Captured on Film!

Over on Facebook, I posted the link below to a YouTube video from San Diego Comic-Con by a vlogger who goes by the handle JustinScarred, cued to my cameo appearance in the video! I ended up watching the entire video and greatly enjoyed it! As mentioned in my Facebook post, I was familiar with Justin, but I must say, his walk through of Comic-Con captured the show fairly perfectly. Though your mileage may vary, I do find Justin entertaining and funny—and while I know he's a big geek (his channel, Randomland, used to primarily focus on theme parks), I came away impressed by how broad his knowledge is of all things geek—including comics!

It was nice that he made a point of walking through and highlighting both the Small Press Area and Artist's Alley, and particularly called to attention his love for Stan Sakai and his work, Usagi Yojimbo, and not just in one video but two! Justin posted a video for each of the three days he was at the show—even more impressively, he pretty much edited and posted each video by the end of the day! That sounds pretty nuts! But I watched all three and enjoyed all of them. If anyone is inclined to get a sense of what it's like at Comic-Con, this is as good as you could ask for.

On the Beat

Hey, I was included in the The Beat's 2024 annual creator survey! 

Here's a screenshot of the top part of my entry—go to the link to see the full entry and my predictions for 2024!

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Social Media Handles

I finally made it to Bluesky Social! Here's to hoping it hits critical mass and becomes a serious alternative to what was formerly the Tw*tterverse.

Meanwhile, I've also set up shop over at Hive Social (@randywcg) and Mastodon (@wcgcomics@mastodon.art). And, of course, I remain active on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

New in the New Year

Like many people, I've been exploring and joining alternative alternative social media communities and working to expand the reach of Rob Hanes Adventures.

In addition to this blog and my current Facebook, Twitter and Instagram feeds, you can now find me on Hive Social (@randywcg) and Mastodon (@wcgcomics@mastodon.art).

I've also added to my sales platforms—just before the turn of the year, I joined GlobalComix, where you can read my books digitally (and download PDFs), adding to my platforms at Amazon/Comixology, IndyPlanet, and the Hoopla Digital Lending Library.

Where to Find Me on Social Media

It goes without saying that in this day and age, social media is an important component of promotion and "branding"—especially since it's free. I guess you can technically say it started for me with this blog (which launched in 2006 on MySpace before I transitioned it here to Blogger in 2008*) and on Facebook since January 2009.

My Twitter profile says I joined that platform in August 2014—but I really didn't get serious about using it until around January 2018 when I decided to get more active on it in advance of that year's San Diego Comic-Con. I should add that I understood deciding to use it required a learning curve—while of course I knew how to Tweet, I knew I needed to get the hang of it and learn to use it effectively in terms of coming up with content and engaging and interacting with others through comments, likes and retweets. While I've never been comfortable in self-promotion, I must admit Twitter has been a happy surprise—by being present and simply "myself" on it, I feel as though I've made some good "friends" on the platform and appreciate the support, likes, retweets and comments back I've gotten. No, I don't have thousands of followers (yet), not even close, but I have generated a lot of growth since becoming active on the site.

I similarly originally joined Instagram simply to reserve a handle for myself—and while I still don't have much content, I'm starting to ramp up on it, partly because it's not as labor-intensive.

As I've become more attentive to these different platforms, it's been interesting to discover the different "personalities" of each site, even though I do share much of the same content across them.

On my Twitter account, for example, I find that people engage more when I generally keep it fairly focused on comics, whether it be my own or others. There doesn't seem to be as much interest when I comment on other random subjects. I don't have a problem with that, it's just an interesting observation.

On Facebook, I find I can show off more of my personal life, talking about family, vacations, etc. That said, I'm always reticent about sharing "too much information," but I'm generally more comfortable showing off my personal side here versus other sites. (Of course, I also have a dedicated WCG Comics/Rob Hanes Adventures Facebook page connected to my regular Facebook page.)

Frankly, I've found Instagram to be a little less demanding and labor-intensive than the other platforms, so posting random images there works fine for me for now (of course usually my own work or comics related). I'll include a brief comment to give the images some context but this is in contrast to Facebook which is conducive to longer comments and narratives, and Twitter, which is primarily about interaction, connecting and conversation.

And, as for this blog, it is an opportunity for me to write on more diverse topics (perhaps of more interest to me than others), scratching my itch to write reviews, overviews, etc.

* In 2011, I completed my project to import the earlier 2006-08 MySpace blog to this one.

Below: Screenshot of my Instagram page.