Any true suburban slob who grew up with old MAD paperbacks strewn around his fart-encrusted bedroom knows the great majesty of not only Don Martin's artwork but his beautifully sickoid humor. THE COMPLETELY MAD DON MARTIN was a trifle expensive for a depression-era wages kid such as myself way back when (with a cover price of a whopping $2.50 --- that's $95 in today's money) but for those of you rich types who could afford everything your lenient parents allowed this was a good way to get not only some of your fave Martin comics but a load of then-non-reprinted ones into your system.
Some of the greats are here while many of the late-fifties 'uns are pretty much new to mine eyes and gave me that refreshing inner pounce that only MAD at the height of its powers ever could. Contains my favorite "Later One Day in the Park While Spending a Fine Evening in the Penny Arcade Before Strolling Through the City".
Ever wanted to learn the Danish language? If so these two mid-eighties reprints of classic Martin material might just help you figure out the translations for such oft-used onomatopoeias as "frrrrrapppptttt!" and "Thwop!" Lotsa repeats from the above book natch, but its still fun to read these (even those ones from the mid-seventies when Martin was getting even sicker'n you'd imagine) no matter what language.
Of course owning these books is definitely a great milestone in my long and illustrious life given how, ever since I was but a mere adolescent, I had dreamed of having a bedroom (and, if lucky, my own knotty pine rec room) that was just brimming with piles of old comic books, records, model cars and whatnot just like the kids I knew in the neighborhood had, and now that I'm definitely in my Golden Years I have achieved this very goal!
I only hope that, as time goes on I'll acquire more of this mid-Amerigan flotsam. Let's just say that I sure need to decorate the abode so's I can look forward to my declining days just pouring through alla the mid-twentieth century fun 'n jamz I sure wish I was privy to back when I was but a single-digiter and bored over the prospects of having to re-read my ten or so Peanuts books.
I only hope that someday EC reissues alla that Don Martin paperback work so's I don't have to rely on my faded copies which gave me so much joy way back when. I mean, if what the world doesn't need in these sick and sorry days is another exposure to "National Gorilla Suit Day" I don't know what it needs!
FUN FACT! MAD's maddest artist defected to Cracked magazine in the 1980s!
ReplyDeleteBetcha di'n't know!
PS: Was Gaines ticked off? You betcha!
ANOTHER FUN FACT! By the time Don Martin vamoosed the confines of MAD his better days were far behind him!!!
ReplyDeleteTell that to one Mort Todd!
ReplyDeleteNo...YOU tell him!
ReplyDeleteFUN FACT! Mort Todd is the cover artist for the Back to the Grave series of records!
ReplyDeleteBtcha di'n't know!
He was... Expect a rundown on the series as soon as the middle volumes get re-issued.
ReplyDeleteFUN FACT! I will face front until then, effendi!
ReplyDeletePS: Don Martin died for someone's laffs, but not Patti Smith's. Did you ever see him humping on a parking meter?!
lol i liked don martin for about a minute when I was nine lol totally retarded lol then i discovered doonesbury and national lampoon lol and bloom county and spy and more recently the onion :)
ReplyDelete