Pride Month Highlight: Morgan Martinez

Happy Pride!!!!  :heart::orange_heart::yellow_heart::green_heart::blue_heart::purple_heart::brown_heart::black_heart:

EEP is celebrating the incredible 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. The heroic stories and characters they create expand our horizons and inspire us to never be afraid to be who we are, and love who we love. Read on to learn more about Morgan Martinez, the comic book letterer who brought the words of The Curie Society to life.

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

Morgan Martinez: I’m a trans woman and a lesbian! I’d like to take this moment to remind everyone LGBTQIA+ is NOT a taxonomy, but a political coalition, so don’t gatekeep our powerful community.

EEP: What does Pride Month mean to you?
It means honoring and continuing the legacy of Marsha P. Johnson, Black and Indigenous history, queer rights, and trans liberation. Live loud, fight dirty, and never let them dim you.

“Live loud, fight dirty, and never let them dim you.”

– MORGAN MARTINEZ

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

MM: I don’t have a favorite but there is a special place in my heart for songs that, even unintentionally, speak to my lived experience as a trans woman. Seether by Veruca Salt is one that always comes to mind.

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

MM: Comics pro Magdalene Visaggio is my hero. I had a chance to meet her at a signing and said as much; she holds a unique and instrumental part in cracking my egg (a term trans folk use to describe the realization and/or acceptance of one’s trans identity).

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

MM: I don’t know how to define something as random when it’s completely relevant to my interests! Based on the reactions I’ve received from the rest of the world, knowledge of comic books is considered “random” so probably that.

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

MM: Thanks to Deron Bennett and the team at lettering studio Andworld Design, all who have been wonderful allies, even when I’m largely absent and radio silent.

EEP: What’s your latest project?

MM: Remodeling and organizing my basement ladycave: it’s my gaming space, home office, artist studio, power tool storage, and tech tinkering zone all in one.

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

MM: I’d love to say I was grinding on this or that but motivation is something I maintain a fraction of a day at a time. It’s more important to be kind to myself, handle what I can, and appreciate what I manage to produce. It’s a hard fight.

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

MM: I don’t know if any single piece of advice could make up for the onslaught of transphobia and queerphobia that kept me suppressed for thirty years but my current favorite is Frigga speaking to her son in Avengers: Endgame, “Everyone fails at who they’re supposed to be, Thor. The measure of a person, of a hero, is how well they succeed at being who they are.”

EEP: What was one of the toughest creative or professional challenges you had to face? How did you overcome it?

MM: Depression impacts both my creative and professional pursuits; it’s an ongoing, daily struggle that I start anew every morning. I don’t overcome it as much as manage it. My trans sisters inspire new reservoirs of endurance and resiliency in me.

“My trans sisters inspire new reservoirs of endurance and resiliency in me.”

– MORGAN MARTINEZ

EEP: What’s your superpower?

MM: As I mentioned, I’m a lesbian. We’re as versatile as we are inexorable.

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