Sunday, September 13, 2009

Don Martin Shrine







The Don Martin Shrine

Donald "Don" Martin (May 18, 1931 - January 6, 2000) was a popular American cartoon artist whose best-known work appeared in MAD magazine from 1956 to 1988.

Martin often was billed as "MAD's Maddest Artist." Whereas other features in MAD, recurring or otherwise, typically were headed with pun-filled "department" titles, Martin's work always was headed with only his name - "Don Martin Dept." - further fanfare presumably being unnecessary.

At his peak, each issue of MAD typically carried three Martin strips of one or two pages each.

Martin's immediately recognizable drawing style (which featured bulbous noses, and the famous "hinged foot") was loose, rounded, and filled with broad slapstick. His inspirations, plots and themes were often bizarre and at times bordered on the berserk.


I loved Don Martin's artwork, humor and sound effects - as a kid he had a great impact on my impressionable mind.

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3 comments:

  1. How could NO ONE comment on your post? I agree with anything good you could say about Don Martin. Who wouldn't? I own a copy of the multi-CD-ROM set of all the Mad Magazine issue pages from the first one till about 1998. Looking through the old Don Martin strips is my favorite use for it.

    There are too many to name that made me laugh until it hurt...then keep on laughing some more. Plus all the original stuff in the paperback books:
    Don Martin Steps Out
    Don Martin Bounces Back
    Don Martin Drops 13 Stories
    Etc.

    Everyone should have the chance to see as much as they can take of this artist's work.

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  2. Hehe ... thanks for your comment Rick - I would LOVE to get my hands on that CD-ROM set ... one of his strips that makes me laugh every time I think of it was named "Dog's Cold Nose" ... perhaps you remember it?

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  3. You forgot "watch out for falling bricks"

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