Portrait of the Artist

For Immediate Release

Rob Hanes Adventures Returns to Basics with “Zero Issue”

Cartoonist Randy Reynaldo, writer-artist of the long-running indy comic-book Rob Hanes Adventures, announced that the next issue of the globetrotting adventure series will be a “zero issue” that brings the character back to its roots and serves as a fresh entry point for new readers. Rob Hanes Adventures #0 is slated for release in summer 2015, with a specific release date to be announced.

Issue 0 follows Rob Hanes Adventures #15, published in 2014, which marked the twentieth anniversary of Reynaldo’s publishing imprint, WCG Comics. WCG first published the series in comic-book format in 1994 as Adventure Strip Digest. (The series was re-launched in 2000 as Rob Hanes Adventures.)

"Little has been shown about how Rob started at Justice International or first met some of the key characters in the series,” Reynaldo added. “This is a chance to fill in some of those blanks and bring in new readers.”

The new stories will reveal Rob’s family background, the events that led to his joining Justice International (or JI), some of his early challenges as a JI agent, and re-introduce some key characters, including villains and love interests.

Rob Hanes Adventures follows the exploits of a young globetrotting adventurer and troubleshooter who works for worldwide Justice International, a private investigation, security and mercenary agency. Set in the modern day, the long-running indie series follows in the tradition of classic adventure comic strips like Milton Caniff's Terry and the Pirates and Roy Crane's Buz Sawyer — with dashes of light-hearted humor reminiscent of Will Eisner's Spirit.

Reynaldo added that there is a strong possibility that issue 0 would be followed by issue ½ and, perhaps, issue ¾, to cover stories he wants to tell that fill in the gaps from the character’s early days as a private investigator and globetrotting troubleshooter. Reynaldo stressed, however, that this is not a complete “re-boot”—the series will eventually resume its regular numbering and all prior continuity, for the most part, remains in place. Nevertheless, Reynaldo said that some of the early stories and characters may be slightly tweaked in what he describes to be a “soft” re-boot.

All issues of Rob Hanes Adventures are self-contained, so readers always have the ability to jump in with any issue. However, Reynaldo recognizes that some people seeing an “issue 15” on the cover might feel a bit reluctant to try out a new series and hopes the planned “issue 0” will appeal to new readers.

“Given the anniversary and how long the series has been running, I thought it was a good time to re-introduce the series to new readers and get back to roots,” said Reynaldo. “It will also be a nice re-fresh and change of direction for myself.”

About the series:

To date, 15 issues of Rob Hanes Adventures and two trade paperback collections of earlier work—Rob Hanes Adventures, Vol. 0 and the Rob Hanes Archives—have been released and remain in print. Over its run, Rob Hanes Adventures has been reviewed, spotlighted and featured in numerous respected comics industry news publications and websites, including the Comics Buyer’s Guide, Newsarama, Comic Book Resources, and Bleeding Cool. The series also was featured at wired.com and included in 1000 Comic Books You Must Read by Tony Isabella (Krause Publications, 2009). The year 2014 marked WCG’s twentieth anniversary as a comic-book publisher.

For more information, visit wcgcomics.com or facebook.com/rhadventures.

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The permanent link for this press release is http://wcgcomics.blogspot.com/2015/05/issue0.html

Below are sample pages (without word balloons) from Rob Hanes Adventures #0: