John Martz

Toronto Comic Arts Festival this weekend

This weekend is the Toronto Comic Arts Festival. I’ll be there selling some small books, surrounded by hundreds of other cartoonists, and it should be a real blast.  I’ve never exhibited work at any type of convention or show, so I’m pretty stoked.  I’ll be sitting with my Drawn! cohort and Ojingogo creator Matt Forsythe, and from what I saw of the festival’s seating plan, seemingly right near the entrance, so you can’t miss us.  Also, the event is completely FREE to attend, so please come support local comics creators!

Here’s a quick preview of what I’ll have to offer.  I’ve compiled a collection of one-shot comic pieces (many from Machine Gum, which needs an overhaul), drawings, and even a few poems, and assembled them into the cleverly-titled Machine Gum #1.  Here’s the cover:

And a sampling of the kind of work you’ll find inside its pages:

The other book for sale is called Excelsior, and its name and content are taken from my mother’s 1968 high school yearbook.  In this project, an exercise in abstraction and in developing a style allowing me to draw quickly and consistently, I redrew the entire student body in cartoon form.  At over 1000 heads, the book is nearly 80 pages long, and, if nothing else, serves to offer evidence of my own OCD.  I changed the name of the school and the students themselves to fictional ones. Here’s the cover and a few sample pages:

I may eventually post the whole set on Flickr, and of course have the books for purchase here on the site for those who can’t make it to Toronto this weekend for the show and would like to get their hands on copies.

See you this weekend!