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MAD Cartoonist Don Martin Dies 151

Posted by emmett from the onomatopoeia dept.
inbred writes "Don Martin, longtime Mad magazine cartoonist who drew an assortment of wild-haired characters, punctuating the grotesque action with wacky words like SPLOP! and POIT!, has died. He was 68."
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MAD Cartoonist Don Martin Dies More

MAD Cartoonist Don Martin Dies

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  • Someone had to... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    What, me worry?

  • Don Martin and Mad vs. Cracked... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I remember seeing an issue of Cracked in a grocery store in 1988 with the headline "Don Martin is Cracked!" I surprised me because I always knew him as a Mad artist.

    I eventually found out about his dislike of Mad's copyright policies. I also noticed that for a few years after Mr. Martin switched to Cracked, Mad did not reprint any of his material in any of their "Super Specials" (large compilation issues containing popular past material). Maybe they were unsure if they could still use any of his old work?

    It's always seemed to me that while Cracked has been more creative with their subject material (except for the stupid Cracked Monster Party series), Mad's humour and material has always been of a higher quality than Cracked's. Don Martin made some good contributions to Cracked when he joined them, but overall, I think even he started to slip into the Cracked rut. All of my favourite Don Martin cartoons are from Mad, none from Cracked. His better material is definitely from his Mad years. Maybe Mad has stricter quality control...?

    What do you think folks? Was Don Martin better being "mad" or "cracked"?

    P.S. I know Don Martin never contributed to it, but has anyone ever read Crazy magazine...?

  • Re:Cracked Magazine. (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    (I'm the same guy that posted the comment "Don Martin and Mad vs. Cracked," which was rather critical of Cracked, above...)

    I didn't care for Cracked when I read it, but I will definitely agree that Mad fell into a rut in the mid-1990s, and is probably still in it. I remember seeing Mad TV and then reading a few issues of Mad shortly afterward and thinking, "Bill Gaines (Mad's former publisher) must be turning in his grave..."

    Cracked has ventured into some territory that Mad has been afraid or unwilling to touch, often with very good (and funny!) results. Their recent parody of Pokémon with the cover featuring Pikachu puking on Ash was hilarious. ("When searcing for Pokemon in the grass, beware of obstacles...there might be Pokepoo hidden in there.") When I was in high school and the New Kids on the Block were popular, Cracked trashed them mercilessly while Mad ignored them completely except for the occasional short article here and there, usually published in a cowardly manner. Same thing for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Dick Tracy, and Street FighterII. Cracked's poems are some of their true gems. When has Mad published any funny poetry? Mad has a formula, and does like deviating from it very much, which is unfortunate. Notice how Cracked has taken to publishing parts of their magazine in colour now. I wish Mad would do that!

    Cracked, while being more creative as I pointed out, has often had it's share of problems with "bang for the buck." Whenever I pick up an issue, I only read about 10% of the magazine. There's that one article that's featured on the cover, and maybe a few others that are good, and the rest is fluff. Sometimes Cracked parodies things that are old or aren't popular anymore. This is a good example of the "fluff."

    Cracked also has a problem with its artwork. Don Martin is very good, as well as John Severin, who I believe is one of the best humour magazine artists ever, but Cracked has a lot of extremely poor quality art. I was really disappointed that their Wild Wild West parody was drawn by Walter Brogan. He's terrible! His "artwork" is messy, disorganized, and very difficult to follow. And Mike Ricigliano? His "Spies and Saboteurs" are cool, but anything else by him is funny...for a few minutes.

    When you analyse both magazines for a few issues, you start to discover that they really sell into totally different markets. Mad is meant for tennagers and young adults, while Cracked is meant for younger people, probably around junior high school age. This explains why I liked Cracked then but don't like it now.

    One other thing... The face of Mad's mascot, Alfred E. Neuman, is instantly recognizable anywhere, and can be put on any head or body, while Cracked's Sylvester P. Smythe must always have blond hair and a wimpy look to be discernable. (Which makes me wonder...what ever happened to those back covers where they put his face on a celebrity's body?)

    Back in early 1990, Cracked rented a 1-800 number and asked people to call and vote for whether or not they should keep him or not. The first issue to advertise the 1-800 number had the headline, "Should We Kill Sylvester?" Back then, I didn't have the money to call the number (it wasn't toll free), but today I would for sure! Today, whenever I see Sylvester's stupid mug in the upper-left corner of the mag's cover, for some reason, I get really angry and want to kill him! Arrghh! He makes me so mad!!

    SYLVESTER P. SMYTHE MUST DIE!!




    Sorry...

  • So what did he DIE OF again? (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Was he just walking down the street, minding his own business, when suddenly kerplunk, he was lying down holding a lily? There's got to be more to it that that.

  • Only one way to honor him on Slashdot - (Score:3)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 07, 2000 @08:16PM (#1392052)
    TROLL VS TROLL stories.

  • Better URL (frames etc) (Score:3)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 07, 2000 @08:40PM (#1392053)
    --- Here instead [tu-dresden.de]
  • Tiome to dig out the one book of his I still have: Don Martin Forges A Head.
  • I grew up on Mad in the '70s, and Don Martin had some of the best material. It was odd and often hilarious.
  • Spy vs. Spy, surely one of the strangest and most brilliant comic strips ever created, was done by Cuban cartoonist Antonio Prohias, who also died recently.

  • Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Don Martin create the veeblefetzer [tuxedo.org] name/character? That's the first thing that pops into my mind when I think of Don Martin.

    Martin was never one my favorites, though he did have funny stuff. I really liked Spy vs. Spy, Aragones' "Marginal Art", and Mort Drucker's great caricatures in the movie parodies. And of course Al Jaffee's fold-ins ("The Almighty Dollar??" say Bart and Milhouse...)

    I knew Mad was going downhill when Dave Berg stopped doing "The Lighter Side of..." with a single theme for the entire segment and instead had a different theme for each piece.

  • Wow, this hurts. Don was one of my fave cartoonists of all time. As a child I'd always buy my Mad mag and Don's toons were the first thing I read. Ahhh Captain Klutz I hardly knew ye.... Rest well Don...You'll be missed. I raise a glass to you and say...THPLATKT!!!
  • Mine were: The Adventures of Captain Klutz and Don Martin Grinds Ahead (you can see that pun coming heheheheh)
  • Probably, WINE will be able to load it and you will be able to use the basic program with some graphical deficiencies. WINE has stopped sucking lately.

    Since the images on that CD are probably stored in a known format, I'm wondering how hard it would be to make an open reader for the data of the CDs... to me, it's prohibitively expensive for just an idle hacking project but it's probably possible.
  • I'd have to ask, how do you know they were repetitive from the very start?

    Garfield was a very good strip in it's first 5 years. The perspective and setup was unique. Then Jim Davis was hit with "moichendizing". The cartoon show, tons of toys and books, etc. At that point, the strip began showing signs of being 'tired'. It's still going, almost 20 years later, but it's obviously nothing groundshaking now.

    The same thing has happened to Scott Adams and Dilbert. Popularity and the TV show have really screwed up the fresh look of the comic.

    I'd argue that we didn't see this with Bill Waterson or Gary Larson because they only allowed their work for books and the occasional promotional items; both were able to stay fresh for much longer, and rather than draw out and get repetitive, they quit the business on time.

  • Cracked Magazine was always a better magazine. Mad magazine - like Mad TV - is and was always stuck in a rut. Their comedic style fizzled long ago; and was so often dependant on fads that came and went just as easily as their foul humor. Cracked magazine was different - it had and still has humour that goes beyond the childish parody of it's more established competitor.

    Cracked magazine was always a little more respectable - in more ways than one. And I think Don Martin recognized Cracked's valuable qualities; which helped lead to his future with Cracked Magazine. I'll always love Don Martin's gift to my life - he gave me the knowledge that despite simplistic drawings a good bag of humour can make everyone laugh.

    Thanks Don.
    Joseph Elwell.
  • I loved Don Martin's work. It's truly sad to see him go. I hope that both Mad and Cracked (which also used some of his work) give him fitting tributes. The man was great at what he did.

    Adieu, Don. You'll be missed, but never forgotten.
  • The guy was a cartoon genius. I think I still have, stashed away in a folder somewhere, several pages of "Mad Don Martin's Sound Effect Stickers" from when I was a kid in the 70's. These things were fantastic. You could really *hear* them - PWANG!, a frying pan in the face. POIT!, a breast popping out of a too-tight corset. SPLADAP!, someone smacked with a fish. GASHPLUCT!, a farmer walking through a muddy field. SHTOONK!, a metal rod poking someone's eye. GLING!, a fly going through a fan.* There were a million of them. All illustrated in a goofily original style in which the victims appeared more bemused than actually hurt.

    His straight cartoons were always a riot as well. I particularly loved the befuddled surgeons - wondering how to begin a brain operation, not noticing "Insert thumb into slot A and pull" notation on the patient's neatly perforated skull. Or when an organ flies out of the patient's body - "better save that, we might need it later."

    And, who could forget his portrayal of Elvis, "Shmelvis Parsley in 'Singing Wings'"? The list goes on and on - it's no wonder I turned out the way I did, thanks in part to this man's warped sense of humor. Don was truly brilliant, he will be greatly missed.

    * Disclaimer: I may have spelled a couple of these wrong, it's been years after all.

    --Indigo
  • Simple enough. Just a simple gravestone, maybe with a curved top, casting a shadow over a lonely little spot of ground, maybe with a daisy. That or an open coffin.

    I'd advise against using religious symbols or vultures or anything like that. But an obituary icon would make sense to me.

    J.
  • Actually, Don Martin wasn't responsible for the Spy VS Spy cartoons. I can't remember off hand right now, but it certainly wasn't Martin.

    --

  • Anyway, finally! real "News for nerds stuff that Matters."

    I must admit, Mad Magazine probably "fsked" me up as a kid more than smoking pot or anything else.

    I still, to this day, want to fold the back end of most magazines to see if anything happens....

    All my National Geographics have a strange "threefold" on the back end....

    Speaking of National Geographic..... do you remember the first time you became a man? *wink*


  • Shit, the graveside at your funeral is gonna be a pretty empty area, rather like the one between your ears.
  • Shit, the graveside at your funeral is gonna be a pretty empty area, rather like the one between your ears.

  • QA to the rescue, killing bugs on sight.

    Cheers, Don, and thanks.

  • Check out Ralph Snart Comics
    Reid Flemming
    Steven
    Flaming Carrot

    Most of these are relatively defunct, but they all reek of true, timeless, awe-inspiring greatness.




  • I was born in 1961, and not until 1994, in one used book store, I saw an old copy of MAD magazine, published in 1961 which reminded me that "1961" can be REVERSED and still becomes "1961" !!

    Man, I realized how STUPID I was, when it had to take me THIRTY THREE YEARS of my life before I notice what the MAD magazine has noticed the year I was born !

    So, this is a VERY BELATED THANKS to all who have contributed to the success of MAD. You have convinced me that there _ARE_ geniuses behind the COVERS OF MAD !!!




  • Goodbye, Don. Thanks for all the laffs.

  • ...and I think Illiad and Nitrozac are the ringleaders. I guess they weren't content with what fame they already had, and decide to go out and either kill or threaten the other cartoonists. Yeah we all know Charles Shultz is retiring but do we know the "real" reason? =)))))
  • I've always been a big fan of Don Martin's. Those are some good looking and comfortable shoes.


    Seriously tho, that is sad to hear. He and Sergio were a couple of the best Mad cartoonists. Time to pull out a few dusty old copies of Mad and have a read..


    ________________________________________________ _____________
  • \begin{boggle}

    Dilbert creative? Please.

    \end{boggle}
  • Call them repetitive and creative.

    The repetitive strips always use the same gags, and have been around for what seems like forever. Marmaduke. Ziggy. Peanuts. There won't be any earth-shattering ideas, nor anything to shock you. The same-ol', same-ol'. They'll always be popular, because they provide comfort from what you read on the front page.

    The creative strips are far more rare. They entertain by their newness, by innovation. The Far Side. Calvin and Hobbes. Dilbert. The creative cartoonists tend to burn out -- Bill Waterson and Gary Larson both couldn't handle the pressure.

    Jim Davis won't ever run out of new ideas -- he has all the ones he'll ever need. I hope, though, that Scott Adams hangs around for a few more years.

    Here's to cartoonists.

    --------------------

  • There is good work being done today, stuff that will definately be considered classic material in the future.

    Consider the following:

    • Jeff Smith's Bone
    • Dave Sim's Cerebus
    • Frank Miller's 300 or Sin City or even his runs at Marvel and DC.
    • Alex Ross's work with Kurt Busiek and Mark Waid.
    • Bill Watterston, who I'm sure has lots of good work in front of him.
    • Masamune Shirow's Appleseed or Ghost in the Shell
    • Yukita Kashiro's GUNNM ("Battle Angel Alita" here in the States). Kashiro is AMAZING, and just starting his career.

    Note too that all of the "classic" artists you mentioned had their own influences who they probably felt they were unworthy to be compared to.

    In short, don't overlook the possiblity that the "good old days" are happening right now.

    Jon

  • [see subject]

    Zontar The Mindless,

  • I just bought the entire Mad Magazine series on 7 cd-roms. Includes all the fold-ins too.

    Oh yeah, it came with a roll of mad toilet paper too! haha, great!

    Has all the cool spy vs spy, edge art, and my favorite the army guy who makes all the peace signs.. (Ops showing my age)

    I just did a quick search for Don Martian, shows a list of his cartoons.. All his "DAY" cartoons, the caveman cartoons. Damn, what a shame.

    -Brook

  • (Score:2)

    by Peale ( 9155 )
    Oh, man, moderated _down_. Guess it had to happen sooner or later...

    I'm sorry. What I meant to say was 'please excuse me.'
    what came out of my mouth was 'Move or I'll kill you!'
  • And I don't see what all the fuss is about.
  • He will be seriously missed.
    That is such an ironic sentence. True though.
  • What people frequently forget is that when MAD went from a comic book format to a magazine format in 1955, one of the first artists the late William Gaines hired was one Don Martin.

    Martin's quirky (but very funny) style of cartoon work was truly unique and was a major mainstay at MAD until he had that unfortunate falling out with MAD back in 1988.

    He will be seriously missed.
  • If I remember it, when Bill Gaines was forced to change the format of MAD from a comic book to magazine format (no thanks to EC Comics being forced to close it comics line from public pressure in the middle 1950's), he hired a whole new group of artists to do the work in the new format. One of the best-known of that group was Don Martin, who was immediately popular for his quirky, "sick" humor style. The "Don Martin Looks At...." parodies are some of the very best work in the history of MAD.
  • Don't forget Sluggy, too.

    Sluggy is one of the very comics left (online or not) that is willing to do story arcs that lasts often for several months at a time.
  • The german onomatopeias themselves are worth reading...
    -- ----------------------------------------------
    Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
  • This man made me laugh my ass off... SPLORCH!
    A sad day for a great man... whacky as that may be....
  • Oh no we didn't. Some of us pretended to when we were in the 8th because it wasn't "cool" to find the same things funny. I'm sure most of those who took that attitude did eventually grow up. As for me: there are clever cartoonists and artistic cartoonists, but I *always* found Don Martin one of the very *funniest* cartoonists.

    Consciousness is not what it thinks it is
    Thought exists only as an abstraction
  • Flenser, eh?

    I knew I forgot something - I really meant to put Vernor Vinge on that list, too.

    But if you really meant that there were some authors - Asimov and Heinlein - whose stuff you thought was great without any exceptions...then you actually liked those last Heinlein novels?

    Surely even the greatest of authors may be responsible for one or two complete turkeys, though these tend to be forgotten.

    I admit it's hard to find something particularly awful from Asimov but that's surely because (i) his output was so enormous that it's hard to find the room to remember the least good of his stories, and (ii) his writing seems fairly uniform in its mediocrity by today's standards.

    I'll amend that insofar as to say that he did write some stuff which really sticks in my mind - the short story The Last Question and the novel The Gods Themselves. I also thought his later Robot and Foundation novels got better as the stories converged.

    You know it only just occurred to me that The Last Question anticipated F J Tipler's Omega Point Theory by several decades.


    Consciousness is not what it thinks it is
    Thought exists only as an abstraction

  • Nice flame, man!


    Consciousness is not what it thinks it is
    Thought exists only as an abstraction
  • What kind of twisted mentality could possibly mark up my post as INFORMATIVE???!?!

    Consciousness is not what it thinks it is
    Thought exists only as an abstraction

  • Re:Aw, jeez... (Score:3)

    by ralphclark ( 11346 ) on Saturday January 08, 2000 @08:00AM (#1392094) Journal
    FLOOBADOOP! That should be preserved for posterity!

    He was my favourite too. Here are some more Don Martin sound effects, from some Don Martin Sound Effect Stickers I got with an issue of Mad Magazine way back in about 1975 (they've stayed fresh in my mind all that time):

    Sound of treading in a rather moist dog turd - GLITCH!

    Sound of being hit in the face with a frying pan: PWANG!

    Sound of a springy saw blade bent back then released to smack you in the face - FOINZAPP!

    Sound of being poked in the eyeball with a lit cigarette - SIZAFITZ!

    Sound of someone drilling into your forehead with a power drill - BZZOWNT!

    Sound of being hit in the face by a large wet fish - SPLADAP!

    Sound of being being poked in the eye by one of those thin metal rod-type towel rails that stick out from the wall - SHTOINK!

    ...and my all-time favourite :o)) Sound of an empty glass bottle bouncing off your head - DOONT!

    Consciousness is not what it thinks it is
    Thought exists only as an abstraction

  • Re:Great talents - where are they? (offtopic) (Score:3)

    by ralphclark ( 11346 ) on Saturday January 08, 2000 @08:00AM (#1392095) Journal
    For example, I read Science Fiction but I haven't found any single author since Heinlein and Asimov that I'll buy and enjoy everything they produce.

    I think this must be the result of a combination of viewing the past through rose-tinted glasses and not knowing what to look at in the bookshop.

    For starters, Asimov wrote great science fiction - real page turners - but in retrospect it was just traditional pulp. It lacked any kind of sophistication and didn't really demand much from the reader. Heinlein was truly the master in terms of story (eg. The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag) but this reputation was won solely on the strength of his output back in the so-called Golden Age. As he aged, his stories and characterisations were increasingly saturated with self-indulgence, saccharine sentimental and sexual fantasies. The rot started to set in around the time of Stranger In a Strange Land and Time Enough for Love. By the time he wrote Number of the Beast his style was hardly recognisable and that book is about enough to make anybody puke. I didn't even bother reading Job at all.

    The advent of "New Wave" sci-fi in the seventies meant lean times for those of us who liked good hard science fiction stories, with a traditional narrative structure (a beginning a middle and an end). NB I'm generalising so please don't flame me OK? The likes of Philip K Dick didn't appeal to everyone, some of these stories tended to be a bit too abstract for pulp fans.

    But in the eighties and nineties Hard Science fiction enjoyed a resurgence. You may not like the bleak worlds portrayed by "cyberpunk" authors like William Gibson but science fiction has largely moved on from there by now. A lot of science fiction these days has a more optimistic tone.

    There is no basis of fact in the suggestion that there is no more good Science Fiction being written any more. I'd particularly recommend you have another look at:

    Orson Scott Card - not just Ender's Game, one of my favourites was a book called Hot Sleep, now out of print but re-written and re-released as The Worthing Saga

    Kim Stanley Robinson - Red Mars. A truly wonderful book describing the first colonisation of the red planet in stunning detail, it actually makes it believable.

    Greg Bear - Eon and its sequel Eternity. Lovely, traditional hard Science Fiction.

    Greg Egan - Diaspora. Beautiful story and characterisation. Was developed out of his short story Wang's Carpets which makes up one chapter of the book (the idea behind it will blow your mind, guaranteed).

    Peter F Hamilton - The Reality Dysfunction &c. Traditional Space opera at its best.

    Stephen Baxter - Voyager and Titan. Totally credible very near future space exploration. Like K S Robinson he's researched NASA's stuff very thoroughly and it pays off. he also did The Time Ships, a fairly convincing sequel to HG Wells' The Time Machine authorised by Wells' estate.

    Iain M Banks - all of the "Culture" novels, particularly Use of Weapons (although that particular book does play around with the narrative structure a bit, for a very good reason).

    Michael Marshall Smith - Only Forward and Spares. Very unusual stories. A bit like Iain M Banks.

    Ken Macleod - The Star Fraction, The Stone Canal and The Cassini Division. Actually The Star Fraction wasn't released in the US because it goes on about leftist politics a lot. You can get it from amazon.co.uk if you're not boycotting Amazon.

    Neal Stephenson - I'd better mention Snow Crash and The Diamond Age before I get drummed out of Slashdot...I'd probably have mentioned them anyway but it's a bit hard to be sure when you just know someone's waiting to jump down your throat :o/

    NB. I don't mean this to be an exhaustive list of my favourite contemporary Science Fiction by any means. But if you read all the above I'm certain you'll find that more than a few of them will excite you, and make you want more.

    Consciousness is not what it thinks it is
    Thought exists only as an abstraction
  • I wish to exclude whiners from the comments page. They are pointless. What good does it do to anyone to know that someone doesn't want to see an article. Most of these people although sometimes add something to the discussion simply are being annoying. They are saying very little interesting things in their whining and for many of us this just simply means nothing. People skips articles every second people whines every second. Now if someone prominent right now like the president or Linus whined that would be news. Most of these whinings aren't. They are just people who everyone thought would whine anyway.
  • Dilbert was once creative... but then he started getting dumptrucks full of money for making tired PHB jokes... so he just makes tired PHB jokes now.

    The dinosaurs used to be multidimensional (for a comic, anyway) characters.. now the one dinosaur is just used for wedgies.

    The garbage man used to be a semi-regular... bye bye.

    The boss originally was fairly intelligent... just abusive. This was before he had pointed hair, of course.

    Dilbert used to be a brilliant MIT-educated inventor, being more productive in his lab than Woz himself... now he spends all day writing memos and eating donuts at meetings.

    And, of course.. Dilbert used to have glorious puns. nope... have to make room for yet another moronic decision made...
  • I wish to exclude whiners from the comments page. They are pointless. [...]

    Does anyone else see the irony here?
  • I'm saddened to see Don go. I loved Mad back in the 70's. In fact, to this day, I still haven't seen most of the "classic" American movies of the 70's, but I have read the Mad versions :)
    As for Sergio, I'm glad he's still around. He put out a wicked parody/kick in the nuts version of Blair Witch last month, and I laughed my ass off on every page.

    Essay Topic: Compare and contrast Don Martin and Sergio Aragones comic stylings with respect to dialog vs. sound effects. Sergio's were silent movies, while Don's were silent movies with somebody behind the screen doing insane sound effects.

    SHTOINK!


    Pope
  • I think the difference is that most of the best comics these days are being put up on the web, and the artists aren't getting paid for it (at least not much...)

    See Goats [goats.com], Sluggy Freelance [sluggy.com], User Friendly [userfriendly.com] (though that one's not restricted to the web..)

    there are a lot of other "hobby" strips out there - ComicSites [comicsites.com] lists bajillions of them.

    Of course, I miss Bloom County, Peanuts, Calvin and Hobbes, the Far Side..... But so do we all..
  • No, it's time to get Totally MAD and have a read in full zooming and rotating digital splendor.


  • I know the post above me already said it, but let's not forget Sluggy Freelance [sluggy.com]! It is, in my opinion, the best damn comic to come along in _any_ medium, in a loooong time. Three cheers to Mr. Abrams!

    --
  • It's harder and harder because there is far much more noise these days.
    It used to be that people only ever got noticed because they had talent, or at least, it was more like that than it is today.
    These days, there is so much shit crammed into your face it's hard to get away from it and find something interesting.

    Know how I find interesting things? My friends.
    Interesting music, Interesting booze, interesting sports, interesting.. everything.

  • Re:new catagory please (Score:4)

    by mindstrm ( 20013 ) on Friday January 07, 2000 @10:09PM (#1392104)
    It serves to reinforce that you are GROWING UP. (That is you, in general, not you as an individual, as you are obviously not growing up)

    Many readers here I bet are 25 or under....
    And lots of the people we grew up looking up to are starting to get rather old.. so it serves to let us know that we are mortal, and that soon we will be those icons for the generations to come.

  • Among readers of MAD, I have no doubt that Don Martin will be missed.



    Snicker - Readers of MAD have missed him for 12 years since he left MAD for Cracked in 1987...

  • >Where would Breathed, Larson, Watterson, et al. be today without him?

    Say, what is Berke Breathed doing these days? Haven't heard a peep since he finished with Outland.

    ObDonMartin: Thanks for all the laughs. We'll miss ya.

  • Captain Klutz was Don Martin doing the dead-on accurate spearing of superhero comics YEARS before it was trendy.. Much of the subversive humor to be found in the Tick can be seen, years earlier in the Captain Klutz book. I only wish that I still had mine.. sigh. Thanks mom, for cleaning out my room..

    Don Martin, wherever you are right now, Keep on Flortzinooglizing.

  • Not only a nerd himself (just read the obit, or [preferably] any of his work), but an inspiration to several generations of nerds. Definitely /.-worthy news. So there! BBBBLLLLLPPPPTTTTTHHHTT!

    Where would Breathed, Larson, Watterson, et al. be today without him? Just the onomatopoetics alone should enshrine this guy in the cartoonists' hall of fame (is there one? Where!?).

    Just my $0.02. We'll miss ya Don.


    #include "disclaim.h"
    "All the best people in life seem to like LINUX." - Steve Wozniak

  • Exactly how Windows-centric *is* this collection, anyway? Is there anyone who has it and has had a look through the file system?

    One of the reviews on the amazon.com page you link to complains about the low image quality. Well, that's the way it goes, I guess -- as someone who has worked with scanned artwork before, I can assure you that it's damn hard getting pages with richly detailed, shaded artwork and crisply-printed black and white text to compress well. Let's hope that by the time EC produced Totally Mad II or whatever, wavelet compression [slashdot.org] will be patent-free. :)

  • The first thought that comes to mind is the National Cartoonists' Society [reuben.org]'s Reuben awards, although those are more geared toward newspaper comic strips than to comic books and magazines. More general in scope is the Michigan State University comic art collection [msu.edu], which is about as definitive a collection as one point on the globe can be.

  • Tiome to dig out the one book of his I still have: Don Martin Forges A Head.

    Oddly enough, my parents just shipped me all my books from their attic, and in was "Don Martin Cooks Up More Tales" which I forgot I even had. [but loved as a child].

    Guess I'll have to read it again and reflect....

    We'll miss ya Don...

    Ender

  • Maybe so, but many other people disagree with you. I just think this should be a catagory, so that one may choose to exclude this from the slashdot home page. Personally I don't see the point of recognizing what other people did when they die. By the time they die its too late.
  • I wish to exclude opinions from the comments page. They are pointless. What good does it do to anyone to know what someone thinks. Most of these people although sometimes add something to the discussion simply are being annoying. They are saying very little interesting things in their opinions and for many of us this just simply means nothing. People skip articles every second people give their opinions every second. Now if someone prominent right now like the president or Linus gave their opinion that would be news. Most of these opinions aren't. They are just people who everyone thought would talk anyway.
  • Every one dies. Everyone will die sometime. Who is the one alive person you respect the most. They will die. Death is going on all the time. An incredible amount die every second. Death is not news.
  • It's great that the world can be divided into two classes of people. Those who read mad magazine and those who didn't. I realize that by not reading mad magazine and going to school instead I am greatly decreasing my chances of getting a job later in life. Obviously so much more can be learned by reading mad.

    Now how about you stop making half assed assumptions about people you don't know. Maybe you should be paying more attention to your own life.
  • Thanks for that insightful comment.

  • I like the idea, but I think you're missing one, although you could argue that this falls under the "repetitive" category: the ones that chronicle their own lives. "For Better or For Worse," is one such. The kids actually grow up. The situations are often the same, but they actually change.

    I do like the premise of your idea, however.

  • Yeah, I haven't read his stuff in awhile, but back in the day, he made me laugh. Thumbs up to him.
  • You're an ass. Don Martin worked until the day he died (more than can be said for you, obviously), and he helped warp an entire generation, me included, thank God. Mad magazine had a greater influence on my generation than any other single publication or TV swill or educational "institution" like the one *you're* taking up space in. It's typical of people who live like parasites in some protected gooniversity environment and contribute absolutely nothing but exhaled CO2 and methane to denigrate those whove REALLY made a difference in society.
    After you complete your education -- another seven or eight years, I suppose, on daddy's money -- don't forget to memorize this phrase: "Would you like fries with that?" -- it's the only education *you're* ever gonna use.

    BB
  • When I was about 10 years old, my grandmother got me a hand drawn cartoon from Sergio Aragonez (another cartoonist for Mad). It had a picture of Sergio and a picture of Neuman both waving and saying "Hi, Jason!". I still have that picture, and I still love Mad. Although Sergio has always been my favorite artist, I am really going to miss Don Martin. Ah well...heres to another rant and sad times.
    -=Omicron=-
  • That's me in that scary thing we all call real life :)
  • I am a writer it's what I do for a living is it so bad if a person who reads slashdot is also a writer.

  • Re:Great material (Score:3)

    by Egorn ( 82375 ) on Friday January 07, 2000 @08:36PM (#1392126) Homepage
    Martin based his humor on misery and misfortune, to crack "sick" jokes. The magazine dubbed him "Mad's Maddest Cartoonist." The guy poisoning pigeons in the park - "I hate pigeons" - winds up killing the people who gather around to sample his scrumptious popcorn. Mona Lisa, as the reader realizes only in the last frame of the strip, is sitting on a toilet. Hapless boobs with big feet get squashed in all manner of ways.

    "There's always been physical suffering in comedy," he once said. "Even ancient clowns kicked each other in the seat of the
    pants or hit each other over the head. It's the same thing in our time, just a little stronger."

    The cartoons had a vocabulary all their own. "SHKLIP" was the sound made when construction workers tossed concrete at
    each other. "SPLOP" described a surgeon throwing body parts into a doggie bag. "FAGROON" came from a collapsing
    skyscraper.

    His license plate read "SHTOINK."

    "Is it funny? That's the only test I know when it comes to cartooning," Martin once said. "Not whether it's sick, or whether
    it's going to ruin people's values or morals. You only have to ask a simple question: 'Is it funny?'"

    His twisted approach influenced generations of younger cartoonists.

    "Don Martin was the one who really stood out," "The Far Side" cartoonist Gary Larson told The Miami Herald in a story
    published in 1990. "I really always loved his work. He was such a great artist."

    Martin left Mad magazine in 1987 after a falling-out with its publisher, the late William Gaines, accepting a job at Cracked, a
    competitor.

    Martin chafed at the tradition that Mad, like most publishers, retained all rights to reprint and profit from his work that it
    used, paying him on a free-lance basis. But he put out paperbacks of cartoons not published in the magazine, eventually
    selling more than 7 million copies.

    Martin drew despite a degenerative eye condition that forced him to undergo cornea transplants, wear special, highly
    uncomfortable contact lenses and use a magnifying glass while drawing.

    "He was a shy and retiring sort of guy, considering he drew a comic strip that was crazy," said a longtime friend, Laurence
    Donovan.

    Martin was born in Clifton, N.J., and began his undergraduate work at the Newark Institute. He earned a fine arts degree from
    the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He began submitting drawings to the fledgling Mad magazine in the mid-50s.
  • MAD was my favorite magazine in the late 60's through the 70's and Don Martin was my favorite
    MAD cartoonist. Of all his characters perhaps his
    most endearing and nerdy was Joe Fonebone. High-water pants pulled crotch tight and white socks/dark shoes. The prototypical nerd. Around my house my children understand what "looking like
    a Fonebone" means whenever I hoist my pants up too much!

    RIP Don.

  • Aw, jeez... (Score:3)

    by CaptainCarrot ( 84625 ) on Friday January 07, 2000 @11:50PM (#1392128)
    Don Martin was always my favorite MAD artist. I can still remember my favorite panel. It was in a piece on the sound effects you never see in superhero comic books. This one was Wonder Woman undoing her bra:
    Snap! FLOOBADOOP!
    It was funny enough just seeing how he would draw Superman, Spiderman, The Silver Surfer, Thor (pinkies extended) and Wonder Woman. As with all Martin art, it was the sound effects that really capped it off.
  • Maybe I'm not looking in the right places anymore, but it seems to me that finding great talents in the world is getting harder and harder.

    I'm not sure if this means that there are fewer people who truly stand out in their areas of expertise, or if the truly talented are simply being drowned out in the flood of information available in our media-rich environment today.

    For example, I read Science Fiction but I haven't found any single author since Heinlein and Asimov that I'll buy and enjoy everything they produce. The fading away of the Peanuts cartoon is another example. There are hundreds of cute cartoons out there, but very few are as timeless as Schultz's creations. The Cat in the Hat series is yet another example. How can the average person pick the jewels out of the many "merely shiny" stones all trying to grab a moment of our attention?

    Where are the Great Talents going? This passing is the latest loss that seems irreplaceable today.
  • Hrmph. I'll get an off-topic for this one, but I gotta do it.

    I didn't say there aren't any talented writers, I said there are no writers out there that I will buy and enjoy EVERYTHING they write. It's not too fun reading someone putting words in my mouth that aren't even close to what I think or write BTW...

    Niven/Pournelle are the closest I've found to that ideal, but they just don't quite make it plus it seems that their production has dramatically tapered off in the last decade.

    I've read many of those you mention and I like some of their stuff, but not all of it.

  • And for many nerds who grew up on Mad Magazine, Don Martin is an instantly recognizable name. Obviously the name means nothing to you, but clearly it meant something to someone otherwise it wouldn't have been posted.

    While I'm not against a separate category for obits, I find it ludicrous that you think the world revolves around only what you think is important. Have a little perspective. If the story means nothing to you, then move on.


    ---

  • Similar thing with Abe Vigoda of Fish and Barney Miller fame. Most people think he's dead.

    - Xandis
  • I wish to exclude obituaries from my front page. They are pointless. What good does it do anyone to know that someone is dead.

    While I wouldn't argue against a seperate catagory which you could filter if you choose, I disagree that obituaries are pointless. Mad magazine was a favorite of mine as a geek child. While this story leaves me with a little sadness, it is important to remember those who have affected your life. Even if it is in a small way.

  • Give me a break. It isn't wine, or even fine art. Both magazines are what they are: Jr High humor. Great when you're in the 5th grade, but most of us outgrew it by 8th.

  • This is an example of cut-and-paste. Pathetic really.

  • Some of his stuff. (Score:4)

    by Asparfame ( 96993 ) on Friday January 07, 2000 @09:15PM (#1392137)
    Well, I was trying to jog my memory as to which MAD art Martin did, so I went a-hunting. This is the best I found. It's got about 15 comics. The ones with dialogue have been translated into German, but most of them don't have speach anyway.

    The site is here: http://members.tripod.de/mad_2/donmar tin.html [tripod.de]

    Funny stuff.

  • Don Martin was always my favourite in Mad Magazine. What a shame that he will not be around any more to entertain us.
  • http://rcswww.urz.tu-dresden.de/~haensel/Don_Marti n/don_martin_main.html

    I can't help thinking Mad was where I learned the word "Plotz". I hope Don would prefer that in a headline.
  • For you, maybe the "good old days" are indeed happening right now. But not for me, primarily because I don't like the artists and works you mentioned (except for Bill Watterson, who was retired the last time I checked).
  • Seems like more and more brilliant artists are dying or retiring these days, with none stepping forward to replace them. The comic artists of today are like pen-lights to the artistic flames of men like Don Martin or Charles Shulz or Carl Barks or (in another vein of comic art) Jack Kirby.

    Among readers of MAD, I have no doubt that Don Martin will be missed.
  • So my long time favourite cartoonist is gone, it's really sad. However I wonder if it was only Sweden who once had a special DM magazine filled with Mr Martins great stuff, coz I loved that magazine even more than MAD... RIP Martin...
  • MAD was also the first place that Don Knuth was published, with his wacky weights and measures system. It's a shame that the other Don has gone; I've got my feet folded over the edge of the sidewalk in mourning.
  • Was that the one with a weird clown or something? Cant remember the name. I think I got the first issue. I maybe even still have it. Hmm. Wonder if it's worth anything...

    For the record, I didn't think it was much good.

    Rich

  • While MadTV wasn't that great, I thought the animated Spy vs. Spy cartoons were some of the most excellent animations I had ever seen. They would have me laughing for literally hours. I'm not a MAD connesour(sp?), was Martin responsible for Spy vs. Spy?

  • Unfortunately, it's a winblows-only product, but this [amazon.com] is a CDROM supposedly containing the contents of every MAD magazine ever produced. Here's a description:
    Over 500 issues of MAD Magazine--including all cover variations

    All MAD super specials
    Animated MAD cartoons
    View every page with startling (and disturbing) clarity
    High-quality images of low-quality humor
    Speaking of poor format choices, does anyone remember the 'mad magazine movie'-- "Up the Academy [amazon.com]"? Too bad it's only on VHS and not on DVD.

  • So am I the only one here who went digging through the issues looking for the oft-hoped-for "POIT!"? One of the best parts of pre-pubescence.

  • Let us all observe a moment of silence... (Score:4)

    by meckardt ( 113120 ) on Friday January 07, 2000 @08:07PM (#1392148) Homepage




    BOINK!
    Okay, moments up. You may all resume your normal, crass, undeserving lives.

  • That would be Prohias (whose first name eludes me). Spy vs Spy [vs Spy] always were among my faves in the old Mads ... :)

  • hmmm... this is about the most useless and pointless commentary I've seen in a very long time on slashdot.org.

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