Randall Month Kicks off!

Last night I did an interview with the fine folks over at Comic Geek Speak… so head on over here for the interview on Randall, NYComix and lettering comics for Marvel.

Thanks to the guys over at CGS for the help!

--Randy

Classic Fantastic Four

I go back and forth on my favorite comic storyline all the time. I think it depends on what classic comic I most recently pulled off my bookshelf. Some days it’s the Lee/Ditko/Romita Sr. Amazing Spidey stuff. Some days it’s Gene Colon Iron Man or Lee/Kirby Thor, some days it’s even the Herb Trimpe Hulk stuff. But more often than not, I find it hard to beat the Stan Lee & Jack Kirby Galactus storyline beginning in Fantastic Four #48. Honestly all 100+ issues of Stan and Jack’s FF work could be considered the best superhero comics of all time, but the Galactus story was so grand, so epic and monumental, that it really is the template of the superhero comic book.

The bottom line of every superhero funny book is that there has to be a superhero/supervillain storyline that makes the reader think that THIS is the time our hero cannot possibly defeat this latest threat. There needs to be one event, one panel even, that makes the reader doubt our heroes ability to succeed. If that doesn’t happen, the writer is in trouble. It sounds easy, but 40 years of the hero kicking everyone’s tail issue after issue makes that simple premise tough to keep fresh. You often hear this problem cropping up with a book like Superman. Where Supes is so powerful that no matter what they throw at him, it’s impossible to think that he may lose. They’ve powered him down and even killed him, but eventually this problem rears it’s ugly head every few years with The Man of Steel. I’ve recently gotten into Superman books and when he’s good, he’s a blast to read, but when he’s bad… he’s bad.

The Galactus storyline typified the idea of making the reader think that our heroes don’t stand a chance. This story also debuted the great Silver Surfer character. Galactus’ herald who combs the galaxy in search of fresh planets for his master to feed upon. Armed with the Power Cosmos, the Surfer is so powerful that it’s hard to think that the FF can even defeat him. Now throw in the fact that some all-powerful being created the Surfer? That he’s just a lackey? A toady? Holy crap. There’s a story!

Now before I spoil this for anyone who hasn’t read it, I’ll stop. An honestly, what kind of comic book fan are you if you haven’t read this yet?

What got me thinking about this was a thread on a comic book message board where it was announced that Galactus will be appearing in the next Fantastic Four flick. Sure, the first FF flick wasn’t exactly a classic film in cinema history, but my love of the Galactus storyline has got me excited, and worried, about FF2. Basically it was rumored that when Galactus appears in the movie, he won’t be in the form of Jack Kirby’s amazing design. To my surprise, a lot of fans didn’t see this as a problem. Naturally the most common reasoning was that the design is a silly one that the “general movie-going audience” won’t accept. To me, that makes no sense, whatsoever.

The “general movie-going audience” has been barraged with superhero flicks recently and they seem to have bought most of them just fine. And the one’s they didn’t buy wasn’t because of a silly suit design… it was because the stories sucked.

They bought a kid getting bitten by a radioactive spider and getting spider-powers and a cool suit that he apparently made on his own. I guess Peter Parker could be a contestant on Project Runway. They bought Superman being an alien from a far away planet and he just happens to look, talk, act, and have an “S” in his logo implying that the planet Krypton also uses the same alphabet as Earth. They bought the FF, including a guy in a giant orange booger-suit and they’ll buy a silver guy flying on a surfboard, but don’t you dare try to pass-off Galactus in a purple suit! The “general movie-going audience” is waaaaay to sharp for that stuff!

Ugh.

I find it really pretentious to think that people who read comics today and go to movies today are smarter than people who read comics and went to movies back during 1966… when FF 48 hit the stands.

We are still talking about, and being inspired by, these stories for a reason… because they’re classic, timeless stories. They’ll be around far longer than we will and for good reason.

--R

Randall Month Update...

No updates in a while, so here’s some cool news and a couple of comic recommendations.

I mentioned the upcoming “Randall Month” and it’s really starting to shape up. It’s going to start on November 1st, where I’ll have a new page (3 pages total) to kick off weekly updates throughout the rest of the month. I’ve got a spot on a really great and popular Comic Podcast to kick it all off (details to come) and hopefully I’ll be able to get a few more promotions shakin’ as well.

I’ve wanted to get more people to the site and I think it’s at a place now where there are plenty of comix to check out and, with the weekly updates, a reason to bookmark and keep coming back. Baring any unforeseen disasters, I’ll hit every update as I’ve got 4 pages inked and ready to be colored, so there won’t be any delays in the strip. So spread the word and stay tuned.

Last Friday, Ereisa and I went out to the amazingly kick-ass comic shop in Brooklyn called: Rocketship. Brian K. Vaughan was signing and as the writer on my favorite Marvel book: Runaways, I went on out to say “Hi” and really thank the guy for being a professional writer. It would boggle your mind how many horrible scripts I get to letter from… spelling errors, grammar mistakes, mis-numbered pages, etc. That stuff never happens with a BKV script and throw in the fact that the book is amazing and you’ve got a happy letterer. Runaways is a book I’m truly proud to be a part of and if any of you haven’t been reading it, pick it up. If you’ve got the cash, pick up the hardcover and if you’re not ready for that commitment, there are neat full-color digest size trades that are like 8 bucks. You can even pick up the monthly comic, as it’s an easy book to jump into. No long, lingering storylines that’ll confuse the hell out of you. Anyway, BKV is hell of a guy and it’ll be sad to see him leave the book. I hear some TV/Movie guy named Whedon is taking over. Whoever he is. J

While there I picked up a copy of “Pride of Baghdad” and the first volume of “Y The Last Man.” A book I’ve been meaning to read but never picked up. Both books were great and well worth the read.

“Pride of Baghdad” is a amazing book, with beautiful art by Niko Henrichon… its one of the best books I’ve read in a while, check it out.

Thanks for readin’ and stay tuned,
Gent

My Goodness...

I joined the mess that is MySpace....

www.myspace.com/lazycomix

Go over there if you want to be my intraweb friend.

--r

NYComix Episode 9

A while back NYComix was a part of Pixelstrips.com… Once a week I was churning out a page of NYComix and by week 20 or so I really felt the work was suffering as a result of the schedule. I wanted to do longer stories with backgrounds and a lot of panels but with the lettering work, it just wasn’t possible. I hated the last few pages and I decided to stop and just use my site as a place to show my webcomix. Sure I have zero schedule and nobody knows when the next strip will hit the site, but I do know that it’ll be a strip that isn’t rushed.

Anyway, I just found out that Pixelstrips is hitting a bit of a rough patch and what was once a subscription site is now a free site. The news made me go back and take a look at some of the stuff I did for the site and I realized that there were some good strips in there. So I decided to post one over at LazyComix.com as a bit of a hold over until “Randall Month” in November.

What’s “Randall Month” you say? Well, this November will be the first ever, regular updates at my site. Every Wednesday you can head on over for 4 consecutive weeks of new Randall comix… That’ll wrap up the first chapter and hopefully leave you with a nice big cliffhanger to bring you into Chapter 2. I’m seriously considering even advertising “Randall Month” around the intraweb, maybe see if I can get on some Podcasts, etc.

I’ve always wanted to start advertising the site, but I haven’t been totally happy with the site design and I wanted there to be a ton of comix for people to check out. Now with over 10 episodes of NYComix, Randall, LazyComix Presents is still taking off, plus the sketchbook section, I think there’s enough there to make it worth the trip.

So stay tuned.

And hey, Issue 2 of American Splendor hit the stands last week… go buy it if you haven’t already.

Thanks for reading,
--Randy

Where Have You Gone, Paul O’Neill?

I’m unabashedly a huge New York Yankee fan. I have been since the days of Mattingly and Winfield during the 1980’s. Those were some lean years, and as a guy born in 1976, I’m part of the only generation that can remember a time when the Yankees really had no chance of winning. If you were a Yankee fan from the 20’s-60’s… you saw so many championships and great players that it’s mind-boggling. The early 70’s were tough, but by the end you had the “Bronx Zoo”, with Billy Martin at the helm, that was as entertaining a team as you can find in the history of baseball. A dysfunctional family that was a perfect a team on the field… a great starter in Guidry, Goose Gossage closing, Munson behind the plate, Nettles catching everything on 3rd and Reggie Jackson hitting 3 home runs on 3 pitches in the World Series.

Then came the 80’s. My generation. Watching Mattingly become a Yankee legend. Dave Winfield walk to the plate seemingly 2 feet taller than everyone else. Ricky Henderson stealing 100 bases. They had a solid offense but their pitching was just atrocious. I would read books about the great teams of the past, Yogi Berra winning 10 rings. I couldn’t even imagine even watching the Yanks in the series let alone winning 10 of them.

In ’94 Yanks were on top and looking to be a playoff team. Then the strike hit and I turned to basketball for a few years. But the Yanks were always around. I still followed the team and by the 1996 championship I back on board. I moved to New York City in 1999 and during the 2001 playoffs, the Yankees were a huge part of New York City during the aftermath of 9-11. They were the perfect form of escapism and the only thing I could cling to after seeing unimaginable horror days earlier. That team, even though it lost to Arizona, solidified my love of the New York Yankees. They’re more than a baseball team to me, they’re part of the fabric of New York City. You can walk into any bodega in the city and talk Yankee baseball with a total stranger for hours. I just talked about trading Arod with a drunk stranger yesterday.

They’re the Yanks. They play in a section of the Bronx that you would never visit if it weren’t for the Stadium, there’s nothing like walking under that elevated subway track, as the 4 Train rumbles overhead, it’s New York. The upper deck is where the real fans sit, no emotionless suits and celebrities, just like NYC it’s a melting pot of different people… hard-working men and women coming out the Bronx after work to see the Yanks, a place where the vendors are lifetime New Yorkers with Yankee tattoos on their arms. It’s where Arod gets booed and Jeter is God. Where thousands of fans wish Melky Cabrera were playing instead of Bobby Abreu and Bernie was in Center instead of that guy from Boston. Where fans won’t wear the number of a Yankee if he’s not “Home Grown”.

After this latest debacle it’s grown blatantly obvious that the Yanks and their fans miss guys that play hard. During the 90’s we passed on high priced free agents, opting instead for guys like Paul O’neill and Scott Brocious. Cast off pitchers like David Cone and Jimmy Key. Today’s Yankee teams don’t have the potential for an unexpected triple from a catcher like Joe Girardi. No surprise big home runs from a Jim Leyritz. Or pitch hit home runs from Tino Martinez, a 100 RBI guy who didn’t start a big playoff game.

I hope the Yankee upper brass sits down and watches some tape of those guys. Guys who had fire and wanted to win more than anything else.

Well, there’s always next year. I only hope the team if far different.

If I only Had a Pocket Fulla’ Nickels and a Time Machine

Got this photo from fellow New Yorker and Yankee fan Steve Flack over at the Bendis Board….
(click the photo, it's a little tough to see at this size)

Found Art 2

This one was literally right outside my apartment. I’m not sure what room this piece was a part of… possibly the living room or study? Your guess is as good as mine.

Part one of the “Found Art” series.

King Kong

Keeping with the review theme, I just saw Peter Jackson’s King Kong. Yeah, this movie was released forever ago, but whatever…

For some reason I was a bit weary with this flick when it was released… While I loved the Lord of the Rings movies, I always thought they were a bit too long, but after a while, I gave that a pass due to the huge amount of material they had to cover. When I found out that King Kong was over 3 hours… I couldn’t see how they managed to stretch 3 hours out of a movie about a giant monkey. I mean…find the monkey, monkey falls in love, tragic act 3, The End.

But holy cow was this a great flick. Sure they probably could’ve trimmed 20-30 minutes off this thing without batting an eye… the sub plot with the kid from “Nicolas Nickelby” was pretty much useless and Jack Black outrunning anything, especially a raptor, is about as unbelievable as it gets, but by the end of the movie I could care less. From the crazy good Kong vs. T-Rex scenes to the end, I was seriously hooked.

I wish I didn’t take a pass on this when it was in theaters and if any of you haven’t seen it yet… the weekend is as good as any for a flick like King Kong.

--R

Reviews and Randall News

Been a while since I posted so here’s a quick lil’ comic review and some Randall news.

First for the reviews. I finally got out to the comic shop on Tuesday, (I know that makes no sense, I should’ve waited until Wednesday, but whatever.) I met my main man C.B. Cebulski for a few drinks and he played a little part in my comic selection this week. I was about to drop All Star Superman. I’m always weary of Grant Morrison comics as while they’ll be fun books for a few issues, they seem to turn into esoteric “Grant Morrison Stories” at the drop of a hat. That has to be on it’s way with AS Superman and after the so-so issue 4, I was going to take a pass on issue 5 and just avoid the impending disappointment. C.B. told me that he was also on the fence with dropping this one, but he picked up issue 5 and really enjoyed it. Being that I only was only going to buy 2 comics I figured “what the hell.”

All Star Superman By Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely
An issue with no Superman (at least in his suit) but Morrison writes a pretty darn good Lex Luthor and all in all, I really enjoyed the interplay between Luthor and Clark. I’m looking forward to seeing what’s going to happen with this run, let’s just hope this book doesn’t go into the “Morrison Zone”. Until then, I’m back on board. Thanks, C.B.

Savage Dragon 128 By Erik Larsen.
Another fun ish from Larsen. I’m such a fan of the Dragon that I never worry about dropping the book. As long as he’s making it, I’ll read it. If you haven’t picked up the Dragon in a while, go ahead and pick one up. It’s good ol’ fashioned comic book fun. Plus, if you’re a fan of Mark Millar’s Wanted, it’s a crossover with those characters.

The Goon Noir By various creators
As Erik Powell finishes the “Chinatown” graphic novel, a book I can’t friggin’ wait for, folks like Patton Oswalt, Mike Ploog, Steve Niles and others put together a really fun book full of black and white stories featuring the regular Goon cast. I’ve endlessly praised this book and I’ll continue to do so. In my humble opinion, it’s the best book on the stands. Bar-none.

So that’s my comic “haul”. With all the books on the stands, I can’t believe I walk out of the shop with 3 books. Anyway…

Randall is still rolling along. I’ve gotten caught up in the story and I’m really enjoying drawing the strip, so the plan is to stock up on pages and maybe do a new page every Wednesday type-thing. I’ll see if I can’t put together Randall Month over at LazyComix.com, look for that in October, in the meantime, here’s a sneak peek at the next page.

Thanks for reading!
--Randy

Randall Premiere!

After what has seemed like and eternity, the Randall Relaunch is finally here. As I was uploading the new pages on my site, I was reminded that I did 22 pages of the “old” Randall before deciding to start over. Heck, there was some time there that I was going just bag the whole idea. Nevertheless, I’m glad I didn’t.

So here’s the link, head on over and check out the strip and please shoot me some feedback here or even via email. I’d love to hear it.

Thanks for looking,
Randy

American Splendor at Vertigo

Last week the first Vertigo published issue of Harvey Pekar’s American Splendor hit the shelves.

If you didn’t pick it up last week, don’t forget to put it on your list for this week. It’s a book that changed the way I look at comics and it really fell into my lap at the right time in my life. Ereisa bought me an issue of “The Complete Crumb, Volume 12” which happened to contain a huge chunk of the Pekar/Crumb team-ups. That book really got me into the world of alternative comics. And thank god, because without them, I’d surely have dropped comics altogether. There’s only so much late shipping over-written crossover superhero comics I can handle.

So go out and not only support Harvey but also support DC for publishing a book like American Splendor. It’s nice to see a big-time comic publisher put something besides another tights and capes book on the shelves.

Meanwhile, Randall Redux is inching closer and closer every day. It’s really turning into something I’m excited about and after all the trepidation about continuing the Randall comic, I couldn’t be happier that I stuck it out.

Stay tuned and Go Buy American Splendor! There’s gotta be some book you’re about to drop anyway!

--R

5 Years Later...

This is the only comic I’ve done dealing with 9-11.

Someday, I’ll do another one…but here it is, 5 years later and I’m not emotionally ready to sit down and draw the thing.

Someday.

http://www.lazycomix.com/nyc006001.html

Greatest Movie Decade...

I love movies even more than comics. Nothing gets my creative juices flowing more than watching a great flick… some of my go-to movies when I need an inspirational kick-in-the-pants are Star Wars, The Godfather, Goodfellas, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill, Crumb and others.

I’ve got a little 13 inch TV/DVD combo right next to my computer monitor. It’s been a saving grace for me as it has helped me get through many a boring day putting circles around other people’s writing. The movie I just popped in was the original Alien by Ridley Scott. Holy cow, what an amazing movie. For some reason, I forgot when this movie was released, I thought maybe the early 80’s but it’s 1979 release. It didn’t surprise me at all. The 1970’s produced so many great movies that it’s arguably the best decade for movies. If you ask me, it is the best decade by far.

Just off the top of my head you’ve got:

Star Wars
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Alien
Jaws
Apocalypse Now
Godfather 1 and 2
Rocky
Mean Streets
Taxi Driver
The Exorcist
Superman
Animal House
The French Connection
Annie Hall
Serpico

You’ve got all-time greats in every genre right there and I’m sure I’ve forgotten a ton. I can’t think of a better Sci-Fi flick than the three I named… the Godfather is a good as it gets period…. Great Horror with The Exorcist… some of Scorsese’s best work with Taxi Driver…. I know there’ve been some great superhero flicks recently, but the original Superman is right there with any of the new ones. One of the best Comedies ever made in Animal House. Two of the best Cop movies in French Connection and Serpico. And Rocky is one of the best Sports movies ever made.

Damn, I know I sound old saying this…”but they don’t make ‘em like that anymore.”

C’mon, folks…. Name some more great 1970’s movies.

--Randy

Randall! Closer Than Ever!

Randall has just become a never-ending saga in my little comic book world. I’ve been revamping the story and character for years now. I’m not even sure when the last page of the original Randall was posted, but even then, I had a feeling it would be the last time I’d work on Randall… at least in that form.

So, after countless rewrites and redesigns, 3 or 4 completed pages that will never see webcomic glory… I finished page one and I’m really, really happy with it. Page 2 is thumb nailed out and ready to go.

With a new “LazyComix Presents” on deck, it looks like there’ll be plenty of new Comix over at the site.

Here’s a lil’ sneak preview… Stay tuned.

Here's a few books that won't be late!

With the recent announcement that every comic made from now until the end of time will probably be late… (and it ain’t the Letterer's fault, folks!) Here’s a couple comics you can pick up and enjoy right now.

Brownsville by Neil Klied and Jake Allen
I’m a bit of a New York City Organized Crime Buff and this is a great little Graphic Novel about the Jewish Gangsters of the 1930’s. Great writing and art and just a fun read. Check it out.

Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O'Malley
Picked this up on the suggestion of about every darn person who posts in the “Indy Book” thread over at the Bendis board. At the same time, this book caused a little riff between folks who’ll read a book like Scott Pilgrim and folks who’ll only read the superhero stuff from the Big 2. Why one would limit themselves to only reading superhero books is beyond me, but whatever, that’s a topic for another time. Anyway, Scott Pilgrim is an absolute blast. Loved every page of it. Laugh out loud funny, great writing and dialogue, and innovative to boot. Get out there and pick it up. I’ve only read Volume 1…. But I can’t wait to get my hands on Volumes 2 and 3. Link

Stay tuned folks and Go Yankees.

--randy

NYComix Episode Eight

The latest NYComix is finally up at LazyComix.com.

Check it out here and give feedback!

--Randy

Bolds Bolds Everywhere Bolds

What’s the deal with bold words in comics? I’ve never gotten a straight answer as to what the heck they’re supposed to mean. The best answer I’ve ever gotten, and the one that makes the most sense is that they’re supposed to show you where the speaker would be putting an emphasis in his/her speech. I’ve seen actors circle words in their lines to show where their voice should change to show emotion. Alec Guinness was an actor that did this with his scripts.

The “smash” being where the Green Goliath raised his voice at the height of his anger.

A curse word would be another place where a bold would suffice.

However, being the one responsible for bolding these words as I transfer the script to the comic page, I realize that 99.9% of the bold words I see are completely ridiculous. Words that just make no sense are bolded over and over again. And if you were to read the dialogue with the speech emphasis idea placed on the bolded words, it would sound so silly and absurd that the writing would lose any impact the writer intended. Instead turning into something quite funny. However unintentional it may be.

That’s the kind of stuff I usually see. The only thing I can think of is that the writer is using bold words as a “Hi-Lighter”, emphasizing words he thinks are important and that the reader should notice. In my opinion, you should have confidence in your writing and dialogue, if you did, you wouldn’t need to hi-light an important point. It would come across through your story. It’s like ringing a bell after every important point or hitting your reader over the head as if he/she is incapable of understanding the scene you’re presenting.

I’ve done hand written letters. Complete with paper captions, a hand written font, which was loaded with bold words. When was the last time you sat down to write a letter and used 2 pens? One fine point and the other with a thick point for bold words? Probably never. When’s the last time you used a bold word in a casual email? Maybe once in a while, but I can’t remember getting an email with a bolded word.

Well, that’s it for now. Hope you liked my Andy Rooney-esque Blog. It was a much therapeutic as it was fun to write. Now go read a comic out loud and laugh at what you sound like as you emphasize the bold words.

Mural

Ereisa and I can’t believe we don’t have this mural to work on anymore. Basically everyday for 3 weeks, we worked all day and then headed into Manhattan to work on this. Throw in weekends and you’ve got 2 exhausted artists.

Hopefully this is just the first of many murals to come.

DC Comic Fan?

Back with some comic updates and talk.

The first page of the Randall Relaunch is inked. Two more pages to go, I’ll be coloring this one, so I want to take my time with that. I’m not a huge fan of coloring comics, I find it a little boring and tedious, but I’m hoping to do something fun with this one, something much different than the spotty job I did with the old Randall.

In the meantime, I’m working on the latest NYComix. I’m trying to add as much texture and detail to this NYComix as I can. So, as with Randall, I’m taking my time with it. Stay tuned and thanks for bearing with this rather long drought of no new comix.

And Ereisa and I will finally finish the mural tonight. We went a shade over 3 weeks. At first we planned on finishing in two and we basically did finish the mural in that time, but another piece in the office added the extra week. Look for pictures of the mural later this week.

I picked up a few comics last week as well.

Tricked by Alex Robinson
I absolutely loved Robinson’s last graphic novel, Box Office Poison. So I was really looking forward to Tricked. Unfortunately, I must say I didn’t dig Tricked as much. I had a hard time connecting to the music storyline, I found a lot of the characters unlikable and the characters I did like weren’t in the book enough. But, being that I loved BOP so much, I’m looking forward to Robinson’s next book.

Savage Dragon #0 “The Origin Issue”
One of the best Origin stories I’ve ever read. If Larsen ever decides to end the Dragon comic, he’s got a potential whopper of a storyline if he chooses to connect it to this origin story. It’s only a $1.95 so go pick it up.

The Goon #16.
I finally found this issue. It was sold out at Midtown comics, luckily I found the lone issue sitting on the shelf at Jim Hanley’s. As always, this comic kicks ass. You’re probably sick of me talking about how great it is, so I’ll stop.

Batman #655
The first issue of the Grant Morrison/Andy Kuburt run. I can’t believe where my mainstream comic tastes have gone. I’ve been a lifetime Marvel zombie, only reading DC comics when I got one for free or the art looked interesting. Now I don’t read any Marvel books and my 2 fave mainstream comics are both by Grant Morrison. A writer whose esoteric work used to annoy the crap out of me. All Star Superman and now Batman. This latest issue of Batman was just a fun issue with a great cliffhanger. Throw in some great art by Kuburt and I’m on board with this book for a while. AS Superman is a little different, but I’m digging what Morrison is doing with telling the story really fast, almost making the reader draw conclusions and put the story together as you go. I’ll take that any day over the decompression jazz we’re seeing so much of lately.


That’s it. Stay tuned and thanks for reading.
--Randy