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.
John Romita Jr. Kicks Ass
Could Mark Millar's Kick-Ass be the superhero comic I've been waiting for? It might be - I just don't want to jump the gun so early. I mean it's only issue 1, right?
I've said it before but I absolutely love reading comic book message boards. I'm fascinated by fan reaction and I fully admit I've gotten caught up in my fair share of nerd-hyperbole. Millar's Kick-Ass has really gotten some love-it-or-hate-it reactions and I gotta say I'm firmly entrenched in the Love-It Camp.
First of all it's John Romita Jr. The guy is bar-none the best superhero comic artist in the biz. He's so good you'd think he would be fanboy bullet proof but even that's not the case. I actually saw someone compare his work to Rob Leifeld. Seriously, you shouldn't be allowed to buy comics anymore if you say something like that. And that's not a shot at Leifeld (maybe kinda)... I mean, yeah, he draws some wonky stuff but it looks like he's having fun doing it so I can't fault him for that. I'd honestly rather look at Leifeld's work than someone light boxing Sue Storm over a Jessica Alba Maxim picture. But anyway...
JRJR gives you your money's worth. No blank backgrounds, no lazy off-panel speakers, his storytelling just flows beautifully. Take a look at his fight choreography. Each punch and kick flows from panel to panel. If a guy punches with his left hand I don't want to see his follow up punch be another roundhouse left. Go watch Floyd Mayweather fight and count how many huge lefts he throws in a row. It doesn't happen, a good fighter's punches flow like water. It's all about the combinations.
A JRJR fight scene is a joy to behold.
What really showed me how great he is was when I was lettering over his pencils on Amazing Spider-Man. When you letter you almost always get the full-script from the editor and Amazing was one book that I actually was "amazed" to see that whatever J. Michael Strazynski put into his script, JRJR put on the page.
He made my job so easy. Each panel was designed so perfectly that he basically laid out the balloons for me through his use of negative space. All I had to do was drop the balloons from left to right and his art determined the balloon flow.
It might sound simple but a surprising number of pencilers still don't execute a most simple rule of putting the first speaker in the panel on the left. Not following that rule forces me to stretch tails across the panel and/or paste balloons over art when simply placing the characters in a more logical way would make for a cleaner page. When the art is laid out cleanly I can use the balloons to lead the reader's eye fluidly through the page.
JRJR nailed it every single time, page after page, panel after panel. Chris Eliopoulos is lettering Kick-Ass so this book is a great example of great art and great lettering with two of the best that have ever done it. If you're an aspiring penciler or (gasp) letterer, this is a good book to check out.
Determining the way the reader's eye flows across the page is, in my opinion, the most difficult skill a letterer has to master. I'm going on 8 years and I still learn with every book. A good penciler almost does the job for me. JRJR absolutely did. So getting back to Kick-Ass. Millar has a cult-like following and while I like his work, I don't seek it out. I enjoyed his Wolverine run (also with JRJR) for the crazy amounts of action and the fact that Wolverine fought a shark in one issue. C'mon, Wolverine versus a Shark! That's awesome. I've didn't read Civil War, though. Gotta pick that one up someday heard a lot about it when it was out.
Anyway Kick-Ass is a story about your everyday comic book nerd who decides to become a superhero. No radioactive spider bite, no parents being shot in front of him, no being rocketed off a doomed planet. Just a kid that loves superheroes, goes on eBay, buys a wetsuit for a costume and hits the streets to fight crime. His call to duty was boredom and a pair of balls the size of Texas.
Millar and JRJR must be having a blast working on this. It was the perfect combo of character development, humor and rip roarin' action. There was no decompressed jibber-jabber going on here. The main character was introduced, given a back-story and 22-pages later he was kickin' ass. Or getting his ass kicked, but whatever, you get the point. Ultimate Spider-Man's origin was like 5 issues long. Why? Kid gets bitten by a Spider, gets superpowers, his uncle dying is his call to duty and away we go. Lee and Ditko did it in like 12 pages.
Anyway, Kick-Ass ended on a nice cliffhanger and the fact that we don't know where this story is heading is exciting. Unlike other characters with 30-40 years of continuity on their backs, this book is a free-for-all where anything can happen. Where I was once a supporter of continuity I'm beginning to think it's hampering character development... but that's a topic for another Font You!
So go buy Kick-Ass!
Every so often I'm reminded that being a letterer opens doors for me that I could only dream of as a kid.
It started in 1999 when I had my internship interview with Marvel. This was back when they were still at the Park Avenue location, since then they've changed buildings twice. The Park Ave offices were great. Huge glass doors with frosted Spider-Man webs greeted you as you entered the lobby. Once inside there were spinner racks of comics, glass shelves with statues, it was amazing especially for a kid from a small town who read the Bullpen Bulletins before the actual comic. I loved the old Park Ave building, it had a quirky fun charm and it looked like comics were being made there. Since they've moved it doesn't quite have the same feel. It could be friggin' Charles Schwab's office.
Anyway, last Friday I went up to the DC offices to talk some lettering with the good folks in the lettering department and one of the lobbies is friggin' Gotham City. Complete with an actual Bat Symbol flashing on the wall. Another lobby on a different floor is Metropolis with Superman flying above the telephone booth he just burst out of. Every wall is covered with comic art, posters... Clark Kent sits in the conference room with his notebook... I even saw that big gun Arnold Schwarzenegger used in Batman and Robin when he ham-fistedly portrayed Mr. Freeze.
I wish I took pictures... maybe next time but probably not. I'm a professional I can't be lookin' like a wide-eyed geek. (although I am wearing a Fantastic Four T-shirt as I write this) Maybe I'll disguise myself or something. Get on one of those office tours.
Anyway, that's enough for this week...
Font You!
--Randy
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