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.