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Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Will Eisner Week 2024

That's a Wrap!



Had a great time as the guest on That Silverline Show on Tuesday last night. My thanks to hosts Tim T.K., Jose Fuentes, Kasisi D. Harris, and David Rios for a fun time, and the opportunity to talk shop and to answer questions about the creative process and my comic-book series, Rob Hanes Adventures.

If you missed it, it's available on their YouTube channel. I’m told I even sounded coherent!

 

Monday, March 4, 2024

That Tuesday Night Show on Silverline!

I'm the guest this Tuesday night on That Silverline Show on Tuesday, on the Silverline Comics YouTube channel on March 5 @ 8pm PST/11pm EST.

Hear about my action-adventure comic-book series, Rob Hanes Adventures, my several decades self-publishing and producing comics, my Inkpot Award, and more!

See you there!




Monday, February 12, 2024

Update on Rob Hanes Adventures #25

I’m entering the home stretch of the milestone 25th issue of Rob Hanes Adventures, where Rob goes back to the 1930s for a story that teams him up with other soldiers-of-fortune from the era who readers familiar with classic comics may recognize—and even if you don’t, it’ll still be a fun ride!

In tribute to the era, each page is a complete “Sunday page.” It’s a fun exercise that’s required a slightly different rhythm and beat, where each page contains a complete sequence, ending with a mini-cliffhanger or punchline. It’s also one of my longer stories in awhile, and I look forward to its release this summer. Whether the story is “real” or “imaginary,” readers will have to decide!

Meanwhile, I’m also already looking ahead to the issue that follows (#26)—it’s not only another change of pace for the series, but pretty much a complete 180 degree turn from issue 25. In fact, one could say it takes Rob from the jazz age to the space age—but ‘nuff said for now, I’ll keep it at that!

Oh, and here's a bit of trivia—that classic old-school "Rob Hanes" logo was designed and gifted to me as a surprise by comic book writer and classic adventure comics fan Kurt Busiek back in the '90s!














Friday, February 9, 2024

A Really Big Shew...

Today is the 60th anniversary of the Beatles’ splashy introduction to the U.S. on the Ed Sullivan Show! I was about 15 days shy of my 2nd birthday—and more significantly, it was my brother’s first birthday (so happy birthday to him)!

Though I was too young to see or remember their debut (my dad reportedly had a repairman come out quickly to fix our tv so that he and my mom could watch the show), I've nevertheless been a huge fan of anything Beatles my whole life and imprinted on them early. Just a few years after their Sullivan debut, we badgered our parents and received their Capitol Records Early Beatles’ compilation album (as seen in the accompanying photos). Then when I was five, an uncle came home bearing the newly-released Sgt. Pepper album for us—their new look totally puzzled to us. There were other touchstones—hearing Meet the Beatles at a family party; seeing Let It Be in a local store; discovering the Abbey Road album at the apartment of our aunt and her cool groovy roommate; staying up late way past our bedtimes (with our parents' permission) when we discovered a local channel was playing Help!; and going to the first revival moviehouse we ever went to in order to watch a double bill of A Hard Days Night and Help!.

By our teens (which technically was after the band broke up), we had a full collection of Beatles albums. So, yes, the Beatles were a big presence in my childhood and throughout my life.

When I was in college in the ‘80s, the university I attended screened that Sullivan episode of the Beatles’ appearance—I realize now that was in 1984, to mark the 20th anniversary of their appearance! And now here we are marking the 60th.

Quite a few years back, I picked up the DVD pictured in the photo gallery that contained the first four appearances of the Beatles on Sullivan, from 1964-65. (As many know, Davy Jones also performed on the same show the Beatles made their first appearance—the cast of the Broadway musical “Oliver!” performed in that broadcast, with Jones as as the Artful Dodger.)

Update: I rewatched those Sullivan episodes. As I mentioned to my wife, it's amazing what passed for entertainment in those days lol. That said, I recognize that tastes (and humor changes). But I have to say, I found most of the acts unwatchable and couldn't sit through them, even for the nostalgia factor.