RobotJohnny.com - home of illustrator and cartoonist John Martz

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Yearbook Project: Excelsior 1968

Sunday, April 13, 2008 · 37 Comments

Last year I redrew my mother’s entire high school yearbook from 1968—over a thousand heads. Good cartooning, to me, is all about simplification, and this was a fun experiment in distilling each person’s likeness down to a simple cartoon version and learning to draw efficiently, with both speed and as few details as possible.

I’ve published the project as a book called Excelsior 1968, which I debuted at last summer’s Toronto Comic Arts Festival. You can buy the book from my new online shop, and you can see entire thing over at Flickr.

37 Comments

Bee Movie

Thursday, April 10, 2008 · 1 Comment

IMDb
2008 · Directed by Steve Hickner, Simon J. Smith

With a title like this, there are tons
of reviews that are littered with puns.
Could anything be more unfunny
than “Buzz Kill!” or “Show Me The Honey!”?
Myself, I’m not prone to such junk;
I simply thought Bee Movie stungk.

1 Comment

I Am Legend

Thursday, April 10, 2008 · 0 Comments

IMDb
2008 · Directed by Francis Lawrence

A horrible virus has spread,
and a worldwide genetic mutation
has made the world’s people undead.
Pandemic-style zombification!

Immune to the zombies’ disease,
and alone, on the brink of insanity,
Will Smith, of the zombies, decrees
that “they’ve lost any sign of humanity!”

That’s not the impression I got.
Mr. Smith, do you think that perhaps
you missed, or just maybe forgot
‘bout the part where they learned to build traps?

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Sir Mux-a-lot

Tuesday, April 8, 2008 · 1 Comment

I finally jumped on the Muxtape bandwagon. Enjoy my mix...er, mux… robotjohnny.muxtape.com

The Dramatics - Get up and Get Down
Aretha Franklin - Save Me
Solomon Burke - Cry to Me
Otis Redding - Respect
Carla Thomas - I’ll Bring It Home to You
Shirley Ellis - The Nitty Gritty
Lee Dorsey - Holy Cow
Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Secondary Modern
Nick Lowe - I’m a Mess
She & Him - You Really Got a Hold On Me
Leon Redbone - She Ain’t Rose
Ike & Tina Turner & The Ikettes - Goodbye, So Long

1 Comment

Good Luck Chuck

Monday, April 7, 2008 · 2 Comments

IMDb
2008 · Directed by Mark Helfrich

At a friend of a friend’s, whereupon
someone else chose to put this one on,
‘twould be rude to just voice
that it was a poor choice.
I conceded, and thought, “Good luck, John”

2 Comments

Major site overhaul

Friday, April 4, 2008 · 15 Comments

With several varying URLs and projects scattered across different sites, a major overhauling of my sites was long overdo. My blog, illustration portfolio, and neglected Machine Gum comics site needed, I felt, a more cohesive presence. So after months of wrestling with stylesheets and learning an entirely new CMS, I’m excited and relieved to finally launch this latest redesign. It’s not a major departure from the previous design; but I’ve managed to consolidate everything a little better with more uniform branding and navigation.

I’m not a professional web designer, but I am a fairly competent hobbyist I think. Nonetheless, I wouldn’t have been able to do this without the help of both CSSEdit and the Blueprint CSS framework, both of which help take most of the guesswork out of designing with stylesheets. Web standards geeks tempted to look under the hood will still find no-nos like empty divs, and a somewhat disorganized stylesheet, but whatever. I’m a cartoonist, not a bricklayer!

I’m crossing my fingers that those subscribed to my old RSS feed will seamlessly pick up this new one. The new feed contains blog entries as well as comics and my growing collection of warm-up drawings. Hopefully that’s not too much information overload. Should I have separate feeds for things like the comics section? Anyone even care?

And new to the site is, finally, a store page for my minicomics and original art.

Please click around and let me know if anything’s broken, or out of place. There are still a few details to take care of, but I finally think it’s ready to go live. After a few days of solid coding, and an unhealthy amount of both coffee and Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes, I’m ready for a nap.

15 Comments