Dane Martin

The comics of Dane Martin, graduate of The Center for Cartoon Studies (yes, a real thing), exist in a genre that I can only describe as psychedelic naive bittersweet nightmare comedy. Romance and innocence snake like a smiling anthropomorphic vine around the sadness and isolation that play on the surface of his characters’ faces. It’s more than a little bit thrilling.

He lives in Michigan. He’s obsessed with Walt Disney. Blurred nostalgia for days gone by permeates his page, offering an intriguing twist on the yearnful techniques of terminal reminiscers like Seth and David King. Anxiety-prone characters and a disarmingly slurred poetic prose bring to mind Matthew Thurber‘s dreamy comics. Beyond these enticing references that seem to orbit Martin’s work, there is something entirely unique at work here.

Check out some illustrated missives from Dane Martin’s vast internal world, below. And while you wait for his forthcoming 300+ page collection of comics, send him an e-mail and he might just mail a mystery “fun pack” to your doorstep.