Cynthia Martin (born September 19, 1961) is a comic book artist best known for her work on the Marvel Comics Star Wars title during its waning years in the mid-1980s. She was one of the few women working in mainstream American comics during that time.
Life & Career[]
Martin was born and educated in southern California, and became a professional comic book illustrator at the age of 22. The first comic Martin worked on was the Ms. Victory Special #1 (AC Comics, 1985).
In 1985, she met Mary Jo Duffy at the first convention she attended, in Los Angeles. Ann Nocenti, the editor, called her about a week later and offered her the Star Wars assignment. She first did the covers for issues 92 and 93, and then the pencils for most of the issues between 94 and 107. Besides AC and Marvel, Martin has worked for DC Comics, Eclipse Comics, First Comics, Topps Comics, Dark Horse Comics, and a number of other small presses.
In recent years, Martin has been illustrating early-reader "graphic biographies" for Capstone Press. She also illustrated Edge Books: How to Draw Comic Heroes. According to her bio on Silver Phoenix Entertainment, Martin's currents projects include books for ABDO Publications and the graphic novel Shadowflight. She contributed to Marvel's Girl Comics anthology and penciled the first two issues of Honey West, written by Trina Robbins and based on the novel and television action heroine of the same name.
On May 1, 2010, Martin was inducted as an Honorary Member of the 501st Legion international costuming organization in recognition of her contributions to the Star Wars saga.
Martin's clean lines and strong sense of movement during action scenes set her apart from other Star Wars artists of the time. Her work displayed the influence of Japanese manga long before it became common in American comics, due in part to the influence of Duffy.
Sources[]
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