Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Randy Green Appearance

Randy Green will be appearing at ACME Comics in Greensboro, NC today from 12pm-2pm(ish), and I'm going to go and get some books signed (limit of 5 items to sign at the event)and hopefully a sketch done by him (if he's doing sketches). I'm pretty excited (and a bit nervous) since this will be the first comics professional I've ever met. Hope I don't make a complete and utter fool of myself...I'll post later with the details of my experience there.

Books I'm hoping he'll sign for me are:

2 Copies of New X-Men: Academy X #1 (one as a present for my best friend, whom I'm trying to get interested in the series)

Dollz #1 Wieringo Cover (Sadly I don't have the Green Cover)

Emma Frost #1

A Witchblade issue (not sure if I'll go for #26 or #500 yet, but I'm leaning toward #26)

I also can't decide who I want to ask him to sketch, but that's another nerve-wracking story in and of itself. Sadly, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't do a sketch of my two original characters, and there's so many established ones (Legion and non-Legion) to try for...

Randy was very friendly and we chatted for a bit about Dollz (he's considering relaunching the title) and his short stint on New X-Men (sadly only the first two issues). I did get a gorgeous headshot sketch of Noriko from him, though he had to borrow something to draw with from another artist who was also appearing at the store. The artist was another local, Thomas A. Boatwright. I bought a LotR print from him for my brother and a Jubilee commission sketch for myself. All in all, I had a lot of fun!

(I would scan the sketches and post them here, but I haven't figured out how to work my new printer/scanner combo thingummy yet...)

Crap, he's done with Academy X as of issue 2?! What the hell!

The writing's been excellent since the beginning of the NEW MUTANTS relaunch. But the art has been such a merry-go-round of sometimes-awful stuff... and here, I thought we had somebody both talented and reliable.

*sigh*

ANYways, rant over, congrats on meeting a pro and getting a sketch! Sounds like you had an enjoyable encounter. Good for you!

He cited creative differences as one reason for leaving, though he's doing some covers for them still (#3 and #6). The break was a clean one and he has nothing but praise for the writing team. I forget who he said the permanent artist on the book would be (though I think the rest of the first arc will be by a fill-in artist), but he did recommend them as being quite good. Of course, it could just be politeness on his part, but he seemed pretty genuine and honest to me (for what its worth).

I'll definitely miss him on Academy X, and when he relaunches Dollz, I'll be there. He had some interesting ideas for the relaunch (I won't go into details out of politeness, but he did liken the new version to a slightly older Kim Possible).

I know where you're coming from on the "do two issues and move on" thing. I miss the days of Mark Bagley doing umpteen issues of New Warriors or whatever, but I don't think most artists have the attention span for that these days. Not accusing Randy of that as he seemed to have legitimate issues, but I am very sorry we won't get to see more of him on NXM:AX...

Pex, DON'T scan those originals if you have a printer/scanner combo. Those make your insert the image to be scanned like you are faxing something. A feed through. It would ruin original stuff. You only want to scan if it is a flatbed that you open the lid and lay the object to be scanned on. Take it to a Kinkos or see if a friend has a flatbed. Don't ruin your precious purchases.

Now, I do have a question. What did he use to sketch with? I'm sure the crowd at SDCC will have their own pens/pencils/markers but I was thinking of bringing one of my own for them to use for my sketches in my book. Any suggestions on what to bring? I've never been to a con before.

C. Rap.

Oh it's a flatbed scanner on top of the main printer. I would only want a flatbed scanner in case I needed to scan something out of a hardcover book or something...plan ahead I always say!

As for what he used? No idea, he just grabbed some sort of pencil from Thomas's selection (on a little roundabout display thingie) and said "Ooh, I like this one!". I had brought a Bic ballpoint pen for him to use but I didn't offer it since he went immediately to Thomas for a loan. I didn't get a good look at the actual pencil he used, since I was pretty entranced by the image appearing from nowhere onto the paper.

I've never been to a con either, but I would recommend just a sketchbook and a good pen (of your own personal preference). If the artists have announced (or have a sign indicating they'll do sketches on request) then they'll most likely have brought their own drawing supplies to work with. If you ask one who hadn't planned on sketches, and he agrees, then it's best to have at least a ballpoint to lend him for the occasion in case he doesn't have anything to draw with.

Here's a scan of the Noriko sketch...surprisingly, all that was required was pressing the green button marked "Scan" on my scanner...I'm so clueless, sometimes...

Beautiful sketch!

Damn, I'm going to miss him on Academy X...

Agreed × 2.

I just checked - 3 & 4 were solicited with him as the penciller too... [Though, I seem to see his signature on the cover solicited with #4... is that the one he thinks is on #6?]

On the plus side, Mike Ryan's solicited to do #5, and he's a decent artist (no more Khary Randolph @ least). Hopefully, he'll do 3, 4 & 6 too.

Awesome sketch of Noriko, she's my favorite of the new New Mutants.

Well, he said he had done/was doing (can't remember which) more covers, so he could have done the cover for #4 as well. I just remember he mentioned #3 and #6 by number, although it could have been a slip of the tongue, I suppose.

Writers Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir recently answered some questions about this on their message board at ComiX-Fan. I believe they said Staz Johnson will be the guest penciller set aside for #3 and #4, with new regular artist Michael Ryan taking over with #5. Not sure about any fill-ins on #6 or if the order of covers got switched.

I feel worst of all for the writers-- they've been doing some great work since NEW MUTANTS #1, but haven't been able to capitalize because of the artist merry-go-round. That kind of instability really hurts a book.

Indeed, Pov. They've been positive about every change and have praised every new penciller they get, but I know they have to be feeling like the fans now...they just want an artist who sticks!

I'd love to have a consistent looking cast and background characters again like we did with Carlo Barberi(sp?). I really liked Randy's stuff and designs already, so I'll definitely be missing him when he goes. Hopefully the following pencillers will work with his style on the book instead of inventing new hair-styles and costume motifs.

Thanks for the heads up Pex, I'd have liked to see Randy but I'm a little too far away. Ace of Base 4 Life!

Yup - I just checked Marvel.com (I would have done earlier, but I keep forgetting that it's actually competent now), and he's marked down for both.

He also did the Doc Ock: Negative exposure mini, if anyone read that.

FINALLY!!! No one ever seems to recognize the band, or only knows like...two or three songs of theirs. LOL

Of course, it doesn't help that after their initial success, they were never properly promoted in the U.S. Or that their latest completely new album was only released in Europe and Asia...

My best friend and I have an unhealthy appreciation of AofB. I guess you can call them my guiltiest pleasure. He actually bought me the Japanese version of the 'Singles of the 90s' one year cause of those extra tracks and we keep talking about how we must see them in concert before we die. Did you get Da Capo? Its just...okay in my opinion.

I got the Japanese import version with "Don't Stop" and "Summer Days" on it. The album's fairly decent, but I think my favorite album is Cruel Summer/Flowers (even if Linn isn't featured as prominently). It's a darn shame they didn't put the Latin-sounding mix of "Cruel Summer" on the US version, I think it's actually better than the one we got over here.

Oh, if you have a multi-region DVD player, you might want to check out the German Exclusive Fan Edition box set listed on eBay (assuming you don't already have it, that is). It contains Flowers, Singles of the 90s and a R2 DVD of Da Capo with practically all of their older videos on it. Here's a link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...=4023110516&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

It pops up on there fairly regularly. The first time I saw it, I almost paid $100 for it (due to increasing bids), but it usually debuts at $39.95 every other week or so, and that's what I snagged my copy for eventually.

I don't think my DVD would play those. Alas, don't most of their videos look like they're homemade anyways ?

Two things:

1) The cover to AX6 *is* by Green. Apparently, he had one more in the can than he remembered.

2) The art in AX3 is awful

I have to agree with SoM about the latest issue's art....it was perhaps my least favorite of the five artists on the book's fifteen month history. I just didn't like how gritty everything was this issue...extra shadows and whatnot...that the other artists usually leave out for the book to be a much brighter, approachable story. I also didn't enjoy how it seemed some of the uniform designs, already the second issue they're featured in, seemed to undergo dramatic changes. People with coats suddenly don't have them, people swapping midruffs, etc. Not to mention, Wither looked like he was going bald half the issue. Isn't he supposed to be on of the guys with the shaggiest hair? It seemed many of the characters he drew had VERY thin hair that just kind of flopped there. Rather stiff, without a lot of movement. Ah, well. Minor, superficial complaints on my part since I finally had gotten all the characters's designs committed to memory. That and I like hair. Sorry, I'm just anal about certain books and their characters. I did enjoy the characterization (though I actually disliked the Scott/Emma/Rahne scene), I'm glad Sofia ended up becoming leader, and I love the approach of having the two squads face-off on a field day-like competition instead of taking it straight to the Danger Room and having that kind of training be the theme of the series.

As for Randy himself, I'm glad we at least got one more cover from him. It's a fun, nice one with the New Mutants and Hellions rushing each other. Perhaps he was contacted shortly after his departure to stay on for covers?

Well, looks like Randy's staying on as cover artist anyway, since the solicit for #7 is out now with a cover by him:

Cover itself is here, but beware of SPOILERS for the current arc: http://images.comicbookresources.com/solicits/marvel112004/big/NEWXAX007_COV.jpg


As for AX4, better than last issue art-wise - there's even a couple of strong shots, like Sofia's profile on p3. Which is undercut by the fact that Hellion's opposite and they Just Couldn't Draw Him.

I concur with SoM, I find myself actually quite liking the art this issue...even after the verbal trouncing I gave it last time. A fun story definitely helped it along.

Writer Christina Weir confirmed a few weeks ago that Randy is back doing covers full-time, but sadly a full-time cover artist on this book doesn't seem to last more than 6 issues. I'm hoping that won't be the case with Randy. Also, Weir said that as of right now Randy had no plans on coming back to the book to do interiors or a fill-in. He's probably got some other big project he's starting up these days.