Laura Martin

Infobox Comics creator


imagesize =
caption =
birthname = Laura DePuy
birthdate =
location =
deathdate =
deathplace =
nationality =
area = Colorist
alias =
notable works =
awards = Comics Buyer's Guide Favorite Colorist, 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004.
Eisner Award for Best Colorist, 2000 and 2002.

Laura DePuy Martin is an artist, probably best known for her work as a - primarily freelance - colorist in the comics industry.

Biography

Laura DePuy (credited later in her career as Laura Martin, having married Randy Martin in 2001) is an award-winning colorist who has produced work for several of the major comics companies, including DC Comics, Marvel Comics and CrossGen.

An sometimes comics reader as a child, she attended a Graphic design program at the University of Central Florida, and, while "work [ing] the night shift at Kinko's... met [comics/Jim Lee fan] Ian Hannin, who... got me hooked on comics, and started me thinking about a possible career." Hannin later went on to work for Lee's WildStorm Studios, so when DePuy graduated, she::"went to visit him, and took my portfolio (now filled with comic-related coloring and artwork)... [and was] hired on several months later."

She is also Art Director for the comics website [http://www.sequentialtart.com Sequential Tart] a "webzine published by an eclectic band of women." [ [http://www.sequentialtart.com/index.php?issue=2006-03-01 Sequential Tart homepage] . Accessed July 19, 2008] [http://www.sequentialtart.com/article.php?id=68 "An Astonishing Colorist": Laura Martin, an interview by Jennifer M. Contino, March 1, 2006] . Accessed July 19, 2008] To produce her work, she utilizes PhotoShop and a "Wacom Intuos."

In June, 2008, at Heroes Con in Charlotte, NC, it was announced that had become a member of Gaijin Studios.

WildStorm (Image)

DePuy/Martin has worked in comics professionally since 1995, and after being hired in 1995, served for five years as a "staff colorist and assistant supervisor," and " [o] ccasional designer" for Jim Lee's WildStorm Studios, then an integral part of Image Comics. [http://www.colorista.net/nose/resume.php Colorista.net: Resume] . Accessed July 19, 2008] Among her earliest works was the collaboratively-colored Marvel/Image(WildStorm) two-issue miniseries "Backlash/Spider-Man" (Jul-Oct 1996), after which she co-colored issues of "Divine Right" and "StormWatch". [http://www.comicbookdb.com/creator_chron.php?ID=545 ComicBookDb: Laura DePuy] . Accessed July 19, 2008]

WildStorm (DC), DC and Marvel

In 1999, after the sale of WildStorm to DC Comics, DePuy became sole colorist on Warren Ellis and John Cassaday's "Planetary" series, as well as Ellis and Bryan Hitch's "Authority. Much of her work since then has involved coloring the artwork of both Cassaday and Hitch, who rarely work with other colorists.

DePuy colored the "JLA: Earth 2" graphic novel by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely in 1999, before, in late 2000, she also began coloring Dougie Braithwaite's art on the Alex Ross/Jim Krueger Marvel series "Universe X", and in November joined Bryan Hitch on Mark Waid's "JLA", coloring issues #47 - 58, following in tone the oversize volume "JLA: Heaven's Ladder".

CrossGen

Between 2001 and 2003, DePuy/Martin worked as "Assistant art director and Colorist" for CrossGen comics, ultimately moving to the companies base in Florida. During 2001, while coloring issues of "CrossGen Chronicles", she was able to continue to color issues of "Universe X", "Planetary", "JLA" and Ellis & Chris Weston's "Ministry of Space" (Image), as well as working on sections of the "Oni Press Color Special 2001" and "Dark Horse Maverick 2001", before the CrossGen exclusivity began, and she worked for Mark Alessi alone throughout the entirety of 2002 and 2003.

From November 2001's "Ruse" #1, she only worked on a handful of non-CrossGen comics (occasional issues of "Planetary") until summer 2004. In addition to "Ruse", she also colored "Edge" as well as occasional issues of "Meridian", "Negation" and "Sojourn", before the companies ultimate collapse.

Martin summarizes this time philosophically, writing:

Marvel et al.

title "I Am Legion", before moving (with Cassaday and Hitch) to work primarily for Marvel Comics. [http://www.comicbookdb.com/creator_chron.php?ID=586 ComicBookDb: Laura Martin] . Accessed July 19, 2008]

In July 2004, she colored the first issue of Joss Whedon & Cassaday's acclaimed version of the X-Men, "Astonishing X-Men", and in February 2005 she worked with Bryan Hitch on Mark Millar's "Ultimates 2" #1. In July of the same year, she worked on the Whedon/Brett Matthews & Will Conrad comics version of Whedon's "Serenity", the Dark Horse-released "".

She has worked on a number of odd issues and covers for comics released by a plethora of companies, including covers for the "Infinite Crisis" lead-in miniseries "Villains United", for which she colored the art of J G Jones. In the summer of 2006, she colored the main parts of Paul Jenkins' "" for Marvel's "Civil War" event, and in September 2007 began work on Joseph Michael Straczynski and Olivier Coipel's "Thor".

In December 2007, she helped color the first issue of Virgin Comics' "Tall Tales of Vishnu Sharma: Panchatantra", while continuing to work on "Thor" and "Astonishing X-Men". May 2008 saw her join Garth Ennis and Howard Chaykin on the Marvel MAX series "War is Hell: The First Flight of the Phantom Eagle", while June 2008 saw her debut on the main feature of a Marvel Comics event, coloring the artwork of Leinil Francis Yu on the Brian Michael Bendis-written "Secret Invasion" miniseries.

She continues as colorist on "Secret Invasion" and "War is Hell", having relinquished duties on "Astonishing X-Men" to new artist Simone Peruzzi (with new writer Warren Ellis).

Future work

Martin is expected to color the as-yet-unscheduled final bookend issue of "Planetary", and it was announced that Martin would also act as colorist on Adam Hughes's upcoming "All-Star Wonder Woman" comic, originally set to debut in 2008, the status of which is presently unknown. She is also set to color "" (a six-issue limited series premiering in January 2009) over the artwork of her Gaijin studiomate Cully Hamner.

Awards

She has been recognized for her work with two Eagle Awards (1999) and (2000) as well as winning two Eisner Awards for Best Colorist (2000) and (2002), and the Harvey Award between the Eisners in 2001.She has also received Squiddy Awards between 1999 and 2003, and the Comics Buyer's Guide Favorite Colorist Award in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004.

References

External links

* [http://pics.livejournal.com/hawkward/ Laura Martin's Scrapbook/Gallery]
* [http://www.colorista.net/ Colorista, her personal homepage]
* [http://www.sequentialtart.com/article.php?id=68 An interview with Laura Martin]
* [http://www.sequentialtart.com/archive/aug99/includes/laura.shtml Sequential Tart Biography]