good.

Ron – Over & Out!