Who is Martin?
I first doodled Martin on a piece of scrap office paper in 2003. He was a fluffy nondescript being inspired by the sketches of Jim Henson and the cartoon-like monsters I drew as a child. In the early days, Martin was depicted as being put-upon by others or dealing with instances of Murphy’s Law. As time progressed, Martin became the avatar of my own insecurities, frustrations, fears, and inner thoughts.
For many years, Martin lay dormant in my creative process. In 2018, I found myself in a season of emotional hardship and began drawing Martin comics as a means of processing my feelings. I began posting these panels on Instagram under the title, I Empathize With Martin and the handle (@iempathizewithmartin).
Through Martin, we see our fears, our hopes, our dreams, and often our disappointments. He has been described as a tree, and a leaf, and I accept both descriptions. When asked “What is Martin?” I like to answer “He is all of us.”
