My generation was the first to go mad about Mad Magazine. As a long time contributor and, indeed, mainstay of Mad, Don Martin was also a major contributor to the youth culture for several waves of “youths”.
Don Martin - Maddest of the Mad - rest in peace.
Don Martin… is he the guy who drew the knobby-kneed, horizontal-toed, freaky-lookin’ people?
I picked up a Mad Magazine a little while ago and was suprised that the masthead was almost identical to the one I remember 20 years ago. An issue without a Don Martin cartoon seems incomprehensible. He’s a fixure like the fold-in on the inside-back cover and the little Sergio Argonne(sp?) gags in the margins and Spy vs Spy and those lame “Lighter side of…” strips. Mad magazine will be incomplete without Don Martin. It will no longer be the same magazine I bought religiously as a kid and had to hide from my mom.
Oh man. That suck.
Splorch.
Plunging like stones from a slingshot on Mars.
Oh. Sad. Don Martin was a fixture in my life growing up as well.
But, for awhile there he had left Mad, went over to Cracked. I don’t know for how long, but they had “Duck” Edwing, or something like that replacing him.
Also, there is a new person doing Spy vs. Spy, which I thought was a shame.
I remember as a kid reading the magazine and laughing at all the fun jokes, then finding an issue from 20 years before and seeing how many of the artists and writers were the same. They knew how to hang on to the “usual gang of idiots”
Well, a moment of silence for Don Martin. Hopefully his funeral won’t involve tall men who can’t carry a coffin correctly for four panels.
pat
I hate to tell you this, but the ‘Spy vs. Spy’ artist died a few monmths ago, too . . .
You can’t help but love a man that had “SHTOINK” on his license plate.
Aw damn.
your humble TubaDiva
PS Patrick O’Brian passed away too; it’s been a tough week for the arts.
Hellooo? [ knock knock ] Is this thing on?
As someone who still reads Mad Magazine (for over 20 years now), I’m also saddened by Don Martin’s demise. However, I’m even more amazed at the longevity of many of the artists. Over the past couple of years, Mad has reissued their comic books, three at a time, in magazine format. Many of the names were recognizable to me, even though I didn’t start reading Mad until 1979.
The artist who originally drew “Spy vs. Spy” was Antonio Prohias, who, like Eve said, is in Mad heaven with Bill Gaines and Don Martin. An aside: There is a message in Morse code in each “Spy vs. Spy” title block that reads (IIRC) “by Prohias.”
“Well, walk it off! And next time, stretch before you ovulate.” – Al Bundy
That is depressing. Fonebone is no more. I was a huge Don Martin fan as a teenager and spent all my class time trying to draw like him. When I was in high school my best icebreaker was my D.M. style drawing of the band Kiss.
“Popeye? Hm? He’s not much of a judge of women!” King Blozo
National Gorilla Suit Day just won’t be the same this year.
When I read the title of this thread, I actually unconsciously yelled “NO!” out loud.
I recently purchased the “Totally MAD” CD ROM set, and highly recommend it to all Don Martin fans.
Canthearya: Yes, that is Don Martin.
Rest in peace, Thoof-foing, Flabadap, Vreech, Katoonga, Fagroon, Ssat… 
When I heard that Mr. Martin had died, I immediately thought of the old “Mystery Science Theater 3000” invention-exchange that featured “Don Martins”, big oversized boots you could wear that made your feet look like the ones Mr. Martin drew.
“My hovercraft is full of eels.”
Spy vs Spy IS old. I remember trying to figure those out about 1960, since they had no words, they were easier. My dad would buy Mad and Superman, back in the old country.
And we had some Mad books that were older than 1960
To MC: The “IND” refers to the Independent News Agency, which has been the distributor for Mad since the mid-50s, when Leader News–the magazine’s then distributor and a mjor debtor of publisher Bill Gaines–went belly-up.
My favorite Don Martinism…
The sound of Wonder Woman removing her bra:
snap floobadoof
I remember Games magazine once had a quiz where they listed ten Don Martin “sound effects” and you were supposed to match them to the events they were supposed to describe. “Let’s see does a man getting hit in the face with a fish sound more like a splorch or a fwakk?”