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.
Just When I Think I’m Out They Pull Me Back In!
I'm in the minority when it comes to Marvel Comics. I pick up some of their stuff here and there but not for any reason other than being a fan of a particular artist. There's no writer or even character that I'll buy regardless of the creative team.
That character used to be Spider-Man but I dropped that book for the first time ever during JMS's run.
More on that later.
I've been reading the Hulk for a few issues and not because of the story, but only because of the incredible pencils of Arthur Adams. C'mon, the guys a legend. I look at it this way: the artist gets me on board but it's up to the story to keep me on when that artist leaves. Jeph Loeb isn't doing that for me with the Hulk, so I hope Adams stays on for a while.
Come to think of it, the only Marvel book I've steadily been reading is Greg Pak's Skaar: Son of Hulk. That's a title I absolutely love for its Sci-Fi, outside of the Marvel Universe feel.
For years my Go-To book coming out of the House of Ideas was Amazing Spider-Man. From Todd McFarlane, Erik Larsen through John Romita Jr. ol' Web Head was a book I banked on month after month, year after year.
And then... Gwen Stacy had a tryst with the Green Goblin courtesy of J. Michael Straczynski.
Now I'm a fanboy and I'm not afraid to admit it... Gwen is off limits. Maybe I overreacted and yeah it's just a comic, but there's something about Gwen and Peter's story that has stuck with me for years. I'm sentimental about it, ya know?
So anyway, throw in Gwen giving birth to super-powered kids that aged quickly due to the Goblins super-blood and I'd about had it with what was in my opinion one of the lamest storylines ever. The Spider-Clone story looks like The Dark Knight compared to this thing. So I dropped the book and haven't looked back since.
That is until I saw Amazing Spider-Man #578 and 579 sitting on the shelves. Marcos Martin's art knocked me on my ass and I couldn't help myself. Flipping through the book at the shop and Mark Waid is writing? I took the plunge.
They got me back. It took 69 issues but they did.
Martin's art is top-notch stuff, truly worthy of Marvel's flagship title, and Waid's story is just old-school fun harkening back to the days of Stan, Ditko and Romita Sr.
This 2-issue story is one of the best comics I've read in a long, long time. Waid is just telling a fun Spider-Man story. He's even telling funny jokes! I say that because so many writers have a tendency to either tell too many jokes or, worse yet, tell too many bad jokes. Waid wrote some flat-out laugh-out-loud Spidey One-Liners.
And again, Marcos Martin's art! Holy cow. Great stuff.
So with guarded optimism... I'm back on the Amazing Spider-Man train... and you know what? Just in time... because Secret Invasion #8 was enough to make me stop reading Marvel Comics altogether.
I actually wrote more about what I didn't like about the book... but I just deleted it. I try to keep the negativity to a minimum here at Font You!
But you know what? I gotta say one thing.
I know Event Comics are big business and with economic times as tough as they are know, the more comics that sell the better... but Secret Invasion #8 was a preview for Dark Reign rather than the conclusion to Secret Invasion, right down to the Dark Reign checklist at the end of the book. I want more out of a comic than this... I want to feel like I'm reading a book that wants to move the medium forward... something with a point of view. Secret Invasion was a Michael Bay comic. When's the last time Michael Bay made you sit back in your chair and say: “Wow?"
Font You! Cover of the Week: Savage Dragon #142
By Erik Larsen
This is the newest cover I've ever used for this rather new Font You! segment... but I love it. It has an almost Frank Miller Sin City feel about it. Plus it sums the Dragon's present situation in Larsen's latest storyline.
Font You! What I'm Reading
Amazing Spider-Man #580
By Roger Stern and Lee Weeks
Three solid Amazing Spider-Man books in a row... Stern is one of the best Spidey writers ever and Weeks is one of the best pencilers working today. He's also a hell of a nice guy. This was a fun little One-Shot but it's nice to hear they'll both be back on the title with a 3-issue Juggernaut story next year.
Savage Dragon #142
By Erik Larsen
I just talked about this one with the cover of the week and as I've said before, Dragon is a really solid read right now. Pick it up.
Invincible #56
By Robert Kirkman and Ryan Ottley
Invincible is a much a high school romance book as it is a superhero book and Kirkman writes a hell of a cliffhanger.
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