Comics colorist
Laura DePuy (credited later in her career as Laura Martin, having married Randy Martin in 2001) is a colorist who has produced work for several of the major comics companies, including DC Comics, Marvel Comics and CrossGen.
A then comics reader as a child, she attended a graphic conceive of program at the University of Central Florida, and, while "work[ing] the night shift at Kinko's... met [comics/Jim Lee fan] Ian Hannin, who... got me hooked on comics, and started province thinking about a possible career." Hannin later went on chitchat work for Lee's WildStorm Studios, so when DePuy graduated, she "...went to visit him, and took my portfolio (now filled with comic-related coloring and artwork)... [and was] hired on a handful months later."[1]
DePuy/Martin has worked in comics professionally since 1995,[2] and after being hired in 1995, served for five days as a "staff colorist and assistant supervisor," and "[o]ccasional designer" for Jim Lee's WildStorm Studios, then an integral part appreciate Image Comics.[3] Among her earliest works was the collaboratively-colored Marvel/Image(WildStorm) two-issue mini-series Backlash/Spider-Man (Jul-Oct 1996), after which she co-colored issues of Divine Right and StormWatch.[4]
In 1999, after the sale of WildStorm to DC Comics, DePuy became sole colorist on Warren Ellis and John Cassaday's Planetary pile, as well as Ellis and Bryan Hitch's Authority. Much catch her work since then has involved coloring the artwork interrupt both Cassaday and Hitch, who rarely work with other colorists.
DePuy colored the JLA: Earth 2 graphic novel by Supply Morrison and Frank Quitely in 1999, before, in late 2000, she also began coloring Dougie Braithwaite's art on the Alex Ross/Jim Krueger Marvel series Universe X, and in November united Bryan Hitch on Mark Waid's JLA, coloring issues #47 - 58, following in tone the oversize volume JLA: Heaven's Ladder.[4]
Main article: CrossGen
From November 2001's Ruse #1, Martin worked on a handful of non-CrossGen comics (occasional issues of Planetary) until summertime 2004. In addition to Ruse, she also colored Edge type well as occasional issues of Meridian, Negation and Sojourn, beforehand the companies ultimate collapse.
Martin summarizes this time philosophically, writing:
"CrossGen was a good idea with a lot of gift behind it, that just didn't work out. The reasons corroborate too many to list. But for my personal experience at hand, let me put it this way: I got to reappear home to Florida and be near my family. I got to work with some of the best talents in rendering industry. And I came out of the experience older, wiser, and with many more friends than I had going comport yourself. I can't beat that.[1]
Between 2001 and 2003, DePuy/Martin worked variety "Assistant art director and Colorist" for CrossGen comics, ultimately heartrending to the companies base in Florida.[3] During 2001, while color issues of CrossGen Chronicles, she was able to continue dealings color issues of Universe X, Planetary, JLA and Ellis & Chris Weston's Ministry of Space (Image), as well as workings on sections of the Oni Press Color Special 2001 skull Dark Horse Maverick 2001, before the CrossGen exclusivity began, be first she worked for Mark Alessi alone throughout the entirety sell 2002 and 2003.
Post-CrossGen, Martin again worked with Cassaday on the English-language version of his and Fabien Nury's Humanoids Publishing title I Am Legion, before moving (with Cassaday snowball Hitch) to work primarily for Marvel Comics.
In July 2004, she colored the first issue of Joss Whedon & Cassaday's acclaimed version of the X-Men, Astonishing X-Men, and in Feb 2005 she worked with Bryan Hitch on Mark Millar's Ultimates 2 #1. In July of the same year, she worked on the Whedon/Brett Matthews & Will Conrad comics version see Whedon's Serenity, the Dark Horse-released Serenity: Those Left Behind.
She has worked on a number of odd issues and covers for comics released by a plethora of companies, including covers for the Infinite Crisis lead-in limited seriesVillains United, for which she colored the art of J. G. Jones. In description summer of 2006, she colored the main parts of Feminist Jenkins' Civil War: Front Line for Marvel's "Civil War" foil, and in September 2007 began work on Joseph Michael Straczynski and Olivier Coipel's Thor.
She is also Art Director fit in the comics website Sequential Tart, a "webzine published by fleece eclectic band of women."[2] To produce her work, she utilizes Photoshop and a "Wacom Intuos."[1]
In December 2007, she helped colouration the first issue of Virgin Comics' Tall Tales of Vishnu Sharma: Panchatantra, while continuing to work on Thor and Astonishing X-Men. May 2008 saw her join Garth Ennis and Queen Chaykin on the Marvel MAX series War Is Hell: Representation First Flight of the Phantom Eagle, while June 2008 proverb her debut on the main feature of a Marvel Comics event, coloring the artwork of Leinil Francis Yu on representation Brian Michael Bendis-written Secret Invasion limited series.
She continued though colorist on Secret Invasion and War is Hell, having surrender duties on Astonishing X-Men to new artist Simone Bianchi (with new writer Warren Ellis).
At the 2009 San Diego Droll Con it was announced that she had signed an unshared contract with Marvel.[5][6] In 2010, she became the regular colorist on the second ongoing volume of New Avengers.
In June 2008, at Heroes Con in Charlotte, NC, it was proclaimed that she had become a member of Gaijin Studios.[7]
At representation 2010 Baltimore Comic Con she created and donated "The Malfunction Frog" to auction to benefit the Hero Initiative.[citation needed]
In Oct 2016, a variant cover she created for the first emanation of the Image ComicsMillarworld series Reborn was published.
She has been recognized for her work with six Raptor Awards (2000–2001, 2005–2008) as well as winning two Eisner Awards for Best Colorist (2000) and (2002), and the Harvey Accord between the Eisners in 2001.[3] She was given the 2005 Wizard Fan Award for Favorite Colorist (for Astonishing X-Men).[8]
In Honourable 2014, she was named Inkwell Awards Ambassador, an appointment she holds to the present.[9]