SDCC 2026 Report

Click here to go directly to the photogallery for the 2026 San Diego Comic-Con.

Now that I’ve returned home, unpacked and reconciled my sales from the show, here’s a report on this year’s San Diego Comic-Con. Continuing a practice I started a couple years ago, I stayed an extra day and drove home Monday morning, rather than Sunday evening after a long final day of exhibiting.

This year’s Comic-Con turned out to be a bit of a roller coaster, though it ultimately turned out to be a pleasant surprise. After a slow start Thursday and Friday, sales came roaring back on Saturday and Sunday—in fact, it was one of my strongest shows ever! On Sunday, people all of a sudden seemed ready to buy. Sales were boosted by relatively big ticket items that were popular, particularly the five trade paperbacks for $40 deal and all 27 issues of Rob Hanes Adventures for $50 offer! (Deals, I should add, that are also available at my webstore!) Sales of original art—sketches and especially cover art—also have boosted the bottom line in recent years.

So my thanks to everyone who stopped by—as always, I had a great mix of longtime fans and new people discovering the series for the first time. I love that people don't get hung up on having to buy issues in order or purchase the entire run—people are happy to pick up issues that sound fun to them. The Death at Comic-Con issue (#18), the baseball issue (#10), and the 1930s soldier-of-fortune homage issue (#25) are all perennials.

I also participated in more after hours activities than usual. As mentioned in earlier posts, I had a late dinner with friends on Wednesday after Preview Night. On Friday, I attended another dinner organized by Margeaux Pepoy (I forgot to take a group photo!) Following dinner, I popped into the Eisner Awards. Afterwards, I planned to walk back to my hotel from the Hilton San Diego Bayfront via the marina behind the convention center to check out the overnight line for Hall H and other activities, but forgot—d'oh! I did bump into fellow artist Don Nguyen on the walk back though and talked a bit with him.

On Saturday night, my wife got tickets to see Kevin Smith and Ralph Garman’s Hollywood Babble-On show at the American Comedy Co. comedy store in the Gaslam . My wife is a big fan of the show and we’ve seen the duo's show about five or six times in the past, where they primarily spout about pop culture news in a hilarious and inappropriate manner, riffing off each other. Ever the geek, Smith gave a first hand account of being backstage at Hall H during the Marvel panel as well as the Spaceballs panel.

And in keeping with the this year's theme of unexpected encounters, Kevin Smith snuck up behind me and interjected a comment into a conversation I was having as the line made its way into the club. I was remarking to a friend how Garman, a fan of the 1960s' Batman tv show who later became friends with Adam West, was largely responsible for getting him his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. As I said this, someone behind me bellowed, "Yes, he did!" and when I turned, there was Smith smiling behind me! Evidently, he was running late from his own panel in Hall H, and had run in just as we were let into the club to be seated (about 20 minutes late). I quickly thought of taking a selfie with him, but it happened so quickly, the best I managed was to pat him on the shoulder lol.

In my posts during the show, I mentioned spotting comedian/actor Marc Maron walking by my booth during the show, as well as comedian Thomas Lennon, who stopped to chat—I met Lennon at last year's Comic-Con and then bumped into him a month later in L.A. where we chatted again! Other people who came by my table were actor David Dastmalchian and Richard Taylor, founder of Weta Workshop. When I saw him strolling by my booth with a companion, I called out his name and he turned to wave—I took the opportunity to gush and tell him how much his work on the Lord of the Rings films meant to me as a lifelong Tolkien fan. I’m sure he’d heard it all before, but he was incredibly kind and appreciative.

In addition, on Sunday morning, the last day of the show, I bumped into Jenny Blake Isabella in the lobby of my hotel! Jenny has been a huge supporter of my work over the years, so I'm glad I had the chance to congratulate her on the Bill Finger Award she received at the Eisner Awards. She was about ready to fly home and was glad to hear that she had a wonderful time as a guest of the show.

Anyway, it was another memorable and successful San Diego Comic-Con. Next up is Long Beach Comic-Con in September! Below are a few additional photos from the show, with the full gallery available here.

Countdown to SDCC '26 (I)

All the Right Financial Moves (I hope)

A little over a decade ago, I made an effort to become more financially literate, which actually became an off-and-on passion. I mean this in the sense that, with finances, while it’s good to stay on top of things and occasionally fine tune, your best bet is to simply set things up correctly and then leave it alone and let it grow.

Recent changes in life have led me to a new flurry of financial moves that I thought I’d share, both on the personal and business fronts. (One of these included moving to a new phone carrier, Voiply, that I covered in a previous post.)

First off is the fact that my wife and I have needed to assume management finances of an elderly family member. In reviewing her brokerage account at Fidelity, I noticed that the dividends that paid out of her account sat in a cash sweep account at Fidelity that collected no interest, so I opened a high-yield online savings account where we could move that money until they needed it and moved most of her Fidelity and savings there. However, after some research, I then discovered that Fidelity has a reputable cash management account already that collects interest that is even slightly better than the high yield online banks!! And all it required was a simple flip of the switch (technically changing the “core” position of the account).

In fact, it led me to open an account of my own in my own Fidelity account. But I had an ulterior motive—it turns out that the account comes with a debit card that has NO foreign transaction fees and refunds all ATM charges! Since my wife and I may be traveling overseas soon, I thought it would be prudent to open an account in anticipation of that trip!

Fidelity’s Cash Management Account is not a checking or savings account—in fact, technically, it’s a brokerage account. But it has no connection to the markets, so doesn’t rise or fall in value, and always stays at one share equaling one dollar. In practice, it acts as a sort of hybrid checking and savings account. (It’s also not FDIC protected, but rather protected by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC)). But it earns interest at a high rate.

It’s a long story, but I actually have maintained two checking accounts for years—one for everyday expenses and the other mostly to pay bills, such as my mortgage, credit cards, utilities, phone and internet, streaming services, etc. The second everyday account I’ve kept mostly out of sentiment since it was a bank with a branch across the street that felt like a neighborhood bank because I had a safe deposit box there and the staff knew me. Over the past few years, however, they did away with their safe deposit boxes and then closed the branch. With that personal connection gone, I’ve decided that if the Fidelity CMA works out, I may close that second checking account and migrate to Fidelity for everyday expenses. (The only other advantage of that account is that transfers from my Chase account to Fidelity were instantaneous, not a wait of a day or so.)

On the business front, I also opened a new business banking account at a bank called Found. I’ve had a business checking account for years at a local community credit union, but it always low-key rankled me that it required a linked savings account with a minimum $100 balance, so basically I’ve always had $100 sitting there that I couldn’t access. The only drawback I found, however, is that my Amazon seller's account won't connect to it because of its nature as an online bank. This is almost a bit of a dealbreaker, but since neither account costs money, for now I'll hold on to both accounts to see if this issue gets worked out, and as a failsafe for now as I connect the new account to my existing other vendors that pay me like Square, PayPal, etc., to ensure nothing gets lost in the tracks.

See You at SDCC '26!

Calling Voiply

I’ve maintained our home landline* though we don’t use it much, bundled with our Spectrum internet service. Aside from still being linked to old legacy accounts like our grocery store’s and Shell card rewards program, I’ve also kept it partly for sentimental reasons since I’ve had the number since the 1990s. I half joke that the only people who really still call it are my mother-in-law and spammers.

I actually did nearly drop the line a few years back. When I called Spectrum to indicate I was thinking of canceling, they offered a two-year bundled monthly deal with my Internet that brought down the overall monthly cost to below $100, so I kept it.

The bundle deal recently expired at around the same time we learned that our homeowner’s association had recently entered into a contract with a new local high speed internet provider that, by the end of the year, would provide us new residential data service at a greatly reduced rate. Given that we would be eventually canceling our Spectrum service, I thought it might be an opportunity to also completely cut the cord with Spectrum and move to another—and, more importantly, cheaper—VOIP phone provider.

Above: Voiply adaptor

After some cursory research, I considered Vonage, Ooma and Voiply. Frankly, all offered comparable prices and features. That said, I subsequently discovered that Vonage (the only one of the services I’d heard of previously) had become more focused on business customers rather than residential; and while Ooma technically offered a “free” monthly plan (except for taxes), you had to purchase the equipment (ranging anywhere from $69.99–$99.99, depending on where you purchased it), whereas Voiply provided the equipment for free. While I recognize Ooma may offer the “cheapest” plan over the long haul, I liked the idea of no upfront start up cost. Ultimately, I went with the three-month renewable Voiply plan that came to approximately $8.95 per month and, if you pay annually, as low as $7.46 (with no contracts). Given that I was currently paying $30/month for my Spectrum line (and I know someone who pays $60/month with AT&T!), that was more than an acceptable savings!

And, of course, part of the onboarding process with Voiply was the option of porting my current home phone number. (It’s important not to cancel your service before the number is ported or you will lose it). A happy surprise was that I didn’t have to call Spectrum afterwards as I anticipated to separately cancel the service—when my number became active on Voiply, I received an email notice from Spectrum that my service agreement had been updated and the phone service removed!!

For the record, I placed my order and created my Voiply account on July 1—which included the order to port my number—and received the equipment on July 6. The number was ported and became active on Voiply on July 8.

Though I was aware of the features, one that surprised me was that the number automatically forwards to my mobile phone via the Voiply app!! I learned this in a very critical manner on the very day the line became active—I was out at a family event and someone called our home number to reach us, and I picked it up on my cell phone. Had the line not been activated and had I not installed the app, I would not have received what turned out to be an important phone call!

By the way, the service works very simply: there is a small separate “black box” that serves as a conduit between the router and the phone, connected to the router via a provided Internet cable and the phone via the regular phone line. Both the app and the online account allows you to manage many of the features (which also includes call forwarding, calling out from the number from your mobile device, and even being able to use text to a degree!)

Anyway, I’ve only just got it, but I’m already sold—if for no other reason than due to the great savings in price for the service.

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* "Landlines" are no longer truly the analog landlines of old—most are now digital-based or, more accurately, VOIP lines, or (Voice over Internet Protocol)   

Official SDCC Press Release

I've just posted the official press release about my exhibition appearance at this month's San Diego Comic-Con, scheduled July 23–28—my 29th show! 

I'll be debuting the 27th issue of my globetrotting action-adventure indie comic book series, Rob Hanes Adventures and a new trade paperback collection, Rob Hanes Adventures, Vol. 3. More to come in the lead up to the show! 

Celebrating Independence Day!