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Mourning in America

I generally avoid politics on my social media accounts, but here are my thoughts about this recent presidential election.

Whenever a candidate becomes president elect, they usually reach out to the other side, providing reassurance that they will be president for all Americans. Of course you can never please everyone, and this isn't always how it plays out, but it is a great U.S. tradition that acknowledges our diversity and differences of opinion. Not that I listened to anything Drumpf (his real family name) has said since the election, but I assume it's just to promise retribution on his enemies and anyone who voted against him. It was the theme of his whole campaign. Aside from his very public convictions, bankruptcies, shafting of other businesses, etc., this is the core of his "character."

So I hope nothing but ill will for this cretin. And I say this noting that, as partisan as I am, I have never felt that any candidate running for this office has ever been as incompetent and ill-suited for this office as this POS. 

Get ready for the sh*t show world, it's gonna be a bumpy ride. Fortunately, I have family, friends and my comics work to distract me from dwelling too much on what’s going to happen in the coming years. But I don’t know what the hell has happened to this country.

Tintin Tribute – Rob Hanes Adventures #26

In the next issue of Rob Hanes Adventures (#26), Rob gets dragged into the billionaire space race when he’s sent on assignment to an orbiting space station under construction. More details to come!

However, while working on the story, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to pay homage to the classic Hergé Tintin cover for Destination Moon! (The booster rocket’s checkerboard pattern is a nod to the same pattern design on Tintin’s Moon Rocket.)

Several other classic comic strips also went into space—not sure yet whether I’ll reference any of the others, though the Dick Tracy Bucket Air Car is high on my list! 

[Pictured below: Dick Tracy strip excerpt from July 30, 1965, by Chester Gould; splash pages from the Spirit on the moon Sunday insert sequences from August 3 and August 31, 1952, story and art by Will Eisner, Jules Feiffer and Wally Wood.

Remembering Greg Hildebrandt

Great Signing at Pulp Fiction Culver City

More Capsule Reviews

Brooklyn

I’ve wanted to see this film, starring Saoirse Ronan, since its release in 2015. After I missed it in theaters, it never seemed to show up on one of my streamers (yes, I probably could have rented or purchased it digitally, of course). But recently, I happened to be on Max, looking for something to watch, and there it was.

My patience was rewarded—set in the 1950s, it’s a quiet but emotional and touching film, about a young woman who immigrates from Ireland to the U.S.—specifically, Brooklyn where she is aided by an Irish immigrant community—in search of opportunities for a better life. She meets a young man and marries, but briefly questions her decision when she returns to Ireland for a visit.

There is nothing earth shattering or deeply traumatic here—and though people have their foibles, most mean well—but it nevertheless is a wonderfully warm human drama about a young woman's immigrant experience.

Long Way Round

After recently seeing Ewan McGregor during his recent appearance at the L.A. Comic Con, I was inspired to watch the first season (from 2004) of his travelogue series, Long Way Round, where he motorbiked around the world with chum and fellow actor Charley Boorman, after the series came up during his panel conversation.

The series reminded me of a wonderful book, Lone Rider, by Elspeth Beard, that I read and reviewed here several years back, who undertook a similar journey, alone and much less heralded, as well as other excellent travelogue shows like Michael Palin’s journeys and even the original British television series, Top Gear, that frequently embarked on journeys to places both touristy and remote. 

It’s a fascinating series, partly because time is spent on the logistical planning for the trip. And there are some amazing moments, particularly as they traverse areas with literally no roads, sometimes with the help of random Russian truckers. 

I partly enjoy these shows because I’ve found them to be beneficial for the “globe trotting” aspects of my comics work, showing remote, nearly inaccessible places and first hand experiences that don’t come up in ordinary research, that sometimes even inspire my stories.

My Adventures with Superman (Max)

Finally finished the second season of My Adventures With Superman—thought it was terrific. When I went into the first season, I thought it was going to be an episodic villain-of-the-week series, but it turned out to be more ambitious than that with a season-long arc involving Superman learning about his Kryptonian/alien identity. Season 2 builds on that as Superman learns more about his roots, deals with the fears that the public (and government) have for him, and the show opens up into space and science fiction.

I don’t know whether season 2 was based on any of the recent comics, but frankly, I thought the story arc was impressive enough on both an emotional and thematic level to serve as the basis of a full-length live action Superman film, bringing in Supergirl, Brainiac and even touching on the existential threat AI potentially poses to civilization. 

Bad Monkey (AppleTV+)

This series has been a fun watch. Set in the Florida Keys, this black comedy crime drama features a diverse cast of characters, many with their own secrets, flaws and agendas, but all driven by a central mystery set up in the very opening scene involving a severed arm. Although the “mystery” of that arm is revealed early in the series, the twisty storyline never loses its momentum.

At the center of it is a demoted and suspended police detective, played by series’ lead Vince Vaughn, whose distinctive persona and improv chops serve to elevate and distinguish the character and the series. In some ways, Bad Monkey is a shaggy dog story that is as much about the journey and character arc of suspended police detective Andrew Yancy as the mystery—indeed, the final payback of the main villain, almost a deux ex machina ending, seems almost like an afterthought and could easily have felt like a bit of a cop out and unsatisfying, had the other loose ends had not been tied up so satisfyingly.

Jeeves and Wooster

I recently re-watched the British Jeeves and Wooster television series. My wife and I discovered the series when it first aired in the 1990s, which not only introduced us to the world of P.G. Wodehouse, but also made us fans of the series’ leads, Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry. Fry and Laurie were already known in Great Britain—particularly due to their comedy sketch show, A Bit of Fry and Laurie—but this series introduced them to American audiences. Indeed, we were so taken by the series, with both actors so perfectly cast, that we became fans and delighted in following their careers. 

Though the series ran four seasons of six episodes apiece, there were a few episodes I didn’t recall. Watching the series in their entirety made the reason fairly obvious—the PBS series didn’t air about three of the episodes, partly I’m sure due to the use of black face in some of the episodes (including the finale). Nevertheless, the series—capturing an era that  never really happened—remains a delightful and hilarious watch.

The Feminine Mystique 1

This is part of a series of posts about the characters, storylines and universe of Rob Hanes Adventures, under the label RHAUniverse… 

Here are a few of the women Rob has crossed paths with in the series (with more to come!)

First up is Tiffany Lance, reporter from Find Magazine whose pursuit of a story often takes priority over her personal safety, as well as, occasionally, her friendship with Rob. Though her reporting and his troubleshooting work often put them at odds, off the clock and on the road, they’re FWBs—and, as long as a story isn’t involved, the one person Rob can trust. 

First appearance: “The Assassin” (collected in The Rob Hanes Archives trade paperback), where Rob is hired to protect her from a hired killer but she mistakes him as the hitman. Most notably, she wrote a cover story about Rob for an issue of Find magazine (RHA #13). She’s slated to return in upcoming issue 26!

Caroline Cromwell (nee Wilde) is Rob’s unrequited crush—a spoiled heiress Rob met on one of his earliest assignments, who showed her true mettle when the chips were down. Though Rob eventually develops feelings for her, her family marries her off to crooked Anthony Cromwell, a narcissistic two-bit grifter from an otherwise prominent family, after they squandered her trust fund. Out of a misplaced sense of duty, she remains committed to the marriage and redeeming Cromwell. 

First appearance: Way back in Rob’s first published story, “Meet Rob Hanes,” collected in The Rob Hanes Archives. Usually appears whenever Cromwell pops up on Rob’s radar, involved in yet another criminal scheme. Fun fact—Caroline and her story arc were inspired by a similar love triangle involving the characters of Pat Ryan, Normandie Drake and Anthony Sandhurst in Milton Caniff’s Terry and the Pirates (in the RHA universe, Cromwell is Sandhurst’s grandson).

Lorelei Thornfield, niece to the two Lady Agathas, is yet another spoiled rich girl. Though her adventuresome aunts dote on Rob and often try to match her with Lorelei, she remains immune to Rob’s charms. 

Lorelei and her aunts first appeared in “The Two Lady Agathas,” also collected in The Rob Hanes Archives. They returned in “Death on the Moors” (RHA #7), a drawing room murder mystery. Most recently, she appeared solo in issue 23. Fun fact—Lorelei’s look was initially inspired by actress Mia Sara (Ferris Buehler’s Day Off). 

Still to come: Isabel Corbeil; Irina Taushina, Suzette French; Julianne Love, Katya Vilnius, and Madame Minx!