Enough about poison gas. It’s time for …the Arts. Sometime recently my brother got me a unique present, a heavy hardbound collection of Don Martin cartoons from Mad Magazine. His work featured there from 1956 to 1988; he drew for Cracked from 1988 to 1993; and he died in 2000. In school I was very much into art and doodles, and shamelessly expropriated his technique for my own – up until high school, when I started developing my own style, such as it is, nowhere near Martin’s.
His style was… unique to say the least. Strange eyes, huge chins, protruding pinkies big toes, and comic sound effects. No one else is like him, yet anyone claiming to be influenced by him, rather than copying his own style, managed to develop their own unique style, e.g. Peter Bagge, who draws for Reason Magazine.
Those who met him were also surprised: expecting someone looking like Curly from the Three Stooges, in fact they found probably the most handsome of the Mad magazine staffers.
Mad Magazine. I don’t really want to devote an entire blog to this, so it’s best to include it here. We used to read this religiously as kids (though never subscribed). Don Martin, of course, was my favorite cartoonist. The humor was OK, but as I grew older I chucked it aside, probably a knee-jerk reaction more than anything else. Reading it again much later, I’m struck by how adult the humor really is. Dave Berg cartoon: Woman tells man, “You only give me love because you want sex.” Man replies, “You only give me sex because you want love.” Both together, rushing into each other’s arms: “USE ME!!” Al Jaffee’s stuff was incredibly cynical, especially his “Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions” and fold-in back covers. I was never much impressed by Alfred E. Neuman.
Mad TV. I didn’t expect to be impressed by this, but it turned out to be good: and MUCH better than Saturday Night Live, its closest competitor. The recurring characters, though, aren’t that great: the snotty, tactless, politically incorrect woman played by Nicole Sullivan; the embarrassingly physically mature but emotionally retarded Michael McDonald (though he’s good at most other roles); or the annoyingly vague and inarticulate Asian woman played by Alex Borstein. Phil Lamarr’s UPS guy was the only one that had any charm.
A picture is worth a thousand words – so enjoy above, a small but representative sample of his work.
I LOVED Don Martin. And a lot of the others there at MAD.
ReplyDeleteI have a picture of Rush that was either done by Don Martin or someone copying his style.
I also loved the names he gave his characters -- things like Fonebone.
As for Alfred E. Neuman, he turned out to be useful when they did their Seinfeld cover. Hahahaha!