L.A. Comic-Con

Though I didn’t table at this year’s LA Comic Con, I received a pro badge and attended with two goals: To watch the premiere of the documentary on cartoonist and longtime friend/colleague Mike Vosburg and to catch actor Ewan McGregor on the main stage, both on Saturday. And mission accomplished!

The documentary, Recipe For Talent: A Visit With Mike Vosburg, produced by the Dads from the Crypt Podcast, is primarily a visit and interview with Mike at his home, where he shows off his impressive collection of art by cartoonists and illustrators he admires. (I’ve visited with Mike and it’s great to see the pieces up close.)  Though the documentary’s jumping off point is Mike’s work drawing the Tales from the Crypt comic book covers that appeared in the opening credits of each episode of the 1989–96 television series, it also covers his broader career, both in comics and particularly in Hollywood, as well as his influences, and his love of comics and films. Mike is a great storyteller, so the documentary is always engaging. (Mike won an Emmy working on the Spawn animated series, so you get to see that at the house as well!)

Ewan McGregor appeared at the convention’s main stage in the late afternoon. Although the convention center has meeting rooms that are used for programmed panels throughout the show, what I love about L.A. Comic Con’s guest appearances is that their main stage for big panels and interviews is simply on the convention floor—so no waiting in line or trying to get into a full room. As I posted last year, I saw Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, and Dominic Monaghan together on stage celebrating the 20th anniversary of the completion of Lord of the Rings film adaptation trilogy, which was a great thrill.

McGregor was great fun, sitting down one on one with an interviewer. He has a great sense of humor but also gave thoughtful responses. While he he talked about and told funny anecdotes about working on Star Wars, his other work came up during the interview too, such as Trainspotting, Moulin Rouge and Down With Love (a personal favorite). Among other interesting tidbits:

• One of the greatest differences between the original prequels he first appeared in and the Obi Wan series he appeared in was the use of The Volume filmmaking process in place of traditional green screen—The Volume is a 360-degree immersive panel display that allows rendered 3D backgrounds to be projected in real time.
• 
  He still loves musicals and would do one if offered—there are just not that many that are made.
• Asked about his Apple+ travelogue series where he and companion Charley Boorman, have traveled immense distances on motorbike, he said it initially began because, after completing a movie, motorbiking was a way to decompress and get back into the groove of doing things himself, versus being catered to in all aspects of his life while shooting a film. (Due to this interview, I began watching the show!)
• He said he was surprised to find out how much he enjoyed talking and connecting with fans at conventions like the L.A. Comic Con. He hadn't done conventions until recently, with the release of the Obi Wan series. When he was first asked, he reluctantly agreed, not believing it would be his cup of tea. But once he did, he came to greatly enjoy it. (Actor Hayden Christianson also made an appearance at the show on Sunday, with both doing signings that day.)
• Asked what advice he had for young actors, he mentioned that they should become familiar with older films. In follow up, he was asked what films and actors he enjoyed—he mentioned Jimmy Stewart and '70s films, and personal favorites like The Great Escape. 

McGregor was great interacting with the audience. I even got in on it—when talking about actors and films he admired, he spoke at length about the 1979 film, Breaking Away, and proceeded to tell much of the plot. At one point, he forgot the state the movie takes place in, so I yelled out, “Indiana!” which he immediately picked up and repeated lol. (I would have remembered this anyway, but I also visited the city where it was shot—Bloomington, where Indiana University is located—for a friend’s wedding in the ‘90s.) 

While there, I also saw a bunch of friends exhibiting, many of whom you’ll see among the photos. This included Craig Miller, Barbra Dillon, Javiar Hernandez and Tone Rodriguez.

Click here to see the full photogallery.

Comics at Amoeba

Batman in Hollywood

Rogues Gallery 1

This is the second in a series of posts about the characters, storylines and universe of Rob Hanes Adventures.

Your hero is only as good as your villain and with 25 issues (and change) under my belt, there have been some memorable vilains over the years, both big and small…

Chief among Rob’s antagonists is the shadowy international crime lord, the boss of crime bosses, Nicolai Korda. Of no known state or origin, Korda is a mysterious figure who only works from the shadows…

Introduced in “New World Order” (collected in volume 0 of the Rob Hanes Adventures trade paperback collection), Rob did not learn of his identity until “Hostile Takeover” (available in the same collection). Since then, Rob has encountered Korda in Hong Kong (“Image is Everything” in RHA #3), North Korea (“Rob Hanes and the Pirates”/RHA #11), and most recently on the high seas in RHA #23 (“The Taking of the Peregrin”).

Their most offbeat face-off occurred in “Crime Takes a Holiday” (RHA #13), when Rob, while on vacation in the South of France, runs into Korda and suspects him and his henchmen of some nefarious plot…but to say more would be a spoiler, so I’ll keep it at that!

And wherever Korda is, his capo and right hand man, Clemson, is not far behind. Pasty skinned with bleached white hair accented by a black streak, he is perpetually behind a pair of wraparound shades. Though he is always seen at Korda’s side and doing his bidding, on one occasion he broke with Korda to surreptitiously give Rob a lead to help bring into custody a corrupt nuclear scientist attempting to sell nuclear secrets to rogue states (“The Hunt for Octavius Jebru/RHA #6).

Stay tuned for more!

Re-visiting Three Days of the Fanboy

Here’s a blast from the past that I came across on a friend's Facebook page, unloading a (rare?) Rob Hanes audio adventure released on cassette in 1994. 

Performed as a classic radio show, it was the brainchild of college buddy Bob Westal, who wrote and directed this audio comedy-drama that was recorded at a tiny home-based recording studio in North Hollywood. It’s a completely tongue-in-cheek audio adventure, involving Rob being hired to protect a rare comic book and going down the rabbit hole of high stakes comic-book collecting!

It’s a bit dated (Paul Tsongas anyone?), but perhaps its main claim to fame is that it led one of the principal players of the “WCG Mystery Theatre Players”—Scott Brick—to a successful career as an award-winning, hall of fame audiobook narrator. As well as being a talented actor, Scott is a huge fan of old time radio (as well as comics), so this gig was right up his alley and he really sets the tone. I should add that Scott is a friend from college, as are Bob and the other members of the “WCG Mystery Theatre Players” who appeared in the show, including Terry Delegeane.

Though I later converted the master recording into digital format and made it available on CD (burning copies as needed), it’s now available for streaming free on YouTube (link below). Though it’s solely audio, I did add opening titles at the beginning and a full end credit sequence in the last couple of minutes. Accompanying this post are photos from the recording session.

A Rob Hanes Adventures Refresher

With the 25th issue of Rob Hanes Adventures recently released, it’s a perfect time to re-introduce the series to readers both long term and new to the world of Rob Hanes Adventures!

Following in the footsteps of the great adventure comic strips like Milton Caniff's Terry and the Pirates and Noel Sickles' Scorchy Smith but set in the modern day, Rob is a globetrotting troubleshooter for Justice International, a security, intelligence and private investigation agency—some call them spies and mercenaries for hire. As one of JI's newest agents, Rob's conscience and sense of fair play often put him at odds with JI's old guard.

Every story is self-contained, so readers can jump in with any issue! Each issue, Rob often finds himself in the middle of an adventure ripped from the headlines, filled with danger and intrigue, but also laced with humor and romance. The series also has crossed into other genres, ranging from drawing room murder mysteries, sports, to straight comedy and romance. (In issue 25, he even travels back in time to 1930s pre-war Asia!)

In 2018, series creator Randy Reynaldo received the Inkpot Award for Achievements in Comic Art from the San Diego Comic-Con.

With 25 issues to date (and stories that predate the current run), the series has built a deep supporting cast that include sidekicks, old flames and foes that will be highlighted in upcoming posts!

These posts about the characters, storylines and universe of Rob Hanes Adventures will be posted under the label at this blog RHAUniverse. To learn more and to order an issue (or more), visit wcgcomics.com!

Review: Time Bandits

I was sorry to hear that the Time Bandits series on AppleTV+ didn’t get picked up for a second season. I had just finished watching the series a few days prior to the announcement—in fact, I had checked to see if/when there was going to be a second season because the series ended (to my surprise) with a cliffhanger. So I was a bit shocked to discover that the writers—Jemaine Clement, Iain Morris and Taika Waititi—had written a such a finale without having a commitment for a second season! They reportedly were working on the next season even though they were still waiting for a renewal.

During the first half of the premiere episode, I wasn’t sure I was going to stick with it. But in that episode, once they start traveling through time and end up in the Trojan War (and inside the Trojan Horse), it won me over and I was all in. That scene had a Monty Python feel to it and gave me the show's first good laughs. In fact, throughout the series, it’s the first time I ever felt that actors who weren’t British were able to deliver Python-like humor and lines without it sounding forced. (Lisa Kudrow as the leader of the Time Bandits also initially seemed to be an odd fit—but she does grow on you and her character turns out to be one of the leads, in that she goes through a significant character arc.)

I heard there were some behind the scenes problems during the shoot—apparently, Terry Gilliam, one of the creators of the original film (which I love), was unhappy with what he saw. However, I found the production more faithful and respectful to the movie and its spirit and themes than I expected, though the series does polish some of the film's rough edges and it's certainly processed through Waititi's lens.

Many of the elements and plot points from the film are in the series as well, but to mention any would be spoilery. But these plot points and beats have been shuffled around and/or expanded a bit to strengthen the narrative. I will note, however, that Clement and Waititi both appear in key roles and the series adds a new dynamic by having the younger sister of Kevin, the lead boy character, join in the adventure. (Her character is a bit of a pill lol but also strong and resilient).

And though I believe there was some controversy in not casting little people in the time bandit roles as in the original film, the series does introduce a team of little people who are about to join in the chase for the Time Bandits and their map. In fact, I thought those actors and their characters were terrific, but their story really didn’t get going much in the series, so it’s obvious they were going to be a focus of the second season. For me, not getting to see more of these characters and watch their arc unfold is one of the biggest losses of not getting a second season. 

The film, Time Bandits, was not a Python film, but it was written by two of the group's members, Gilliam and Palin. But there clearly are some homages—I mean look how the boy is dressed in the show throughout the series. And there also was an instance of danger when they yelled, "Run away! Run away!" and where characters were taunted by someone on a castle wall!