After bouncing around at a few local colleges in upstate New York, Randy Gentile made the decision to move to New York City where he attended Pratt Institute. He landed an internship in the famous Marvel Bullpen and was able to turn that into a full-time gig in the now defunct Marvel in-house lettering department. He later transitioned to Chris Eliopoulos’ Virtual Calligraphy lettering studio.
With VC he lettered damn near every Marvel book at one time or another including Amazing Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Uncanny X-Men, Punisher, and Marville… wait, Marville?
Anyway, after 7 years of lettering Randy decided to make a go of it on his own without the aid of Chris “Obi-Wan” Eliopoulos. Since then he’s begun lettering for DC Comics where his work can be seen in funny books like Batman, Detective Comics, Gotham Underground, Teen Titans and Booster Gold.
Outside of his lettering work he self-publishes an autobiographical comic called NYComix and an uber-fast paced superhero strip called Randall. Both comics have been featured on Comic Geek Speak and Fanboy Radio.
When he’s not wallowing in lettering self-pity he spends his time in Brooklyn along with his lovely wife, Ereisa and their three cats Finnian, Don Fanucci and Olive.
Star Wars Should Be Fun
I'm a huge Star Wars fan... so huge that I even loved the prequels.
Yeah, I said it. 
But instead of talking about the prequels (Episode 1 is coming up on being 10 years old... think about that for a second) I'd like to talk about the Cartoon Network's recently launched Clone Wars cartoon.
We're 3 episodes in and if you haven't been watching, boy are you missing out on some good ol' fashioned Star Wars fun. The first episode kicked off with an all-Yoda episode... that was followed up by lost-in-space episode set around the little used, but cool as hell looking, Jedi Plo Koon. The most recent episode was an rip-roarin' space dogfight featuring Anakin and a squad of Clones giving the new Y-Wing bombers a spin versus General Grievous' Ion Cannon shootin' Warship.
Star Wars is just fun. It's everything I can imagine entertainment should be. It's Sci-Fi, it's Kung Fu, it's a Western, it's a Monster Movie, it's a creature feature, it's Knights of the Round Table, it's Robin Hood, it's a comic book, and so many other things that I could go on and on. But most of all, it's just plain fun. Some folks were searching for that same fun in the prequels and maybe I'm easier to please or maybe I'm just an unapologetic Star Wars fanboy and more likely I'm both but I didn't think it was hard to find in George Lucas' latest Star Wars trilogy. Nevertheless, if you're a Star Wars fan or if you were before you saw Jar Jar Binks for the first time, I think you'll love these cartoons. They're a half hour and they're free... but most of all, they're Star Wars. Check ‘em out.
All right, I've done enough tooting the Star Wars horn.
So what has everyone been reading?
I just finished The Alcoholic by Jonathan Ames and Dean Haspiel. I've talked about Dean's work a few times here on Font You! and besides the fact that he's a fellow Brooklynite he's also an amazing artist. His page layout is so good it's insane... so many artists seem to get fancy with panel shapes and placement while Haspiel combines the classic 6-panel grid with innovative design when the story calls for it. It sounds like a simple thing to do, but Haspiel nails it every time. 
Jonathan Ames' story is one of the most heart-felt stories I've read in comic form in years. Is it auto-bio? Semi-auto-bio? Fiction? Who knows and honestly who cares, Ames crafts a hilarious, touching and heartbreaking story about a writer struggling (and mostly failing) to control his demons, set against New York City and the tragedy of September 11th. I can't recommend this graphic novel enough to anyone out there who loves a great story.
It's a sequential art at the highest level. Pick it up.
The Goon #29 hit the stands recently and I didn't make it to my LCS due to a nasty cold.... So no worries, right? I'll just pick it up next time I'm at the shop...nope. Sold out.
I'll have to hit some other shops in hopes of finding it but at the same time, I'm happy there is a bunch of people picking up Eric Powell's kick-ass comic.
So as a result, I didn't pick up a single new comic this week. Maybe the fact that I'd be walking out without my favorite comic bummed me out so much that I didn't look around like I usually do but nevertheless this upcoming Wednesday looks like a decent week.
Star Wars: Clone Wars #2... Savage Dragon #137... not to mention the tons of trades I picked up at the DC offices last week... I'm in the middle of reading 100 Bullets Vol. 12.... I gotta say, I'm a little worried... I feel lost as hell but I'm hoping it turns around before it's all said and done.
I'll letcha know next week.
Speaking of Brian Azzarello has anyone seen the cover for the upcoming Hardcover OGN Joker? Holy cow. With art by Lee Bermejo (the guy who did the Hellblazer covers) you can tell by this cover that we're in for a great Joker yarn.
And you know what else I love about it? It's an OGN! 128 pages of a complete story all wrapped up in a nice hardcover.
As I was flipping around the DC Comics website I came across this title called Kill Your Boyfriend... apparently this book came out in 1995 and it's a one-shot by Grant Morrison and Philip Bond. I've never heard of this book but it sounds like a blast. 64 pages for 6 bucks. 
Man, lovin' these one-and-done comics and OGNs.
All right, that's enough from me this week.
Thanks for reading.
Font You!
--Randy
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