Greetings Loyal Airmen, it is great to be home again at Hangar 27 after a super whirlwind trip to Chicago last weekend for the Windy City Paper & Pulp show. It being our seventh time there, Airship 27 Productions rocked the con and it proved to be the biggest and most successful show we ever had there.

           
                        The Air Chief and Rob Davis with writer David Smith in background.
Our table was overflowing with pulp books and comics and our eager, Loyal Airmen were soon swarming all over them.  We sold so many of our titles, Rob had to keep re-stocking the table all weekend long.  Of course with nearly fifty titles in our catalog now, one table gets pretty filled up fast.  We've been talking about adding another table at next year's show to give us enough room to properly show off our wares. Stay tuned.

          
                                         THE PULP FACTORY AWARD TROPHY
Of course of the big highlights of this convention is the Friday announcement and presentations of the winners of the annual Pulp Factory Awards.  Awards given to the best writers and artists of work produced in the new pulp field during the previous year.  We are delighted that two of Airship 27 Productions' were honored this year.

               
                    PFA BEST PULP NOVEL OF 2011

The winner of the Best Pulp Novel went to Charles Saunders for his wonderful and history making book, DAMBALLA pictured above.  This is the book that introduced the world to the first ever, 1930s African American avenger type pulp hero.  This was truly a well deserved victory.

              
                  PFA BEST PULP COVER of 2011

Legendary artist Michael Wm. Kaluta became the first ever creator to win two awards for the same book.  He took Best Pulp Cover and Best Interior Illustrations, both his truly stunning work on Don Gates' novel, CHALLENGER STORM – Isle of Blood.  Honestly, that was by far one of the closet races in the competition this year, but Kaluta's work proves good artists only keep getting better.

         
                THE HAPPY AIR CHIEF WITH MOONSTONE EDITOR JOE GENTILE

The one category Airship 27 Productions did not take this year was for Best Pulp Short Story.  Ironically, the Air Chief actually won that award for his Avenger tale, “Vengeance Is Mine,” which appeared in last year's Moonstone title, THE AVENGER – The Justice Inc. Files. edited by our good friend, Joe Gentile and the late Howard Hopkins; who passed away last Dec. It was a bitter sweet honor receiving this award from our peers and we so wish Howard could have been there with us. Though we are sure he was looking down on the event with a big smile on his face; the Avenger was his favorite pulp hero.  You see this very same book won writer Barry Reese the Pulp Ark Award for Best Short Story for his entry, “The Devil's Workmen.”  Like we said in accepting this award, Thank You Howard.

Note all three books are still very much on sale and available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other major booksellers.

And that was our stellar weekend in Chicago, Loyal Airmen.  Now we prepare ourselves for a second in a row momentous weekend. As you are reading this, Friday 4th May, Marvel Studios has release perhaps what will become the biggest comic book box office movie smash ever, AVENGERS.  For the first time in any single motion picture, half a dozen of the great comic book heroes come together to defeat a twisted god of evil and defend the Earth.  Based on the Marvel comics of the same name, it features Captain American, Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye and Nick Fury of SHIELD.  We hope to catch an early morning viewing at our own local cinaplex.  We were 13 years old the summer this book appeared on the newstand. We loved it then and expect to feel the same way about this flick.  Save us an aisle seat.

After which comes Saturday, 5h of May, National Free Comic Book Day across the country and Canada.  The Air Chief will once again be spending the day at Gryphon's Games & Comics here in Fort Collins, and we hope to see lots of our fellow comic fans there as well.  Looking forward to a great day.

Phew, all this excitement is certainly making the Spring of 2012 one we won't soon forget.  Hoping all you Loyal Airmen have a great, fun weekend too. 

Ron – Over & Out!