Randy Reynaldo’s Award Winning Series Set to Release Issue 25 and Celebrates 30 Years of Publishing
In the field of indie comics publishing where small publishers come and go, cartoonist and Inkpot award recipient Randy Reynaldo’s globetrotting soldier of fortune comic book series, Rob Hanes Adventures, stands out for its durability and longevity, and the persistence and commitment of its creator. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the writer-artist working on the same title under his creator-owned imprint, WCG Comics, and will see the release of the 25th milestone issue of his flagship series.
“My only long range plan was to see how long I could keep doing this series, my own creator-owned title,” Reynaldo says. “I have always drawn and written the kind of comics I wanted to read myself, particularly like the serial adventure soldier-of-fortune comic strips that inspired me and captured my imagination as a young cartoonist, even though I only saw this work in reprints years after their heyday. It’s amazing to now look back and see that I’ve now worked 30 years on the same character—actually, even longer since I started it as a zine.”
Formally debuting his creator imprint, WCG Comics, and his signature series in the early 1990s, Reynaldo’s Rob Hanes Adventures is part of the generation of indie comics, both color and black and white, that emerged in that era, like Jeff Smith’s Bone, Mike Mignola’s Hellboy, Paul Pope’s THB, and Batton Lash’s Wolff and Byrd. Indeed, Reynaldo tabled alongside these creators and others at comic book shows in those early years.
A mainstay at San Diego Comic-Con over the years, the organization honored Reynaldo’s work on the long-running series by presenting him with a prestigious Inkpot Award for Achievement in Comic Arts in 2018.
So while Reynaldo initially may not have been as prolific in the beginning as some of his peers, he can now look back at an impressive body of work, producing to date nearly 1,000 pages and more than 45 stories, all for a single series.
Rob Hanes Adventures features the globetrotting exploits of a private eye with Justice International, a worldwide private investigation, espionage and security firm, who travels the world on assignment, encountering action, intrigue and romance at every turn. This basic premise gives Reynaldo the freedom and flexibility to put the character in a wide variety of settings, taking him from one international hotspot to another, and most notably, to tell stories in a wide variety of genres and tones.
Respected comics writer Kurt Busiek (Astro City, Marvels)—a fan of the series since the very beginning when it was a zine—says, “Rob Hanes Adventures is a labor of love in all the best ways. A callback to the Golden Age of adventure strips told with passion, heart, crisp shadows and a snappy sense of dialogue.” In fact, Busiek so appreciated the series that, shortly after it began, he designed a retro-style logo that he sent to Reynaldo, which adorns the cover of issue 25.
Globetrotting Private Eye
While Reynaldo pitches the series as a high adventure espionage series, in actuality, in keeping with his broad interests, he regularly explores other genres as well, with stories ranging from straight adventure and espionage to outright comedy. Along with the occasional revolution or two, there also has been a sports issue (included in Tony Isabella’s book, 1000 Comics You Must Read), to a drawing room murder mystery, and a romance comic–superhero mashup!
Think Will Eisner’s Spirit, Milton Caniff’s Terry and the Pirates and Roy Crane’s Wash Tubbs and Captain Easy; which in turn have influenced later master cartoonists like Alex Toth and Darwyn Cooke. The series has also been compared to Hergé’s Tintin and, in television and film, Young Indiana Jones, Jonny Quest and even James Bond and the current Mission: Impossible franchise. But readers don’t need this background to enjoy Rob Hanes Adventures—despite the influences, the series is thoroughly grounded in the modern day and not nostalgic, with stories often ripped from the headlines.
Comic book Butch Guice (Action Comics, Flash) notes, “I’ve long admired and enjoyed Randy’s work on Rob Hanes Adventures for many of the same reasons I enjoy Crane, Caniff, and others. I’m glad to see someone carrying on the adventure strip traditions.”
On top of that, every story is always self-contained—not only because of Reynaldo’s desire for variety but given the wait between issues, to also keep readers entertained and never hanging.
As one can imagine, over the course of series, Reynaldo has developed quite a deep cast of characters from a colorful rogues gallery of villains to a recurring cast of friends and fellow spies that bring out different facets of Rob’s personality. These include the mysterious international crimelord Nikolai Korda to Rob’s occasional girl Fridays like reporter Tiffany Lance and secretary Julianne Love who nurses an unrequited love for Rob.
The Milestone 25th Issue
For the groundbreaking 25th issue, Reynaldo honors the character’s classic adventure and soldier of fortune roots by taking the character back in time to pre-war China on the eve of World War II. There he meets a colorful cast of characters, who fans of the classic strips may recognize—and even if readers don’t, readers will still enjoy a rollercoaster of an adventure.
“I feel very proud to have reached this milestone,” says Reynaldo. “My enthusiasm for the series remains as high as ever and I still have plenty of fresh ideas for new adventures and the character I can’t wait to explore. Above all, I’m grateful for the support readers continue to give the series—both those who have been on board since the very beginning, and others who continue to discover it.”
For additional information about the series and to order the latest issue and back issues, visit wcgcomics.com. To date, Rob Hanes Adventures issues 1–8 have been collected in two successive trade paperbacks (volumes 1 and 2). Earlier stories pre-dating the current run are available in two prior trade paperbacks, the Rob Hanes Archives and Rob Hanes Adventures, Vol. 0.
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