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.
Fanboys Don’t Count
Fanboys Don't Count. They don't. And if you're reading this you're likely a fanboy just like I am. Hey, we're buying comics no matter what. Some go to church on Sundays, we go to the comic shop on Wednesdays. It's habitual love that we can't and don't want to shake.
The flagship titles are going to sell no matter how much they suck. And every flagship title has sucked at one point or another. Amazing Spidey had the Clone Saga, I know Brubaker is writing Uncanny X-Men now but honestly has that book ever been as good as it was during the Claremont/Cockrum/Byrne days? But yet these books continue to be perennial bestsellers.
What is the thread that ties these books together? What keeps them from being consistently chocked with great, action-packed stories?
Continuity.
In the last Font You! I talked about how we're hanging onto the floppy comic out of nostalgia and while I admit that is a debatable statement I firmly believe that we're hanging onto continuity out of nostalgia.
I brought up Amazing Spidey and Uncanny X-Men because they're two of Marvel's books that are heavily tied down by years and years of convoluted continuity. Hell, the Ultimate line was introduced as a way to break free of that same tangled continuity that still plagues those books today. Actually the Ultimate Universe is doing a good job of weaving its own snarled web of continuity as we speak. 
It was Grant Morrison who inspired this "Fanboys Don't Count" column. He said it in one of the most eye-opening essays on comics that I've ever read. The "Morrison Manifesto" was one of the many great EXTRAS that are included in the back of the New X-Men Volume 1 hardcover. One of the things Morrison attempted to do with New X-Men was to tell fresh, modern X-Men stories for a new generation of comic readers. He wrote the stories for new readers and couldn't care less what fanboys thought. I hadn't read an X-Men comic in ages but the combination of Morrison's words and Quitely's art pulled me in like no other X book had before. I still think it's one of the best X-stories of all time and reading that hardcover in its entirety is a lot of fun.
Morrison is doing the same thing with All Star Superman. Here is a character with more years of continuity and history than any other superhero, yet issue after issue All Star Superman takes the oldest hero of all and spins new, fresh stories that have a perfect combination of old school fun and new age flare.
There are a couple things that Morrison has on his side as he writes All Star Superman. First, he has Frank Quitely. The dude's on another planet he's so good. Second, Morrison is telling 1-2 issue stories. Actually, the only 2-issue storyline I can think of is the Bizarro story. Which, for me, was the highlight of the book so far. Third, and most importantly: there's no continuity to speak of.
Comic book movies are as hot in Hollywood right now as crotch-shots are to paparazzi photographers. They can't get enough of ‘em. 
The Spider-Man franchise holds 2 of the top 10 grossing movies of all time with Spider-Man 3 coming at a very respectable #15. Everyone knows everything about this character. They know his alter ego they know his Aunt and Uncle, multiple villains and his love triangle. They even know he drove around on a dinky motorcycle for a while.
Let's use this stuff as a way to implement new means of storytelling. New readers already have all the back-story they need to enjoy stories involving every character from Spider-Man and Superman to Daredevil and Ghost Rider. Why confuse them with what happened in issue 34 of Uncanny X-Men. Who cares? Just tell a cool X-Men story.
What if we ditched continuity and switched to 12-issue, no-holds-barred storylines. Every year we get a new Spider-Man story. Think of it as a new Spidey movie every year. If we did this there wouldn't be anymore "Brand New Days", that's for sure. There wouldn't be any messy slates to wipe clean.
Are you a writer that wants Spidey to fight the Juggernaut? Go for it. Have a blast because what the Juggernaut is doing in Uncanny X-Men has no bearings on what he's doing in Amazing Spider-Man.
I dunno, it just sounds like a way to open things up and let creativity breathe in a universe where things can get rather stifling. We've got some amazing writers penning these tales now, why put restraints on them? Let them go let's see what they've got.
Maybe that's what DC is planning on doing with their All Star line. When Morrison and Frank Miller wrap up their stints on their respective books, let someone else take over and not have to worry about what someone did before. Hell, let Morrison start over and not worry about what he did before. I'm all for letting artists have as much creative freedom as possible. Especially when they're creating art in a corporate environment. Because let's face it, these are all corporate properties and while a writer might say he has "total creative freedom", he doesn't. It's someone else's sandbox.
Will this ever happen? Who knows? I'm hoping that someone will have a line of continuity-free books…that way we can keep all you continuity freaks happy!
Font These Books!
After being away on vacation I hit up the comic shop this past Monday and came away with a pretty nice haul. Here's the rundown.
Secret Invasion #1 by Brian Michael Bendis and Leinil Yu
Just when I thought I was out they pull me back in! Yeah, I said I wasn't going to bite on the most recent "event" from the House of Ideas but like I said earlier… I'm a fanboy. What'd I think of it? I liked it. 6 out of 10 Font You's! Bendis really seems like he has this thing really planned out. He's been planting the seeds for years, apparently. I'm one of those guys that likes "Old Bendis" more than "New Bendis". Actually, I should clarify. I like "Indie Bendis" more than "Marvel Bendis". Yu's and artist I usually don't like at all. There's something about his storytelling that seems off to me. He draws a pretty picture though and I think this is his best work.
So for now, I'm on board. (I'm such a Fanboy)
Kick-Ass #2 by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.I did an entire column about issue one of this book and issue 2 certainly wasn't a letdown. Millar and JRJR are doing such a great job on this book. Take a look at the script to pencils to inks to colors extra in the back. Particularly the Script to Pencils. Notice how little Millar gives JRJR and how he still turns those one to two sentence descriptions into really fun and dynamic panels.
This book is just a blast to read. I can't wait for more. 9 out of 10 Font Yous!
Logan #2 by Brian K. Vaughan and Eduardo Risso
BKV continues to impress on this book with fantastic art by Eduardo Risso along with some really pretty colors by Dean White. BKV left us with a great cliffhanger in issue #1 and still managed to drop another bomb on us with issue 2. Get it? (If not go read the book, you will.)
American Splendor Season 2 #1 by Harvey Pekar and Various Artists.
This is my pick of the week. Anyone who read my "Who is Harvey Pekar?" column from a few weeks back knows what Pekar's work means to me. The man literally changed the way I look at comics. This is the 2nd run for Splendor with Vertigo and I'm so happy they're publishing the book. It deserves to be seen by as many readers as possible and being published by one of the most respected comic lines certainly helps.
So that's it for this week, folks. Thanks for bearing with me for a few weeks. There. I'll be back to my weekly updates from here on out.
I'll be on an upcoming episode of Comic Geek Speak, so stay tuned here and on the Font of Wisdom message board for more info. And if you're hitting the NY Con, I'll be in Artists Alley with all kinds of swag.
Thanks for reading.
Font You!
-Randy
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