Greetings Loyal Airmen.  Here we are one week after arriving in Columbus Ohio to participate in the second annula Pulp Fest Convention.  Our good friend and partner, Rob Davis, was on hand to pick us up at the airport and off we went to the Ramada Inn where the con was being held.  Arriving at table, we began to unpack the boxes Rob had with him and lo and behold from the very first such he pulls out this absolutely beautiful model of our logo…the Airship 27 Zeppelin.  Rob converted a model of the famous Hindenberg, making his own Airship 27 decals to put on the fuselage.  He set it down in the front of our table and that's where it would rest for the next three days, obviously bring us tons of good luck.  Honestly, Loyal Airmen, if there were a way to mass produce these cheaply, the Air Chief would love to do so and then have them to sell our future shows.  Now that would be really sweet.

              
                  Munsey Award Winner Mike Chomko

And before we start regaling you with our fun tales of the con itself, we need to thank all the great folks who put on this marvelous event, especially Mike Chmoko who was this year's winner of the Munsey Award.  This award, named for a famous pulp editor of the past, is given to that person who has over a long period of time contributed greatly to the pulp community.  Mike, as a pulp book dealer for many, many years and now as a co-sponsor of Pulp Fest truly deserves this honor.  Congratulation, Mike, and a tip of the pulp fedora to all the other great nominees.

             
                              Veteran Fan Nick Car & Pulp Writer David Walker

Of course, aside from selling our Airship 27 pulp titles, Rob and the Air Chief truly enjoy shows like Pulp Fest as it gives us a chances to see old friends again and make new ones.  Among the former stopping by our table were Nick Carr, one of senior fans of pulps.  Nick was around when the originals were being printed and has had a passion for them every since.  Over the years he's written dozens of essays and contributed to dozen more books and magazines on the history of pulps.  To boot, he's one hell of a great guy.  His sidekick at these shows is David Walker, a pulp writer who this year did a reading at the show from his Captain Midnight adventure which was published in our LANCE STAR – Sky Ranger Vol. Two.  Two has some really great new book plans for Airship 27 which we hope to revealing in the not too distant future.

         
                                               A Smiling John Bruening

Another pal on hand was John Bruening, who has been tremendous help to Airship 27 Productions as a proof-reader.  John was a fan of our work and one day several years ago wrote mentioning that our titles had too many typos and offering to help us with that issue.  Once on board, John, himself a professional editor, began going over our books before they go off to the printers.  And so thanks to his tireless efforts, the typo demons have been kept to a minimum and we can't thank him enough.  John is also working on his first pulp novel for us and we'll be very anxious to bring that to you when it is ready.

        
                                                      Elie & Janet Harriet

At last year's Pulp Fest, we met Elie & Janet Harriet for the very first time.  Harriet loves fantastic fiction and talked to us about possibly contributing to Airship 27.  We were thrilled to have her aboard and last weekend she brought us the first part of her new RAVENWOOD – Stepson of Mystery story.  It's a dooze and we can't wait to read the rest of it.  This year Elie & Janet were able to spend lots more time with us socializing and we all became good friends.  Elie, who works in the computer field, is going to be looking into solving the problems we have in transferring our current book files to such digital formats as iPad and Kindle.  Those machines will accept the text portion of our books but not the interior illustrations.  That is truly frustrating, but we will not sacrifice our art simply to go digital.  If it doesn't have great interior art, it's simply not an authentic Airship 27 title. 

        
                                            Laurie Powers & the Air Chief

Over the past few months the Air Chief had the good fortune of connecting on Facebook with Laurie Powers of Los Angeles, CA.  Aside from being an avid baseball fan like the Air Chief, Laurie has been working hard most of her life keeping the memory and works of her grandfather alive.  Paul Powers was one of the most talented, well respected pulp writers who ever worked in the field.  Laurie helped publish his autobiography, has cataloged his many short stories and over the past few years has gotten several collections of his works back in print.  She is wonderful lady and it was a real joy to finally meet her.

             
               BJay Johnson, Chris Metzer, Bill Gladamn, John Bruening, Steve Bennett & Air Chief

And lest you think it is only pulp fans who come to shows like Pulp Fest, allow me to set you Loyal Airmen straight.  There are many movie and comic fans who frequent these shows, as was the case this year.  Early Saturday afternoon, our table was surrounded by several of my comic amigos, some the Air Chief has known for many years like writer/buddy Steve Bennett and others we've only recently come to know.  This latter group was led by Bill Gladman and included BJay Johnson, Christ Metzer, Chad Strohl, Dustin Carson & Victor Dandrige.  You will be seeing more pictures of these talented fellows next week.  Bill was instrumental in creating the Champion City Comic Con which takes place in Springfield, Ohio on Sept. 11th this year and Ye Old Air Chief is going to be one of the guests at the show.  Something we are really looking forward to.  And more on that later as well.

           
              Greg Gick, Air Chief, Pam & Gary, Chris Yates

There are lots of great places to dine in Columbus, one of these being the Spaghetti Warehouse, a chain established in Ohio.  Last year a group of us went there for dinner Friday night and this year decided to do it again.  All total there were nine of us who went.  Again, part of the fun of these shows is simply getting together with friends and have a great time together. Among those of us who were that night were Rob, yours truly,
writer Greg Gick, fan Mark Halegua, Pam & Gary (sorry, we did not get their last names) Chris Yates, and Elie & Janet Harriet.  It was the end to a perfect first day at Pulp Fest.  Next week we'll roll out another bunch of pictures for you Loyal Airmen to see and enjoy.

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