John Martz

Warm-ups reach 50

I’ve uploaded the 50th of my series of warm-up drawings to Flickr.  Think I can make it to 100?

Here’s the full set.

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Recycled phrases

I’m mentioned briefly in this New York Times article about Linzie Hunter’s Spam One-Liners, a series of typgraphic doodles based on the subject lines of junk e-mails.  The article credits Drawn! as helping to spread the popularity of the series of drawings.

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Partying with the NCS

BlogTO has a great write-up and photo slideshow of last night’s holiday party for the Canadian chapter of the National Cartoonists Society.  This was the first year I organized the party, and everyone seems to have had a great time.  There are photos to prove it even!

Thanks to Debbie Ohi for the great write-up!

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The sweet smell of completion

It’s such relief when a big project comes to completion, but an even bigger joy when you get to see it all shiny and printed.  Here’s a peek at a proof of a calendar I illustrated recently.  It was a bit of a departure from my usual cartoony style, and slightly more graphic.  I’d like to experiment now in combining this approach with my usual output.

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Expozine Comic Jam

This weekend at Expozine we passed the time at our tables by drawing some jam comics which I’ve posted over at Flickr.  They’re the work of myself, Allene Chomyn, Aaron Costain, and Matt Forsythe.

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Expozine bound

For those in and around Montreal, I’ll be setting up shop and selling my comics, prints, and original art at Expozine this weekend, Saturday, November 24 and Sunday, November 25, 2007, from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. at 5035 St-Dominique (Église Saint-Enfant Jésus, between St-Joseph and Laurier, near Laurier Métro).

I’ll be in good company with Aaron Costain, Rosemary Mosco, and Matt Forsythe.

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The Superest

I was invited to be a guest artist for Kevin Cornell and Matthew Sutter’s The Superest.  It’s a fun game of My Team, Your Team.

My entry: Doug, the Slacker Next Door.

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Interview on Illosaurus

Interview with yours truly on the illustration resource site Illosaurus.  We talk about Drawn! and illustration blogging.

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Sendables

JibJab has a new line of “eCards that don’t suck” called Sendables, and I was invited to contribute a few designs.  You can check out more over at Flickr.

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Catching Up with Darth Maul

My pal Gord from Space made this short film starring everyone’s second-favourite Sith Lord. It’s been selected by LucasFilm as an official entry in the Star Wars Fan Film Challenge at Atom Films, so go vote if you feel generous and Star Warsy.  You can even catch a brief glimpse of my handiwork (I drew the pizza delivery logo): Catching Up with Darth Maul

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Maclean’s, Canzine, and comics-as-stenography

This spot illustration, depicting a warm-up exercise for skiers, is one of 4 in the Sports issue of Maclean’s which is on newsstands now.  You can see all 4 on Flickr (1, 2, 3, 4).

And, this is somewhat late notice, but I’ll also be at Hotel Canzine in Toronto this Sunday from 1pm-7pm at the Gladstone, selling my Machine Gum and 1968 Yearbook comics.

Also at Hotel Canzine this weekend: the debut of a collection of comics by local Toronto cartoonists who acted as comics stenographers at this past Monday night’s Trampoline Hall lecture series.  It was a super fun night of drinking and drawing comics, and, in addition to yours truly, it includes the work of Zach Worton, Roxanne Bielskis, Kathryn and Stuart Immonen, Eric Kim, Steve Manale, Brian McLachlan, and more.

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More on TTC Maps (or: Beating a Dead Horse)

A bit late in mentioning this, but did any Torontonians notice this ad for Memorial University on the subway recently?

So the TTC, using the rationale that my Anagram TTC map, available only online from this website, might confuse and disorient non-English speakers, threatens me with legal action. But they’ll allow this on the trains themselves?

Coughdouble$tandardcough.

That being said, I got a chuckle when Eva pointed out that a Google search for TTC Map shows my Warmer Soupy Butt in the top image results.

(Thanks to Joe Clark for the photo!)

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Giving Twitter an honest go

I signed up for Twitter months ago, but didn’t really get it until I tried Twitterrific, which showed me how conversational and community-driven the whole thing could be.  Checking an RSS feed hours or days after someone tweeted made no sense to me, but Twitterrific (and I’m sure other similar stand-alone applications) made sense of the whole mess.

So I’ve been updating regularly for the past few weeks… The entire thing can sometimes seem like an exercise in banality, but with enough friends it’s pretty fun: twitter.com/robotjohnny

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Warm-up drawings

In order to loosen up before doing work, I’ve made it a habit to do some warm-up drawings every day.  I’ve printed up templates using a standard size and have started making a numbered series out of them, curious as to how many I can do in a year or so, and may eventually sell them off once I get a proper online store set up.

I’m uploading them to Flickr in my cleverly-named Warm-Up Drawings set.

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Catch me at Word on the Street

Those in Toronto can catch me at the Word on the Street book and magazine festival this coming Sunday. I’ll be part of the discussion panel Graphic Novel Publishing on the Internet: Webcomics, Digital Distribution and the Online Community, scheduled for 5:00pm at the Comics and Graphic Novels Tent.  See you there!

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