Pride Month Highlight: Laura Martin

Happy Pride!!!!  

EEP continues to celebrate LGBTQIA members of our team who bring their whole selves to the creative process, crafting podcasts, graphic novels and other awesome content for our studio.

Read on to learn more about Laura Martin: She’s been working with EEP for three years as Creative Assistant, lending a helping hand across different projects and different capacities – editorial feedback for comics and podcast scripts, jammin’ in the writers room, making graphics for social media, and more!

Einhorn’s Epic Productions: How do you identify as part of the LGBTQIA community?

Laura Martin: I’m a gay lady. I’ve always liked the etymology; it means “happy” and that’s pretty much me! And when I’m not, it’s what I aspire to be.

EEP: What does Pride Month mean to you?

LM: Pride month means challenging the idea cultural ideas of “normal” or “base factory settings” and recognizing that humans are way more complex than we think at a first glance. And that complexity is wonderful and beautiful! Given that philosophical discussions on gender and sexuality aren’t always possible, it also means taking to the streets in rainbow colors and shouting into the summer sky.

“… humans are way more complex than we think at a first glance. And that complexity is wonderful and beautiful!”

– LAURA MARTIN

EEP: Do you have a favorite Pride song or queer anthem?

LM: Actually, I have an entire Spotify playlist. Top hits are Jenny by the Studio Killers, There She Goes by Sixpence None the Richer and Medusa by Kailee Morgue.

I’m not entirely certain if that last one it was meant to have LGBT themes in it or just be about cool mythology, but in my head it’s about unrequited love. (“She looked right through me / and I turned to stone”).

EEP: Who are some LGBTQIA public figures that you look up to?

LM: Jameela Jamil is such a well spoken person, and such a funny actress. I would also say 100% my respect for Lady Gaga is through the roof – there’s this wonderful performance she puts on in Russia where she proclaims support of the LGBTQ community that’s so moving. She’s got killer pipes and such a vibrant creativity to her.

EEP: What’s one random topic that no one expects you to be knowledgeable on, but you could talk about for an hour?

LM: Ancient History!

I recently found this wonderful speech on the Scythians by Barry Cunliffe, an ancient nomadic people in the Pontic steppe (from Mongolia extending out into the borders of the Mediterranean, in Romania). I liked it so much that I bought his book.

Herodotus wrote about the Scythians as one of the groups of “barbarians” that Greeks had to worry about. They had a rich culture, huge skills in metallurgy including crafting jewelry out of gold, and a love of animals which appears in their artwork. They also have some of the oldest preserved tattoos! (sans Otzi the iceman, who wasn’t Scythian, he’s older.)

EEP: Are there any talented folks you know that you would like to shout out?

LM: SO MANY! These are just a few.

• Kaz, was recently featured in The New Yorker, and whose kid is growing up way too fast during the pandemic. 
• Kane, who effortlessly encourages and inspires young kids in his classes and makes me laugh constantly. He also has definitively the best cat. (Hi P-nut!)
• Frank, an amazing cartoonist, the epitome of a New Yorker, and absolutely fearless. I envy how he tackles sketchbook after sketchbook!
• Robyn, who recently completed Nubia: Real One, Wash Day, and kickstarted her amazing thesis The Saddest, Angriest Black Girl in Town. Check out her recent project, Marisole! (She also kicks butt at karaoke.)

EEP: What’s your latest project?

LM: Besides my work on EEP’s latest podcasts & graphic novels, I have been working on with the leather armorers at Daughters of the Forge, designing logos for an upcoming card game, and adapting me and my friend’s D&D campaign into a comic. Busy times.

EEP: How do you stay creatively motivated in these unusual times?

LM: I struggle with it a lot!!! My main goal this and last year has been to protect the longevity of my creative pond – tend the nearby plants, don’t let it get overgrown with lilies, and prevent pollution. There’s no need to burn out on one huge project, especially with the world currently as it is.

“My main goal this and last year has been to protect the longevity of my creative pond […] There’s no need to burn out on one huge project, especially with the world currently as it is.”

– LAURA MARTIN

EEP: What advice do you wish you had received when you were younger?

LM: There’s always been these unconscious barriers that I created for myself. DELETE THEM! Eliminate the red tape in your brain. There’s no rule that says you can’t work in a different program, re-arrange the bedroom furniture, or anything else you can think of. 

EEP: What’s your superpower?

LM: I care! It’s kinda silly and simple, but I really do. There’s not really any way that I can put myself into a project, or a friendship, or a story without fully investing in it. 

I get really fascinated with narratives – to the point where the scary ones keep me up at night, and the sad ones make me weep and ruin my day. (My strength is also my weakness. Curse you, double edged sword!) But I can also take a story and learn so much from it. I’ve taken characters and used them as avatars to help me through painful times in my life. If Buffy can do it, so can I.

“I’ve taken characters and used them as avatars to help me through painful times in my life. If Buffy can do it, so can I.”

– LAURA MARTIN