Yesterday after work I headed to the comics shop to pick up the fourth and final installment of the new Rocketeer Adventures. (More on those comics later.)
While at the store I was attracted by the huge stack of comics from DC. They were all this issue below.
I could've spent four bucks on this over-hyped, universe-quaking, big-name-talent-driven, by-most-reports-disatisfying, incomplete spectacle or I could take those same four bucks and pick up a heavily discounted volume of some of the earliest adventures of Rob Hanes by Randy Reynaldo.
The choice was beyond easy. Despite owning all these Rob Hanes adventures already in the original, getting them with spiffy new lettering and in a handy-dandy single volume was a guarantee of quality and classic comic book entertainment.
The other thing was less so.
This volume from independent talent Reynaldo collects four issues of a comic titled Adventure Strip Digest which featured the retro-styled, but still modern escapades of Rob Hanes, a young and skilled operative for Justice International, a private firm sending its agents into all sorts of scrapes all over the globe.
If you like Doug Wildey's Jonny Quest or classic comic strip master Milton Caniff's Terry and the Pirates you'll enjoy these stories. They are told with an economy and precision unheard of for the most part in sprawling modern comic books. These are tasty done-in-one adventures but still in a consistent world which does remember.
I'm eager to tear into these great stories again. As for that other comic which went on sale yesterday...not so much.
For much more on Rob Hanes check out this link.
Here's a small gallery of the issues included in the volume I bought.
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Never heard of 'em, never seen 'em. Nice cover art but a tad dull. Might be worth a try since mainstream comics are pretty much making themselves more and more unattractive to me.
ReplyDeleteI gotta say, that's the first time I've ever seen "digitally re-lettered" as the main selling-point for a book!
ReplyDeleteLooks entertaining in a Jonny Quest-Jack Armstrong way...
Steve - The cover to the zero volume is a bit underwhelming. Reynaldo's bodies do seem a tad awkward at times, pointing how difficult it is to do the spare style like Caniff and Toth, two absolute masters.
ReplyDeleteHappy to introduce you to Rob and Randy.
Britt - It is an odd distinction for sure. "Entertaining" is just the right word for these.
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I found my first Rob Haines TPB back around 1996 or so, and it's one of my favorites to this day. These comics are good in a Rocketeer or Xenoxoic Tales good. So much fun to read.
ReplyDeleteAnd that cover to #3 has always been one of my all-time favorite comic covers.
I've been reading through them again and it holds up really well. Looking at the earliest stuff, it's neat to see Reynaldo develop as a storyteller and as a draftsman. There's a delicate balance between a comic being too cartoonish for the adventure to play well, and this book sits right along the edge, especially in the early days.
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I just stumbled across this review of my trade and wanted to thank you for the coverage! Issue 13 is being released shortly and I'll be at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con next week!
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