I know I’m not supposed to find comics at San Diego – it’s all movies and TV and video games and Twilight fans and cosplayers and it’s all pre-packaged for easy enjoyment. And it’s pushed comics out of the hall. Except that it really hasn’t, and I can find comic books easier than I can get a seat to see Harrison Ford.

Some of you might remember that one of the comics I was looking forward to getting this year was Randy Reynaldo’s first color issue of Rob Hanes. And that’s exactly what I did on my first day. With Dave Olbrich on hand to help me we wound our way back to the relatively large small press area where I found Randy’s booth. A few bucks later, a few minutes chatting with Randy (whom I’ve known for years) and a copy was all mine.

Randy’s one of the earliest of the self-publishers that popped up in the 1990s and his WCG Comics is still at it, publishing Rob Hanes Adventures, a comic that Randy writes and draws. It’s a thing of beauty: a full on modern day adventure comic.

Rob Hanes Adventures Special Edition #1 is the new thing Randy created for the conventions: the first ever full-color Rob Hanes comic. It’s technically a reprint from Adventure Strip Digest #2 – “The EC Express” - that’s been colored and re-lettered by Barry Gregory.

Hanes is an investigator with Justice International, called upon here to look into shipments of medicine and supplies that are being held up by bandits before they can reach their destination in the “outlying Russian republics.” Through the course of the story, Hanes runs afoul of the bandits, their female leader, a Russian colonel, a competing female agent from JI and more. There’s robbery, corruption, gunplay, crosses and double-crosses and few people are who they say they are. It’s a real spy thriller that delivers and the colors by Gregory really make the artwork pop.

The story moves at a rapid clip and is full of twists and turns, and yet it all hangs together. Reynaldo is as good at writing these things as he is at drawing them. He’s also one of a handful of modern cartoonists who can actually draw trains, cars, horses and men and women in hats and make it feel real. He’s as adept at drawing a fistfight as he is showing a guy eating a sandwich, and his dialogue has some real snap to it.

There’s a lot of influence from Milton Caniff’s Terry And The Pirates and the later years of Roy Crane’s Captain Easy and some Indiana Jones too, but Reynaldo brings it all to life with a thoroughly modern style. This is what Jonny Quest would feel like after he’s left his father’s island lab and struck out on his own, following in the footsteps of Race Bannon. This is great stuff and worthy of time and attention.

For those who didn’t get a copy at the convention, check out Randy’s website where you can find this and many other Rob Hanes comics for sale. There are also archived stories at Webcomics Nation that you can freeread.

[Artwork: Interior page from Rob Hanes Adventures Special Edition #1, © 2010 Randy Reynaldo]