Quick Hits

A couple quick things here before the long holiday weekend.

The Cleveland Arts Prize Organization awarded comic book great, Harvey Pekar with their Lifetime achievement award. It’s well deserved.

And the ever-evolving saga of Randall is starting to take shape. Here’s a quick shot of what it’s going to look like.



It’s subject to change and obviously there’s been some significant changes to Randall himself… let me know what you think of the new look.

The story is written and ready to go. I have just to iron out a few character designs and get started. I’m playing around with how I’m going to present this comic. It’s going to be purely a web comic. I’ll probably throw it into a mini comic someday, but for now, I’m trying to breakdown each story into 2 page “arcs”… the first page will be sequential and the second page a full-page “cliffhanger” leading into the next sequential page, followed by another full-page cliffhanger. This way I can update quicker and give the book an easier to follow web comic feel plus it’ll be a little different than the usual web comic fare.

We’ll see how that works out and how long I stick to it.

Stay tuned.

--Gent

Quick Sketches

Just a couple of quick ink sketches of my two fave Jazz artists.... Monk and Coltrane.

Also, go out and pick up Jim Mahfood's Stupid Comics Trade paperback. Awesome stuff from one of the best comic creators out there. You might even learn something after reading this book.

Check him out here...

Thanks,
Gent

FBR Promo

There is a ton of comic book Podcasts out there… but Fanboy Radio remains my fave.

My main man Scott Hinze, the Grand Poobah of FBR, asked me to do a piece of promo art for the next episode, featuring Scott Kurtz of PVP fame.

Check it out and tune into Fanboy Radio every Sunday and Wednesday.

Behind the NYComix

It’s been so long since I’ve done a new NYComix, I figured I’d bring something a little extra to the table with the latest comic.

The best part of this “Making Of” is that I’m not sure how it’s going to turn out. I’m experimenting with a few different things, which I’ll get into as we go along.

First a little background on this NYComix “One Shot”.

If you haven’t checked out any of the earlier One Shots, head on over here. The premise behind these comics is that they are one-page, one-panel comics. You could call them splash pages… a full-page a shot… whatever floats your Fanboy-Boat.

As with all my NYComix, they’re all-true comics about my various New York City moments. What separates the One Shots from the longer, sequential NYComix is that every one is a word-by-word account of what happened. Each comic is a real snippet of conversation, and when I’m lucky enough to hear one that piques my interest, I quickly jot it down in my little notebook right on the spot.

The characters and settings are reproduced to the best of my ability. This particular setting is the steps of the St. Patrick’s Cathedral on 5th Avenue, I took some shots of the Cathedral with my digital camera and the characters themselves are represented as I remembered them. I didn’t take a picture of this guy, as I was too disgusted with what he said. Plus, it’s probably not even legal to take a picture of someone for reference for reproduction in a comic without his/her consent. (Blah, blah, blah legal stuff I don’t care about, so I just go by memory to save myself the trouble.)

Now to the actual page.

PENCILS

First step are the pencils. Which are pretty rough. I rely more on my inks to get the shadow, depth and texture I’m looking for. I found that doing that with a pencil, only to ink over it later is a waste of time. I’m also giving all the One Shots a similar composition. This will likely change later on, but for now, I’m kinda digging that idea.

INKS

Inking is done with the usual suspects. Higgins Black Magic Ink and a Windsor & Newton Sable brush. I use a Size 0 for the small stuff and a Size 3 for the bolder areas. I try to start going left to right, so as to not smudge the inks. This doesn’t always work, however, but I can always fix it in PhotoShop.

I’m still not sure where I’m going on the texture of the Cathedral. I’m going to use a lot of black in the shadows, but the hatching on the stones is still up in the air. I might have to do a little research and find some good pictures of the texture of stone buildings. In the meantime I’ll ink as much of this as I can before I move on to my first hand lettered balloon.

LETTERING

I’m seriously considering switching to hand lettering. The more I look at the computer lettering on my old stuff, the less I like it. The style works for superhero books, but for what I’m doing, it doesn’t match up. It’s real slick and computer looking while my art is loose inks and crosshatching. Plus I use one of Chris Eliopoulos’ fonts, and while I’m lucky enough to have access to fonts made by the best letterer in the biz. It’s not my work.

While I like to hand letter, it’s a time consuming process and adding more time to an already erratic schedule with my comics is something I don’t want to do. Another option is making a font of my lettering and drawing the balloons in illustrator. That way I can play with them, duplicate and resize as necessary, etc. In the meantime, this is a 2-balloon page so hand lettering takes no time at all. I’ll have to tweak some of the lettering if Photoshop, but only to center the type.

SHADOWS AND BRUSH FINISHES

With the lettering done I can finish up inking the shadows and bigger areas with the brush. Earlier I mentioned that I was going to try to add more texture to the stones, but as I saw the page coming together, I realized that it would be overkill. I think it works fine as is. Also, after I finished the page, I realized that I left out the “Wait” balloon. So I did that on a separate page and pasted it on the board.




















So there it is, the finished page. I’m going to add a little Title to the top left in Illustrator and that’ll be that.

Head on over here to see the finished product and please write with any comments, questions and if you’re a fellow comic creator feel free to drop some tips and/or suggestions.

Thanks!
--Randy

Update and Recommended Stuff

Another huge gap in posts, but what are ya gonna do? Lettering has been kinda crazy, throw a holiday in there and before you know a few weeks have gone by.

Got a few things in the works. There’ll be a new NYComix One-Shot very soon. It’s penciled and ready for inks, but it’s one of the more detailed pages I’ve done. I try to do that on the One-Shot comics. I didn’t on the last one about the Hot Dog salesman and it’s probably the least favorite of the bunch for me. I’m even going to hand letter this one. I’m about as spent on computer lettering as a person can be. Plus I’m not sure if it jives with my art. It seems pasted over (which it basically is)… although it saves a ton of time, I’ll be looking to do more hand lettering in future comix.

I’m also way behind on the Baseball Illustrations for Spikeballparks. I’ve got a thumbnail ready, so I have to work out that piece soon as well.

Got a few Recommended Comics, Books and Flicks too.

Comics

Powers Hardcover.
Finally finished reading this one and I really enjoyed it. I’m pretty down on mainstream comics right now, but Powers really has an independent, crime-noir feel to it. If you get a chance pick up the Hardcover or better yet, pick up the first “Who Killed Retro-Girl?” Trade Paperback. Good stuff.

Invincible
Fellow VC letterer Rus Wooton was nice enough to mail me a trade of Robert Kirkman’s Superhero comic out of Image Comics. This book really made me feel like there’s hope for Superhero comics in today’s industry. While Marvel and DC are the top selling superhero comics, none of them have the fun, the action and the character development that Kirkman is putting into every issue of this book. I’m a huge fan of mid to late 1970’s comics and Invincible is like an updated version of those great books. It takes itself seriously but at the same time it’s not afraid to have a mad scientist with a giant brain, or a one-eyed alien who can fly and kick ass. If you’re tired of the mainstream superhero comics endless babbling and sparse action, pick up an issue of Invincible.

Books

The Man in the High Castle
Philip K. Dick has become one of my favorite writers and this book has really made me think, and the thing is… I’m not even sure what to think. But that’s a good thing. Sounds weird, but I can’t wait to get my hands on another PKD novel.

Flicks

The Good The Bad and the Ugly.

Spaghetti Westerns at their best by Italian director Sergio Leone. An absolutely beautifully shot movie that at 3 hours long left me wanting to see more. It’s an “art film” and a action flick all rolled into one. Gotta move Leone’s Dollars Trilogy to the top of my Netflix Queue.


That’s it. Stay tuned for that NYComix One-shot.

--Gent

Found Art

I took this photo over a year ago in the 7th Avenue subway station in Brooklyn…

There’s a great culture of street art in Brooklyn but this was one of the cooler things I’ve seen in the Park Slope area. Places like Williamsburg are just crawling with artists. The graffiti in that neighborhood is fantastic and there are things like this framed piece all over. I don’t particularly like the art itself in this frame, but the idea of framing something and just leaving it in a subway station is really cool, especially knowing that it will be eventually thrown out by an MTA employee…maybe someone picked it up.

--Gent

Letterer Without a Crew

So I haven’t posted a new Blog in ages. It’s been a number of things, ranging from that Home Run King illustration I did for Spike ballparks. Which took me much longer than I thought it would. It was tougher to take a jab at Barry Bonds than I thought. I didn’t want to be too blatant and just bash him. It would’ve been easy to do that, but less is more… I think that came across in the illustration.

I’ve also been adjusting to some changes that have come in via my lettering gig. Essentially it adds up to us being dragged into the production wing of comics. We’ve always been lowest on the totem pole, but not far down enough I guess. Because of this I’ve really been searching for more creative outlets…stuff outside of comics. The baseball gig has scratched that itch but I’m still looking for more. I’ve been researching Mini DV cameras and writing a script. I’m kicking around the idea of a live action trailer for a black and white underground comic. Just something, anything that takes the comics I’m doing to a place that I and people reading them wouldn’t expect. Why not a movie that promotes the comic? Flip da script as the kids say.

Quick plug for a movie I checked out the other day. Robert Rodriguez’s Once Upon a Time in Mexico. This guy is making movies is own way… writing, directing, shooting, editing, scoring, production design… he basically does it all. In the 70’s when guys like Lucas, Coppola, Scorsese, DePalma and the rest of the “Movie Brats” where coming up, they make movies from start to finish, the Auteur Theory of filmmaking with one person being the “author” of the film. Today’s Hollywood seems to just churn crap out like an assembly line…. (kinda sounds like some comics) Rodriquez is really one of the few young filmmakers that are outside of Hollywood (in Texas) shooting movies fast, cheap and with high quality. He and Quinten Tarantino are two of the auteur filmmakers that emerged in the 90's.

There’s and energy and just fun and enjoyable aspect to his flicks that really appeal to me. He doesn’t take himself too seriously, his first film, El Mariachi is one of the success stories that young filmmakers look at. He shot the movie for $7000 bucks and caught the attention of Hollywood by doing so. Of course, there are a lot of folks who dispute this budget, most of which seem to be bitter film geeks, but no matter how you look at it the guy literally became a human guinea pig by volunteering for human research studies to earn money to make Mariachi. So in my opinion, split hairs all you want on the 7000 dollars, they guy became a pincushion to make his film.

Mariachi and Mexico are just fun, fast-paced action flicks with great quirky characters. There’s a great DVD extra called “10 minute Flick School” and an even better book about the making of Mariachi called “Rebel Without a Crew”. If you’re in need of an inspiration story to get your work kick-started, check ‘em out.

Stay tuned, I’ve got a new NYComix in the penciled stage…should be ready in a week or so.

--Gent

Yankee Comics Posted!

A while back I mentioned how I was going to be doing some Yankee Centric comic books for a great sports site www.spikeballparks.com. So far, I have 2 illustrations up there with more to come.

I’m hoping to get some comics going as well as some other illustrations not dealing only with the Yankees, even though they’re the only team that deserves attention. ; )

So go check ‘em out, they're in the "Randy's Comics" section... big thanks to Spike for letting me be a part of the site.

What To Do About Randall…

I don’t know quite how long ago I posted the last chapter of Randall, my first web comic. It was around 2001 that Randall showed up in my sketchbook and I began to seriously consider getting my work “out there” via this character whom was once so freshly realized in my mind. Now almost 6 years later and 22 pages into a 44-page “origin” story, I’m stuck creatively on a character and story that was once pouring onto the page faster than I could keep up. Beyond the first 44 fully scripted pages are pages and pages of notes for the further adventures of Randall, notes that could easily translate to 100 pages or more of sequential art.

I was going to finish up the 44-page Origin story and then move into a more slick and hopefully professional looking Randal comic. But no matter how good I manage to get the comic to look those first 44 pages will just be that awful 2nd grade class picture that your mother takes out to embarrass you in front of your girlfriend. I can’t flip through Randall without peering at it through my fingers like a horror movie. So what do I do? Just bag it? I’ve thought about it but I just can’t. Randall is this part of me that even if every other person who has ever read it hates it, I’ll still want to do it. He’s a link to a time in my life when everything changed. I first doodled the little guy in my sketchbook around July or August of 2001, then came September 11th and Randall became my way to escape the suddenly immensely changed city and world that I live in. I was also encouraged to make Randall comics by my then new girlfriend and now soon to be wife, Ereisa… so how can I let him go?

So here’s what’s going to happen: Randall Redux. Take what you may have read in the first 22 pages of Randall and forget it. Matter of fact, if you haven’t read it, read it now because its days are numbered. Once the new Randall pages go up, the old will be gone. Only to return in a Randall Retrospective Showcase Hardcover Edition printed years from now by some lucky funny book publisher. :)

My goal is to take those existing Randall pages and boil them down to 10 pages or less. One thing besides the art that is really weak about Randall is the long-winded jokes and exposition that I put into a simple and fun comic book about a kid who gets superpowers but would rather play video games than save the world. Steven Spielberg once said that he wants stories that he can hold in the palm of his hand. “Shark terrorizes a beach town.” Randall needs to be nothing more than just that. A simple fun story that you can hold in the palm of your hand.

Stan Lee did the same thing. “Nerd gets bit by a radioactive spider and becomes a superhero.” It’s just simple fun stuff. I think some of the mainstream comics of today need to get back to that. They seem so desperate for “respectability” that they’re trying to write these adult stories that just seem flat and contrived, meanwhile the genre of movies that their “respectable” stories will be turned into are comic book movies, i.e. “Popcorn Flicks”. Nobody wants to see a serious, thinking man’s Spider-Man flick. Fanboys do, mainly because they tend to take the superhero genre a bit too seriously. Folks want to a superhero movie where our hero flies around and kick super villain ass. Meanwhile pick up any comic and you’re likely to find an out-of-costume hero sitting in a diner for 22 pages as he spouts a long-winded soliloquy about life as a hero. If you’re lucky, maybe he’ll put his mask on for a panel or two, but that’ll be a devise to get you to buy next issue under the false pretense that our hero will do something heroic soon. Don’t be surprised if “Diner Soliloquy: Part 2” sees the return of our street clothed hero ordering desert… for 22 pages.

Randall is going to be the exact opposite of the current mainstream comic trend. Flat out fun, more costume than not, more action that you can take, a comic that you can read on the can and not feel like you just bought Trade Paperback filler.

So get ready for some Randall Redux, whether you like it or not.

Comic Book Removed from Library

http://www.desertdispatch.com

http://www.newsarama.com

I try not to get too political in my work and even on this little blog, but nothing brings out my political side more than the government’s enforcement of their “obscenity laws”… from Howard Stern to cartoon butts on TV, this issue is only gaining steam instead of losing it.

The FCC and any other government official (appointed, or un-appointed as in the case with the FCC) is something that people really need to take issue with. If you’re a comic book fan, a literature fan, a film fan, or a TV fan…. The more people allow the FCC and whoever else the government deems worthy of deciding what we can or can’t see, the more this issue will turn our lives into one big Andy Griffith Show… it’s only a matter of time before they’re sticking their noses into Cable TV, satellite radio and even movies. Which, part of me hopes will happen… as soon as Tony Soprano can’t curse on HBO maybe people will wake up and call the FCC out as the fraud they are.

The minority is beating the hell out of the silent majority in this issue and it has to stop. I mean, look at this line from the articles I linked to:

“The library noted that she was the only person to have complained about the book’s content since it joined the collection in May of last year, and had been checked out over 100 times since.”

So hey, if you love comics and Tony Soprano dropping the F-Bomb every other line, go complain, make your voice heard. Write a letter to your congressman, stop listening to corporate ran “terrestrial radio”…. Anything that shows these “family value” pushing clowns that you don’t want them making decisions for you is a good thing…it’s coming faster than you think and when it does, it’ll probably be too late.

Harvey Pekar in person!

Anyone who has read NYComix sees the immediate influence of Harvey Pekar. Pekar is above and away the most influential writer in my work. His comix with R. Crumb changed my views on comics and knocked me off the one-way Superhero highway that I was speeding down my entire life. (Can I use “superhero” anymore or will one of the giant comic conglomerates sue me?)

Harvey was speaking last night at the Union Square Barnes & Noble, so Ereisa and I took a ride to see it. I rarely take advantage of the daily signings and speakers who visit bookstores throughout NYC, but Pekar is an exception. It was a blast to see him in person and geek out and get his signature.

In other news, I redesigned my site, streamlined it a bit, eliminated a page and replaced it with another. I still have a bit more work to do on it, but it’s getting there. That first page of “LazyComix Presents…” is penciled and I think it’ll work out well. I got the idea from one of Ereisa’s favorite comic artists: Phoebe Glockner… unfortunately I’m not even close to as good an artist as her, so we’ll see if it works out. Feel free to drop me a line about the new site, good or bad and especially if there are any links off.

Stay tuned folks, and thanks for reading.

--Gent

Getting Closer...

So the upcoming Yankee Baseball comics are on their way… It’s strange how I’m actually wondering where to start, I have a ton of ideas banging around in my head, so hopefully by the end of today I’ll be started down the road toward the first installment.

In the meantime the first wave of my newest LazyComix line of strips “LazyComix Presents” is almost ready. Strangely, I’ve drawn and inked the entire story, but I’ve yet to decide on page 1… I usually start on page 1, but I’ve been holding off on it, unfortunately there’s no way I can wait as the rest of the strip is done. So I’ll have to work this problem out in addition to the first Yankee comic.

When LazyComix Presents debuts, so will the third redesign of the site. It’s not a major overhaul like last time, but it’s just cleaner and to the point. Folks are coming to the site to read comix, not to get a fancy website experience. At least that’s my theory.

So, stay tuned, it’s slow going but with a plethora of comics to letter, who knows when the big debut will come.

--Gent

New York Yankee Cartoons?

A few weeks ago I left my weekly comic at Pixelstrips. I didn’t want to, but since then, I’ve made a ton of progress on new comics, stories and I’ve even started another redesign of the website.

The new line of comics is going to be called “LazyComix Presents”… and it’s going to cover a bunch of topics ranging from musings and anecdotes to fiction to non-fiction comics dealing with New York City history and whatever else captures my imagination.

Under the “LazyComix Presents” line of comics I was planning on doing few comics based on some of the great Baseball stories of the past. Babe Ruth’s called shot, Jackie Robinson stealing home during the World Series… I did a lot of player portraits during art school and I thought about doing comics back then about baseball, but I knew my drawing wasn’t up-to-par yet.

So here’s where it gets interesting. I was flipping through Craigslist yesterday as I do from time-to-time and I come across a guy looking for a writer to cover the Yankees this season. So, I shoot him and email, tell him that I’d love to give it a shot and I pitch the idea of doing some baseball comics or even some NY Post-style “Political Cartoons” about the Yankee season. We’re still talking at this point, but it’s basically crossing the T’s and dotting the “I’s”.

What makes this a little less stressful at hitting the weekly deadline at Pixelstrips is that there won’t be a weekly deadline. At least not for a full 6-Panel page… and really, I was getting a bit burned out on NYComix day after day, so following the Yanks and doing some fun cartoon, maybe even a article about the ever turbulent Yankee Kingdom seems almost too good to be true for a Lifelong Yankee fan. I mean Ereisa and I watch literally every Yankee game of the season, so it won’t feel like work.

So stay tuned, I’m not ready to give out the specifics at this point, but the new gig is going to be somewhere along those lines.

Recommendation

Quick post today…. After flipping through this book a few times at the comic shop, I finally picked up Chris Ware’s ACME Novelty Datebook.

Amazing. Go buy it.

More stuff to come real soon, including a new line of comic strips coming out of my own LazyComix Studio, and by “studio” I mean me. : )

I’m shooting for the end of next week.

Stay tuned.

--Gent

NYComix No Longer at PixelStrips.com

As of today, NYComix will no longer be appearing at Pixelstrips. I came to this decision myself as a number of factors contributed to the decision. One: My lettering work has really picked up lately… while the past few days have been the first time in a while I haven’t had a looming deadline, my lettering work has to take precedence. It pays the bills and Chris really helped us out this past year, so when I’m lettering I have to put as much into it as I can. The other things that lead to this decision were the feelings that this last storyline has really lacked the quality that I want NYComix to have. I don’t mind duplicating panels with the story allows, but I don’t want to do it for the sake of saving time. It was hard for me to look at the last few pages, so when that happens, its time to reevaluate what I’m doing. I also really hate missing deadlines. It’s something that I’ve never done with my lettering and I carry that over to my own comics.

And really, I have so many other stories I want to draw. I’ve got around 40 plus pages of NYComix done, and while there’s plenty more to come, I need a little break to recharge my desire to do the comic. In the meantime I’ve got a new line of strips that I want to start. Ultimately, LazyComix is going to be a group of comics that I do… like a one-man comic studio. Somewhere down the line I’d love to bring in other writers and artists, but right now, I’d want to have 3 different comics all under the LazyComix banner. NYComix being the “headliner” with a revamped “Randall” as well as a Third tentatively titled: “In My Head”. There’s also a Fourth waiting in the wings, which will be the most ambitious of the group.

I’m going to really start pushing LazyComix and NYComix around the web in the coming months. With a revamped website, web banners around some popular comics sites, some sponsorships on podcasts and who knows what else. It’s time to start pushing this stuff. “The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Oil” as they say back in Saugerties.

So stay tuned. I apologize to those who’ve been following my work at Pixelstrips. Thanks for you support and please stop by here and LazyComix.com. There’ll be plenty more NYComix and other work in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, keep supporting Pixelstrips.com. It’s a great web comic site with a lot of very talented artists. Where else can you get 20 comics a month for 2 bucks?

Big thanks to Kevin Volo for letting me be a part of the site. Good luck and keep up the great work.

--Randy

Sketch of the Day

Am I the only one who feels like this?

I’ve been insanely busy with lettering the last few weeks, so I haven’t made it to the comic shop in about a month. I finally got a break around 3 o’clock yesterday so I decided to head in the City and visit a shop. I usually go to Jim Hanley’s Universe or Midtown Comics, but I’m in the beginning stages of research for a possible graphic novel so I wanted to see if The Strand Bookstore had some out-of-print books that I’ve been looking for. The Strand is in Union Square so I stopped by Forbidden Planet, hoping to catch up on the comics I’ve missed the past few weeks.

So here’s where I got a real jolt of reality. There wasn’t a single “mainstream” comic that piqued my interest. Four weeks worth of new books and I didn’t buy a single one. I’m pretty sure that working in the industry for the past 5 or 6 years has jaded me a bit, but I didn’t realize that my jadedness had gone this far. It’s just starting to feel like everything has been done before in some form or another. Does mainstream comics need new blood? Maybe it does...I mean it seems like it’s the same fraternity of guys writing all the “important” books. It used to be that the “event” comics were spaced out over time. One every year or two… Secret War and Infinity Gauntlet being two that comes to mind. Now it seems like it’s one after another after another, in my opinion, if you keep bombarding your readers with big event comics over and over with no break in sight, you’re going to lose that excitement that is key in getting people interested in these events. Nobody will care about the event if they know there’s another 2 or 3 coming up right after this one. Killing off a character used to be a big deal. Think of Elektra’s death in Daredevil or Gwen Stacy’s in Spider-Man. They meant something… they shocked people, now when someone dies we’re only a story arc away from the big “Return”. I used to laugh at the storylines of Daytime Soap Opera’s, but mainstream comics aren’t far off at all. They’re so alike that it’s hard for me to even think about it without being embarrassed.

Keep in mind that I’m just a lonely letterer. But first and foremost I love comics. There’s been a lot of talk lately about the influx of Hollywood talent that has come on and started writing books. While this is great, and these guys are talented people, but really what makes a guy who writes a show on the WB more capable of writing a book than a guy who has been writing comics for his entire career? Do the companies think they’re making themselves more legitimate this way? Maybe they do, maybe they don’t.

It goes back to me thinking that the sooner the comic industry stops looking at itself as Hollywood’s bastard little brother, the sooner they’ll get that respect they so desire. How many times have you read a creator interview where he says that he’s trying to make comics more “cinematic”? How about those reviews where the writer has “Tarantino-like” dialogue? Or the penciler who is using wide panels to get that “cinematography-feel” to his art? If people want to feel like they’re at the movies they’ll go to a theater or they’ll pop in a DVD, they’re not going to flip through a 3-dollar comic for it. People buy comics to get a comic experience. They go the movies for the theater experience.

Another thing I notice is how mainstream comics have all but completely counted out their female readership. But every single time I walk through the graphic novel section at Barnes & Noble or Boarders there are as many, if not more, girls reading comics than guys, they’re not reading mainstream books, they’re reading Manga. What is it about Manga that gets the girls to read? Has anyone at the big companies thought about this? Are they doing anything to get in on this market? There’ve been a few attempts, but nothing memorable. I think more can be done. It’s worth it… 50% of the readership is basically ignored.

What about kids? Seems like they’re another group that is being given up on. Marvel has a few books and they’re making an effort, but much more can be done. And really, the plug will be pulled the second the books marketed for kids start losing sales and/or money. DC, with the big Infinite event thing they have going on is not only forgetting about new readers, but they’re forgetting about readers like me. I’m not a DC reader, I’ll check out an occasional book, but I’m more than willing to become a regular reader of one or more of their titles. Thing is, when I read about the present event, I’m completely and totally confused. Earth 1 Superman and Earth 2 Superman, different Flash characters, different Green Lanterns… I don’t know where to start and frankly, I don’t want to. How would an 8 year old kid be able to figure out what is going on there? I’ve heard people say that kids don’t want to read comics; they want to play video games. Part of that may be true, but what about the 1000’s and 1000’s of kids lining up around the block at midnight when the new Harry Potter book comes out? Yeah, Harry Potter is a phenomenon that doesn’t come around often, but if it proves anything it proves that kids will read if given a great product. Comics can’t grab all of that audience, but I’m willing to bet some of those kids would enjoy a comic book.

Wow. I really rambled on there. I should place a disclaimer here. Yes, I work in the industry, but that was written as a fan of comics. I love comics and I want to see them succeed and be more than a fringe fraternity of fans who only leave the shadows when a movie is released. I have no “inside” knowledge of what’s going on behind the scenes and I don’t want any. I just want to see the industry, as a whole, push itself further.

--Randy

Random Musings

ITEM!

There is probably thousands of Oscar blogs out here on the intraweb, but get ready for the LazyComix version. I didn’t see any of the Best Picture nominees, hell, I didn’t see damn near every movie nominated. So Brokeback Mountain, Crash, whatever…. When they hit Netflix, I’ll check them out.

What I did see was Revenge of the Sith…. Which was nominated for best makeup and lost. It was not, however, nominated for Visual Effects. Now, I’m not saying it should’ve won, because there are a few movies that should’ve won and Oscar and haven’t. Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock and Martin Scorsese all haven’t won and Oscar… go find me 3 filmmakers who’ve influenced movies more than those three. Meanwhile Kevin Costner has a Best Director statue in his house.

Anyway, I’m just trying to figure out how Sith didn’t even manage a nomination? Sure it had more effects than the other flicks, but volume alone shouldn’t warrant a nomination. But maybe high quality on top of volume should? Love or hate the prequels, your distaste with the acting/story/whatever, has nothing to do with the quality of work the guys at ILM put into that movie. Before it’s all said and done, the techniques used on the Prequels is going to change the way Special Effects are used in the future. Digital Stuntmen, Digital Head replacement that allowed an 84 year old Christopher Lee to fight guys 50 years younger than him, General Grevious was one of the most amazing and technically complex CGI characters ever put on screen. The Clone Troopers were built without the use of a 3-D Model scan. How about using a Digital Camera to make the SFX artist’s job easier? The guys at ILM were doing digital work on the movie hours (and sometimes less) after the scene was shot. With a film camera you’re waiting for the film to be processed and then scanned into a computer. You’re also getting some of the best picture quality on the screen. Do these things contribute to an Academy Awards voter’s consideration? I have no idea. Yeah, I’m biased, but a nomination? That’s all I’m saying.

ITEM!



I’ve succumbed to the coolness that is Hardcover comic books. I’ve never bought one before, but yesterday I picked up the Powers Volume One HC Edition and wow. What a cool volume. I’ve only read Powers after it moved to Marvel and frankly, I’m not completely in love with the book. It’s well written and Oeming’s art is great, but I always feel like I’ve missed out on something when I read it. But I’ve stuck with it. A bit part of that is the fact that it has the best Letters Page in comics. Which is a lost art form. Gotta make room for ads, right?

Anyway, I sat down and read the first 2 issues of the book and it’s amazing. Some of the best reading I’ve had in a long, long time. I’ve heard nothing but praise for the “Who Killed Retro Girl” storyline, and so far I see what they mean.

When I finish up, I’ll give another long-winded review.

ITEM!

Pixelstrips is back on track, folks, I’m 99% sure I’ll hit tomorrow’s deadline.

Thanks for reading.
--Randy

Pixelstrips Page Posted!

Better late than never, I always say... check it out here and keep NYComix as the #3 strip over at Pixelstrips!

thanks!

LazyComix Recommended Reading & More

ITEM!

I’m 2 weeks late on my Pixelstrips page. Between the convention and the lettering workload, I barely have time to post this… but I want to update this Blog more often. Maybe a Monday/Wednesday/Friday deal. We’ll see.

I posted over at my Pixelstrips forum that I’d be late with the new page, and what do I see when I go to the front page? NYComix making its first appearance in the Top 5. Figures, when I finally break the Top 5, I don’t have a new page up for folks to read. So I’ll be up tonight drawing so hopefully I can get the new page up before the weekend is over.

Thanks to those who went over there to see the new page and I apologize for being late. I’ll be back on regular schedule soon.

ITEM!

At the Convention last weekend, I picked up a few Trade Paperbacks for 40% off. As well as a comic by on of my favorite creators, Jim Mahfood.

STUPID COMICS #3 by Jim Mahfood (Image)
Anything by Jim Mahfood I’ll check out. He’s one of the most innovative and amazing creators working in comics today. Stupid comics #3 is a collection of short stories dealing with mostly with the 2004 Presidential Election. They’re hilarious and scary at the same time. Just like the election, actually. If you get a shot, pick it up.

JEW GANGSTER by Joe Kubert (iBooks Graphic Novels)
This little hardcover graphic novel by Joe Kubert is one of the best comic reads I’ve had in a long time. As to be expected, Kubert’s art is incredible, he’s on of the all-time greats in the history of comics and even at his age he’s still making incredible work. What really stands out about his art to me is his storytelling. He’s a master and I wish some of the up-and-coming artists would check this book out. He doesn’t rely on fancy panel layout or even heavy, (often overbearing) Photoshop coloring. He just tells a good story, period. With all the coloring effects and easy to spot movie star photo reference around comics these days, it’s nice to see how it was done, and how it should be done.

JINX by Brian Michael Bendis (Image)
I’ve ready plenty of Bendis Marvel stuff and I’ve always been a big fan of his writing. JINX was my first introduction to his art, which surprised me as not being that bad. He’s using a lot of photo reference, but at least it’s not Ben Affleck shots swiped from Google. You can tell Bendis is trying to push the envelope of comic storytelling and JINX was a good read. Made me want to read some more of his earlier work.

Post-Convention Wrap-Up

Back to the ol’ lettering thing over here and coming down from the NYComic Con, which went really well. If you’ve been following this blog you know that Philly convention last year was an unmitigated disaster, but this past weekend went much better than expected. I had a great time hanging out with my old Bullpen co-worker Jacob Chabot, sold plenty of comics, and met a lot of cool folks. I just may do it again next year.

If anyone is interested, feel free to shoot me an email and I’d be happy to get a copy of the new Mini comic out to you.

On the Pixelstrips front, it’s slow going at the moment. I had to miss last Wednesday’s release date in order to meet lettering deadlines as well as prepare for the Convention. The comic will be out this week… most likely not tomorrow, but by the end of the week.

I apologize for the wait.

Thanks.
--Gent

Convention Preview

With only one week to go, I'm further behind that I thought I'd be. But, I should be able to finish up before next Friday.

Here are a few shots of some character sketches I've done in preparation for my first venture into offereing Convention Sketches. Feel free to let me know what you think of them.

--Randy

Plan B!!!

I ran a few test stencils yesterday and it didn’t work out as well as I had hoped. (Check out the pics) I didn’t really know what to expect, but after this I’m glad I gave myself time for Plan B.

I was hoping to have each cover of the Mini Comic with it’s own unique stencil. But the one thing I didn’t think of was how much Krylon Paint stinks. So I don’t want to have people walking around the convention smelling the fumes of my comic. So, with Ereisa’s help, I have a good replacement. I’ll still stencil, but I’m going to stencil one big one, then I’ll shrink that down on a copy machine, and use it on all the covers. Thus eliminating the awful, mind altering stench.

In other Mini Comic news, I got another pin-up from Jacob Chabot and it’s fantastic. It’s presently my desktop wallpaper and I couldn’t be happier with it. Chris Giarusso sent me the thumbnail of his pin-up, (which is actually a really cool one-page comic) and boy and I glad I asked Jim Lujan, Jacob and Chris to do a few pages… it’s really going to add to the Mini.

Also, don’t forget about page 2 of the new NYComix “Who Gives a @#$# about the Letterer?” over at Pixelstrips.com.

Thanks!
--Gent

NYComix Swag and New A Story Up At Pixelstrips!

ITEM!
There’s a new Chapter beginning over at PixelStrips.com…. it’s called: Who Gives a @#$%* the Letterer!

It’s going tell how I got into Lettering and what it’s like to work for the one of the Big Boys in the Comic World.

There will be a new page up every Wednesday, so have a look.... page 1 is up now!

ITEM!
As I gear up for the NY Comic Con this February, I got a surprise package from my sister-in-law back in Saugerties.

A box full of NYComix Tote Bags!

I’m so excited about it as it’s a great idea and something I’d never think of. I’ll be handing these babies out free at Booth #AA72. Check 'em Out!

Thanks Kate!

Lazy Reviews and MiniComic Update

ITEM!
The lettering over here on my end of the Virtual Calligraphy Train has slowed down a bit. After about 3 weeks or so of having a book due just about every day, I finally found some free time to get knee-deep into Volume 2 of the minicomic.

After making a quick dummy mock-up, this one looks like it’s clocking in at 32 pages. Which is a lot considering Volume 1 was something like 21. So as it stands right now, the pages are ready to go. I’m just waiting on a few pin-ups, which I think will show up. I hope they do as I think they’ll really add something to the comic. If someone is going to be kind enough to drop 2 bucks on a hand stapled, Kinkos printed comic, I might as well throw in a few extras, right?

I’ll be giving the stencil cover a test run tomorrow and I’m going to have Ereisa take some pictures of the process so I can post it here… it could be a total disaster, who knows. Either way you’ll see the Triumph or the Failure here in a few days.

ITEM!
After literally a few months since my last trip to a comic shop, I’ve made it out to the shop the past 3 weeks. During my “dry spell” I realized that I was completely out of the comic loop. Most every comic message board was foreign to me. Although my pull from 2 trips to the comic shop only resulted in 9 comics, I was pretty happy with the reads.

Here are my impromptu reviews.

LazyComix Picks O’ Da Week.

1) The Goon #15. By Eric Powell.
This is the one comic that keeps my faith in “mainstream” comics afloat. I have never, ever read a bad issue of this book. Powell is, in my opinion, the best writer/artist in comics right now. The latest Trade just came out as well, so if you haven’t tried this book, do yourself a favor and do so.

2) All-Star Superman #1&2. By Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely.
I only bought this book because I have yet to hear a bad thing about it. I’m not a huge fan of Morrison’s work, which is sacrilege in some comic circles, but his stories tend to wind up a little esoteric, in my opinion. I absolutely loved the start of his X-Men run, but by the end, I dropped it. And that was when I got comps from Marvel. Either way, the first 2 issues of this book were really fun and it really made me want to read more…so we’ll see what happens. I’m on board now, that’s for sure.

3) New Avengers #14&15. By Bendis and Cho.
I’ve been enjoying Bendis’ Avengers run since Disassembled. I’ve missed a few issues here and there, but I’ll probably pick those up at some point. Spider-Woman’s double agent story is really interesting and I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes. I miss Finch’s artwork, though. Cho is great, but Finch’s art just seems to fit better for the book, IMO.

4) Powers #16. By Bendis and Oeming.
This book is always good. I keep forgetting to order the Hardcover that just came out. I’ve never read the early stuff and I’m looking forward to doing that. I love Oeming’s work, I originally bought this book for Bendis’ writing, but now I buy it for Oeming’s art.

5) Savage Dragon #122 By Erik Larsen.
A new Dragon? What? Yup. I can’t even remember when issue 121 hit the stands, but this is a book I’ll buy no matter what. My boss, Chris Eliopoulos, lettered this thing, it’s been a while since he was on the book and from what I read in the back, it’s only temporary, Erik is looking to hand letter this book himself soon. When he does that, he’ll be a one-man show. Which is pretty damn neat.

6) The Amazing Joy Buzzards #4. By Crosland, Mahfood, Smith and Hipp.
I’ve never read and issue of this book, but I heard that Mahfood was in it, so I picked it up. It was a pretty cool read, and it’s nice to see a real Indy feel on an Image book. I’ll pick up the next issue, Mahfood involved or not.

7) Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. By Miller and Ching.
This is the first issue of the Darkhorse Star Wars relaunch. I hate to say it, but I was incredibly under whelmed by this book. I really haven’t read a good Star Wars comic in a long while. I’m picky with Star Wars, but this book didn’t feel like the universe at all to me. The art was nice, though, as well as the cover. But the story…..

So that’s the rundown of comics I’ve read recently. It was nice to pick some books up after a long layoff… I’ll be back at the shop next week, hopefully.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for update on the Mini Comic Cover Stencil.

--Gent

Truffle Shuffle

Back In Action

Whew. It’s been quite awhile since I last posted in here. These last 2 weeks I’ve been lettering like a madman. Which is great, can’t complain when you have work, but boy, it really throws a wrench in my other work. Hopefully next week I’ll really get down to business. The NY Con is approaching fast.

I did manage to get to the comic shop last weekend. It’s been so long since I’d been there that it was shut down! Newspaper covering the windows, gate pulled down… just flat out abandoned. Thing is, it didn’t surprise me at all. That comic shop was a dump. It was the kind of shop that gives comics a bad name. Messy, dirty, unorganized, a cranky co-owner behind the counter who wasn’t too keen on personal hygiene, and don’t forget his mother sitting in the middle of the shop (right next to the 50 cent bins) eating anything she could get her mitts on, spilling ketchup and other assorted condiments all over the wares. Awful shop.

Lucky for me there’s another really nice shop nearby. I picked up All Star Batman and Robin #3. Which I really like, I know it’s the cool thing online for fanboys to bash Miller, but the guy is amazing in my opinion. Nothing cracks me up more than some fanboy on a message board with a Serenity username talking about how Frank Miller, the guy behind Batman: Year One and Dark Night Returns, can’t write Batman.

Anyway, I also picked up Sgt. Rock The Prophecy by Joe Kubert. A flat-out amazing book. If you haven’t picked it up, do yourself a favor and do so. If I have a “Pick of the week” this book is it.

I also picked up Jim Mahfood’s “Adventures of One Page Filler Man” As usual its amazing work from Mahfood.

I’ll be heading out to the comic shop tonight to meet up with my good buddy C.B. Cebulski, whose book: Mangaverse, I just lettered. It’s a real fun book with great art and great lettering. : ) It’s on the shelves now, so show C.B. some support and pick it up this week.

Don’t forget about the new NYComix over at Pixelstrips, and stay tuned, things should be heating up here as the Con approaches.

Thanks.
--Randy

It's a Traaaaaap!

A little Admiral Ackbar to get you through the week. I posted a few more sketches over at my site... check 'em out.

As with every Wednesday, the latest NYComix page is over at Pixelstrips.com... Take a look.

thanks.
--Gent

More Mini-Comic #2 News

Things are really starting to come together on the upcoming NYComix Mini-Comic #2. Available this February at the New York Comic Con and through Lazycomix.com... it’s really shaping up to be a great Mini.

Over 30 pages of NYComix as well as a comic by Ereisa Wells and pin ups by Jacob Chabot of Mighty Skullboy Army Fame (we’ll be sharing a table at the show), Chris Giarusso of Mini Marvel and G-Man, and Jim Lujan… who already sent me an incredible pin-up.

Keep checking back for more info and don’t forget that there is a new page up over at Pixelstrips.

--Gent

Announcement!

Click the Image!

More Cover Fun

Mini-Comic Issue 2

Just a Quick Mock-up for the cover of the upcoming NYComix Mini-Comic Issue 2, which will be available at the New York Comic Con this February. It'll probaby change, but this is the idea I'm playing around with.

Let me know what you think.

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.