Lance Star: Sky Ranger Volume 3 Launch Interview: Rob Davis

With the release of the third volume of Lance Star: Sky Ranger from Airship 27 Productions and Cornerstone Books, we here at Sky Ranger Central talked to the creators, writers, artists, and publishers involved with the latest installment in the Lance Star: Sky Ranger series.
Next up is Airship 27 Artist and Art Director, Rob Davis.

LSSR: Tell us a little about yourself and where readers can find out more about you, your work, and Airship 27 Productions?

RD: I have been a professional artist since 1986 working in comics, gaming, and now as Art Director of Airship 27's line of books. I have a website that I need to find time to update. The link is: http://homepage.mac.com/robmdavis/index.html

LSSR: Who is Lance Star? What makes pulp characters like Lance and the Sky Rangers appeal to you as a creator, a reader, and a publisher?

RD: Lance is part of a breed of characters that sprang up out of the excitement the public had about the cutting edge adventure of flying at the turn of the 20th Century. Mining this old lode of interest by the public is a lot of fun as a creator as well as a reader.

LSSR: Lance Star: Sky Ranger Volume 3 is now available. What can readers expect in this new edition?

RD: A host of different views of Lance Star and his crew. This book contains 4 stories of high flying adventure from the viewpoint of 4 different writers. It's always fun and interesting to see what each creator brings to the same character- what direction they take in exploring the character and his world.

LSSR: Cornerstone Books and Airship 27 currently have two Lance Star: Sky Ranger anthologies in print and there are Lance Star: Sky Ranger eBooks, iPulp Fiction individual digital editions, and a Lance Star comic book. What’s next for these pulp heroes?

RD: More of the above! As long as people have an interest in Lance and his Sky Rangers we'll keep turning out the best stories we can.

LSSR: The Airship 27 Print-On-Demand library is currently changing venues. Where and when will previous editions be re-released?

RD: I'm hoping to do the catalogue in batches in the next few months as 2011 winds down. There are plans in the works for a new web host for Airship27hangar.com with the possibility of our own shopping cart and FTP services so our creators can get their art and stories to us more directly. So I have a lot of things on my plate regarding Airship 27's catalogue and how we make them available to the public. All this should make it easier and more reliable once I've made all the moves. But it's all going to take some time as we're still putting together NEW books as all this is happening.

LSSR: Any upcoming projects you would like to plug?

RD: I have a number of books in the pipeline. Next up is the latest Jim Anthony volume with a full-length novel, followed up pretty shortly with Mystery Men (and women) Vol 2. with 4 NEW pulp heroes and heroines in it along with my artwork. Airship 27 has at least one book a month possible through the end of the year if everything comes together properly. Airship 27 and my comics publishing venture, Redbud Studio Comics, are co-publishing an anthology of comics stories of public domain Pulp Heroes that should debut in the next month, so stay tuned for that!

LSSR: Thanks for agreeing to the interview, Rob.