A Lovely Father's Day

Had a wonderful Father’s Day. After lunch at Pink’s Hot Dogs, our main destination that day was the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. We last visited shortly after its opening in 2022. Among the exhibits was a retrospective of the films and career of John Waters.

The museum is housed at the historic May Company Wilshire Building, which is designated a historic cultural landmark by the City of Los Angeles, partly due to being a prime example of “streamline moderne” architectural design. (The interior was entirely renovated but the facade of the street-facing side of the building remains.)

Before being occupied (via a longterm lease) by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the property was purchased by the L.A. County Museum of Art (LACMA) next door. (The La Brea Tar Pits is on the other side of LACMA—the Petersen Automotive Museum is across the street, which we’ve also visited several times on past Father’s Days.)

LACMA has actually been undergoing a major renovation—when we were finished at the Academy Museum, we briefly strolled over to the LACMA grounds and could see the new museum under construction! (An artist’s rendition of the completed project is included in my photos below.)

The renovation began around 2020. In fact, in 2019, our daughter interned at LACMA as part of a very competitive L.A. County-wide high school internship program at the museum—she was the last cohort of internships before they paused the program due to the renovation!

Anyway, it was a wonderful Father’s Day that ended with a lovely dinner with the family at a favorite French restaurant, Meet Me in Paris (pictured above).

Photos of Pink's Hot Dogs:

L.A. County Museum of Art:

Academy Museum of Motion Pictures:

30 Questions Interview

As part of the lead up to the upcoming 25th issue of Rob Hanes Adventures, which coincides with the 30th anniversary of my WCG Comics creator-owned imprint, an interview with me has just dropped over at the First Comics News website—30 questions for 30 years! The interview was conducted ty Rik Offenberger.

It includes questions and answers about the origin and development of the character and series, as well as of my history publishing in the small press and in the current comics market, and the evolution of my production process in writing and drawing the series over the years. (Find out what WCG Comics stands for!) Also some fun info about the supporting cast of characters in the series that has developed over the years. 

Plenty of nice graphics (including some rare "vintage" art lol) and he apparently managed to get the covers of all 25 issues of the series in the piece!

Note: For archival purposes, a copy of the interview is posted here.

Long Running Indie Title Rob Hanes Adventures Marks Major Milestones

Randy Reynaldo’s Award Winning Series Set to Release Issue 25 and Celebrates 30 Years of Publishing...

Read the full article.

Note that press releases are now posted at the WCG Comics website, but we'll continue to archive them here with past press releases.

Re-introducing Rob Hanes Adventures

With the milestone 25th issue of my globetrotting soldier-of-fortune comic-book series, Rob Hanes Adventures, due out this summer, which also marks the 30th anniversary of my imprint, WCG Comics, it's the perfect opportunity to re-introduce the series..…

The series is a fun, mostly lighthearted globetrotting action adventure series about a private eye from worldwide Justice International, who travels the world on assignment facing danger, intrigue and the occasional femme fatale at every turn. Though primarily a classic roaming adventure series, it's also often crossed genres—so in addition to the usual tales of international derring do and the occasional armed revolution, Rob has also appeared in a romance comic–superhero mashup, a drawing room murder mystery, a sports story set on a minor league baseball team, often leavened with humor.

And, in keeping with this episodic approach, every issue is self-contained!

Rob Hanes Adventures was initially inspired by the great syndicated newspaper adventure strips, especially of the 1930s and ‘40s—Milton Caniff’s Terry and the Pirates in particular, but also Roy Crane’s Wash Tubbs and Captain Easy (and, later, Buz Sawyer), Frank Robbins’ Johnny Hazard, and Noel Sickles’ Scorchy Smith. Will Eisner’s Spirit and Alex Toth’s work in the genre, particularly Bravo for Adventure, also are influences. Many of these strips were the forerunners of adventurers like Jonny Quest and Indiana Jones—modern day spy franchises like James Bond and the Mission: Impossible also share the same DNA. The series was initially created to pick up where these strips left off, following in the same tradition, but set in the modern day. 

For the upcoming milestone 25th issue of the series, Rob goes old school and travels back in time to the eve of World War II to pre-war China to team up with some of his adventure strip soldiers of fortune predecessors (or, at least close facsimiles of them!) And in a nod to the series’ roots, each page looks like a complete Sunday comics page!

It’s been quite the journey and my excitement for the series remains as high as ever, with more exciting stories on the way!

In posts to come, stay tuned for more background and fun facts about the series! Meanwhile, all back issues and trade paperbacks remain available at wcgcomics.com.

Cover Reveal for Rob Hanes Adventures #25

Here's the final cover for Rob Hanes Adventures #25—the issue is being finalized for the printer! 

The story is complete and I'm making final art and proofing corrections, and laying out and polishing off the editorial text pages. (I've always enjoyed the process of being a publisher as much as drawing comics as a cartoonist/artist-writer!) 

Since last year, I've occasionally posted a tentative color cover using a piece that was as much a model sheet for the characters as a potential cover. Early on, I was pretty certain I'd redraw it, which I did—I also took an entirely different approach in coloring it. 

This was a fun issue to do, though it took a LOT longer than I anticipated because of the dense story as well as the sheer number of characters that appeared on nearly very page and panel! Anyway, I'll be sharing more details about the issue as we approach its release. It's the milestone 25th issue, which also coincides with the 30th anniversary of my publishing imprint. 

It's been an amazing journey and thanks to everyone for their support over the years! Expect more fun comics to come!

80th Anniversary of D-Day Commemoration