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.
Food One Represent
Any artist who works in New York City would cite the city itself as an endless source of inspiration. Aside from the obvious inspirations like the history, the people or the architecture is, believe it or not, the vandalism. At least that's what the NYPD calls it, people in the know call it Street Art.
Street art was perfected here on the streets of New York back in the 70's and 80's and its influence has permeated the art world in countless ways. Graffiti writer pioneers like Fab Five Freddy went on to become hip-hop music pioneers. Jean-Micheal Basquiat went from writing on bathroom stalls to the walls of the Museum of Modern Art.
Today street art is still thought of as a nuisance by some but its respect as a legitimate art form continues to grow. While maybe not as prevalent as it once was in the ‘70s and 80s graffiti writers are still finding ways to display their art.
So while street art has had a significant impact on our culture it's no surprise that it has influenced comic art as well.
I mentioned Jim Mahfood's Art Show here in Brooklyn in the last Font You! and I shamefully admit that I wasn't able to make it. I don't call my comic line LazyComix for nothin'. Anyway, Mahfood's work is infused with everything from hip-hop culture to the work of street artists like Basquiat.
Mahfood's art has undergone an incredible transformation since his work first gained recognition on books like Kevin Smith's Clerks (1998). He's done some work for Marvel like a run on Spectacular Spider-Man (lettered by yours truly) and more recently on Wha Huh?, a book with an all-star lineup of writers who were all alarmingly unfunny.
Instead of that stuff, which is worth picking up for the art so feel free…I'd strongly suggest checking out Mahfood's work from Oni and Image like Grrl Scouts or his more recent OGN One Page Filler Man. Looking at these two pieces of work are great examples of how his art has evolved. He's moved away from the more graphic blacks and zip tones he exhibited in Grrl Scouts to an almost gestural Basquiat-influenced line that he uses today.
He's also a great guy to hit up for swag at conventions. Let's face it, he could easily publish his work through a myriad of publishers of his choice but he still rocks hand stapled mini-comics, typically printing as few as 200 copies, so you're really getting a limited edition piece of art.
Mahfood's first hardcover art book Mixtape: Volume One hits stores February 27th.
Food One's site, blog and Myspace are all updated regularly.
Some other comic artists with graffiti influence worth checking out are Scottie Young, who semi-regularly updates his great blog here. Damien Scott penciled a great run on Batgirl a few years back. Humberto Ramos, who did some work on Spectacular Spider-Man is also worth investigating. I couldn't find any blogs by these guys so go use the Google.
Font the News!
It's been a relatively quiet week for news. At least as far as what I'd call "news" so I figured I'd look through this week's shipping list and see what piques my interest. From Dark Horse we've got Star Wars Legacy#20. I've heard good things about this book but I haven't picked up a Star Wars book in ages. I want to, but honestly, I'm not into new characters or what the geeks call "expanded universe"… I could be dead wrong and missing some great stuff but I dunno. If anyone is reading these books hit me up on the Font of Wisdom Message Board.
The ever-controversial All Star Batman and Robin ships this week. Frank Miller is like a deity to me and while I picked this one up for a few issues I decided to sit this one out and wait for the trade. It comes out so infrequently that I can't remember what the hell happened the previous issue. I don't think it's as horrible as some folks do and at the end of the day that Jim Lee art sure is pretty.
JLA Classified #35 by B. Clay Moore; Art by Ramon Perez looks great… check out this preview of the art Moore posted over at the Image board. Beautiful stuff.
From Marvel I'll definitely be picking up Kick Ass #1 by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. It's Millar's first Icon book and honestly with JRJR artwork, good writing is just a bonus for me. Hell, take the balloons away and I'd still buy his work. I'm sure Millar will weave a tapestry of obscenities…
Alright, folks… that'll do for this week. Stay tuned for that NYComix trade paperback debuting at this years NY Comic Con…
Thanks for reading...
Font You!
Randy
Got a comment or question about this Soapbox?
Leave at message at the Font of Wisdom Forum.