Not quite sure when this review was conducted...it may have been around 2010
Interview conducted by Tim O'Shea
I'm always looking for interview suggestions. With this in mind, I was bugging Kindly Kurt Busiek for ideas. Kurt gave me a whole load of suggestions, so rather than thanking him each and every time we run the different suggested interviews in the near term, let's just say right now, "Kurt, thanks now and in advance."
Now on with the interview subject—Randy Reynaldo, the publisher-writer-artist of the comic-book series, Rob Hanes Adventures, which Randy publishes through his WCG Comics entity. As Randy describes it, "Rob Hanes is a globetrotting troubleshooter for Justice International (JI), a worldwide private investigation, security consultancy and information gathering agency. . . WCG Comics began publishing in 1990 with a digest-sized zine called Adventure Strip Digest, featuring the adventures of a globetrotting private eye names Rob Hanes. The series was launched in 1994 as an independent comic-book series, with four issues of the title released . . . In the mid- and late-1990s, Reynaldo went on hiatus after two agreements, first with Caliber Comics, then with Image Comics, were not successful. In the meantime, Reynaldo continued drawing the series, relaunching his all-new Rob Hanes Adventures comic-book series in October 2000 under the WCG imprint." After reading the e-interview, be sure to visit the WCG website for even more information, it's a great site. My thanks to Randy for his time.
—Tim O'Shea, TCR Senior Online News Editor
O'SHEA: You've gone the route of self-publishing, then tried publishing through a company, and now you're back to the self-publishing route. How good does it feel to be back in control of your creative destiny again? On the other hand, what are the pitfalls/disadvantages you've found to self publishing?
REYNALDO: I'm very happy to be self-publishing again. You're exactly right—I'm in charge of my own creative destiny again. I have been making comics since I was a kid -- starting with "homemade comics," no doubt like a lot of other cartoonists, so self-publishing is really an extension of that whole approach. I do enjoy the business and promotional side of self-publishing, and being involved in the whole production of a comic-book, so it's fun for me.
On the other hand, the disadvantage is that I just don't have time to do everything! Many self publishers have some kind of assistance—in the case of Jeff Smith (Bone) and David Lapham (Stray Bullets), their spouses serve as their business managers and partners. I recently got married, but as we both have full time jobs and may start a family soon, if she was spending as much time on the company as I was, we wouldn't have much time for the marriage!
O'SHEA: Presently, your company WCG Comics solely publishes your title. Any plans to publish other titles down the road?
REYNALDO: I've always daydreamed about the company being successful enough to do other projects (mostly my own), but that's mostly fantasy. Right now the focus is to make Rob Hanes Adventures a success and to get it out on time.
O'SHEA: How much did winning a Xeric Foundation grant, back in March 1995, help your career?
REYNALDO: The Xeric Foundation grant gives you credibility and validation. It's a great thing to put on promotional items, advertising, etc. But you still need to do the work. If you're not out there on a regular basis, people forget you. Before an artist applies for and receives a Xeric Grant, he or she should have a long-term strategy in place to make sure the grant is used effectively -- both financially and in the timing.
O'SHEA: Being a quarterly publication is it harder to pull off a multi-part story arc for fearing of losing readership, given the lag time between issues?
REYNALDO: That's why I don't do multi-part stories! All my stories are self-contained. I do have larger story arcs in the background, but they are secondary to the main story and readers are never left hanging.
I also like this approach because, given how long it takes me to draw an issue, I would get bored pretty quickly working on the same story for a long period of time. This gives me an opportunity to do a wide variety of stories.
O'SHEA: In your online bio, your work/storytelling style is described as in the tradition of Will Eisner's Spirit, Roy Crane's Buz Sawyer , and Milton Caniff's Terry and the Pirates as well as like the work of Alex Toth. Of these, who would you say influenced you the most and how? Are there other artists/storytellers not in that list that may have influenced you even more?
REYNALDO: As anyone familiar with my work will tell you, Caniff was my first inspiration. And he remains a strong inspiration. But it's not only his art—his art was groundbreaking and vibrant on its own, but the writing took it to a whole new level. Although he was a strong plotter, his real forte was character. More than most cartoonists, his stories were driven by character, and they were all memorable and well-defined.
I discovered Crane, Toth and Eisner later. I must admit, that in terms of craftsmanship, I appreciate, in some ways, Roy Crane and Alex Toth even more than Caniff. Crane's work had a lot of life and vitality, even more so than Caniff. It was very breezy, and there was a real joy to his work. Toth is also a big admirer of Crane, as was Caniff, and he was a perfectionist always striving for the best. While Caniff certainly cared about his work, at the end of the day he always considered himself a newspaperman and as a craftsman. Toth really considered what he was doing to be art.
I love Eisner because of the economy of his stories. I can think of no one who could have done some of the stories he has done in the span of eight pages, as he did. I'd love to emulate it, but it's incredibly difficult! It's amazing to think he did this every week—52 times a year for about 12 years!
But I've been inspired by a lot of people, including many current artists. People like Joe Kubert, John Severin, Russ Heath, Howard Chaykin, Marshall Rogers, Michael Golden, Gil Kane, John Byrne and others I'm no doubt forgetting have all been influences for me in one way or the other.
O'SHEA: Rob Hanes has been likened to a grown-up Jonny Quest, what kind of upbringing did Rob have and will there ever be any tales of the Toddler/Small Child Rob Hanes? It looks like you might be delving into his background with the resurrection of Rob's long-thought dead father, Patrick Hanes. Does this mean Mama Hanes is not far behind?
REYNALDO: It's funny you should ask... Around issue 5 and 6, I plan to finally resolve the whole Rob Hanes/Patrick Hanes storyline. This story thread was actually introduced in the Rob Hanes Archives trade paperback in a story called "The Glowworm Conspiracy." In the story, Rob meets his long-lost father and discovers that Patrick Hanes is believed to have been "Glowworm," a Cold War era Soviet mole. After his father disappeared and his mother died, Rob was raised by his maternal grandfather, Senator Thurmond McCay—the patriarch of a Kennedy like family. I'll delve more into this background.
But I DO plan to do a few "Young Rob Hanes" stories! In fact, space permitting, I have an idea for a "Year One" backup story, as well as a story tentatively titled "Rob's First Adventure." I also want to do a Patrick Hanes story set in the 1970s!
O'SHEA: Which do you enjoy more, the role of writer or artist (or both)?
REYNALDO: I do enjoy both, though the writing doesn't come as easy as I'd like. I think my art has developed more than the writing, but that's something I certainly will work on.
O'SHEA: Other than Rob, who is your favorite character in the book?
REYNALDO: I really love Abner McKenna—though I really don't feel I've used him enough recently and may be retiring him for awhile. And I do like Rob's nemesis, Nicolai Korda, a lot. I'll need to bring him to the fore again.
O'SHEA: Do you already have the final Rob Hanes adventure written in your mind, or do the ideas for new stories come day by day, influenced by current international events and your own travels abroad (In other words, the ideas will never stop coming, so they'll never be a final story)?
REYNALDO: I have a lot of different story ideas for the series, but I have never really thought of doing a final story. (Ask me again after I've been doing this for a lot more years!) Rob Hanes Adventures is meant to be a modern-day "serial," which means it's intended to go on for as long as it can sustain itself and I don't get bored. I do have a general direction I'm taking the series, but since the stories are generally self-contained, I have the flexibility to take detours with other kinds of stories when the mood strikes me. As you suggest, current events and my own travels sometimes inspire me to do spur-of-the-moment stories. But right now, I'm trying to stick close to my plan for the first several issues.
Current events can also wreck my plans. If you recall, I originally created Rob Hanes back in the '70s. I had several story ideas that would take Rob into the Soviet Union. With the end of the Cold War, however, that put the end to that story arc!!! (I told you I work slow!)
O'SHEA: How much research do you do for a story? In one issue, you had a character refer to MITI, Japan's Ministry of Technology. That's not an agency you hear about every day and you always seem to have really obscure, but credible details in your stories. In the most recent issues liner notes you mention that you're a news junkie. How many magazines, newspapers or other news sources do you read in a week?
REYNALDO: A lot of my research is for photo references, but I do end up picking up a lot of interesting tidbits that I try to use in the stories, like the reference to MITI you just mentioned. I also get ideas for characters and situations from news articles. I subscribe to several weekly and monthly magazines and read newspapers fairly regularly. And I'm not just talking about newsmagazines like Time -- I have even gotten story ideas from magazines like George and Fortune! (The "Liner Notes" section of Rob Hanes Adventures #1 mentions a private "spy" agency I read about in George magazine that is not too different than Justice International, which was a surprise even to me.) When I was on Japan for my honeymoon, I saved some articles because they gave me story ideas. (I love out-of-town newspapers when I'm on the road!) As one example, Rob Hanes Adventures #4 will feature a rather flamboyant warlord based on a real Balkan paramilitary leader that I read about who liked to dress in classic traditional military uniforms. I thought that was a kick and adopted it for my character. I should add that the real-life person was actually recently assassinated, which I will mention in the Liner Notes for that issue.
O'SHEA: You have a flair for writing interesting female guest-star characters for the book, but by the next issue Rob is always in a new city and a new adventure. Has there been one female in particular that you say to yourself "She could become a series regular . . ." ? (or would that be just like James Bond getting married?)
REYNALDO: No, I definitely want to have some recurring female characters. Actually, we'll see more of that—Tiffany Lance, seen briefly in issue 1, for example, originally appeared in a very early story called "The Assassin." I think recurring characters are essential to creating a rich, believable "universe" that readers can get into. By the same token, right now I haven't really developed a female character yet who may be a serious love interest for Rob. But I'm working on it.
O'SHEA: You're obviously happy in the self-publishing world, but would you ever be interested in relaunching Challengers of the Unknown for DC (or some other title if DC or Marvel contacted you), or maybe having ROB cross into the world of Karl Kesel/Tom Grummett's Section Zero (which also has a tinge of espionage to it)?
REYNALDO: I would love that, but I really haven't given it much thought because I just don't have the time!
Actually, back in the '70s when I did have time to daydream, I actually did some "faux" comic book covers (i.e., just the covers for a non-existent, fantasy "Rob Hanes" comic-book series with no actual story or comic-book. The covers were meant to suggest a story). In these fantasy covers, Rob teamed up with EVERYONE I could think of. Believe it or not, I had Rob in the Star Wars and Alien universes, and teaming up with Batman and with Superman! There were also "teamups" with more down-to-earth characters like the Beatles and the Blues Brothers. So I guess anything is possible!
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