Say you want to be a comic artist, but you don't know where to start. You see all of the pros with cool tablets, MacBooks, etc., and you think: there's no way I'm gonna start if I need all of this. But the good thing is that you don't need all of that fancy stuff to create a comic. In fact, you can just draw doodles and do fine.
You don't have to take my word for it. Here, listen to this: "I always wanted to create and comics have the lowest barrier to entry. You just need pen and paper." Who's the person behind those words? It's Martin Rosner, the creator of Hot Paper Comics. If you look at how he has progressed through the years, you'll realize that he knows what he's talking about. He started with the most simple graphics, but graduated to shading, coloring, and thousands of fans on his social media.
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Who knows, maybe he would've dropped creating comics by this point if it weren't for his philosophy. "I treat the creative process as a job. I sit down, write out three drafts that don't have to be funny, good or make sense and work from there. It gets me over the roadbump that everything I make has to be perfect." He's right; he doesn't need them to be perfect in order to be funny and entertaining. And they don't have to be perfect to enjoy them. So enjoy! And in case you've missed the first part, you may find it here.
But who is Martin, and what are his motivations for making this comic? Luckily, he told us that in an interview in the previous post. “This whole thing started because I decided to make a weird comic a day for two months straight. I was severely depressed for two years and failed two colleges but thanks to therapy, meds, and a lot of work on myself I'm doing much better. Making these dark comics to me is like being able to say to my depression, ‘even with you in the way I am still able to make something."
As per usual, in Martin's case, an awesome sense of humor is preceded by darkness and depression. But he doesn't shy away from it. “I try to be open about depression, I know it always helps to know that you're not the only one struggling,” he told us. “Getting it out of my system is a great help. People reacting positively to me sharing my feelings and these funny drawings is even better. I feel like I make a tiny connection with others. Just a tiny one but it is there.”
“I don't have an end goal in mind but several smaller ones. I try not to focus too much on the number and statistics because I know that's the best way to make yourself miserable.”
Martin's also experimenting with stand-up, another thing he's been into to overcome the anxiety of being the focus of people’s attention. “I would love to improve to a level where I can sell tickets for a show,” he said.
Never understand that patriotism thing. I would never salute to a flag, that's plain stupid for me.
I had to eat a half a brick of cheese earlier before it went bad bc half asleep me this morning put the knife I cut it with back in the fridge and the cheese in the drawer.
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