Rob Hanes Adventures #26 Goes Into Orbit!

Official announcement about the next issue of Rob Hanes Adventures! For the formal press release, click here.

2025 Tonys Best Musical

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Capsule Reviews – What I’m Watching Now

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning 

While we’ll see whether Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is indeed the final entry of the series, it’s a great send off. As I have said before, this is a franchise that has gotten better and bigger with each succeeding film, an impressive feat.

Concluding a saga that began with the previous film where we saw a powerful AI entity—called The Entity—essentially become sentient while nations and bad actors compete to gain dominion over it so that they, in turn, can control the world. Of course, it’s up to Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his Impossible Mission team to stop and destroy it.

I greatly enjoyed the film’s many twists and turns, and the fact that many characters got a chance to step up and shine, and enjoy a hero moment. These include mainstay co-stars like Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames; new team members played by Hayley Atwell and a very fine Pom Klementieff; and cameo appearances by people like Nick Offerman. And while I mentioned this film wraps up a story begun in the prior film, the movie also circles back to storylines that reach back into earlier films, including several characters and callbacks from the very first M:I film.

Doctor Who (Season 3) (Disney+)

A year and a half ago, I reviewed the Doctor Who specials that introduced the new Doctor, played with wonderful exuberance and energy by Ncuti Gatwa. Though I greatly enjoyed the specials, I never returned to it, though it remained on my to-watch list.

But an episode involving an animated character coming off a movie screen in the 1950s (Season 2, Episode 2: “Lux”) piqued my interest. So I started watching it again, picking up a few episodes before that one in season 1. And every single episode turned out to be amazing, so now I have been all in. Nearly every single episode  has managed to knocked it out of the park—by turns funny, thrilling, clever, and deeply moving and emotional. It really has it all. 

The Studio (AppleTV+)

The Studio is a self-described cringe comedy limited series about Hollywood, centered around new studio head Matt Remick of Continental Studios, played by Seth Rogan who co-created the series. In addition to featuring topnotch production values, the show also is distinguished by long single take scenes—in fact, one episode is entirely in one take.

Hollywood often likes nothing more than poking fun at itself and this series leans into that, perhaps a little bit too much at first, featuring people who often, of course, come off as terrible human beings. While Remick actually is a fairly good guy, he nevertheless manages to always make the worst decisions, especially in the early episodes, usually making things worse. 

While this ran the risk of making the series and Remick tiresome, the series picked up for me in the last several episodes, particularly the two-part season finale, which truly made me laugh my ass off. 

Rogan is surrounded by a terrific cast, including Catherine O'Hara, Patty Leigh, Ike Barinholtz, Chase Sui Wonders, and Kathryn Hahn, as well as memorable recurring turns by an always strong Michael Krum and a deliciously unhinged performance by Bryan Cranston as the studio company’s CEO. Playing themselves in both guest and cameo appearances are a host of Hollywood icons, including Martin Scorcese, Charlize Theron, Antony Mackie, Ron Howard, and in hilarious substantive appearances, David Franco and Zoe Kravitz. 

The Residence (Netflix)

The Knives Out film franchise has launched a plethora of delicious mystery shows and series like Murders In the Building, The White Lotus, Elspeth, and Poker Face. In addition to being great whodunnits, they are fun mystery romps, often featuring a somewhat off-kilter lead detective and a plethora of big name guest stars.

One of the more recent, The Residence, is particularly high concept—in addition to featuring a “world’s greatest detective” in the form of bird watcher Cordelia Cupp (Uzo Aduba), this is essentially a drawing room murder mystery set at the White House, with the homicide occurring during a state dinner. As the story slowly unwinds and reveals its many layers and red herrings, we are treated to a zany cast of characters played by an amazingly diverse cast, including Giancarlo Esposito, Ken Marino, Randall Park, Jason Lee, Bronson Pinchot, and others. Framing the story is a Senate hearing looking into the investigations, with a perfectly cast Al Franken (of course an actual former senator himself) and comedic actress Eliza Coupe. And, of course, the White House and its storied history also is a character.

This is yet another mystery that builds great momentum each episodes, coming to an exciting and thrilling climax and reveal—and its pleasures are as much about the journey as it is the solution.

Murderbot (AppleTV+) 

Based on its first five episodes, Murderbot is a deft blend of dystopian science fiction and action comedy, with a compelling mystery at its center.

Set years in the future, earth has expanded into the galaxy, apparently dominated and run by an interplanetary corporation known as the company. Murderbot is a robot/android security unit (SecUnit) who secretly disables his control mechanisms so that he essentially has free will and is sentient. (It secretly names itself Murderbot).  

While keeping his autonomy a secret as he decides what to do—his primary interest being to download and stream in his head hundreds of hours of entertainment shows—he is assigned to provide security for a group of researchers on a mission to a remote planet. Though he finds humans and their behavior completely illogical (in fact, he considers humans assholes and idiots), as the story unfolds, he gradually begins to form bonds with his human companions as they begin to respect and appreciate him. For me, the show was somewhat reminiscent of Resident Alien.

The show consists of zippy half hour episodes which usually end with great cliffhangers that compel you to watch the next episode, and I have found it incredibly fun and engaging.

 

Report on the 2025 Pasadena Comic Con

I posted a report about the Pasadena Comic Con over on Facebook here), but this is a slightly expanded version. Click here to see the full photo gallery from the event. 

I thoroughly enjoyed my experience exhibiting at the Pasadena Comic Con! I was pleasantly surprised by sales, but though I always enjoy engaging with people, my conversations and interactions with attendees at this show were especially fun and memorable! It was heartening to have people go out of their way to stop and tell me they loved my work, even if they didn’t end up buying anything. It’s always fun when I see people get struck by my work enough to stop dead in their tracks and come over, with many immediately “getting” the series based on the art and banners.

What also helped was that the exhibitors next to me didn’t show up for some reason—the organizers stopped by to tell me to just use the extra table for myself. So it was nice to spread out my original art on that table, which immediately turned me into a corner booth!

All-in-all, it was a pretty relaxed, chill show.

A few highlights:

A fairly young teen who liked the art and bought a random issue, before I could ask and curate what kind of story he might like. I wasn’t sure he bought an issue that might be the best fit (#25), but less than a couple hours later, he came by to enthusiastically tell me he already read it and loved it lol. Then later in the show, he stopped by with a Funko Pop he had purchased and asked me to sign it (I had already signed the issue he purchased from me). I confirmed that  he really wanted my signature on it—he said, “You’re my favorite booth here!” I’m sure that was a bit of youthful exuberance, but appreciated nonetheless!

I mentioned to one woman who purchased a 4-pack after my usual pitch, that I have enjoyed discovering how many women liked my work. She said, “Oh, I’m a criminal defense attorney, so mystery, crime and spy stories stories are right up my alley!” She added,  “My family all love the Marvels and DCs, but I love to support the indies!” 

The guy who liked my American Flagg sketch (and the American Flagg inspired Rob Hanes Adventures banner at my booth), who said he didn’t like creator Howard Chaykin’s work and thought my Reuben Flagg was better. I immediately said emphatically, “NO IT’S NOT!” but thanks. After he acknowledged he’d never read a lot of it, I told him he should, and that it was actually as much a satire and a comedy as much as science fiction/action. (He also was wearing full army camo fatigues and kinda looked like actor Shea Whigham, complete with mustache, and from the way he spoke—the more we talked, I wasn’t sure if he was actually in the service or cosplaying, especially after he mentioned being an educator. I thought about asking but never found the chance to lol).

As I mentioned in a previous post during the show, I was just across the way from the celebrity autograph section. The longest line always seemed to be for a voice actor (whose name I can’t recall and didn’t recognize), but fortunately, the queue for her was in the aisle behind me, not in front of my booth. But actor/comedian/voice actor Tom Kenny (SpongeBob Squarepants) hung out there quite a bit, meeting fans and taking photos with them. That was catty corner behind me—directly catty corner to me was Eric Roberts who was in the same row as Jerry Mathers (Leave It to Beaver), Greg Evigan, and Parker Stevenson. Also nearby were Charles Fleischer (voice of Roger Rabbit), Michael Gross, and Morgan Fairchild. I also saw little person actor Tony Cox there. 

I got to say a quick hello to Gross when he arrived just as I was going to my table to set up and tell him I was a big fan. And when Roberts walked by, he good naturedly yelled out loudly, “When’s Rob showing up?!” During the show, I had a chance to say hello to Evigan and Mathers as they walked by. 

I have to admit, other than the voice actor’s line (where Tom Kenny was hanging about), that was the only booth that drew a real crowd. The other celebrities (like us booth people) had steady foot traffic but also occasional downtime. 

Above: Morgan Fairchild's booth—actor Michael Gross
was behind her and at right in this photo

Living in L.A., I occasionally make the joke about how everyone in Hollywood knows each other, and it’s at events like this, when you see Parker Stevenson, Greg Evigan and Morgan Fairchild deep in conversation, or actor Tony Cox stopping to talk to Eric Roberts and others.

I know at some conventions, the celebrity guest crowds can sometimes overwhelm and overshadow the comics and other booths, but that fortunately wasn’t the case here, even given my proximity to them. The show was pretty laid back—that said, I did feel a bit separated from other comics booths, as everyone around me primarily sold toys, t-shirts, memorabilia and the like. Not sure if that affected my foot traffic, but as I said, I was still happy with sales. 

This was my first time exhibiting at this show. Though I’m familiar with Pasadena, I’d never been to the convention center before, so didn’t have it all down pat (like I do at San Diego!). As a result, I ended up in a parking structure a little further away from the convention center that required me to go up to street level, walk down the block, and into the convention center—versus the parking area just underneath the venue.

However, it turned out to have its advantages since I didn’t have to wait in the lines I saw for the freight elevators at the convention center. (This was also the case at the end of the show when I had to break down and everyone was departing at the same time!) Though it took two trips to unload my car, I was able to tetris all of my booth items onto the wagon for the return trip—though, from observing someone else with a cart who had cargo straps, it convinced me to purchase a cargo net for the future!

I definitely hope to attend next year!

Click here to see the full photo gallery from the show. 

Rob Hanes Adventures Featured on Comic Tropes After Dark

I've been a fan of Chris Piers' Comic Tropes YouTube channel since discovering it during the pandemic. He does deep dives on a variety of subjects related to comics, including comics news and history.

In late 2024, I sent him a package of my work as an appreciation and introduction. He's a strong supporter of indie work and, as part of his live show sister channel, Comic Tropes After Dark, he often opens live on the air packages he's received and offers first reactions, which include Indie Showcase episodes where he goes through such samples in marathon episodes. I'm sure he gets inundated with such packages, and I never do such things with set expectations, though of course I was hopeful it might some day get covered.

So on May 21, it was a thrill to have my series, Rob Hanes Adventures, featured on the show!! His first reaction to the series was incredibly complimentary—it helped that I included a cover note that introduced the series and me, mentioning my Xeric and Inkpot awards. He was also impressed by my influences, including Milton Caniff, Will Eisner, and especially Roy Crane. (He actually skimmed and read parts of my letter on the air!) He leafed through the first issue and a later issue to see if I'd improved, pointing out panels he liked, and complimenting camera angles and storytelling. He summed up his reaction as "Impressive!"

It was a few days before the Pasadena Comic Con, so it was a great way to head into the show. 

Below is the video and I've cued it to around the 1:31:00 mark here to where my book gets covered. But be sure to check out the whole episode and the channel, highly recommended!

Fantastic Comic Fan Review: Rob Hanes Adventures