John Martz

Cheeseburger Pete

Another random character from the pages of my sketchbook.  Perhaps a distant relation to Mayor McCheese?

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An idea

You know what would be handy?  A plugin or Greasemonkey script that automatically appends the phrase “I apologize for my horribly late reply” to every single message I send from Gmail.

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Basil Moonbeam

I’ve been neglecting the blog! With an upcoming move, and plenty of work on my plate, it’s been tough to keep updating the site.  I’ve fallen behind on my movie reviews, and I don’t remember the last time I posted a drawing—so here’s one from a late-night inking session.  I have no idea who this character is… he just sort of appeared on the page.

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Recovery from comics-packed weekend

Here’s the strip I did for Free Comic Book Day’s Comics Fesitval 2007, in case you missed it.  I’m just now starting to feel recovered from a weekend-long comics extravaganza that started with Free Comic Book Day on saturday, followed by Sunday’s Scott McCloud lecture, and then Scott’s signing on Monday.

Kean has posted a detailed, photo-rich write-up of the weekend’s events so I don’t have to!

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Friday Random Ten

1. Mother Mother - Dirty Town
2. Soul Coughing - Bus to Beelzebub
3. R.E.M. - New Orleans Instrumental No. 1
4. Tom Waits - Jockey Full of Bourbon
5. Odds - Truth Untold
6. Lambchop - Each Time I Bring It Up It Seems to Bring You Down
7. Low - Your Poison
8. Cocorosie - Animals
9. Dinah Washington - Relax Max
10. Bob Dylan - Moonlight

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Where to get Comics Festival 2007?

Saturday is Free Comic Book Day. Where does one get a copy of Comics Festival 2007: The Comic Book if they’re not in Toronto?  So glad you asked!

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Fyne Art

A while back Gord Fynes asked me to draw a cartoon version of himself for his blog header, and I finally got around to it!  Heeeeeeere’s Gordo!

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Free Comic Book Day

This Saturday, May 5th, is Free Comic Book Day, and comic shops everywhere will be giving away comic books for free.  Who can say no to free comics?

Here in Toronto, Chris from the Beguiling put together a mean collection of original comics called Comics Festival 2007 (shown here, with a cover by Bryan Lee O’Malley) featuring work from a venerable crapload of talented cartoonists and comics creators, including a short strip by yours truly.  And it’s totally free.

To celebrate, I’ll be at the Beguiling (601 Markham Street) on Saturday from 12-3pm with other artists whose work appears in the book including Kean Soo (Jellaby) and Ryan North (Dinosaur Comics) so come on by!  If not for me, then for free comics!

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Drifting along with the tumbling tumblelogs

This website has grown and mutated over the years, and as a blog it has slowly become more of a work-related journal and creative showcase than the more general blog that it started out to be.  Drawn! has become the outlet I use to post illustration and cartooning links.  And as RobotJohnny.com becomes more personal and more specific to my art/craft/career/glorified hobby, most other items have started to seem out of place here.

I’ve got this sidebar of “Quick Links” powered by del.icio.us, but it’s not very exciting, and it’s a little finicky and a pain to update (which is why I rarely do). But I’ve been playing around with Tumblr, for a few weeks, and have started up a tumblelog called Table Scraps which is turning out to be the perfect outlet for YouTube videos, quotes, quick links, and other things that don’t necessarily require any heavy commentary.  And Tumblr makes it a breeze to update.  It’s sort of like blogging for dummies, but it works; I eagerly await the day that WordPress or some other blogging solution is as smart and intuitive.

I’m treating it as a sort of scrapbook, and I think I will eventually roll it into the design of my sites and include it in my navigation bar up top.

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Cool stuff

I’ve started contributing to E! Online’s Cool Stuff blog, marking my first foray into paid blogging.  Don’t expect anything too mind-blowing; I’ve been asked to write about items similar to the types of things posted on Drawn!, but with more of a general-interest audience in mind.  My first post: The Beauty of 8-bit.

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Charlie Brown wins one

I was dipping into my Complete Peanuts books and came across this fantastic panel from 1956.  It’s strange to see Charlie Brown actually winning the fight against his kite for once—especially so violently!  The way Schulz has anthropomorphized the kite throughout the years makes this a particularly grim scene. Love it.

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Your favourite indie band sucks

Is it just me, or after a while don’t all these indie rock bands like the Arcade Party, Broken Social Cutie, and the Arctic Parade all start to sound the same after a while?  See?  I can’t even get their names right.  To be truthful, I do like a lot of these bands, but after the recent disbanding of the Rheostatics, I got to wondering where all the truly magical, challenging, idiosyncratic music was these days.

I think part of me wants to recreate that moment when I first listened to the Rheostatics’ Introducing Happiness album and heard the opening track Fan Letter to Michael Jackson—full of weird noises, vocal effects, irreverence, and a strange, strange beauty.  I want to recapture that high school moment of discovering music that’s truly unlike anything the rest of the kids are listening to. 

I want music to challenge, excite, and engage me.  So I turned to Ask MetaFilter, and got some overwhelming feedback.

Oh, and speaking of the Rheostatics, I have to share this bizarre ad for zunior.com, featuring Rheostatic Martin Tielli:

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Fist-a-Cuffs redux

Since my last Fist-a-Cuffs entry with Matt was kinda disqualified (which is fine because I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if Matt’s awesome Fur Brigade couldn’t partcipate!), Mr. Hiti graciously allowed me to re-enter my character for a special match if I could find another partner.  So I called on the help of my pal Revilo who came to my rescue and drew the most amazing fighting partner.

Behold the Honeymooners: Ella and Moolah! !

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Fist-a-Cuffs

Meet Chunder Woman and Torso-Teeth, a dynamic duo known as The Conflicting Interests!  Matt Forsythe and I drew these (he drew the robot… er, the one in working order) for Sam Hiti’s Fist-a-Cuffs competition. 

(Originally, Chunder Woman’s costume was the same as Wonder Woman’s, but Sam asked me to modify it so it was a little more original)

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Catch me on the National

Canadian readers might want to tune in to the National on CBC either tomorrow or Thursday night (unsure which night it will air).  I’ll be featured briefly talking about my friend Paul Gilligan, the Toronto cartoonist who draws the syndicated comic strip Pooch Café.  The CBC is profiling Paul and his strip for their Arts segment.

Having roomed with Paul at the NCS Reuben Awards two years ago in Arizona, he’s lucky I neglected to share any stories of drunken hijinks or bed-wetting.

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