Donna Martinez (http://www.donnamartinez.net) is a local cartoonist and artist from Allston, Massachusetts. She currently has two web comics. I was able to interview her and find out about the comics and what it’s like being a female comic book artist.

What made you get into drawing and comics?
My interest in comic-style art and storytelling began so long ago I’m not sure I can pinpoint a single event or incident that made me go “Yeah, that’s what I want!”. I’ve been drawing since I could hold a pencil and I was always known as the girl who likes to draw. I do have some very distant memories of drawing super heroes though, possibly caused by watching a lot of ‘SuperFriends’ at the time.

When I was in 5th grade I remember I made a comic strip about some of the kids I knew in school that started out as sort of a kid’s adventure strip. Then as I started reading actual super hero comics, particularly X-Men, it morphed into a weird space opera with humans and mutants leaving earth to found their own colony. This persisted through most of my teen years but ultimately didn’t go anywhere. But I’ve been drawing my whole life and my style seems tailored for comics at this point.

Who are some of your influences?
I think my biggest influence right out of the gate was Jim Lee, the guy who really set the stylistic tone for the 90s, for better or for worse. I’ve also borrowed shamelessly from Los Bros Hernandez, George Perez, Joe Quesada (back when he was still just a penciler), Barry Windsor-Smith and probably too many to list all at once. Really, I could go on forever because as someone who works visually I pick up something from every artist I observe and try to apply it to what I’m already doing. For instance, a lot of my manga style work is inspired by Naoko Takeuchi, Yuu Watase and Ai Yazawa.

What is your favorite art medium to work with?
Definitely pencil and ink, since it’s the one I use the most. I’ve also done a few acrylic paintings here and there over the years and I’m always looking to get back to it. Prismacolor markers are also amazing fun to work with.

Tell us a bit about your web comics “Wish me Luck” and “Panic Attack”. Where did you get the ideas and are either based on your life or someone else?
“Wish me Luck” can currently be found in ‘Inbound’ #3 from the Boston Comics Roundtable (www.bostoncomicsroundtable.com). When I found out that #3 was going to be the love issue, this story came at right at me. It took some time to chisel it to its current form, but from the get go it was a story about a guy lusting after a girl who he hadn’t really seen in that light before. He sees her dancing and it’s as though he’s seeing her for the first time. I chose belly dancing because I’ve always loved that form of dance and I’d taken a few classes here and there so I had a good handle on what some of the visuals would be. Plus I just plain love drawing beautiful women and I knew I could get away with that in a loved-themed comic.

“Panic Attack” was a one off idea that I needed to get onto paper as a way to deal with actually experiencing an attack. For me personally, I get this sort of lump in my throat. So I thought what if it’s some kind of alien body or foreign object that I could remove somehow and stop the attacks? But rather than put myself in the story, I made up an average guy who himself was inspired by some short stories a friend of mine wrote. It’s pretty a grisly scene which is exactly the way I wanted it. The scripts for both stories were written by my boyfriend Joey Peters, who has a wonderful knack for coming up with just the right words for the scenes I draw.

What is the process you go through to create a web comic?
At this point, the process is I draw the comic and then Joey puts it online J! Usually when I do a story I don’t give too much thought to where it will end up. That is unless I’m doing a story for a specific publication like ‘Inbound’ then I certainly want to make sure the content is on the up and up. With web comics it’s pretty much an “anything goes” format. In fact, the next web comic Joey and I are doing is going to have some adult content in it.

Why web comics?
Because it’s cheaper than publishing! Honestly I think that’s the number one reason why there’s been a flood of web comics within the last several years. Paper publishing takes a lot of time, effort and money. But anyone with a computer and the right software can, for ill or for good, make a comic. Talent and skill aren’t necessarily a requirement either!

Do you think its possible web comics could take over print comics one day?
I not only believe it to be possible, I believe it’s inevitable. We’re already seeing the death of the newspaper because more and more people are going straight to the web for news. And now with things like Kindle and the iPad, it’s really just a matter of time. I should also mention that those devices are still wicked expensive and I think people would still rather pay for stacks of paper than shell out this months rent for a fancy toy!

You mention on your website you’re available for commission. How would one get in touch with you if interested?
My email address is listed on the site and I can also be found on Facebook.

Any upcoming projects?
I am never at a loss for ideas for projects, but I never seem to have the time to execute them! Actually I am going to be making time for a story Joey wrote called ‘American Dream Girls’ and I’m not really sure how to describe it. It’s definitely a pop-culture parody that takes place here in Boston that’s going to have some pretty racy scenes between the titular characters. I’ve just now started to work on the layouts and I’m hoping to have at 3 or four pages up by the beginning of March.

Do you find it harder to get respected or taken seriously has a female comic artist? How do you feel about the lack of female comic book artists and writers in general?
Since I’m not someone who is currently working in mainstream comics I haven’t really encountered any gender based problems. Although there was one well known industry pro who talked down to me because of either my age or gender, but it was a one off thing and he was definitely the exception and not the rule. Right now I’m not really feeling the lack, per se of women working in comics since there are more and more of us on the mainstream scene every day. Alison Bechdel, the writer/artist behind ‘Dykes to Watch Out For’ had her autobio ‘Fun Home’ recognised by Time as the 2007 Book of the Year. Colleen Coover is doing tons of back up stories for Marvel and Amanda Conner is on Wizard’s Top Ten Artists list. This is the best possible time for women to be getting work as artists and writers because there’s more of a push to recognise talent before gender, which is precisely how things should be. Not to mention that the Boston Comics Roundtable has a wonderful mix of diversity that includes many talented ladies from all walks of life. Things aren’t perfect, but they are definitely better than they’ve been in years. It’s a good time to be in comics.