After bouncing around at a few local colleges in upstate New York, Randy Gentile made the decision to move to New York City where he attended Pratt Institute. He landed an internship in the famous Marvel Bullpen and was able to turn that into a full-time gig in the now defunct Marvel in-house lettering department. He later transitioned to Chris Eliopoulos’ Virtual Calligraphy lettering studio.
With VC he lettered damn near every Marvel book at one time or another including Amazing Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Uncanny X-Men, Punisher, and Marville… wait, Marville?
Anyway, after 7 years of lettering Randy decided to make a go of it on his own without the aid of Chris “Obi-Wan” Eliopoulos. Since then he’s begun lettering for DC Comics where his work can be seen in funny books like Batman, Detective Comics, Gotham Underground, Teen Titans and Booster Gold.
Outside of his lettering work he self-publishes an autobiographical comic called NYComix and an uber-fast paced superhero strip called Randall. Both comics have been featured on Comic Geek Speak and Fanboy Radio.
When he’s not wallowing in lettering self-pity he spends his time in Brooklyn along with his lovely wife, Ereisa and their three cats Finnian, Don Fanucci and Olive.
Getting to Know the Letterer
Hi and thanks for checking out the inaugural edition of Font You!. I’ve been thinking about what to say my first time out, so I figured the best place to start would be tell you a bit about myself.
My name is Randy Gentile and if you’re an avid reader (or even just a casual reader) you’ve probably seen my lettering work in any number of comics over the past 8 years. I started out as an intern in the Marvel Bullpen in 1999 and parlayed that into a gig lettering in the now defunct Marvel In-House Lettering Department. After a couple of years there, then president Bill Jemas decided we all sucked and dropped the department. Lucky for me I was able to catch on with Chris Eliopoulos’ Virtual Calligraphy.
With Virtual Calligraphy I went from the daily rat-race of New York City’s morning commute to working at home in my slippers and bathrobe. I was like a Hobo except in an apartment instead of a boxcar. Anyway, with VC I lettered damn near every Marvel book Chris would throw my way. Amazing Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Incredible Hulk, Punisher, Runaways, Daredevil and tons of mini-series…some good books, some bad, it didn’t matter to me.
The thing is, life as a hermit doesn’t really jibe with me. I need that outside stimulus… Hell, I live in New York City and the most adventure I managed to muster was a trip to the corner for a bagel.
So about a year ago I made the huge decision to leave VC for a Regular Joe design job. Yeah. I left my dream job for a gig designing Hannah Montana wig boxes. What a sucker. The thing is, I needed the change. I was a walking Marvel Zombie my whole life, and as a result of working on these books all day every day I lost interest. It’s been a year since I’ve lettered a Marvel book, and I still don’t read a thing from them. I’ll admit it’s a combination of my mixed experiences with the company and my general dislike of the direction their line is going but for a lifelong Marvel guy it’s weird to go into the shop and not pick up a single Marvel funny book. I was thinking that I should start reading some of their stuff again if this column is going to be “hip” with the current comic scene. But we’ll see… I think the best way to get back into that party would be to dip in like an old man sinks into a hot bath.
So what happens a year after not working in the comic industry anymore? I get that itch to get back into the biz. So I snapped off a few emails and before I knew it I was knee deep lettering DC books and loving every second of it.
As I said earlier, I was a hardcore Marvel Zombie.
Earth 1, Earth 2, Pre-Crisis, Post-Crisis, who the hell knew what they were doing over at DC… but I have to say, lettering an issue of Teen Titans got me interested in the DCU. I just read Green Lantern: Rebirth and Green Arrow: Quiver and I LOVED them. All Star Superman is my favorite tights and capes book on the stands right now. Does this make me a DC Zombie? Do people say DC Zombie? Nevertheless it’s neat to have a whole plethora of DCU costumed heroics waiting for me to discover. And at the age of 31! I’d imagine most folks discover this stuff at age 10. Man, I’m a lucky geek.
Anyway, getting back on topic, I now spend my days designing Hannah Montana Landfill and my nights hanging out with my beautiful wife and lettering DC books. I actually feel rejuvenated and lucky to be in the comic biz.
Outside of my lettering work lie my true loves… I create a couple of web comix called NYComix and Randall. NYComix is an autobiographical strip about living in New York City, and Randall is an uber-fast paced superhero strip with a li’l indie flava. Check ‘em out at LazyComix.com if you’re bored.
Now that you’re caught up on yours truly I’ll lay out what you can expect from Font You! each week.
I’m a sucker for comic message boards. I post mainly at the Bendis board, but I talk more Major League Baseball there than I do comics. It’s a diverse board to say the least. I also post over at Comic Geek Speak from time to time. And I’m going to have my own board here, so please, I beg of you, post on Font You!’s Message Board: “Font of Wisdom .” Message boards are the letters columns of today. Let’s get some heated discussion in there. Think the latest issue of Amazing Spidey sucks? Start a thread I’d love to hear why. Think Brubaker’s Captain America -less Captain America book is the best book since sliced bread? Let me know, maybe I’ll buy the thing. I didn’t read it when I lettered it, so maybe I was missing out. Message boards are a nice (and also ugly) look into comic fandom. They’re also a great way to discover new comics. And I’ll tell you what… if Font You! can get you to try out a new comic, that’s a really great thing. And if it can get me to try out a new book, that’s cool too.
I’ll keep you abreast on what I’m reading at the moment. I just read Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s We3 and it knocked my Chuck Taylor’s off. I’ll talk more about We3 and my recently found adoration of Grant Morrison’s work in a future Font You!.
If there’s anything I love more than comics it’s the Yankees and movies. I’ll keep the Yankee talk to a minimum but the movie talk’ll flow like all manners of fine wine.
I’ll drop a review or 2… nothing big, I’ll leave the serious reviews to the other folks on the site. My reviews will be a bit different though. I’ll review a new book but more often than not I’ll review old books. A little backwards, I guess but if you haven’t read it, it’s new to you, right?
The bottom line is that you can expect some fun, honest comic talk here every Wednesday. I’ll ramble on about the latest controversy, remember the good ol’ days of comics without photo referenced Samuel L. Jackson Nick Fury’s. We’ll talk flicks, maybe some TV and whatever else pulls at my sensitive geek heartstrings.
It’ll be a fun ride, folks… Hang on to your socks!
Thanks for reading…
Font you,
Gent
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