New Page

Just posted a new page over at Pixelstrips.

Check it out.

As I stated over at LazyComix.com... all new NYComix will be appearing there for now. It's tough to keep up on both sites, especially with a full-time job. Plus, there's some other stuff going on that I'll announce soon.

Thanks for looking!
--Gent

I'm Back and So is Randall.

So it’s been awhile since my last entry. Obviously, the holidays make everything crazy but now that it’s somewhat back to normal, regular updates should be back and running. The holidays even screwed up my Pixelstrips schedule, and I’m hoping to get a new page up there before the end of the week.

I spent the holiday in upstate New York and landed a great present that was a total surprise. My sister-in-law has a screen printing business, I mentioned a few times that I wanted to make some NYComix shirts but I never got around to making a serious order. Well, come Christmas I get a box and what is it full of? NYComix T-shirts! Pretty sweet, I think. I’m going to print a bunch of them up for the Con in February, so if anyone wants one, they’ll soon be available.

I also met up with a few friends over the holiday. I’ve known them both since I was like 13 years old and we don’t see each other as much as I’d hope. I’m down here in NYC, Mike is near Albany and Drew in practically in Canada. But an interesting thing happened during our separate conversations. They both asked me why I haven’t finished Randall.

A while back I decided that I wasn’t happy with the comic and that it was just too much of a departure from my NYComix. True as that may be, I still love Randall. It’s like my first-born. It’s the first comic I really sat down and worked on with the intention of showing it to people. It’s admit ably crude and weird in places, but I think I may just finish it up. Drew, who just gave my his first novel to read, knows what it’s like to want honest feedback from a friend, so I trust that he would tell me if finishing Randall would be a waste of time. He said I should consider is an “exercise” worth finishing. So I think I’m going to. I mean, the book is even thumb nailed through the end, so why not? On thing I don’t really understand is why people have to have a “style” they have to adhere to, I always though a good artist could do a lot of different things. An artist’s style is always evolving. Why can’t it evolve in different styles? Why are there even unwritten rules in art? The reason I love art, and comics in particular is that there are no rules.

R. Crumb has a distinct style that you recognize instantly, but look through the full gamut of his work and you’ll see the classic Mr. Natural style of art as well as cartoon work that is as strong as any you’d see in a Disney cartoon or comic. He does both equally well.

So anyway, looks like Randall is going to make a comeback. Kind of a Farewell Tour.

Although, it seems like every “Farewell Tour” isn’t an actual Farewell, so who knows.

Howard Stern

Today was Howard's last show. Listened to it here in NYC but was unable to go out to the rally... I got deadlines, man!

The man has been a part of my mornings for a looooong time. I can't remember when I didn't listen. I can't wait for the move to Sirius and I won't miss "regular" radio in the least.

Philip K. Dick & R. Crumb

R. Crumb is one of the biggest artistic influences on my work. He's one of the greatest comic book artists of all-time. Bar none.

A month or two ago I read "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" by Philip K. Dick. The book was amazing and it quickly shot up the ladder as one of my favorite books. I'm reading another of his books right now... "The Man in the High Castle" and it's also amazing.

I'm surfing some PKD sites the other day and I ran across a very interesting comic. In an issue of Weirdo Magazine (#17, released in 1986) Crumb did an eight-page story about a "Religious Experience" that PKD had in 1974. It's an amazing story and, of course, the art is incredible. Here's the link. You can read the whole story there.

Enjoy.
--Randy

Keep On Truckin'

per·se·ver·ance n • steady and continued action or belief, usually over a long period and especially despite difficulties or setbacks

Who knew that after reaching my lifelong goal the one thing I’d need more than anything else is that? If I knew then what I know now would I still have pursued it with the same passion? If the end result is becoming jaded beyond repair is it worth it?

These are questions that I’m struggling with lately. The answers are pretty far off right now… I’m sure they’ll be revealed in time. Until then it’s persevere, persevere, persevere.


Anyway, after some shopping this weekend, I took some more pics of that great view of lower Manhattan as the N Train crosses the Manhattan Bridge into Brooklyn. No matter what else is going on, seeing this always makes me smile.

What I'm Up To....

I’ve been working on a bunch of stuff lately. With the holidays approaching, I feel like I need to get as much work in now as I can. The week of Christmas is basically a no-work week for me. Sure, I’ll be doing some lettering, but my own work will take a backseat to shopping and running errands.

I’ve got 3 projects going on right now. The first pertains to that brain I posted a few entries back. I’ve got the story written, but I still need to break down the panels a bit better. Its times like this that I’m happy to don’t work directly on the art board. I usually do a separate background, and in the case of this comic, a bunch of different shots of the main character. I’ll do this right in my sketchbook and just pick and choose which ones I like. Then I’ll scan the background and all the images and just move stuff around right in Photoshop. The main reason I do my comics this way is that I like to work bigger than the traditional comic board allows, especially if I’ve got a 6-panel breakdown. I feel like I can’t get the hatching and detail I want at that size and if you feel constrained when you’re drawing, you’ll never get your best work. I think of it as if I’m shooting a movie or something. I do as many shots as I can and then edit them together in “post”. It’s then I’ll see if I need more shots or if I’ve got enough. Sometimes I have too much. It all depends.

Anyway, I’ll do a blog entry about it sometime soon.

The other project I’m working on is my 2nd major writing proposal to Marvel. My first is being reviewed now. I haven’t heard anything back, so instead of waiting around I figured I’d better get going on another. Plus, how often does a first time writer get his first proposal accepted at Marvel? I can’t be too often. I’ve read tons of Brian Michael Bendis interviews where he’s talked about how he just pounded Marvel with proposal after proposal for like 10 years. So that’s my plan. Someone said the “squeaky wheel gets the oil” (or something like that)… so get ready for me to be squeaky. I just finished the outline for this story, so after a few alterations and tweaks, I’ll be ready to start putting this thing together.

The last thing I’ve got going on is Pixelstrips. I just finished the second chapter over there and I have no clue what story I’m doing next. I have ideas peppered throughout the stacks of notebooks I have lying around, so I’ll have to dig them out and see what strikes my fancy. You’ll find out by next Wednesday. In the meantime, feel free to head on over to my message board and post away. I'd love to hear from more people who read my stuff.

So that’s what’s happening over here at Lazy Comix.

If you just read this blog, you’ll probably be interested in one of my favorite comic blogs a great artist named Mike Wieringo. If you’re a comic fan I’m sure you’ve heard of him. Right now he’s penciling Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man over at Marvel. Before that I had the pleasure of lettering his work on Fantastic Four. That was a book I really enjoyed working on. Mark Waid wrote some fun stuff on the book, but Mike’s art never disappointed. Check it out. He always posts sketches and right now he has a few unpublished FF pages up there.

Good stuff.

--Gent

Fanboy Radio Appearance *UPDATE*

A few posts back I mentioned that I'd be appearing on Fanboy Radio. If you missed it you can now hear it for free, here. (direct link to MP3)

While you're there, click around and check out the other Episodes. Scott and the guys over at FBR do a great job. If you're a comic fan, you'll love it.

Thanks!

My Next Comic...

I realized that I've really been putting a lot of NYComix up on my site as well as the ongoing story at Pixelstrips. So I'm going to do a Non-NYComix story next... I'm just about to sit down and start drawing it. I don't know how to explain the story and I don't have a title for it yet either-- so I'll just post a bit of reference I'll be using for it.

Oh, and some great news on the upcoming NYComix Mini-Comic Volume 2. The Man himself: Jim Lujan will be contributing a pin-up as well as some other special guests that I can't quite reveal yet. Should be fun... its shaping up to be like twice as big as Volume 1. Stay tuned.

--Gent

Fanboy Radio Appearance

Can you "appear" on a radio show? Not quite sure that makes sense.

Sorry for the big gap here on the Blog. But with the holiday and all, it was tough to update. I'm also dog sitting for friends who are presently living it up in Jamaica... I love dogs and he's been good... but boy are they a lot of work. I have 2 cats that I adore and if they could open their own cans of food, they'd never need me. Dogs on the other hand, are, as the great Larry David said, "Like letting a bum live in your house." Anyway, he's fun and a good dog.

As for the Fanboy Radio appearance, you can hear the show today at 1 p.m. Central time. (Here's a time zone converter) The show is about the Bullet Angelica. (a great online comic jam I've spoken of before here on the Blog) If you haven't been to Fanboy Radio before, check it out... if you love comics, you'll love the show.

Big thanks goes out to Scott Hinze and the Fanboy Crew.

And don't forget the new page over at Pixelstrips.com!

Thanks

New NYComix...Episode 7

There's a new 3-Page NYComix up. This is one of the funniest things to ever happen to me here in New York City...Hope you guys enjoy it.

Feel free to drop me an email to let me know what you thought of it.

--Randy

Get In On The Ground Floor

Some of you may know that my comic, NYComix, is part of a great webcomic site called Pixelstrips.com...

Pixelstrips is a subscription webcomix site, but what's neat about it is that you can read all the comics for free every week. (subscribing gets you access to archives and extras) I put a new page up every Wednesday, so if you head over there you'll get a new page of NYComix every week for free. As well as a bunch of other neat comics. Today is the first page of a new story (chapter 2), but I promise you didn't have read Chapter 1 to know what's going on. So head on over and check it out, here's the link. I even have my own message board over there so feel free to post after you read the comic. I'd love to hear some feedback.

A Comic Book Hiatus

Been taking a break from reading comics lately. Honestly nothing has been grabbing my imagination/attention. Don’t know why, but buying individual issues of comics has become more difficult to do. I feel like I’m buying a chapter of a story instead of the whole thing. Plus, I’m not able to stick with it if the first chapter isn’t very eventful. I guess I’m old fashioned when it comes to my comics. My favorite comic storyline is the Death of Gwen Stacy. I have the "trade" on my shelf and its like 2 issues long, if that. But in that span, Spider-Man was not only changed forever but his reason for doing what he did was reestablished and given even deeper meaning. Why now every story needs to be 6-8 issues is beyond me.

I have shelves full of trade paperbacks and I enjoy reading them because I’m getting the whole story without ads. Seems like a better deal to me. So I guess I’m turning into one of those “waiting for the trade” people.

Anyway, upon Ereisa’s request I’ve started reading more fiction novels. I’m a huge history fan and I’ve read a lot of World War 2 novels, (anything by Peter Ambrose), as well as any true crime book dealing with the mafia. Although I’m a bit burned out on Mafia books right now. Ereisa suggested I start reading some fiction, which I honestly haven’t done a lot of. She bought me a copy of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon and am I glad she did. If you’re a comic fan, do yourself a favor and read it.

Right after Kavalier and Clay I started reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? By Phillip K. Dick. A few blog entries back I mentioned that while visiting my parents upstate, my Mom dragged a box out of the closet full of old stuff. I found a sketchbook and a bunch of news clippings from my High School Sports days. Among the stuff was Androids. My good friend who I’ve known since I was about 13, Drew gave me the book to read. He’s a big fan of PKD and he thought I’d enjoy it. Mainly because he knew I really liked the movie Bladerunner, which is based on the book. Wow. What an incredible read. I finished it in about 3 days (a record for me) and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. I’ve never read a book that made me think about not only the story itself, but the world in general. PKD is just an amazing writer. I still can’t get over how incredible that book was. I want to run out to a used bookstore and pick up some more of his writing because I’m that blown away by Androids. Bladerunner was a great movie, but it doesn’t even come close to doing the book justice.

So hey, enough babbling on about my seminal book reading experience, if anyone is reading this is a fan of PKD. Feel free to shoot me a message about what novel of his I should read next.

--Randy

Bullet Angelica

A li'l plug for what I think is a real cool thing.

The Bullet Angelica is a comic jam that I'm lucky enough to be a part of. I found out about it over at Fanboy Radio and I was impressed with how much work these guys have been putting into the comic. Comic jams are basically a bunch of people working together to tell one story. The neat thing about it is that nobody talks about what they're going to do next. Its just a bunch of artists getting together and making a comic just for the love of doing it. Can't beat that, right?

Its worth checking out.

Here's my latest panel, please go here to read the rest of it.

More to come tomorrow.
--Gent

A Sketch

Still trying to fit a few superhero sketches into my schedule. I've slowed down a bit lately, but I'm ready to jump back in the NYComix saddle. This sketch is my fave Batman villain, The Joker. I think most writers would love to get a crack at writing Bats, but I'd be more interested in writing a Joker story with a little Batman thrown in. Maybe someday.

Star Wars Prequels

I’m a Star Wars fan and I really enjoyed the prequels.

Yeah, I said it.

In fact, I really enjoyed them.

Yeah, they had flaws, the acting was awkward in places but the acting was awkward in places during the Original Trilogy too. What about the times Carrie Fisher used a British accent and then dropped it in the next scene? Anakin was “whiney” in the prequels? Go back and listen to Mark Hamill’s delivery of the “Going to Tochii Station to pick up some power converters.”

Bah. I could go on and on with commenting about the fans reaction to the Prequels. Take a trip over to the most popular Star Wars fan forum at TheForce.net… head into the prequel threads and see how insane it is. Sure there are plenty of people who love the movies, but there are some folks who act like George Lucas gave their Grandma a wedgie before kicking their puppy into traffic. The reactions are startling to me, really. There seems to be no room to take a step back and enjoy the movies...it’s just frame-by-frame, line-by-line microscopic critique of every second of these movies. I think if some of these fans just took a deep breath and watched the movies without the 20 plus years of preconceived ideas of what they think should happen, they might actually have fun.

But what’re you gonna do? I’m fighting a losing nerd-battle against other nerds making me the biggest nerd of all.

Anyway, I picked up Creating the Worlds of Star Wars: 365 Days the other day and it’s the best Making of Star Wars book I’ve ever read. Written by Prequel Visual Effects Supervisor John Knoll with 100’s of behind the scenes pictures that I’ve never seen before, it’s a great read. If you’re a fan of the movies, you’ll love the book.

Plus, take a look through the Prequel section of the book and you’ll be stunned by how many models were used for sets, ships, etc. A big blast on these movies is the overuse of CGI, but the model making was amazing for these movies, it was used a lot more that people realize.

On the LazyComix front, I’m about to start working on the newest NYComix. I have one more panel on a Pixelstrip page to finish up which will give me a few weeks free to work on some other stuff including a Lettering Tutorial for Pixelstrips. Which is pretty neat and I hope it’ll be an informative article that will help some web comic creators out.
I’ll keep you posted.
--Randy

Pekar in Wizard Magazine

Believe it or not, I’m plugging an article that appeared in Wizard Magazine. (Nov. 2005 issue169) I used to be a big fan of Wizard, but they seem to have entered the Hype-Machine that dominates comics these days. “Every books is great and there isn’t a bad book on the market” is the impression you get after reading an issue of Wizard. I understand the situation they’re in though, they can’t say anything bad about the Big 2 or they’ll be cut off. If that happens, they’re in a real bind. Maybe someday someone will start a magazine challenges Wizard’s stranglehold on the comic magazine market.

Actually, the thing that bothers me most about Wizard is their Top 10 Creators list. Brian K. Vaughn isn’t even on the Writers list. Meanwhile Runaways is probably the best superhero book on the market today. Not to mention his other books like Y: The Last Man and Ex Machina. And the Artists list? No John Romita Jr. and never, ever Mark Bagley. Romita Jr. is as good a penciler as any in history and Bagley is an anomaly in the field being that he hits his deadline every single month. He’s yet to miss an issue of Ultimate Spider-Man and I think they’re up around 90 issues now. That should be recognized before pretty pictures that come 2 months late, but it’s not for some reason.

Anyway, enough with the Wizard stinks rant. The reason you should pick up the November issue is because there is a really well written article on my favorite comic creator, Harvey Pekar. Written by Chris Ward, it’s a candid and honest interview. Which isn’t surprising, Pekar is always candid and honest. Pekar goes into everything from politics, to movies, to mainstream comics. He even makes a great point about the first graphic novel. Which most people attribute to the late-great Will Eisner. Pekar points out that Robert Crumb did his first graphic novel, The Big Yum Yum Book back in 1962. It wasn’t published until 1975, but that’s still a few years before Eisner’s book. A sensitive subject as Eisner is as revered as anyone is the industry’s history, but he has a point. Problem is, superhero comics seem to take precedence over other forms of comics. I wonder if attributing something as important as The First Graphic Novel to someone like Crumb is avoided on purpose by the “elite” comic creators… it is certainly a question worth asking.

The article is a great read and Pekar never disappoints. He’s honest almost to a fault. He’s not afraid to speak his mind and I admire that greatly. It’s something that I struggle with every time I sit down to write my Blog and every time I think about what comic I’m going to start working on next.

So, go pick up Wizard. (I can’t believe I just said that.)

Happy November

After a rush lettering job yesterday, I’ve got some down time and just in time, too. After I post tomorrow’s PixelStrips page I’m all out of pages so I need to get going. I’m planning on doing 3 pages before then end of the week as well as start a new 3 page NYComix that I won’t be debuting at LazyComix.com. This will be the first time I’ll have my work presented for free somewhere besides my own site. I’m pretty excited about it and I’ll get you more info before the week is over.

As well as the new comic, I’ll hopefully be contributing an Op-Ed kind of article to the site as well. I’ve got this idea in my head that I think more comic fans should be thinking about so I’m sorting out those thoughts as well. Again, I’ll keep you guys posted.

Can you believe it’s November already?! Holy cow. I need to start doing more drawings like this one of my main man The Goon. I’ll be sketching at the New York Comic Con this February, so the more characters I do, the better. I’m sharing my table with fellow Marvel Bullpen pal Jacob Chabot of The Mighty Skullboy Army fame. So I’m pretty excited about that.

First Ever LazyComix No-Prize

Brandon B. of Sunny California gets the first ever LazyComix No-Prize for pointing out that I was copying the Great Art Adams in this sketchbook pic I did sometime back in High School. (I’m almost 30 now, lest anyone think it was like last year.)

I’ll have to do more of these No-Prize things, that was fun.

New Comic @ PixelStrips.com

Just wanted to remind everyone that you can read a brand new NYComix over at Pixelstrips.com. It's free to read this weeks page, so go check it out here.

Blast From the Past

This past weekend, Ereisa and I went visit my folks in Saugerties, NY. While there my Mom dragged a big box of stuff out of a closet and asked me too look through it.

I dug through it and found a couple of books I thought I lost before getting a chance to read as well as a sketchbook from sometime in High School. I think its like junior year? Most of the stuff is Star Wars sketches, with makes me think it was around the time of the Special Edition release. Anyway, thought it would be fun to post some of them. A LazyComix No-Prize to whoever posts a pic of the original piece I copied that color shot from.

These pics are a few I took on the way home. The N Train into Brooklyn has an amazing view of Downtown Manhattan as it crosses over the Manhattan Bridge. It's just as amazing at night too.

Another New NYComix?! Already?!

After the more subdued NYComix Episode 6, I really wanted to do something more fun. And being that’s its been a while since I did a One-Shot, I decided to make it a Trilogy of NYComix One-Shots.

If you haven’t read any of the One-Shots, they’re basically one-page, one-panel, comics. I love walking down the streets of New York and getting one of those hilarious, out of context snippets of conversation. The newest One-Shot is one of my favorites. Check it out here.

And it looks like the NYCon is a go. More info to come!

--Gent

PixelStrips and other news.

Every Wednesday, I post a new NYComix page over at PixelStrips.com. Pixelstrips is a subscription based web comic site, but that doesn’t mean you have to pay to read the comics. You can read this week’s comic for free, every week. You just can’t read the archives. You have to pay for that.

So feel free to head on over to Pixelstrips, you’ll get a new page of NYComix there every week. Pretty, neat, I think. Plus I have my own message board over there, and nobody posts there at all. (Not just on my board, but the whole forum) So go talk to me. I love message boards. Go over there and start a thread about how you think the Star Wars prequels suck. I might have something to say about that, and it won't be pretty. :)

I went to the comic shop this morning and didn’t pick up as many comics as I thought I would. There was a Goon 25cent issue, so if you go to the shop pick that comic up, if you caught my previous Blog entry about The Goon, you know I think it’s the best comic on the market right now. And it’s 25cents fer cryin’ out loud…. practically free.

I also picked up the latest issue of BPRD. Not because I’m a big Hellboy fan, (I’ve never read an issue of Hellboy, which is comic blasphemy, I think.) but because Guy Davis is just amazing. I love his work. I heard somewhere that he does like 3-4 pages of pencils and inks a day. Which is insane because his work doesn’t look rushed. Plus, the story isn’t too bad, either, so it’s a good read.

I also picked up an issue of Silent Dragon. The writer, Andy Diggle was on Fanboy Radio the other day and they talked about Silent Dragon and it just sounded cool. Haven’t read it yet, but Leinil Yu art doesn’t disappoint.

And the NYCon news is that it’s a go. I just have to make sure I get a table. So if there’s a table available, I’m there. I’ll keep you posted.

Sketches

Last entry I mentioned that I might do some sketches at the upcoming NYCon... I was going to post a few practice pics yesterday, but Blogger was acting weird.

Here's a few to wet yer whistle... head on over to my site for more. They're in the sketchbook section!

Thanks for looking and feedback is welcome.

--Randy

Giving Big Cons Another shot? Maybe.

I'm thinking about going to the New York City Comic Con this February. I’m a little nervous because my trip to Wizard Philly this past summer was a big bummer. Granted, I just sat there with a stack of Mini-Comics on my table, but it was discouraging nonetheless.

This New York City Con is supposed to be gigantic. Like the San Diego Con, but on the East Coast. From what I can tell, its going to be much more diverse than the Big 2 dominated Wizard conventions, so it’s giving me a little hope that NYComix will find some kind of audience. Plus, I realize that for me to really grab the attention of folks, I have to sell myself. Just sitting there and saying hi to people isn’t going to work. I didn’t tell anyone that I was a letterer in Philly, I wanted my work to stand by itself… but, I’m going to at the NYCon. I figure if I put “Marvel” on my nametag the zombies who don’t buy anything without Wolverine in it will take a look. Plus, I’m kicking around the idea of doing sketches. It makes me a bit nervous, but it’s another way to get people to come over to your table. So I figure I can do headshots and attach one of the 2 volumes of NYComix along with it.

2 volumes, you ask?

Yup. By February I’ll have more than enough newmaterial for a second NYComix Mini-Comic. So I’m pretty excited about that. It’ll be bigger too, so hopefully it’ll all work out.

So stay tuned, I’ll let you know if this is really going to happen. I’m 99% sure and I’m hoping I’ll be able to split a table with a friend…we’ll see.

Se7en

Working at home has many advantages. (And disadvantages, for that matter.) One big advantage for me is the ability to watch movies while I work.

Last Christmas, Ereisa bought me a little 13 inch TV with a DVD player built-in. It sits right next to my monitor so I look over from time to time as I work. I have a fairly big DVD collection (not as big as I’d like), but I usually watch movies when I feel like I need an inspirational kick in the pants. Movies like Star Wars, Goodfellas, Mean Streets, anything by Tarantino, and the movie I watched today. Se7en.

Se7en came out in 1995 and it still blows me away every time I watch it. It always did, actually. I didn’t see it in the theaters, but the first time I saw it I was still living at home with my folks and we had the good ol’ Steal-Per-View. (That little black box that unscrambled HBO, Pay Per View, whatever. It suddenly stopped working one day but it was cool when we had it.) Anyway, Se7en was one of the Pay Per View movies and it just got played over and over again all day long for like a month. I remember sitting down and watching it and it was one of those movies that just made you say: “Holy shit.” I watched it darn near every day thereafter for days.

Not only did David Fincher do a beautiful job directing it but the screenwriter: Andrew Kevin Walker really gave me a lesson in screenwriting. One of the things I’ve heard a million times about screenwriting is the idea of taking the viewer and making him/her think they know what is going to happen and then just completely flip that idea around so that they have no idea what is going to happen next.

Tarantino is a master at this. Pulp Fiction is a movie about stories you’ve seen a billion times. The boxer who is supposed to take the fall and doesn’t, the guy who is ordered by his boss to take his wife out on a date while he’s out of town, the hitman who thinks he has an easy job but it ends up becoming a total nightmare. The scenarios go on and on. Kill Bill is plain and simply a revenge movie. But Tarantino is such and amazing writer that he takes these played out story ideas and turns them into something you’ve never seen before.

Walker did the same kind of thing on Se7en. At first glance it’s a buddy cop movie, or another serial killer flick. But everything about that movie is the total opposite of what you think will happen. He even lures you into thinking you know the pattern of the story during the second act, but he blows that out of the water when Jon Doe walks into the police department and turns himself in. The killer turns himself in during the second act! It’s just such a great movie and it’s written so well. It never fails to inspire me and every time I watch it I feel like writing.

New NYComix and other neat stuff.

I posted a new NYComix a few days ago. You can check it out here.

For those of you in the NYC area, there’s an amazing comic shop in Brooklyn called: Rocketship. It’s primarily and Indie Comic shop, but you can get all your “Big Two” comics there as well. Plus, they’re nice enough to carry my first Mini-Comic, so if you’re in the area, head on over and pick up NYComix Volume 1.

One of my favorite comic book websites is Fanboy Radio. I post on their Message Boards from time to time and met a fellow comic artist by the name of Jim Lujan. Jim and a few other guys have a really neat Online Comic Jam called The Bullet Angelica. It’s basically a bunch of guys working on the same comic and nobody knows what the heck is going to happen next. One person draws a panel, it gets posted then the next person in line does the following panel and so on. It’s a lot of fun and it’s worth checking out. It’s just a bunch of folks who love comics getting together and having fun making their own comic. My first panel was posted a few days ago. You can check it out here.

There some other stuff coming up as well, so stay tuned.

Harvey Pekar

“You can do as much with comics as the novel or movies or plays or anything. Comics are words an’ pictures; you can do anything with words an’ pictures!” --Harvey Pekar

For those of you who have read NYComix, the influence of Harvey Pekar on my work is hard to miss. Growing up in a small town, the only comics I had access to were Marvel and a few DC books. It wasn’t until my first year at Pratt that I discovered Pekar’s work. Ereisa bought me an R. Crumb Trade Paperback and in it were a bunch of comics that he did with Pekar. I reread them quite a few times and realized that what might seem like simple “talking heads” comics at first glace, are actually very complex stories that anyone can relate to. Pekar’s comics were like a punch in the stomach. After reading them I realized that I’m missing so many amazing comics by reading only Superhero stuff.

Last Wednesday marked the release of Pekar’s latest work, The Quitter, and, after reading it last night I think it’s his best work. With local Brooklyn artist Dean Haspiel, The Quitter tells the story of Pekar’s childhood and, as with all of his work, it’s brutally honest and real. Pekar has a reputation as a curmudgeon or a cranky old man, but after reading The Quitter, you’ll learn that there’s a reason for his unique personality.

There are many, many autobiographical comics being made today (mine included), but since 1972, Harvey Pekar is and will continue to be the best in the genre.

So, if you’ve never bought an “independent” comic before, go buy The Quitter. (It’s a Vertigo book from DC Comics, if that makes you Corporate comic junkies feel better) After you read it, lend it to a friend who hasn’t read a black and white comic or better yet, lend it to a friend who has never read a comic before. It’s a perfect example of what comics should be and a perfect example of the kind of work that can show the general non-comic reading public that comics aren’t just tights and capes for kids.

Thanks, Brandon...

This post goes out to Brandon from So Cal... who has been a big supporter of my work...

A few months ago at WizardWorld Philly, I spent an entire day watching a guy make bad balloon animals pull in more money in 10 minutes than I did all day with my Mini Comix… its known today at the infamous LazyComix Mini Comic Debacle… (well, not really, that just what I call it) A day or 2 later, I got an email from Brandon asking me if I’d send him a few of the left-over-hundred-or-so Mini Comics… I happily obliged and Brandon became the first person to plunk down his hard earned cash for my work.

A little while later Brandon commissioned me to do a Yoda piece for him… the result you see below… which now resides with Brandon in Southern California…

So a Big Thanks goes out to Brandon… your support is very appreciated.

--Gent

LETS GO YANKEES!

Rants and Plugs...

Not a heck of a lot to report…. So instead of leaving the blog with an old entry, I figured I’d write about a couple of things that I’ve seen and/or heard since my last entry.

I usually check out a lot of movie trailers online…. One of the trailers I watched was No Direction Home: Bob Dylan…. Now I’m not a big Dylan fan or anything, I dig his music and I’d love to listen to more, but what drew me to the flick was that it’s a documentary and I can’t get enough documentaries….(I just got done watching Ken Burns: Civil War… which was like 6 discs and I was bummed it was over, if you’re into History check it out.) and it’s also a documentary by Martin Scorsese…. Who started out editing documentaries before he went on to become one of the greatest directors ever… anyway, as I’m watching the trailer the narrator says: “From the Academy Award Nominated Director Martin Scorsese….” Every single time I hear that my head explodes… how has this guy not won that award yet? Honestly? He lost for Goodfellas to friggin’ Kevin Costner. Costner has a Best Director Oscar as well as Mel Gibson… another guy who makes crappy movies…. But Scorsese… a guy who made Goodfellas and Raging Bull…. (not to mention Taxi Driver, etc.) hasn't.....

Now Raging Bull isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, it’s a tough movie to watch, but technically it’s amazing and DeNiro’s acting is just insane…. But Goodfellas is on another level. From the Script to the acting, to the camera work to the editing to the music.. It’s darn near perfect… it’s a movie film students will be watching forever… and it lost to Costner and Dances with Wolves… Ugh…

All right, rant over… go rent some Scorsese flicks… and if Costner or Mel Gibson wins another Best Director award before Scorsese someone hand me a barf bag.

CD Plug…. Soulive: Break Out…. If you dig jazz, funk, R&B, Blues… check it out…. You can listen to some of their new album at their site… Soulive.com.

Comic Plug…. Opposable Thumbs by Dean Haspiel.. great semi-autobiographical comic…. Check it out... here’s his site.

And here’s funny pic of a bad-ass cat Ereisa sent me….

The Best Darn Comic Out There...

Just got back from the comic shop and felt like talking about a great comic that I think more folks should be reading…. The Goon, by Eric Powell, from Dark Horse Comics… I have no idea where this book lands on the sales chart, but a quick check of Wizards Top 25 (it used to be top 100, why its not anymore I have no idea) and it’s nowhere near there… and it really should. More people should be reading this book…. It won 2 Eisner’s for Best Humor Publication as well as Best Ongoing Series…. Not to mentions the awards it won last year.

And I’m not pointing this out to say that the fancy pants folks that vote for the Eisner’s said it’s the best, so you should too, I’m just trying to back up my claims with something more substantial than me saying: “This books is awesome!”

But if you’re looking for a comic that is both well written and well drawn, The Goon is well worth the money. You can pick it up at anytime and you don’t have to worry about it being part 3 of a 7 issue arc… each issue is self contained but is still woven nicely into a very interesting overall storyline.

So, if you’re a comic fan and you’re looking for a new book to add to your pull list… or if you’ve just dropped the latest “Big Event” comic from the Big Two… Check out the Goon. It gets *The Gents Money Back Guarantee.

*not and actual guarantee

And we're baaaaack!

You may have tried unsuccessfully to visit my website last week... if you did, I’m sorry…. Blame web.com…. actually, go ahead and send them a complaint email telling them that you were going crazy because you couldn’t get your LazyComix fix…. Apparently they were “migrating” to a new server over there, and for some reason, my website took 5 days to “migrate”…. After about 10 or so phone calls, I was about to give up and just get a new provider…. But they finally got me back up and running again late Saturday.

In the meantime, here’s a sketch I did of good ol’ J. Jonah Jameson.

Also, Pixelstrips.com is up and running. Go check it out. You can get exclusive NYComix over there as well as some other cool webcomics.

--Randy

Graffiti Art...

A couple of weeks ago, I was walking through Williamsburg with my buddy, Julio. We were on our way to a bar where were going to meet Ereisa and his wife, Ada… I’m not very familiar with Williamsburg, but it’s a neat neighborhood… a little rough around the edges compared to Bay Ridge and Park Slope, but it’s definably got a great art vibe. On our way to the bar, I notice this great piece of graffiti art on a pulled-down storefront gate. As I get closer I realize that it’s a piece by one of my favorite comic artists: Jim Mahfood. If you’re not familiar with his work, go check his site www.40ozcomics.com…. He’s doing some of the best and most original comic art today, and is probably the most influential underground artists out there. I’ve heard people call him this generation’s R. Crumb….

I usually carry my digital camera with me whenever I leave the house, but of course, I didn’t the day I saw Mahfood’s mural… I’ll diffidently get back there and take a pic of it and post it here….

Anyway, the mural reminded me how much I love graffiti art. Aside from a few crappy fat marker “tags” in high school, I’ve never dabbled in graffiti art… and I don’t know if I could, as I’m a big wimp. I mean these guys dress up like bank robbers when to go do their art… it’s crazy, but I’m sure the rush of getting caught is a big part of the process.

NYC is one of, if not the capital of Graffiti art, so I went online and looked for some graffiti blogs…. Turns out there’s a ton of them…. Here’s a few links…

www.woostercollective.com
cityrag.blogs.com/main/ny_graffiti_steert_art/index.html

The work is amazing.... it’s unfortunate that for every great Graffiti artist, there are 10 guys who look like they’re using their foot to paint….

Anyway, I found these sites inspiring… there’s some awesome work out there…

Stream of Conscious Comic #1

Been a while since I posted…. So I’m back today in a big-way with the weirdest comic I’ve ever done…

I took a trip into Manhattan yesterday to meet Ereisa. I usually just sketch people sitting nearby or read a comic… I didn’t feel like reading a comic or sketching people, so I decided to do a comic right in my sketchbook documenting my trip. Being that 99% of your rides on the subway are pretty boring, there was a good chance this comic would be pretty boring. So I started drawing and writing… I put down whatever came to mind… the drawings aren’t very good, but I was drawing fast and as you’ll find out when and if you read it, my pen sucked.

In the end, it was a pretty fun little experiment and I’ll definitely try it again… but with a fat marker…. (you’ll see what I mean)

Check my site in a few days for a sketchbook update too.

Runaways on EW's Must List

I letter a bunch of books for Marvel, but one of the best darn books I work on is Runaways, by Brian K. Vaughan.... if you aren't reading it, you should be.... The hardcover recently hit the shelves and it even made Entertainment Weekly's Must List.....

If you're looking for a good mainstream comic read, check it out.

I also picked up the Sin City DVD..... I loved it when I saw it in theaters and I love it even more now..... great flick and great comic....

Don Fanucci. Bug Hunter.

Moving to Bay Ridge was a great thing for a lot of reasons… one reason was the back yard…. And our cats absolutely love it… Our youngest cat, Don Fanucci, has become obsessed with catching and eating bugs. Gross, to be sure, but also quite entertaining.

Earlier today, Fanucci got hit paws on a Cicada… a huge bug and quite a score in Fanucci’s mind….. this picture is actually a screen capture of a movie I took as I attempted to pry the bug out of his mouth. It was like Fanucci went feral for a little while, instincts kicked in and he was all business.

Damn Yankees...

I'm a huge Yankee fan.... and a huge baseball fan in general. When I was a kid, Don Mattingly and Dave Winfield were the cats pajamas..... as I got older, my interest in baseball waned a bit, and by the time of the strike in 94'..... I had completely lost interest and it stayed that way until '96, when the Yankees won the series.... their first win that I could remember. After I moved to New York, my love of the Yankees came back in a big way.... being so close to the stadium makes it really easy to go to games via the subway...

The other day I did a portrait of Babe Ruth for an upcoming comic... as I worked on it, I thought about how fun it would be to do a graphic novel about him.... maybe someday.

Updates....

I just updated www.LazyComix.com.... you can go there and read the news..... or you can read it here. Either way, go there and check out the site....

Anyway, a few posts ago I mentioned that my comic NYComix would be appearing at a cool site called www.NorthEastInTune.com.... well, its up. So go on over and check it out... I'm proud to be a part of the site and I'm hoping to debut a new comic there next month, so stay tuned!

I'm busy as all get-out today with lettering stuff... so thats all for now...

--Randy

New Scanner and Star Wars...

As I mentioned earlier.... my old scanner bit the dust. At first I was upset, being the penny-pinching miser that I am and all.... but after a trip to my local Staples… I picked up a great scanner on sale and everything. It’s awesome. Gives me really high resolution and great scans… and best of all, I don’t have to revert to OS9 to use the scanner, as I had to with the old one.

I even scanned the first page of the first PixelStrips comic… (minus one panel, which I’ve yet to work on)

I also posted a few Star Wars sketches that I just scanned with my new fancy pants scanner. Check ‘em out.

Remember Randall?

When I first started LazyComix.com a few years ago, I wanted to use my comic, Randall as the "headliner" for the site. It was right around the time of 9-11 and with all the craziness going on here in New York City, I jumped head-first into this character that I came up with on a subway ride home. I wrote a long-winded script about a regular kid who reads comics and plays video games all day getting super powers out of the blue... I started character designs and decided to take this idea and turn it into my first comic.

The only problem is, when I look at this comic now... I see how indecisive I was... and in a way, still am about that strip. The script is just too much… some of the things are funny, but I take a year to get to the punch-line and my art is just crude…It’s not my natural style. I really have to struggle to draw that way. I inked the early chapters with a brush and pen… then I switched to a rapidograph… nothing matches up. And the coloring just sucks. I don’t like coloring and I can’t imagine how professional colorists do it… its just so time consuming and it gets boring for me real fast. I was first going to color the strip with Doc Martins inks… then I was going to use watercolors… after the disaster of those experiments, I switched to Photoshop. The last chapter was even “inked” in Photoshop…

So as you can see, I had no idea and still have no idea what is going on with Randall. I absolutely love the character and I will get back to it… just not now. I was going to finish the original script and then go from there… but I’ve decided not to. I’ve got some things in mind for li’l Randall… and I’ll get to them, I swear. But the next time we see him… he’ll be a bit different.

In the meantime… NYComix has taken over. And after I finish lettering today, I’m going to start drawing the first page for PixelStrips…

I need to get movin'...

I just realized that today is the 16th.... I've written the first story for Pixelstrips but I have to get going on the art... the only problem. My scanner bit the dust... so I have to get a new scanner and draw this comic... and on top of all this... the lettering is starting to pick up.... sheesh.

Well, could be worse, I guess!

Stay tuned and keep checking LazyComix.com.... there'll be a new Episode there soon....

--Randy

Endless material...

Just when I think I could run out of stories to tell about living in New York.... Ereisa and I take a walk this morning to get coffee and we see some guy in a robe walking around... he damn near let it all hang out..... on our way back from the Coffee joint, I notice that some girl walking in front of us looks like she's only wearing underwear.... thinking that there's no way a girl would walk around in Brooklyn wearing only her underwear, we speed up to check out the situation. Turns out, she was wearing a skirt that tied around her waist... somehow, it came undone without her noticing and was dangling at her side... how she didn't realize this, I have no idea... I wonder how long it was undone and how long it took her to realize it..... she must've been mortified to find out her keishter was hanging out for all of Bay Ridge to see.....

What's in store for LazyComix.....

Every so often I email my website around to various web comic site and magazines that pay attention to the comic book world.... last week, on a whim, I took a trip to craigslist.com to see if anyone was selling a nice bike and wound up taking a look in the job section.... you never know when you might find a neat comic book or illustration job opportunity.... so I found a call for comic book reviewers on a website I've never heard of. So I went to check it out, knowing that I'd never take a job reviewing comics. I'd love to, but I could never be honest with my reviews in fear of upsetting an editor or creator that I may have worked with or may work with in the future.... and if you can’t be honest as a reviewer, you shouldn't even bother.

When I got to the site, I saw that it was a pretty neat site that reviews music, art, movies (there's something I'd love to review) and comics.... so I emailed the editor asking him to take a look at NYComix.... turns out he really dug the work and wanted to run it on the site.... after a few emails we decided to run NYComix Episode 1 in the next issue. Next month, I'm hoping to run a new story that will really be fitting for September.... we'll see how that goes.

Anyway, the site is called www.NorthEastInTune.com... go check it out, it's a cool site and I'm excited about NYComix being a part of it in the near future.

That same day I took a trip over to DigitalWebbing.com... as most comic creators know, it's a place to find other creators looking to start a comic.... if you're a writer looking for a penciler, or a colorist looking for a letterer, anything... it's the place to look. As I clicked around the site I found a call for submissions to a subscription web comic site… being a big fan of web comics, I checked it out and it was a neat looking site with some good looking web comics already on board… so I send the NYComix link on over and got accepted… that’s when the panic set in… I’d have to post a new comic once a week. Wow. I’m pretty much on a once a month schedule now… once a week is a lot of work, especially with all my lettering work. But after talking to my girlfriend, who found the opportunity not as a reason to panic but as a way to force myself to write and draw every day… and to build up my portfolio of NYComix… so now I have to get my first strip rolling by September 1st… I’m hoping to get ahead of schedule so that I can take a week off every once in a while. I felt a little better after I flipped through a copy of Calvin and Hobbes 10th Anniversary Book… Watterson was creating amazing work on a daily basis… made my weekly problem seem a little less daunting.

Anyway, the web comic site is www.PixelStrips.com its still in the early stages now, but I think it’s going to be a great web comic site…

So that’s the big announcement… Now it’s off to letter Runaways and jot down ideas for web comic strips…

New Stuff....

There's going to be a few more places to check out NYComix on the web.... I'm going to make a official announcement within the next few days.

I'm pretty excited about it... as any places I can get my comics seen besides LazyComix.com, is a good thing. So keep you eyes on the site for the big announcement...

I can't believe I have a Blog....

Being that I don't have much time to update my site.... www.LazyComix.com.... I thought this would be a fun and quicker way to keep people up to date on the site and what I'm up to....

I've spent most of the night working.... first on lettering Captain America #9 and then redesigning my site..... which is just a huge undertaking.... but I think the new look is cleaner and easier to navigate... go look and let me know if you like it!

While I was working I was watching the Yankee game.... just when I thought they were going to get swept by the Indians.... A-Rod and Giambi hit home runs and give the Yanks the lead.... this is a win they really, really need.... and how big has Giambi been?

Well, I'm going to watch Mariano strike out the side, giving the Yanks a much needed win.

--Randy